Socializing around Ikebukuro

As I write this, I’m thinking “Dang, this might be the best matcha latte I’ve ever had!” Or maybe it’s normal and all matcha lattes are amazing. Regardless, the latte art is pretty, matcha lattes are where it’s at and life is good.

May 26^th to June 2^nd| Ikebukuro, Tokyo

I felt my excitement rising as I stepped out of the Ikebukuro Train Station after having spent a week on the outskirts of Tokyo. The big streets, people everywhere, big buildings – strong Tokyo vibes. These moments are special; expectation and reality are one. My living space for the week in Ikebukuro was nothing special. It felt halfway between an apartment and a hotel. While it had a burner and mini-fridge, the lack of a microwave was a palpable bummer.

My social life is what stood out to me this week. I’m an extrovert and friends have always been a massive part of my life. I was energized spending time with friends, new and old.

The evening I arrived in Ikebukuro, I went out with my childhood friend Mimi and her boyfriend Daniel to Din Tai Fung in Shinjuku. The experience of walking from my apartment to Ikebukuro Station and then taking Tokyo’s most famous train, the Yamanote Line, a few stops to Shinjuku, one of Japan’s biggest train stations, felt so cool. There’s nothing unusual/wild/special about doing this except for me it felt like a very real manifestation of what I had been dreaming about ever since I started thinking about living in Japan. The food was great and it was fun catching up. There was a little misstep as I squirted my pants struggling with the xiaolongbao (soup dumplings) – classic. I was nervous when the pants seemed stained with the oily soup. Fortunately Mimi had a Tide pen so between that and a washing machine, my pants ended up being okay. Afterwards we walked around Shinjuku and got waffles for dessert. Similar to my experience of taking the train to Shinjuku, I’ve walked around Shinjuku before, but it felt different knowing I could come back anytime. After that satisfying evening, I went back home and worked – a clear reminder of the dual worlds I inhabit.

The next day I went on a date at a Korean BBQ restaurant and a bouldering gym. She’s a Japanese girl who had lived abroad and we met online. There was no spark but it was nice meeting someone new and it was gratifying learning more of the city. For example, I hadn’t known that Shin Okubo was the Koreatown in Tokyo. I had heard climbing and bouldering were big in Japan and I got to experience it firsthand at the gym – impressed with many skilled boulderers. Later that evening, I met up with an old college friend, Dima, who invited a few people over to hang out on his rooftop. I was blown away at the views of Mt. Fuji on this perfect day. There was a mix of Japanese and bilingual speakers. While I couldn’t always follow the Japanese, it was fun to be in a low stakes situation with generally simpler Japanese. We finished the evening with a super silly fun board game, basically Don’t Break the Ice. The next day, I went to a board game Meetup. There was a mix of Japanese and foreign people – mostly foreign. After leaving my board game collection in the US, I had a blast playing Avalon (do the bad guys always win 100% of the time?!), Dixit, Ticket to Ride Japan (gosh this felt so right) and Exploding Kittens. A few of us went out for Korean food at Tokyo Station afterwards. Far better than board games was the realization at the end of the day… “oh I’ve just made some friends!” There are interactions with people that feel awkward/forced and there are others that just flow – hanging out with Thesis, Sofie, Zach and An just made sense. We’re all from different countries too which emphasizes that it’s personality, values, attitude, stage of life, etc that matter rather than where you’re from when it comes to friends.

Everything in this post so far was just my first three days in Ikebukuro. I do my best to not overschedule myself and pause to appreciate the present. That said, I can’t help but think that I’m at my best when I’m in motion flowing from one activity/person/location to the next.

There were a few other social highlights throughout the week. I met up with my friend Matt’s cousin Alysia and her friends who were spending a few days in Tokyo. Matt’s been my friend since were about four years old and thought we’d get along and he was right! We went to a tempura donburi place and waited in line in the street for about an hour. It all made sense once we ate – the food was delicious, affordable ~$10 and totally plentiful! If there weren’t an infinite number of yummy places to explore in Tokyo, I would totally go back. Afterwards I made my way to a nearby café where I worked and met up with my friend Dan. We hadn’t seen each other since covid started so we had a blast catching up as we strolled over to Tokyo Station’s Ramen Alley for a quick dinner. A couple days after the board game Meetup, I joined Thesis and Sofie for a day at their coworking space less than a half mile away from my place. We feasted at an amazing kaitenzushi restaurant for lunch. It was easy to bond with my new friends as we were all working remotely and very much loving the (eternal?) honeymoon phase of Japanese cuisine.

I also got in a couple runs during the week. A couple weeks prior I had registered for a kinda gnarly 35km trail running race on June 17^th so training was very important. For Memorial Day, I treated myself to exploring the second half of the race course. While the run was great, my favorite part of the day may have been taking the train out to Agano – this was a small local train out in the lush mountains little more than an hour from Ikebukuro. For the run, between it being a Monday and the forecast predicting rain (but it didn’t really ), I saw maybe five people total on my 3.5 hour run. Or maybe barely anyone ever goes on these trails, I honestly don’t know. All I know is that I loved it. I loved the independence in navigating through the trees, through the bamboo, across the rivers, along the tops of ridges, peeking out for a scenic viewpoint briefly before plunging back into the dense woods. My run ended at Hanno, a larger station where I hopped on the fastest train back to Ikebukuro. I felt bad for being quite sweaty but at least the train was more spacious than most – with sweet yellow seats even. When I was almost back, I heard on the loudspeaker in English that this train was entirely composed of reserved seats. Hmm oops. I hadn’t realized that. There was only about 15 minutes left anyway, so it would probably be fine. Wrong. A few minutes later a kind conductor busted me. He wasn’t upset but asked if I would pay so I did, about $7 – in addition to the fare I had already paid.

A few days later, I went back to same area to run with Dan. We ran the first half of the upcoming race. The weather was beautiful – super sunny despite June being quite on and off with rain. For us both, it was exotic to be running through the mountains of Japan – on a Thursday no less. It was a total blast, full of smiles and stoke. Once we arrived at our destination, we treated ourselves to super cold Japanese athletic drinks. This was perfect since this was Day 1 of 30 Days of Vending Machines. In early July, I’ll publish a post on how that experiment went but spoiler – Day 1 was Aquarius and damn, it hit the spot. We made our way back into town and bid our farewells – unsure of when or where we’ll see each other again. It was a great success and a great day. I felt the squeeze of my schedule this day. I was up until after 2am working the night before and had to wake up before 7am to get out on the trail in time for Dan to catch his flight back to the US.

Food Highlight of the Week: Kaitenzushi

Food Lowlight of the Week: Plain yogurt & tomatoes accompanied by mediocre vegetable juice – at least it tasted better with the knowledge I didn’t have any food waste before leaving my place in Ikebukuro.