Japan: Guys Trip to Tokyo

So welcome to my first guys trip, Tokyo! Now we have been wanting to do this for a while, but Heather and I were merely 2 weeks away from moving. So here was my chance to have a last trip with my friends, Dustin Schwartz, Jason Walker, and Peter Brown. We all wanted to go see Japan, so we decided to do a 3 day trip to Tokyo, hike Mt. Fuji, and do some of the most unique things that you can only do in Japan. 

After we landed we hit up one of the local food joints. Japanese food here was incredible, and literally every corner has a hole in the wall where you can eat the most amazing food.

When we started looking for our Airbnb, we had a lot of choices. We ended going with the one that we did for two reasons: 1) it was way close to a metro station, and 2) it was very close to this family mart that was officially protected by King Kong. Seriously, who wouldn't want to stay here. We slept on the floor like most places in Asia, but luckily for me it had an A/C unit that kept my room cool and I had it to myself. 

Our next day was really just a crap shoot. Guys don't plan well, so we just pulled up Google maps and said, "what looks good?" We were planning on doing Mount Fuji the next day, so we really only had two things we really wanted to do: 1) see Shibuya crossing, and 2) Mario Kart racing in Tokyo. We took the metro to the nearest exit and walked over to Shibuya crossing. 

This place was insanely packed, which is why you go. It's a crazy 5 way crossing walk that allows nearly 1000 people to cross at one time. What's crazy is the compliance of the people. They walk across and then it just suddenly stops. No one darts out, no one is dumb and plays chicken, they are just obedient. We found a place you can go up and watch it from above which was super cool to see.

When we finished up there, Jason mentioned that a big thing in Tokyo is these VR cafe's. Now being in Korea it's not really much different, but we found one right in Shibuya crossing that we decided to go up and see. We passed restaurants that advertised the craziest foods, like a hamburger that would put you into cardiac arrest.

When we got upstairs to the VR cafe we were able to pick what scenario we wanted, and I must say it was worth every penny. We picked a terminator mission, which gave us the ability to save some people, kill a bunch of things, and totally win in the end! It was super fun.

From there we found Tokyo Skytree, which is the tallest building in Japan. Now I don't like heights, so after paying to face my fears, we went up 112 floors to the top look out. I got bagged-on left and right by Dustin to come and check this out and then he would push me a little closer to the edge and just laugh. Punk. All the looking down photos are courtesy of him. I would have passed out.

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Now even though I don't like heights, the view was amazing to see. So for that it was worth the facing of my deepest fear! It gave me the greatest impression of truly how crammed this place is.

Now as great as all of these though, besides Mt. Fuji, we had one ultimate guys moment that we wanted to do: Mario Kart racing. Now to put a spin on the Japanese, this is a perfect example of how to appeal to a population: do something Hello Kitty, Street Fighter or Mario Kart. So there are companies that allow you to take street legal go karts out on the streets and freeways of Tokyo, which was the absolute best way to see the city. Not only is it an amazing 3 hours of fun, but it gives you a chance to see some of the sites without having to technically drive there.

Here's the rub though. Besides Nintendo (who was based there anyway) suing different companies for doing this, or Marvel or Sony trying to do the same, or the government saying that the highest crash rate in Tokyo is mid 30-40 American males on go-karts (which was totally not this group of guys), how about you still do it, and let them dress up as they did so.

Trick was though we had to have Japanese sofa licenses. We went to one shop and were turned down, and then one of my general surgeon friends who was there at the same time told me about the one she was doing, and that they let them do it with their Korean Sofa drivers license. We went straight there after booking it online, and the fun began!

After picking our costumes, we got into these beasts which I assure you were super fast. On the freeway we got up 50 mph in them, which was super shaky. Now I know what you're thinking: this is super immature, but that's the point.

After a brief intro on it, we took off and for 3 hours we went around to different sites, totally taken and staged by the lead tour guide, to include a drifting competition in an abandoned parking garage. My e-brake on my car wouldn't engage enough though, so unfortunately I could get it to drift, but Dustin sure did.

We eventually made it to an area that was a huge outdoor park. This is where the gigantic Gundam statue is located, which I didn't even know about. This was hilarious because it's 70 feet tall, and can switch between unicorn and destroyer modes! So four times a day you can see it transform as anime theme songs are played.

Once we were done with the Gundam master, we walked about to go to the go karts only to find a moment of patriotism we couldn't deny: Lady liberty. Take that Staton island!

Our last spot was back at Shibuya crossing, which was amazing. We had so many people taking pictures of us, most likely mocking us, but when you see a bunch of dudes dressed up like kids, some of them bald, hey, why not take a picture.

After all of this, we were spent. We got back on the subway and headed home. I took a picture to show how crowded the metro is, but after Taiwan with the Rusts, Korea and now this, we were pros. No personal space here.