#034: What I've been doing and eating and wearing in Tokyo the first half of my trip
First installment of my Tokyo guide. Open for my once-gate kept Google Maps list.
I come to Tokyo once a year because it is undisputedly my favorite place in the world and there is an endless list of things I want to do every time I’m here. This time, I’m spending 11 days in Japan, which is a considerable stretch of time. And instead of bopping around the country, I’m spending the majority of it in Tokyo, sandwiched by a trip to Okinawa, an island I’ve never been to before!
One of the best perks about being a content creator is that you get to work on your own schedule, carve out time to take trips (almost) whenever you want and always be working wherever you are. And the downside to that is the need to constantly be creating, sharing and staying on despite the pretenses of “being on vacation”, especially when in the company of people who are not thinking of content first (or even at all?). But that’s the thing about the nature of my job: I’m never really "on vacation” and the haters will argue that we are always on vacation (I assure you that is not the case). I’ve been deeply overwhelmed this trip and I’m struggling with enjoying the present as my desire to also document every moment, every bite, every little thing worth sharing (because when in Tokyo, it’s all worth sharing) becomes a driving force for the way I experience this city. The result: an intense overwhelming feeling of guilt when I fall short on either end of the spectrum.
Take, for example, my lunch at the hardest-to-book sushi omakase in Tokyo: Sushi Saito, notably the holy grail of all sushi experiences in the world… Sushi Saito works on a membership-only basis so if you’re just a visiting traveler, it’s almost impossible to book a seat at the eight-seat counter on any given day. You basically need to know someone who knows someone who happens to have a slot at the counter on a day you happen to be in Tokyo. It’s why Sushi Saito lost its three Michelin stars, because Chef Takashi Saito chose to close to books to the public and operate this way. It’s ridiculous, but it adds to the allure of the restaurant and makes the experience that much more special. And during my meal there, I barely lifted my camera because I was so enthralled at the experience. That is a special thing, to feel so deeply immersed in a place that you forget to take pictures and videos along the way. Because it’s stressful to pull out your phone when experiencing something so immediate and intimate. But then afterwards, I was going over and over in my head why I didn’t get a video of him serenely cutting the most beautiful slab of maguro I’ve ever seen. It’s so fucking silly and I hate that I just had to type out that sentence, but that’s the reality of being a content creator in this day and age. You must always be thinking about creating. And while I do think I’ve been able to find a way to travel without ruining a moment with the presence of my phone out at all times, I still tend to mull over what more I could have done or documented.
The push and pull of social media will never go away. The need to chase experiences to sell a story to the algorithm is a tale as old as my five years of doing this and I know it won’t be going away for as long as I have my platforms. I like to tell myself that there are infinite modes of storytelling beyond the continuous stream of videos and images on our feeds. And it’s why I’m happy to present the first of my Tokyo travel guides below.