How We Spent The PERFECT 24 HOURS in TOKYO🇯🇵

I'm Oscar and I'm Dan and today we're in Tokyo, Japan. After a lovely time back in one of our favorite cities, Bangkok, it was time for a layover in another top tier city of ours, Tokyo. Following an amazing trip around southern Japan earlier this spring, actually one of our best trips ever, we knew we'd have an epic time in Tokyo for 24 hours on the way to our next destination. But the first challenge was to actually find each other because as often happens when Dan is reviewing flights for Nonstop Dan, we flew to Japan on separate flights and landed at different terminals. I got off the plane just like 15 minutes ago. Everything went so fast. Now I'm just trying to get on the Narita Express because Oscar is in another terminal. So we're trying to time it. We had to be on the phone at the same time to buy tickets so we got seats next to each other. It's all quite the adventure. Luckily, we timed it perfectly and got seats together on the train to the city. Just arrived at Tokyo Station and I am dying from tiredness. But let's have ramen. Dying from kindness, looks like. Tiredness. I am also dying from kindness. The kindness of all the Japanese people. I've already finished one convenience store green tea. Starting out well. Once we arrived at Tokyo Station and before heading to our hotel for the night, we simply had to make a dinner stop at one of the best and most famous vegan restaurants in the city. The ramen has arrived. Let's just say this wouldn't be the last nor the best ramen we had during our stay. By the way, we're still inside Tokyo Station. So you need a ticket or you need to be going somewhere on the subway. It's in here. It's worth it. We made it to our hotel. This is enormous for Tokyo. We had two free night certificates with Marriott. Marriott, sorry. I used to say Marriott and now then I changed to Marriott. Anyway, I think this is one of the biggest hotel rooms we've ever had in Japan. It's probably one of the biggest ones available in all of Tokyo, to be honest. Well, at least at this price. This open sink concept is definitely interesting. It is kind of funny that you're doing that in the bedroom. I'm glad it's not open toilet concept. Let me show you guys yourselves. Oh no, I can't turn it that far. But the mirror turns all the way this way so you can stand here and have a look at yourself while you're washing your hands. And then you can stop looking at yourself. Time to sleep and wake up refreshed and ready for a day in the world's biggest megacity. But with the city so filled with things to do, we needed a bit of help. Good morning. The time has come to make the most of our 24 hours in Tokyo. We didn't really have time in the past few days to even think about what to do here. It's been very hectic. We were traveling all day yesterday. The easiest way that I could think to plan the coming day is to just let someone else do it for us. In this case, our video sponsor, Magic, which we've told you guys about so many times. I went on the website magictravel.ai. We put in all the details of our little 24 hour excursion and it's presented us with some amazing things to do today that I don't know if we would have found very easily otherwise taking through Google. Not to mention how time consuming that would have been. Another thing to mention, we had already booked our hotel for the stay but Magic can help you do that as well. So if we didn't already have accommodation booked, we could have also just asked Magic to find the best place for us based on our preferences and everything else based on our budget. So we're excited to see where it takes us today. Starting out with breakfast and I am really in dream because when I did an internship in Japan in 2018, I tried natto in a room filled with Japanese people, especially young kids. And everyone was very, very excited for me to try this. And I did not like it a teeny bit. Now, I feel intrigued to try it almost five years later. Oh, goodness. This is what it is. It's basically fermented soybeans and it's very sticky. Let's try this. I think I'm gonna need to eat it with a lot of rice to dilute the flavors. Just think of this as like a long cheese string on a pizza or something. Oh, it's on your hand. Oh, wow. Okay. It smells very strong. Not your favorite. Not my favorite. Still, five years later. Off camera, Oscar was like, you have to try it. I'm trying a little less than Oscar. I'm trying one. Very nutty. Yeah. Okay, I don't love it. But it's not as... Okay, I have one bean. It doesn't feel quite as bad as Oscar made it seem. But the taste lingers. Yeah. Maybe it's time for some fruit. So, I want to know which kind you are. Are you the one who's like stressing around trying to get the other person to come out? Or are you the one holding the group back? Because I'm always trying to be on time and stuff. I'm trying to make the most out of the time we have in the city. But someone keeps holding us back over it. So, the first thing we're doing is something that I have never done in Japan. Oscar did it when he did his internship. We've done it together in Korea. But of course, a very classic thing to do here is a tea ceremony. I just have to say, after having traveled in several cities before this that are not remotely walkable, it is so wonderful to be in a city that has perfect sidewalks. And you can literally walk pretty much anywhere. Look how complex this overpass is. When you look at turnpikes in the U.S. But this is for pedestrians. I love it. But it's like, why are you so complicated? It's like a labyrinth. There's even an escalator here. It only goes up, so... There's a little family mart here on the corner. We haven't had time to stop in yet. So, first stop is family mart. It is, right there. Anyone want some base bread? Oh, I thought it was plant-based. The only other country that has so much prepared, relatively fresh food is the U.K., I think. Yeah, but very different. Very, very different, first of all. And very different foods. Although this is something you would also find in the U.K. You can get natto here, too. I just have to tell you quickly, up in this building, the Dentsu building, like the week before my internship started, we had like a whole orientation week where we learned about Japanese culture and how to like interact in a Japanese business setting. And in here, they showed us translations of Japanese business emails. I made a short about it. Didn't go very well, but yeah, I'll just insert that here. No, it did go well. It didn't go well on YouTube, I think. Went well on Instagram, but... Thank you for giving us some of your precious time and your very busy day to kindly come to our bad company today. We are very ashamed for making you listen to our very boring and useless session. Please be kind enough to come to my small and dirty house and join my stupid wife and me for an untasty dinner. So we're starting out in the Hamarikyu Gardens, which is the first stop that Magic told us to come to. We're gonna go and enjoy a nice little authentic matcha on the lake, hopefully, and just enjoy the nature within the big metropolis. So nice to have things like this in the middle of a massive city. In fact, the world's biggest city. We found garbage. Dan was just saying how perfect is the grass. I know. This is like textbook mowing right here. Listening to the birds. That's so nice. Why does it feel so us to have only 24 hours in the biggest city in the world and then just go into basically the forest? The way we spend 24 hours in any big city is by trying to avoid the city as much as possible. Ooh, I think this is it. We're really hoping for matcha here because since our last trip to Japan this spring, we were always okay with matcha, but I really started loving matcha since then. It's hard to find good matcha, though, in most other places. Hello, how are you? This is hinagiku. Would you like to be with Dan? Yes. This is Japanese milk. Okay, here's the instructions. Guess you can't just drink it like you do at Starbucks. Yeah. Get it right. These cups are beautiful. Wait, wait, so you have to hold it. Okay, sorry. It's even before the tea because the taste of the tea becomes better. You don't taste them alternately. Cut it in half with the stick. All the tea in three or four sips. Don't mess it up. Wow, it's like you were born to do this. This is probably bad, but I'm going to use this as a skewer. It doesn't say how to eat the confection. I mean, I love red bean so much. So now we're ready for the matcha. With your right hand, place it in your left palm. Turn the bowl. Three or four sips. It doesn't stay in your mouth. It's like a protective layer of sweetness. After drinking the tea, wipe the place where you drank with your right thumb and index finger. With a feeling of gratitude, you look at the bowl before returning it. Oh, ----. I'm very grateful. How do you like the shoes? Let's just say they were not made for our feet. So absolutely stunning gardens, amazing tea. And now it's time to have another traditional, I guess, Japanese culinary experience that magic suggested for us. Wait. Okay, second convenience store haul. Or not haul, but visit. Our favorite from the spring. Let's buy two packets. We had a viewer who's looking in every Family Mart in Tokyo. So where is this Family Mart? This is the location that had it for those wondering. It's always by the tofu stuff. Family Mart in Little Italy. Who knew there was like a Little Italy in Tokyo? This is what Italy and Japan looks like. Italy through a Japanese lens, everybody. And this is what tofu pudding looks like. I love how we're supposed to have lunch, but now... Yeah, we're just... This is a little quick stop first, but I need to let you in on a little secret, which is that I don't always know how to pronounce everything in English. I had a little mispronunciation of this thing like a year ago, I guess. And to this day, that's still what we call it. We don't call this a tofu pudding, but it's a tofu pudding. You can imagine what I was going to say. It's like, should we buy this pudding? And I died. So now we always say... No, and the worst thing is that I'm always 100% sure that I'm right. So I fought with him. I was like, it's called pudding, you know? It's like I'm fighting with the native English speaker. I'm like, it's pudding. What are you on about? Third convenience store. This is just on the 10-minute walk to our restaurant. I know. This is a natural Lawson. It's supposed to be more organic, health-focused. Next up, an even more amazing bowl of ramen for lunch, this time at a traditional ramen house. Did you see the sign? Where it said, delicious ramen and vegan ramen available. So the vegan ramen aren't delicious. So this is a very traditional ramen place where you eat in like your own designated little booth. So I don't know if we're going to get a seat together. Remains to be seen. I can't even understand what that means. Have a seat, please. We got seats together. It's amazing. Okay, so first up, we served ice water and our chopsticks. And he just put in an order for us for the vegan ramen. So each booth is equipped with its own condiments. Let's see. There's some spices. We have oil. We also have a hand sanitizer and our own jug. Okay, honestly, that was some of the best ramen I've ever had. I don't know about you, but like... A&E still has the best ramen on board. In my opinion, that's the best. Best ramen in the sky, I expect. No, it's the best ramen I've ever had, period. But this was... Yeah, and the chef, or I don't know if he was the head chef or what he was, but it was so cute. He gave us this. He said it's a samurai hat origami. So super nice. I'm gonna wear this for the rest of our trip. And now we're heading on to our next stop. I just have to say one thing though, which I found very funny. Dan did not find it funny. You know how you're supposed to like show appreciation by really slurping up all the ramen broth? There was a lot of slurping going on around us. Let's just say that. Yeah, when you have misophonia and you get actually angry from chewing sounds, that's not great. But the closer you are to someone, the more their chewing sounds annoy you. The more you know them, yeah. Yeah, not physically. It's a real thing. Yeah. We walked through this gorgeous Buddhist temple on the way to the subway station where we'd catch a train to a neighborhood I had been to before and really wanted to revisit. Dude, this is kind of crazy. And this is kind of crazy. My life. It's just crazy to think that this tree planted by a later American president was before the world wars, before the atomic bomb. Long before that, yeah. Crazy. How cute are these? I'm sure they're supposed to be very spiritual, but we're just like, oh my God, so cute. Yeah, true. All right, so... Wait, let's use this big one. So... Okay, I think maybe we're missing the train. The crazy thing in Tokyo is that they have different companies that run different routes on the subway. It's really crazy because if you have to transfer but it's not the same company, you need to go out and buy a new ticket. And then, yeah, very different. That is unless you have an IC card, which you can quite easily get. But since we're only here for 24 hours, we're not bothering with that. So we're getting singly tickets. Peace. Okay, transfer time. Maybe we should explain where we're going. That look you gave, so... What? You gave a very confused look. Well, magic suggested something that I was very happy that it suggested. We're going to a sort of more artsy and they call it vintage clothing type of area. I've actually been before when I was in Tokyo and I really loved it. And I found some shirts there that I still use to this day. And so I thought that was perfect. So let's see if we can find any good finds today. Find any good finds. Exactly. Okay, let's go. Japan has an amazing train system but you always want to budget a bit of extra time to figure it out. So we made it here. Okay, I am pretty sure that's the store where I bought my stuff. This is the brand. Oh my god. And here's the second brand. We're on a mission to try to find a vegan bakery. We saw on Happy Cow but sometimes when you're, you know, not very familiar it can be extremely difficult to try to figure out exactly where it is. But as always, this is a good way of seeing the city in a more organic way because we're just like looking around every corner literally. But I just want to sit down. Yeah, yeah. I know I love that that was like the initial thing. Dan was like, I really want to sit down for a bit. I was like, let's go to a cafe. And then we walked for like 10 minutes to get here and now we've been walking around for another 10 minutes around this area. So let's see if it's open. Oh no. This is such a cozy, cute area though. I would have loved to sit up here. Oh no. So it seems like they're just not open on Tuesdays which is sad. There is, however, this other piece. Yeah, wow. Chinese black vinegar soda. Oh, this is what was the TikTok trend that it tastes like Coke. People vinegar and sparkling water. Here they come. Wow, so soy pudding bowls and some afternoon gyoza but these do not look like regular gyoza at all. Yeah, the thing is this is actually a Hong Kong style place so it really has nothing to do with Japan but it feels fine anyway. You know what? Soy pudding is not to be slept on. Soy pudding. Soy boys deluxe. Yep, we're proud soy boys. It's so good, right? It's so good. And it's in this like candied fruit juice. Oh, that was disgusting. Um... Out and about again. A guy with a flip phone. What? A guy with a flip phone? Yeah, like a genuine... Good for him. Yeah, I love it. But it's like a very modern type of flip phone. Not like the ones we had back in the day, you know? We are going to walk around a bit more. Clearly, it's going to start raining soon so the next plan... Well, we'll look in some stores but the next plan needs some old roof. I'm going to tell my kids that these were... I don't know, insert. Fifth Harmony. Or how about the Three Wise Men? I'm going to tell my kids that these were... Hocus Pocus? The Sanderson sisters, that's the name. I was like, they're not called Hocus Pocus. We're really close to Shinjuku. Just like two stops away on the express. So we're actually going to go there now and hang out. Hopefully, buy some Japanese sunscreen to take with us when we leave. Maybe walk down to Harajuku. And then maybe to Shibuya. We'll see. Shibuya is the crazy, super hectic, busy crossing. I don't know if we have the energy for that. But we'll see. It's people mania. Yeah, I mean after Tokyo Station, Shinjuku is like the next line for craziness. Oh my god. You can't really tell in the video but it's insane. In real life, it almost looks like the apocalypse. It's like the Dementors are coming. The rain is coming like so... The thing about walking. I don't know if that's going to happen. The skies are open and people are running. With the skies open and the rain pouring over Tokyo, we decided we'd dare the storm and get some protection for our walk. So the rain came out. And we're using the most quintessentially Japanese umbrellas. I love these umbrellas. Just saw the most only in Japan thing ever. There's a motorcycle delivery guy stopping like every few doors on the street with food or whatever he's delivering. And when he gets off, he leaves the motorbike on with the key in the ignition. The engine is running just on the side of the street. Anyone could take it so easily, you know. Just sit on it and drive off. But he just leaves it on. Not a safety concern. Imagine how much faster that makes his job. Running in, running out, get on, do it again. Crazy. So while magic suggested a lot of off the beaten path, places to go and everything, it also suggested some of the more, I guess, well-known areas and neighborhoods, which I'm honestly happy about because like we said, we haven't been in Tokyo for a long, long time. So just rounding off the day in Harajuku and in Shibuya, I think will be like the perfect bookend to these 24 hours in Tokyo. It's so fun trying to find a place because it's like, it's like spot, where is Waldo almost? All the signs try to make out what it is. So dinner's done with and now we're about to top off this amazing day at the Shibuya Expo Center. Oh my God, graffiti. I think that's a choice, deliberate. They're like London graffiti. Rough around the edges. I prefer this inclusion of the gardens. Yeah. But this is cool. So that was fun. No, it's really cool. It really is. I mean, it's just signs and everything. That's fun. The crowds are like, yeah, it's crazy. Draining. Yeah, we are going to take the subway home now. It's been a very intense day. Yeah, I don't know if you can tell it from my eyes especially, but maybe both of ours. Good morning. Time to leave the light. Good morning. It's time to leave already. It's not okay. I feel the exact same as I did after our spring trip around Japan. This just cements for me how much I love coming here. And it's, I don't know, top three. Yeah, I think it's really entered my top three list of countries to travel to. It's just amazing. We're a bit short on time. So we got a taxi and wow. This is fancy. This is deluxe. Amazing like room, a lot of space and even armrests. Guys, if Japan isn't on your list already, it definitely should be. As this short visit and our two-week trip this spring show, Japan is a country with an insane breadth of things to offer. From nature to ancient cultural sites, culinary delights and modern culture, there are just endless things to explore here. We're usually not so big on countries that are popular with tourists. And we generally try to encourage people to see more off the beaten path places. Japan is just one of those countries that continues to impress and surprise us with every visit and every turn. As always, we hope you enjoyed this video and hope you're ready for videos from our 102nd country coming up next. We love you. Thank you for watching and see you around the world.