Tokyo is a busy city, and I mean absurdly busy.
Tokyo
Tokyo is an insanely populated city. As someone who came to Tokyo without any prior knowledge, I was shocked at how busy it was. I probably saw more people during my 2 weeks in Tokyo than I have seen over an entire year in Vancouver. Well, given that there are a lot of people, surely that makes things more exciting, right?
Actually, I prefer less busy environments, so for me, the experience was rather hellish.
That’s not to say that everywhere in Tokyo is filled to the brim with people. I found that the locations surrounding the Yamanote Line were the busiest. I would know because I was a big enough idiot to book a hotel by one of them. Once you start moving away from the Yamanote Line and head closer to the local train lines, the areas around there are much more serene and manageable. Of course, I did not know that, so instead I simply suffered.
Being the fool that I am, I went to Shibuya the day after I landed in Japan. And that was probably the most populous place in all of Tokyo, or Japan rather.
Shibuya
Shibuya was a literal sea of people. The sidewalks were crammed with people, and crossing the street felt like pushing against a wave. The ground floor of every building had fit in as many pairs of feet as it physically could. There was nowhere to catch a break because there were just people everywhere; it was impossible for a foolish foreigner like myself to find a place to sit down and have a brief moment of respite.
At some point, it was lunchtime, so I tried to get lunch at a food court. There were hardly any places to eat, let alone sit. I was barely lucky enough to find an area with standing tables in the corner of the food court. I further explored Shibuya afterward because I was already there, but having gone through there once, I think I will pass in the future.
Let that be a warning to wary future travelers that Shibuya is not for the faint of heart.
Dinner at Restaurants
But even after I escaped Shibuya, the consequences of Tokyo’s super populous city still haunted me. Finding restaurants to sit down and eat at for dinner was dreadful.
Due to the sheer number of people in the city, restaurants tend to have absurd waiting times or are reservations only. But similar to how the populous city becomes easier to deal with as you move away from the city center and the Yamanote Line, restaurants become easier to enter as well. Although in my case, I didn’t particularly want to wander too far away from the Yamanote Line for dinner because that also meant a long trek back to the hotel afterward. I made my decision and suffered through the consequences.
Strangely enough, in my second week in Tokyo, I managed to get into restaurants around popular locations like Ueno without much issue during lunch. I still think my point stands, as it’ll be super important to be diligent when it comes to getting seats at restaurants. So to ensure that you can have a place to sit down and eat at when dinner time comes along, I would recommend the following:
- Arriving at a restaurant during their less busy hours, that is either having an early dinner or a late dinner
- Getting the hotel front desk to help you book restaurant reservations
- Finding a restaurant in less busy areas of Tokyo
- Building up your mental fortitude so that you can wait in line for at least an hour during dinner rush hour (not recommended)
That’s all, good luck with your future endeavors in enjoying dinner in Tokyo! And don’t forget, you can’t cry if you can’t get into that restaurant you wanted to go to because I warned you!
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