We tried a new format for this one. My wife Zeynep picks a city we’ve traveled to together and asks me five questions about it, and it was her first time ever on a recording. She picked Tokyo, which I had sort of guessed, since I was wearing a Tokyo t-shirt.
Her first question was how I’d describe Tokyo in three words, and my first word was Istanbul. I haven’t seen many cities that feel this close to Istanbul in spirit. It’s alive 24/7 and you can find very good and very bad things at every price, so the better you know it, the better time you have.
So it’s probably the closest thing to an Istanbul-sized metropolis I’ve seen, the same way Madrid is the most beautiful Ankara in the world. My second word was culture, because between Pokémon, anime, One Piece and manga, there’s a lot there that doesn’t exist in the Western world.
The third word came from Zeynep, and it was food, which was on my mind too. Out of all the places we’ve been, Tokyo had the highest average, so any place you walk into probably has good food. And that’s coming from someone who isn’t really into Asian cuisine.
Then she asked what felt closest and furthest to me culturally. The closest was how much people seemed to live with games, anime and manga, whatever their age. At least that’s how it looked, so it’s a personal feeling rather than a sociological fact.
The furthest one was ready-made food. People constantly eat packaged stuff from the stores, like onigiri (those triangle rice things) or ramen, and the homes are small anyway. In Istanbul we ordered out all the time too, but eating was still something to enjoy.
In Tokyo, food felt more like something passing by in the day, without much importance. That’s the weird thing, because everything was delicious.
If I went back, I’d probably sit in Shibuya, which is kind of their Taksim Square, and watch people. Istanbul gives me the same thing. All those different people rushing around are really interesting to me, so I do this in pretty much every big city.
The product question was easy, because there’s nothing I bought there that I didn’t like. Japan is a shopping paradise, and with the exchange rate, prices were pretty good compared to Turkey. So we went with empty suitcases and came back with full ones, mostly Pokémon toys and random junk.
I especially like two decorative porcelain plates from Captain Tsubasa. One has Hyuga on it, and the other has a scene with Roberto Hongo and Tsubasa as a kid.
Then the last question was about the food I tried. I don’t like trying new things, so I didn’t try much, and I clearly can’t remember the names either (Zeynep had to help). I had unagi, tonkatsu, gyoza and teppanyaki, but no sushi, because I don’t eat raw fish.
Anyway, we had wagyu many times, as a burger, as a steak and even as wagyu sushi. But to be honest, even McDonald’s was great there, since at dinner you can double the patties on any burger. So yes, in Tokyo you can actually eat a burger with four patties.