Day 1
Saturday, 05 OctoberI arrive in Tokyo at 9 a.m. — bleary-eyed after the journey from Oslo and still overcoming sickness from the previous week. It is unexpectedly hot; 28°C, and hotel check-in isn't open until later in the afternoon.
After dropping off my luggage at the Dormy Inn Ueno Okachimachi Hot Spring(!) I head for some food, and remembering the first rule of finding somewhere to eat in Tokyo, I fall into line at the back of a not-unreasonable queue at a cook-it-yourself katsu restaurant. Delicious.
Determined to start working on something creative, and with Ueno park just round the corner I find a spot at a bench and manage to squeeze in one small sketch of some local signage type between bouts of falling asleep. Unable to resist any longer, I'm able to push for an early check in and I collapse in bed until the evening.
The evening passes in a blur as I hop on the metro to Ginza and catch the last day of The Shape of Sound exhibition – a solo exhibition by art director and music aficionado Tatsuya Ariyama, including fascinating microscope photos of record grooves that out of context look like mountainous landscapes.
Coffee Wrights in Kuramae doesn't have a spectacular view, but I take the opportunity to enjoy a coffee and sketch some interesting architectural details from across the street.
This is one example of how detailed and thought through everything seems to be at street level — all the tiny tiles must take forever to apply, but they are everywhere you look.
I'll be reminded of this later in the day when seeing ancient stone tablets perfectly divided into tiny squares at the Taito calligraphy museum. I'm not sure I recommend the museum for non-Japanese readers; the contents are quite dry.
Wanting to sketch as much as possible I start to draw a couple of restaurant interiors but soon realise that service in general is too quick and space too limited to be able to settle down and concentrate on drawing for an extended period of time.
In the afternoon, I take the metro back from Koto city and head to the Shibuya-Daikanyama area. After an excellent bowl of ramen and browsing various fancy boutiques I stop at Saturdays NYC (another fancy boutique) for a coffee and some sketching.
Immediately catching my attention, I start drawing a lady who ends up spending about forty minutes taking selfies with her stack of shopping. I can't help but feel that this captures this part of town perfectly.
A moment of instant karma later and I spill my fancy coffee all over the fancy floor and my bag — the universe telling me to stop silently judging people?
After an obligatory pit stop at my favourite book store, Tsutaya for some browsing and a hot ginger drink (still sick), I jump on the metro back to Taito, for a highly anticipated “illustrator meetup” at gallery / artist residency house Almost Perfect.
Knowing there are going to be some great illustrators there and feeling generally a bit inadequate at illustrating people, I continue on my quest to not care so much and just practice at improving observational sketching.
It becomes quickly apparent that drawing someone falling asleep on public transport can be quite tricky, with the slowly-but-surely descending head tilt, jolt upright and repetition (see: above).
Day 4
Tuesday, 08 OctoberEven in the morning, it's clear that Tokyoites are tired by default — commuters, at least. This is both interesting to observe and also a goldmine for someone looking to practice drawing people under time pressure and stealthily. I sit on the train to Shimokitazawa armed with my iPad and continue working away while the oblivious subjects catch up on their sleep between stops.
This neighbourhood on the outskirts of Tokyo, not far west of Shibuya is full of vintage shops and has an unquestionably cool atmosphere. I stop for a coffee at the reknowned Bear Pond Espresso (be there between 11-13) and explore the streets for the rest of the day.
One of the goals of this trip was to become more comfortable drawing and illustrating people. Shortly after consuming a particularly messy burger, I decide to attempt 10-second sketches of people walking past me in a side street of Shimokitazawa.
It's a seemingly futile exercise, but if any of them look at all better than others, they are probably the later sketches, after I'd trained my brain to observe, remember features, then sketch. Think I'll do this more to loosen up in future.
Day 5
Wednesday, 09 OctoberJimbocho book district. Starting to feel overwhelmed by Tokyo's numbing paradox of choice. Much like previous visits to department stores like Tokyu Hands and Yodobashi, Jimbocho presents so much choice I begin to yearn for constraints.
With over 200 book shops and given my interest in art and design, it's fun to browse. While on paper (👀) I should be leaving with a bag full of books; ultimately I leave empty handed.
I draw some more on the train to Harajuku and roam the perfectly formed streets and alleyways in the area before making a pilgrimage to Harajuku Gyozaro, the best (and simultaneously most humble) dumpling shop I have been to.
The rest of the day is uneventful as I spend a few hours around the corner at The Roastery collecting thoughts and working on this very page.
Day 7
Friday, 11 OctoberAfter breakfast at Coffee Nova (bread as thick as a brick, in a good way) in Kuramae, I jump on the metro to Akasaka and 2121 Design Sight gallery.
Inside this angular, brutalist building is the Insects: Models for Design exhibition. The exhibition attempts to break through the common aversion adults have towards insects, and promote the kind of wonder a child might have. By looking in detail at a range of species, it becomes apparent how perfectly evolution has shaped their forms. Symmetry is an obvious trait, alongside incredible complexity and details that are mind-blowing when considering that “insects are the most diverse biological classification. While humans are in a group of one, insects are said to have 3-10 million species”.
It's not hard to see the parallels and influence on design, and I leave with insights I hadn't really considered before.
Roadworks
You may think of roadworks as purely inconvenience, but I beg to differ — at least in Japan. I don't know if it's just the novelty factor, but it's all so organised. The system around road maintenance and building sites here is fascinating.
The city seems to be in constant flux and you can't walk for more than a couple of blocks without running into a construction site of some kind. Colour coordination, uniform consistency all seems to be part of a larger design system that feels like it's trying to inconvience the passer-by as little as possible.
An observation: the ratio of people standing around on guard to those actively working appears to be almost overcautiously high.
Day 8 (Typhoon Hagibis hits Japan)
Saturday 12th OctoberIn the back of my mind from about day 4 is the looming threat of the typhoon which is supposed to hit Japan over the weekend. Sure enough, by Saturday, Hagibis makes landfall off the coast of Tokyo.
I'm confined to my hotel room for 24 hours, with strong warnings not to venture outside do to the extremely high wind speeds.
The hotel concierge tells me that a) the power is likely to go and b) the emergency stairs will be locked as they are on the outside of the building. I am on floor 10.
I need not worry however - Tokyo remains relatively unscathed (I even felt a 5.6 magnitude earthquake that hit off the coast the same evening which didn't seem to make a dent on the news). Other parts of Japan, sadly, are not as lucky.
I discover via notification at 01:30 that my morning flight has predictably been cancelled and that there will likely be travel chaos for at least a few days.
Bonus Days 9-12 (In Limbo)
Sunday 13th — Wednesday 16th OctoberThe morning following the typhoon, I wake up to a perfect sunny day - still a bit windy, but Tokyo is apparently completely dry after the heaviest 24 hours of rain I have ever seen. I suspect this is in large part due to the Mega Storm Drain, built in 2006.
One unexpected positive side-effect of the delayed travel (other than 4 more days in Tokyo! after much back and forth with travel agents) is that I'm now able to attend a “Drop-in” Riso zine studio run by Hand Saw Press, as part of Festival/Tokyo.
This is my first time Riso printing (for the uninitiated: it's essentially like screen printing one layer of colour at a time, in a photo-copier like machine). Ryoko and Shinsuke are really welcoming and helpful, many thanks! Luckily I spent some time preparing the graphics for print earlier in the day so the process isn't too painful (I hope, for them).
We manage to print about 60 A3 copies which I eventually fold up into a mini-zine back in Oslo (thanks for the help, João!). It's an imperfect printing process, but I'm happy with the results.
Not exactly slow TV – but arguably as boring, this is my japanese journey as seen through social media.
Before the trip, I decided that I wouldn't share every detail on Instagram. It became quickly apparent, however, that there was just too much to see and talk about, so I lasted about two hours before caving in; deciding to share with my close friend* list only.
The intention was to keep the project mostly under wraps until publishing this page, so here are all 37:55 minutes in their occasionally entertaining behind-the-scenes glory.
Feel free to skip ahead, I know you have a busy day. If you persevere, you are likely to see a lot of food, some very passionate Beatles fans and possibly some useful tips for the next time you visit.
* If you didn't make the close friends list, please don't be offended — mostly useful for keeping the project a surprise from my colleagues 🌝