← All articles · Japan · 2 June 2026

Tokyo

Two Tokyo trips, one post: wading through teamLab Planets, a micro pig cafe, Shinjuku neon, a katana dinner, Nintendo Tokyo and a tiny Golden Gai bar.

Tokyo is the city we keep coming back to. These photos are from two visits: a cold, bright February in 2024 and a return at the start of summer 2026. Same city, two completely different moods, and we still have not scratched the surface.

February 2024: winter Tokyo

Our winter trip was all contrast: knee-deep in projected light one day, knee-deep in Shinjuku crowds the next.

Inga and Dileep standing knee-deep in water covered with projected swirls of colour at the teamLab Planets digital art museum — teamLab Planets in Toyosu: trousers rolled up, wading through a floor made of light along with everyone else.

Inga and Dileep sitting on a green carpeted floor with pink blankets on their laps while micro pigs doze on them — A micro pig cafe. You order a drink, a pig chooses your lap, and time quietly stops.

Selfie of Dileep and Inga in Kabukicho, Shinjuku, in front of a giant animated billboard for the Samurai Restaurant show — Kabukicho by day, where the Samurai Restaurant billboard does the shouting for the whole street.

Inga in a blue puffer jacket standing on a zebra crossing in Shinjuku surrounded by shoppers and stacked neon signs — Mid-crossing in Kabukicho, where every building is a stack of signs and someone is always filming.

Inga at a wooden restaurant counter with plates of vegetable skewers and edamame while a chef works behind the bar — Dinner at a Shibuya counter: skewers arriving in waves, the chef two metres away, a purple drink under investigation.

When the city got too loud, we took a train into the mountains to meet the snow monkeys of Jigokudani. Highly recommended as a Tokyo palate cleanser.

June 2026: summer Tokyo

Two years later we came back in the heat, and Tokyo had a whole new set of tricks ready.

Inga and Dileep posing on either side of a Mario statue surrounded by Yoshi egg plushies in the Nintendo Tokyo store — Nintendo Tokyo in Shibuya. We queued with people a third of our age and regret nothing.

Inga and Dileep posing with clawed hands behind a performer in a neon monster costume in front of a candy-coloured carousel — Harajuku at full volume: a candy-coloured monster show where the performer taught us the pose. We did our best.

Dileep holding a katana beside a dinner table covered in dry ice smoke in a dimly lit ninja-themed restaurant, with Inga reaching across — A ninja-themed dinner where the table vanishes under dry ice and someone hands you a sword between courses.

Inga and Dileep in sun hats seen from behind, watching Shibuya Crossing from a window seat above the intersection — The best free show in Shibuya: a window seat above the crossing, watching a thousand people not collide.

Shibuya Center-gai at night, a narrow street packed with people under layers of neon and backlit signs — Center-gai after dark. Every sign is fighting every other sign, and somehow it works.

Inga waving from the doorway of a tiny weathered bar in Golden Gai, Shinjuku, next to a sign reading No Charge, Cash Only — Golden Gai, where a bar seats about six and the sign answers the only two questions that matter: no charge, cash only.

Tokyo was also our launchpad for Kyoto, Osaka and beyond. We will be back; that much is not in question.