Tuesday, May 5th, 2026
Okonomiyaki, Yakiniku, and a PAC-Man Skyscraper
A slow-start day that picked up through Shibuya's side streets, pet latte art on the train to Shinjuku, a rooftop yakiniku grill fighting the wind, and a government building doing its best impression of an arcade cabinet.
The day opened the same way the last one did: Kielo Coffee, another pour-over served in a ceramic cup with a glass beaker alongside it. Alex was presumably still asleep somewhere. We had five hours of sleep between us and no particular plans, which felt like the right amount of structure.
From there we drifted into Shibuya — its side streets, its competing signage, a wagyu burger poster wedged next to an entrance so ornate it looked like it had been imported from somewhere more theatrical.
Lunch was at an okonomiyaki restaurant Aidan had found using Claude, which felt like a reasonable use of the technology. Kyle recorded the scene with some precision: sauce flakes around Aidan's mouth, Aidan somehow in two layers of what looked like wool or flannel and not visibly suffering for it, a small orange juice soda stream thing on the table that turned out to be genuinely good — the kind of drink that gets quietly reordered. The waiters were nice. We were content just wandering and taking the morning as it came.
✨ Ukiyo-e
three men look upward a duck and raindrop float past the stone bear watches
Somewhere in the early afternoon we found a café that did latte art of people's pets. We were on the train to Shinjuku by 2:51, coffees with our animals printed on them presumably somewhere in our bags.
Shinjuku delivered its usual density of things to look at — including what appeared to be a Samurai Restaurant advertising itself with maximum commitment, and at least one stairwell interior that had been treated as an opportunity to use every colour simultaneously.
✨ Anime
three men on lit glass dragons bloom beneath their feet the stairs eat color
After walking around Shinjuku, we made our way to the Lumine department store and took the lift up to the rooftop, where a yakiniku restaurant had set up its grills in the open air. It was table-cook-your-own-meat, which meant the evening's first challenge was getting the grill started. The wind had other ideas. It took longer than it should have, but we got there.
✨ Shounen
man tends the fire the city holds its breath—waits for the meat to sing
The night ended at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, which had been given over to a full-facade PAC-Man projection — the words "CONTINUE? PAC-MAN EATS TOKYO" spread across several floors of concrete in pixel-art lettering. It was a strange and very large thing to encounter at the end of an ordinary Tuesday.
