Tokyo Diaries #1: Non-Stop Side Quests

Hi there! It’s been a while since my last newsletter.

I realized that if I don’t write these more often, I’m going to forget what this period of my life actually felt like. 

So here I am: sitting on the balcony of a trendy Daikanyama cafe, writing from Tokyo on a sunny spring day.

So first, a life update.

Yep—I’m still in Tokyo. Still having a good time!

It’s been almost 5 months since I moved to Japan. Originally, I arrived on a 3-month tourist visa. However, my student visa recently finished processing, and I finally received my fancy Zairyuu Kādo, Japan’s official residence card.

After being a visitor across so many countries over the past year and a half, it was surprisingly satisfying to navigate the bureaucracy of registering my address, applying for health insurance, and deferring pension payments. For the first time in a while, I’m a local! 

My life over the last 5 months has pretty much been laser-focused on one thing: language learning.

I’ve continued taking intensive Japanese language classes 4 hours a day, 5 days a week, and I expect to continue until the end of the year. At that point, I’ll hopefully have passed the JLPT N2, which is the minimum language requirement for working at most companies in Japan (even foreign-owned ones). 

Going to school has been going well. Class is (usually) pretty fun and classmates have become friends. It’s also a good place to exchange information around job searching, living in different neighborhoods, and activities around the city.

Language learning itself has been progressing smoothly as well. 

Of course, through class I get to learn the nuances of different grammar points, practice speaking, and get live feedback from the teacher. However, I find that the work I do outside of class is where the majority of my language gains are coming from. 

I spend 3+ hours a day deliberately immersing in Japanese via books, podcasts, news articles, and a variety of YouTube videos. And I spend another 30-40 minutes reviewing and learning 30 new words every day, putting me on track to learn over 10,000 words in one year. 

The pure vocabulary grind has dramatically increased my ability to comprehend content across various domains, and consuming native material has given me a better understanding of the nuance of different words and grammar patterns, developing a better intuition for what words to use in which situations.

So even though I find self-studying to be more “efficient”, would I still recommend the language classes? 

Overall—yes. I think the classroom setting has provided me with the structure and accountability to continue studying, and the social aspect is seriously underrated. It’s been amazing to have real, human interactions baked into my routine, as opposed to deliberately reaching out to new people every few days (as I did while traveling full-time).

Of course, there are days where I feel tired or lazy, but so far I haven’t missed a single day of class. As with most things, I think you get what you put in. Knowing that I voluntarily chose to take these classes (and paying for them out of my own pocket) has motivated me to get the most I can out of the experience.

Now that I’ve settled into a daily routine, I often have to remind myself that I’m living my dream life.

Living in Tokyo has provided me with endless things to do and experience. On any given weekday, I might start with a quick study session + breakfast at home, walk to Shibuya for class, chat with a friend over a miso-grilled salmon lunch set at a teishoku restaurant, read at a local cafe, and run along the Meguro River in the evening. 

I always tell people that Tokyo is like 30 cities in one. It would take years to feel like you’ve seen the majority of the city, and even longer to feel the depth of each neighborhood. And by then, parts of the city will have transformed beyond recognition.

So if you’ve been to Tokyo a few times and think the city’s not for you, think again! There’s pretty much something for everyone here.

In terms of hobbies, I’ve kept up with running, although a recent move from the Yoyogi Park area to the more urban Nakameguro neighborhood has limited my running routes. That said, I recently ran my first 10-miler, and hopefully I’ll progress to a half-marathon over the next few weeks.

I also finally invested in my first pourover coffee setup—which I’ve been eyeing for the past year after growing to appreciate coffee more through my travels. It’s been a fun new addition to my morning routine, and it’s one more thing for me to constantly experiment with during my down time.

Finally, I’m continuing to read novels, but this time in Japanese! Right now, I’m about halfway through reading Convenience Store Woman (コンビニ人間) by Sayaka Murata, who in my opinion is one of the most interesting modern Japanese authors (or just authors, period). I’ve read the book before in English, and it’s super satisfying to be going through it again in its original language.

Sometimes, I feel like I’ve finished playing the “main quest” of life, and now I’m just playing mini-games and going on side quests to give myself direction and purpose. 

I’m in Tokyo. Learning Japanese. I have enough savings to give myself time. My days are full of cafes, books, school, and side projects.

For most of history, the main quest was simple: stay alive. Knowing that every day, the work you’re doing contributes to your ability to stay alive probably gave most people all the purpose they needed to keep trudging along.

But nowadays, in many wealthy countries, survival is no longer the immediate daily problem for a large portion of people. Most people have shelter, running water, and access to medical care. 

Of course, things aren’t perfect, and lifestyle inequality is pretty evident from walking briefly through any major city in the US. But most people reading this newsletter are probably in a reasonably comfortable position by global and historical standards. In other words, we’re living in an age of abundance.

AI may accelerate this feeling for more people. If work for survival becomes a less central part of our identities, more of us will have to confront the question that used to be reserved for weird gap-year people sitting in Tokyo cafes: what do I want to do with my time? 

For now, my answer is simple: keep studying, keep exploring Tokyo, keep making new connections. That’s probably enough for the main quest of this season.

See you next time,

Tim