2025/2026 Tokyo

Omgaaaah this was one of the most fulfilling Tokyo trips we’ve had! It was one for the books, so so many memorable moments.

We hit the ground running as we landed. Suzie and Bo picked us up from HND and we roll into Shinjuku. We freshened up at the hotel then ran down to the barcarde to meet up with everyone. The four of us met up with Nick and Pasquale, then we went off to dinner. It was a dinner to remember seeing is Suzie, Nick, Wzrd and I haven’t been all in the same place probably for about 10 years. We caught up, drank and had the best time.

Pasquale left us the next day and went to Osaka for a few days. Suzie and Bo went home after dinner on the first night. But we’d all reconvene later.

Wzrd and I had a few days to ourselves before meeting up with Squalls on Xmas again. So we took the days and decompressed a bit. We met up with Snake on our 2nd night for dinner. It was soooo lovely to see her, we kept missing each other by a few days in Japan the years before. We went to hotpot and caught up. I can’t wait til this coming winter, we may be doing Xmas in HK. I think that’ll be a lot of fun.

We didn’t really do much during these few days, mostly just ate, drank and played at the arcade. I set up a date night for Wzrd and I on Xmas eve. We went to Pizza Strada, one of the highest rated pizza joints in Tokyo. Afterwards, we went to one of the top 50 bars in the world, Tokyo Confidential.

Pizza Strada, really lived up to its hype. It was sooooo good. It was probably the best pizza I’ve ever had. And the best meatball we’ve ever had! Everything there was fantastic! The service, watching your pizza made fresh, the smell of the wood oven … Wzrd and I agreed that we’d visit every time we’re in tokyo now.
Tokyo Confidential, though, was not as good. Our experience there was quite mediocre. Having been to Salmon Guru just a few months before, it felt like it was trying to be Salmon Guru, but it just didn’t quite hit the mark. I had bought their package when I made our booking, it came with a snack and 4 (two each) drinks. Their snacks options were soooo basic, it was like warm nuts, chips, or popcorn. Like I expected way more than some airplane nuts or popcorn. Their drinks were … unique, but they weren’t very tasty. Overall, Wzrd and I agreed that we’re glad we went but we wouldn’t recommend it to others or visit again.

The next night was Xmas! We spent Xmas day playing at the arcade, then went shopping in Ginza. Wzrd had mention he wanted to get a Rolex (mr. fancy pants) this year, so we went to a bunch of watch shops. Later that night, we met up with Pasquale at Ginza Happo, a highly rated buffet. They had all kinds of crab legs, seafood and wagyu. It was one of the best buffets we’ve been to. After buffet, we went to another top 50 bars in the world – Bar Benfiddich.

Now this was a super unique bar. This bar had maybe 10 seats total, the ambiance there is dark and moody. Definitely a hole in the wall kind of feel. There’s no menu, the bartender comes to your table and chats with everyone to get their likes and preferences, then off he goes and whips up something very cool for you. I follow them on IG and was able to ask them to make two drinks from their IG. Every drink I had there was delicious. It was a great way to close out Xmas night.

NYE . Oh man NYE … Suzie and Bo came and met us up for dinner and to partaaaay. And party we did, 2000 style, lol. We all met up and went to dinner. Which was not worth mentioning. I had made a reservation knowing that it would be choas on NYE. There were 5 of us, they gave us a 4 person table. It wasn’t the best but we made the best of it. At least we got some foods in before we started drinking.
Initially our plan was to do dinner, then perhaps bar hop a bit or go to karaoke. But we ended up going back to the hotel barcade, drank a bunch and won a bunch of stuff from the arcade. Then we had a hotel party back in our suite. We played Mario Party and drank like fishes. Apparently I was making everyone do shots every like 5 minutes? lolol At one point we ran out of Soju, so we all ran down to 7-11 to stock up. While we were down on the streets, we saw everyone with these 2026 NYE hats, so we all got one. We never finished a whole game of Mario Party, lol, we all just got drunk and had fun. Everyone was dead the next day. (lololol my bad)

We did absolutely nothing on the 1st, as everyone was dead. We tried to go to hotpot that night, but the wait was 3 hours (LOL), so we ended up at this Halal waygu beef ramen place. It turned out so goooood.

Suzie and Bo were going home on the 2nd and we were flying home on the 3rd, so we hung out with them during the day before they took off. We went to breakfast/lunch at Ichiran, then did some shopping. We said our goodbyes and they went home.

It was such a bittersweet feeling as we reminisce on the trip. How everyone came to meet up with us, and all the delicious meals we’ve had. Oh and the amount of stuff we won from the barcarde. In the history of us hanging out at the barcade (or just arcades in general) we’ve never won so much.

We won so much that we had to borrow a large suitcase from Suzie to bring it all home lol

This was one for the books. I don’t think we can ever top this NYE. Meeting old friends from home while on vacation is probably one of the fun-est things ever. We drank like we were still in our 20s and have no regrets. I wonder what 2026/2027 celebration will have in store for us.