Shibuya Crossing (Tokyo), Japan (October 22, 2025)
Why did several hundred Japanese citizens and just as many tourists cross this particular road at this particular moment? Because the signal turned green and all the traffic stopped.
Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo is one of the most crazy sights to behold and even crazier to actively walk through which is exactly what Elena, Violet and I did today before having a delightful dinner with Chika Bullock and Yoshie Nishimura.
Pausing for a selfie during the Shibuya Crossing today
I know, I know. This picture doesn’t do it justice. Let me show you an areal view for better context and this time I’ll fast forward to a bit rainer time of the day when all the umbrellas are open. It looks like bumper cars and it’s crazy to witness in real-time.
People are going North, South, East, West and Diagonal in 2 minutes
This is Tokyo’s equivalent to New York Time’s Square. While Tokyo is more spread out than NYC (think more LA vs NYC), this particular area is one of the more densely packed areas of Tokyo and this particular street has become famous in its own right of passage.
It’s a central area where busses, trains and pedestrians all come together and somehow make it work. Traffic is heavy, yet somehow orderly like everything else in Japan. Despite all the people, rarely does anyone get hurt, shoved or injured. Everyone just finds their path forward and works around the crowds.
Next, Violet wanted to search for a few more items to add to her collection and maybe find some presents for her brother Will for Christmas. The toy hunt resumed and we checked out a store nearby.
While browsing, I kept seeing this extremely strange trend: Massive amounts of CDs and DVDs for sale. Racks and racks of them. True, they were being sold for about 100 or so yen which is less than a dollar, but the collections were insane.
By 2025, I would have thought that disk-based movies and music had gone extinct. When you can stream any content you want online, why would you ever want physical disks? Isn’t the general trend, “access to everything, ownership of nothing”? What was I missing?
Perhaps the Japanese know something I don’t. Maybe they got fed up with all the subscription services and decided to go old school so that they could cut back on paying all the subscription fees. Or maybe they only want to hear specific music and watch particular movies and don’t care about anything else that’s “new” and “current.” All I know is that store after store had isle after isle of these disks and to browse them there didn’t seem to be any slowing down of what I considered a dead medium. It makes me wonder if I’m missing something.
Will, this picture is for you. Attack on Titan in full fashion. Love it.
Then there’s the complete other side of the pendulum. If I’m “way beyond” CDs and DVDs, I’m not sure I could pull off this fashion statement of a full Attack on Titan wear in the store we saw today. I mean, this outfit would mean nothing to anyone who hadn’t seen the show, but to anyone who had seen it, OMG it’s amazing. Right, Will?
This is the kind of secret hand shake you wear when going to Comic Con but not dressed in character. While I love to dress up, I could also see wearing something like this and engaging with fans of the show who also love Attack on Titan. It’s a wonderful ice breaker. And let’s face it, even if you didn’t watch the show, it’s still cool to look at. Did I mention how much I love Japan?
So you probably blew right past the yellow “attention” sign I shared in the gallery above and that’s fine. But I urge you to take a second look at it. It’s a warning about any thieves that attempt to steal from the toy stores. Not only will they come after you for 10 times the value of the item, they will tell your family, school and workplace, take other items you bought legitimately, ban in all stores (even online) and in extreme cases publish your name, photo and address. Damn, that would deter stealing wouldn’t it?
For lunch, we found a brazilian BBQ and it was just as good as every version we’ve had in the US.
And the most important errand I needed to complete today was to go to the Japanese Post Office and mail all the presents that Violet had purchased for herself and Will back to our home in the US so we wouldn’t have to schlep them around on multiple flights (assuming we could fit them into our current luggage).
Thankfully, this was a relatively straightforward process. The post office in Japan was near our hotel (a 5 minute walk), and the options were to ship via boat (which would take 3 months and miss Christmas) or plane (2-4 weeks). Easy decision. We used an iPad (in English) to declare the items and ensure we didn’t have any prohibited items.
It was 9,400 yen (or $62) to ship the box and while that wasn’t cheap, it wasn’t as expensive as it might have been. I think the box was relatively light as it was filled mostly with plastic figures. And I asked if I could take a picture of the the really great staff that helped me and they agreed that I could.
These two women made it super easy to ship a box home to the US
I was also grateful to have Elena with me as we worked together to fill out the forms and ensure we did everything correctly. Always helpful to have a second pair of eyes as we didn’t want to have the box misdirected or undeliverable.
And with this errand done, we were finally ready to have a wonderful dinner with our coaching friends from Tokyo, Japan, Chika Bullock and Yoshie Nishimura. I first met Chika in 2020, as she was Cohort 2 of Positive Intelligence and (if I’m not mistaken), the first Japanese speaking PQ Coach we had. She has since been attracting many Japanese speaking coaches who are interested in mental fitness, including Yoshie Nishimura, who suggested the restaurant where we met for dinner tonight, called Kokera.
Yoshie Nishimura, Violet, Bill, Elena, and Chika Bullock meet at Kokera
This is my favorite part of my World Tour. Elena loves exploring ancient ruins. Violet loves exploring impossible to find figures of her favorite manga and anime series. And I love meeting coaches in real life and getting to know them personally.
It also didn’t hurt that we pre-ordered the chef’s tasting menu and didn’t have to spend any time thinking about what to eat tonight. The food just kept coming … and coming … and coming. Delicious and amazing. One meal was enough to feed two or three. The kind where you know you don’t need to eat tomorrow, but the food is so good, you find a way to keep going as you don’t want to miss anything.
That, and the great conversation that kept the dinner table lively and actively engaged.
Another successful evening in Tokyo. Of all the places I’ve been so far, this one feels most similar to NYC and despite not speaking Japanese, I feel at home here. The public transportation is easy to understand, use and get around efficiently. The people are amazing. The technology is ahead of the curve. The fashion is forward. And as big as Tokyo is, there’s still a neighborhood feel that can’t be beat.
The more time I spend here, the more I love what I’m experiencing. I can see coming back and spending more time with this incredible community. I feel like I’m only beginning to scratch the surface.
According to Yoshie and Chika, there’s a hunger for financial freedom in the coaching industry. If I could make a difference here, I’d love to. Time will tell if we’re right about this hunch, but it’s worth further exploration to be sure. Tonight was a great start. I owe that to my new friends in Tokyo. Truly, a wonderful evening.
