Tips on Transportation?

Tokyo has the most insane subway system I've ever seen and this is someone coming from New York City. It is big, it is massive and it gets everywhere. So absolutely take the subway. What you want to do is there are a few digital cards you can put onto your phone's wallets. I think they all work the same. I downloaded Pasmo. I filled it up and just tap and go at every station.

It's a great walkable city. Walk everywhere, like when I'm in Tokyo, I'm probably walking for hours and hours and hours and hours and hours. I think it's also just the best way to experience cities. You really are forced to take everything in much more than a subway, obviously, or even in a car.

And Google Maps is really great in Tokyo. Literally, cause the train stations are so confusing. But, if you follow the map exactly, it tells you what exit to get out of, car to get onto. So you know which direction to go when you're getting off the subway.

There are Ubers. There are taxis everywhere too. I would suggest Ubers just because my experience of taxis is that it's really hard to communicate with the drivers of where you're going to go. You're kind of like showing them a map and they have to translate on their phone and blah, blah, blah, where if you just use Uber, it's in, they know where to go. It's much easier.

And then if you're going to be going to another city in Japan, which I definitely recommend you do, the Shinkansen is the best way to do it. Those are the bullet trains. They go super fast and they're just like, they're perfect. I wish we had a train system like that in America. You do want to book ahead of time. You can buy tickets at the train station if you want, because you do have to pick out your seat. But if you go online, I think you generally save money if you book it ahead of time also. So I would do that. And if you're traveling with big bags, you have to pay for that as well.

Where Should I stay? Best neighborhoods?

So every time I've gone, I've stayed at the Hotel Gracery Shinjuku. I will say this, staying in Shinjuku is like staying in Times Square, which I would almost never suggest someone do when they come to New York. But I understand why people want to do it in New York for the same reason I do in Japan, is that having the Shinjuku train station right there means you have subways to get almost anywhere in Tokyo. So as chaotic as it is, could be a little gross there too, like it's legit grimy times square stuff. I would stay there. The hotel is not expensive. Listen, most hotels in Japan are going to have really small rooms. So just something you're gonna have to get used to. So my room is not big at all, but it's comfortable. The hotel staff is really, great. It's easy to get around. So that's always my suggestion. I've stayed at some other hotels and I've just found like even going up in price, I didn't get so much more out of it.

How to plan for restaurant wait times, and booking ahead?

Wait times for restaurants could get really, really long. People love lining up for things in Tokyo. So here's my suggestion, for any restaurant you want to go to Google ahead of time, “whatever the restaurant's name is and reservation” and figure out what the system is. I don't really find that there's one reservation thing in Japan that has almost every restaurant. They all kind of have their own system.

And I always say if they have reservations, I would absolutely make a reservation. I hate waiting on line. Three sites that I use, Japan by Food is great. Tablelog is great. And my concierge Japan has a ton of restaurants. Some of them have reservation charges. It's equivalent to like five US dollars. I would just do it to avoid waiting on line, avoid the chaos of everything, bite the bullet, get the reservation. Some restaurants are by phone only, and for these, I would check with the hotel if they have a concierge service, and ask them to make the reservation.

If it is a place you have to wait on line for, I always suggest of maybe trying going on off hours or being the first one on line.

How much Japanese do I need to know?

You don't really need to know any Japanese to be honest. I would know a few words. Thank you, Hello, Excuse me, etc. Very little things. Just some more to be polite. Most people in Japan don't speak English, but they can understand it a little bit, especially if they're working at a restaurant. So if you want to converse with people, that's a little hard. Everything is IN English though, so I think you could easily get around. I think you could easily, easily navigate. You could easily order.

I wish I could learn Japanese, but it's a very, very, very difficult language, but I wouldn't overly worry about it. Google translate is really, really helpful between people. Now that you could literally talk to your phone and it speaks Japanese for you, you can write it out and show it to them.

Youtube

The Major Wrestking Figure Podcast has become a must watch for me! I definitely geek out over everything wrestling, and while my toy collection is very small, I don’t have much room in the apt, I do really love watching all the wrestling toy news brought to you by one of my favorite wrestlers ever, Matt Cardona, alongside Brian Myers and Mark Sterling. This one is definitley niche, but they are a blast to watch. WATCH HERE

FILM

One of my short films that I worked on is now available on youtube! “On a Scale” was written, producted and stars my friend Jaime Schwarz who plays Zoe, and is about her quest to be heard against her male bosses at a holiday party, while trying to discuiss sexual harrasment. Not only did I help produce it, but you can see my acting debut! WATCH HERE