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I think I accidentally made someone feel bad which caused them to give me a free item at a store, and I’ll need to figure out how to fix that, but today’s goals are overcoming my fear of eating at a Japanese restaurant, finding okonomiyaki, and buying some video games. Wish me luck!

Thursday April 23rd, 2026

Good morning from Tokyo!

I’m still afraid of Japanese-style restaurants, so I’m eating somewhere easy and Western.

Today the plan is to head to another rural area.

Tokyo feels like New York City, and I’m in the mood for something different.

Let’s go to Chichibu!

While I’m riding on the train, I’ll send a postcard with postcrossing.com.

I got an address to someone in Australia.

Crikey.

I hope they enjoy this postcard.

During this trip to Japan, one of my “must do” items is to have okonomiyaki.

I saw it in an anime called Ranma 1/2 and I’ve been fascinated with it ever since.

Maybe today will be the day.

This is a long enough ride. I have time for another postcard.

It’s still wild to me that the post office gave me these tissues.

Folks in Japan don’t blow their nose in public, so I’m not sure what these are for.

I have arrived in Chichibu.

Into the mailbox, postcards!

There’s so many small and beautiful things in Japan.

I found a restaurant that sells okonomiyaki!

Let’s gooooo!

In the rain.

Oh no. This is an official Japanese restaurant.

Heck.

I’m not sure how to do everything here.

Um.

I see shoes are off and set near the entry to the seating areas.

I take off my shoes and try not to touch the floor of the shoe area with my socks.

I sit at my table and I use my phone to figure out how I’m supposed to sit.

Oh good. I can sit cross legged.

I’ll switch to that.

Future Levi here, I’m going to share a picture below and talk about seating methods in Japan. I wasn’t fully aware of how this worked at the time.

If I understand correctly, when siting at a restaurant, the oldest person will sit with their back to the entrance on the seat that is furthest to the left. The second oldest person will sit across from them, and then next to oldest sits the third oldest, and across from them is fourth oldest, etc.

I was not siting with my back to the entrance.

Oops.

Present Levi who doesn’t feel awkward about sitting in the wrong spot here, and I am taking a photo of the menu to run through a translation app to see what I can order, and I have bad news.

They do serve okonomiyaki here, but only at dinner time.

It is currently lunch time.

By the way, the image in the top left of the menu is okonomiyaki. It’s a savory pancake meal that comes in different varieties.

One interesting note about paying for my meal here.

The server noted that the 2,000 yen bill that I paid with was a rare and older bill.

Thinking back, it likely has to do with how I got this money.

Before I left for Japan I used a conversion service to order Japanese yen to be delivered to my home.

Likely this money has been sitting in a vault slowly being sent out to folks who order it like I did.

Between this and also specifying not to send me any bills larger than a 2,000 yen note, I suspect this is why the money I have is the older type.

The staff was wonderful and a child came out to peek at the foreigner.

I’d wave at him and he’d bashfully hide behind the server.

Let’s see what else this lovely town has to offer.

Everything is so beautiful here.

A portable record player?

I did not expect to see this.

I’m going to buy a Gameboy Advance SP while I’m here, because they’re very expensive in the US, but they’re common here.

I’ll pick up some games to play as well, but I need to run them through the translator, so here are the pictures I took of games I was looking at.

Something awkward happened at this store that I need to share with you.

I wanted to buy the Gameboy, but I couldn’t find a charger cord for it.

I asked for help and one of the workers spoke great English and so we looked for one together, but we couldn’t find one.

He went to the boxes behind the counter and found the cord they use for testing Gameboys and he put it in my bag.

I said thank you and as I was leaving I noticed the cord wasn’t charged on my receipt and the worker said “No, we did not charge you for it. It is a gift.”

As I was walking away I remembered a warning to visitors of Japan not to compliment things in a Japanese person’s home because they are likely to give it to you if you do.

I think this may be similar what happened to me with this cord situation, but we’ll come back to this because it is donut time.

Donut and melon soda.

My goodness, I love melon soda.

Let’s relax and send another postcard.

Below is a photo of the end of the cord that is needed for the Gameboy that I purchased.

I figured out what I’m going to do.

I’m going to lie.

I’m going to return the cord and say that it turns out I have one back at my hotel room that I forgot I had.

I go back to the store, and I return the free cord with this explanation and another “Thank you.”

With this photo I’ll have the information I need to find another one in Tokyo.

What is this!

This looks like the stamps at national parks in the U.S.

I. Love. Stamp. Collecting.

It turns out these are for train stations.

There’s also an app to register visits to various stations, but I was having trouble getting it to work.

This may have taken over the whole trip if I had learned about this sooner.

Fascinating.

Let’s ride back to Tokyo and send another postcard.

I’m going to see if there’s anywhere near my hotel that servers okonomiyaki.

There’s a place that I keep passing by because it’s always full, but if it’s not busy I’m going to go in this time.

Great news.

It’s not busy at all.

They have just opened for the day.

Okonimiyaki time!

Oh crap.

The customer makes it themselves at their table.

If I had known this in advance I’m not sure if I would have come in here.

Luckily they have instructions in English and I’m here for adventure.

Let’s do this!

We’re ordering the Modernyaki.

I don’t eat shrimp and most okonomiyaki is made with shrimp.

Oil down.

Spread it with a spatula

Veggies and noodles down.

Pour the dashi sauce over the veggies and noodles.

To the side, put down the pancake

I don’t see the egg mentioned in the instructions, but I see it frying to the side in the image, so I’ll put the pancake on the veggie and noodle mix and get the egg frying to the side.

Then I’ll flip it back over onto the fired egg.

Flip it back to egg-side up on the plate.

Cover with Japanese-style mayo and seaweed and bonito flakes.

Oh. My. Goodness.

This is one of the greatest things that I have ever eaten.

Life will not be the same.

I hope I can find a place that sells this back home.

Let’s get back to the hotel and wind down for the night.

This U.S.A. game is fascinating.

I have a Japanese PS2 at home, so I can play this.

I won’t be able to understand it, though, so maybe this was not a good purchase.

Time will tell.

For two-hundred and seventy yen (roughly one dollar and sixty-nine cents), I’m willing to risk it.

It was a good day made even better by a new and wonderful meal.

Thank you Japan and thank you Ranma 1/2 for showing me this wonderful, new food.

Good night.