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Published: April 26th 2023
Tokyo Pride
From left to right: Pete, Ryo, me, Tom.From this blog onwards, I will publish the bulk of my photos on
Find Penguins instead of on this blog. Don't be alarmed; I'm not breaking up with Travelblog just yet. I continue to enjoy Travelblog because of the community we have built, and it is easy to tell a coherent story on this platform. However, it can be challenging to relate photos and videos to timelines and locations; when reading your blogs, I constantly have to think about how various photos relate to when and where it happened during your travels. Find Penguins does a superb job of reducing this guesswork, but its Twitter-like format doesn't facilitate telling a contiguous story.
The main purpose for my trip to Singapore was to help my parents settle in with their new live-in caregiver. I deliberately scheduled a long layover on my return journey so that I could have a mini-vacation to decompress. My initial plan was to explore Yokohama, but I changed my plans when I found out that my friend Tom from Los Angeles would also be in Tokyo, and that April 23rd was also Tokyo Pride.
I landed at Haneda early on Sunday morning.
Tokyo Pride
The Thailand Tourism booth featured kathoeys (ladyboys) who posed for photo ops. My first order of the day was to make my way to the Tsukiji Outer Market for breakfast. Tsukiji is a shadow of itself ever since the wholesale market moved to Toyosu, but there still are a fair number of food stalls in the morning. After clearing immigration, I made my way to the Tokyo Monorail and transferred to the Oedo line to get to Tsukiji. The food outlets were only just opening up when I got there at 7.30am. After a bit of wandering, I chose a small, quiet stall with local patrons, and I had a soul warming crab soup there. After that, I wandered about a bit more and had grilled scallops and grilled squid. One key change I noticed was that prices have shot up, especially for shellfish.
One new development I noted at Tsukiji is that more stalls now had an area with tables to sit down and eat. Stalls that did not have tables had designated spaces for patrons to stand and eat. There were also signs telling people to not walk and eat. I knew that eating while walking was considered rude in Japan, but this is the first time I noticed
Tokyo Pride
There are many cutely dressed pooches at Pride. this enforced anywhere.
After breakfast, I made my way to the torii gate at the Meiji Shrine where I had arranged to meet Tom. We pretty much arrived at the same time. From Meiji Shrine, we made our way to the festival at Yoyogi Park. The Pride festival was only just starting up when we got there, but within an hour the park was crowded. The theme of the event was "Press On Until Japan Changes".
There was a lot of corporate sponsorship at the event, once again indicating that businesses are in general more progressive than government. A couple of tourism authorities - notably Thailand, Guam, and Tahiti - also had booths. The Thailand booth went all out and featured kathoey (ladyboys) who posed for photo opportunities. There were also a lot of food stalls. Tucked into a quiet corner of the festival area were a numbers of booths crewed by foreign embassies exhibiting their LGBTQ initiatives. These included the United States, Sweden, the EU, and Taiwan. The crowd in attendance was diverse and international. I don't think I have heard this much English spoken in Japan before.
Tom and I had a great time wandering
Tokyo Pride
A rainbow hotdog at one of the food stalls. around the booths, snacking, and soaking in the atmosphere. We also met up with his friends Ryo and Pete, but we later lost them in the crowd. We left the festival around 12.30pm just as the parade was about to start. We thought the parade would go past the famous Shibuya Crossing, which is the world’s busiest pedestrian crossing, so we made our way in that direction. After pausing for a ramen lunch, we staked out a space in the famous Starbucks overlooking the crossing, and we waited for the parade. Unfortunately, the parade never materialized, and so we parted ways a little after 2pm.
After parting with Tom, I encountered the parade one block away from the Shibuya Crossing. It turned out that the route avoided the crossing. I guess that was for the better anyway as I cannot imagine how much chaos the parade would cause at the world's busiest pedestrian crossing. I texted Tom but he was already on the Metro. I walked around the area and stopped to watch the parade at various points on its route.
Around 4pm, I made my way back to Haneda Airport. A new rooftop onsen had just opened
Tokyo Pride
Part of the parade passing through Shibuya. at a new hotel and shopping complex opposite Terminal 3, and I spent a relaxing 90 minutes soaking in the rooftop pools before heading to the Sakura Lounge for dinner. The onsen did the trick; it helped me relax and decompress from my week taking care of parental logistics. I did have a little bit of sticker shock at the onsen, though... it was pricey!
After the onsen, I made my way to immigration and security. I was pleasantly surprised to get through that in little time as I had read that queues were often in excess of an hour. I then made my way to the Sakura Lounge.
I have visited Tokyo three times, and I have had over a dozen long layovers there. I absolutely love Tokyo and I am happy to have been able to experience Pride there.
Don’t forget to look at my
Find Penguins trip log for more photos.
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RENanDREW
Ren & Andrew
What a full day!
I like this long transit idea to quickly re-visit a place I love; but I think I'd be nervous doing this in a new place where I didn't know travel times to the airport etc. Hope all is well with your parents :)