In our Perfect Days column, we ask notable Tokyoites to share how they’d spend an ideal day in their home city. 

Mike Sunda is a London-born creative strategist who’s been based in Tokyo since 2013; he’s also written extensively about Japanese society and culture as a freelance journalist. He’s the co-founder of the studio Push Japan, and recently executive produced the music video for Megan Thee Stallion’s “Mamushi.” Here’s how he’d spend an ideal day in Tokyo:

My perfect day in Tokyo is …

I’m not a morning person. In my early twenties I was a freelance writer and I used to DJ a lot, both of which were perfectly conducive to a nocturnal lifestyle. Now, running a business across multiple time zones, there’s zero chance of a late start. My alarm wakes me up at 7:30. The perfect day would at least allow me the luxury of hitting the snooze button once, as well as a morning without client calls.

I’m completely useless until I’ve had my first coffee. Anyone who knows me knows that my perfect day would begin with a stop by Good People & Good Coffee. And anyone who really knows me knows that I could happily spend the rest of my day there, too. The owner, Tomoshi-san, represents everything I love about Japan: He is committed to his craft, values culture and community over all else and isn’t afraid to tell people to clear off and go to Starbucks if they want to use a laptop.

The close-knit local community at the coffee shop is a microcosm of what I love about Ikejiri-Ohashi, where I’ve lived for over seven years now. Despite its close proximity to Shibuya and Nakameguro, it has mercifully survived the worst of Tokyo’s influx of tourists. My perfect morning used to include a croissant from Tolo Pan, next door, but the queues have been incessant since it was featured on TV. Can’t blame tourists for that one. Now I just sit outside with my coffee and a cigarette, except for when I’ve quit smoking. I quit smoking every year. 

I enjoy my work, so I’m torn whether my perfect day would be a weekday or weekend. If it’s the former, after coffee, I’d head to Hiroo, where our office is located. Hiroo is a posh, international neighborhood, home to old money and supercar dealerships. Our team of ten stands out like a sore thumb, and probably accounts for 90 percent of hoodies and tattoos in the vicinity. How they let us rent an office here is anyone’s guess. I enjoy people-watching while having a solo lunch, which I might do somewhere like Priya — an Indian establishment frequented by investment bankers and diplomats — or sitting outside in Arisugawa-no-miya Memorial Park with a burrito from the nearby 440Broadway food truck.

On a weekend, my perfect day would be spent taking it easy with my partner in our neighborhood. A stroll around Setagaya Park almost inevitably leads to bumping into friends, so a short excursion can easily turn into a two-hour diversion. Lunch at a local spot like Savoy or Hongkongmen Shinki might be followed by a glass of wine at My Eats&Drinks — a tiny, cute shop that sells onigiri and natural wine.

I enjoy cooking more than eating out, but my repertoire is pretty much limited solely to pasta. There’s a low-key Italian spot in Nakameguro called Bacione where I buy things like guanciale and taleggio. And if friends are in town then I’ll likely take them for a drink in the evening — I’m friends with the team at Lobby, which is a great local bar for a conversation over wine or cocktails, or there’s Bar Coda down the road for a night of cigarettes and whisky. The hangovers are worse after that one. 

My life is simultaneously very exciting and also totally mundane. For every high-profile music video with international superstars there’s probably a weekend spent decompressing and barely leaving a half-mile radius of my apartment.

I still love electronic music but I’ve yet to find a club that I really feel at home in since Contact on Dogenzaka closed down. A lot of my friends overseas are DJs, so if they’re in town then I might venture to see them play somewhere like WWW or Vent, but these days my Saturday nights are more likely to be spent watching Premier League football at The Footnik, in Ebisu. And it’s only a perfect day if Arsenal wins.

Tokyo’s best-kept secret is … 

The boat races in Heiwajima. Not a single smartphone in sight, just retired men dressed in tracksuits, chain-smoking and gambling.

A place I’ve always wanted to try is … 

Shelter, a listening bar in Hachioji. Its reputation amongst audiophiles is second to none, but Hachioji isn’t exactly a casual night out that you can taxi home from.

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