I went to Tokyo earlier this year and it was great. Like you said, there's so much to do. Everything from historical sites, modern pop culture pop up events, and just so much more that it's not worth listing. I'd be here all night, and I have other things to list on other sites.

Here's the thing he didn't/doesn't get though: You know what Japanese people like? What they find fascinating? The same thing everyone else in the fucking world likes: Genuine, accomplished, interesting people.

I spent one of my nights there talking to group after group of salary men, women, and other tourists/expats about stuff I do, stuff they do, and just having fun. Complete strangers in a bar only big enough to seat like 8 people with a rotating cast of work groups getting drinks on the way home.

I had just gotten back to civilization from Antarctica and earlier in the night, when it was just me, Mika from Finland, and a regular at this bar in Golden Gai, I had told the Bartender about what I did. Every time a new group game in he'd drop that info on them and I'd start the spiel over again. Dudes were very adamant about trading business cards once we got to talking. It's apparently a thing there. But the reason I mention that is because they're interest wasn't even so much in "wow you went some place exotic" it was that I had worked hard enough to get there.

But he sounds like he expected to feel special because...he's foreign? He even says he's not even really doing anything anyway, so what does he expect? Tokyo is a major international city. I saw tons of expats there. Mostly Aussies tho. But he just needs to go to the hangout spots. Bars, clubs, any of the hundreds of meet and greet events put on explicitly for tourists to meet Japanese people and vis-a-versa. I did the Tokyo Pub Crawl, which was great because it was just designed to get you to meet and talk with people and meet other cool dudes and dudettes.

It sounds like the dude's real problem is that he thought Tokyo would, even beyond getting some lady attention, force him out of some kind of emotional slump. If you're a sad sack who doesn't do anything at home, you'll just be a sad sack away on vacation, unless you decide not to be.

Well I typed up way too much...