Tokyo and Iwate trip December 28 to January 4 - Part 5

On my last full day in Tokyo, JR and I both woke up late. He had agreed, begrudgingly, to accompany me on a quest to complete the Tokyo Underground Mystery game put on by the Tokyo subway authority. I say begrudgingly because he originally wanted to save it for a date! I think it was better to do it with a friend, in the end, because a date puts a lot of pressure on you to get the puzzles right, and these puzzles turned out to be hard.

We didn't get started until 3 p.m., per JR's orders (he's a very studious guy so he was studying until then). We made our way to Ueno station, where you have to buy the kit for the mystery game. The kit costs \2160 per person, and it's honestly a challenge to even find the office where you buy the kits! It was like a pre-challenge to the challenge itself. When we finally found it and shelled out our yen for the kits, we wanted to get started right away.

The kit comes with a carrying case, a subway system map with encryption-like symbols on the back, plus a guidebook with the clues in it and a little pencil. The guidebook discourages players from posting clues or hints about the puzzles on social media, so I'll try and keep things vague for that reason. But I will say that the quest led us to several stations, plus Hibiya park, Roppongi (where we had started out, haha...), and what would have been more if we had finished the game!

Reviews online had said that it takes about three to four hours to complete, but by hour four we were still only on the first mission of three. I can't imagine doing this puzzle by myself! It was definitely helpful to have two heads to combine our powers of logic and reasoning. We even got one clue wrong and went to the wrong station, but luckily we weren't far from the correct place. If I had to say one negative thing about the game, it's that the rides on the subway take a while and it's kind of tedious. For example, the rides averaged about twenty minutes. I suppose you could say that gives you time to solve the next puzzles, but that wasn't always the case.

We called it quits after we had almost finished the first mission, because it was just about dinner time. I had really wanted to get Mexican food before leaving Tokyo, since you can't find Mexican in Nakatsu (although there is an Indian place right around the corner from my apartment!). So we made our way to Meijijingu-mae station near Harajuku to find Chile's Mexican Grill. Not to be confused with the American Chili's! (Baby back ribs... barbecue sauce♪) It was super cold out, so we were happy to be inside somewhere warm. I was really pleased to be able to have a carnitas burrito (Japanese size) with guacamole inside, plus horchata. Though I have to say I was surprised to find the horchata was made with vanilla ice cream... not traditional I don't think.

Anyway, we had a lot of fun trying to solve the various puzzles of the Tokyo Underground Mystery game, and I even took the kit home with me to try to finish solving Mission 1. It is super hard, and I'm still stuck!!! There's this clue about a "toilet sign" that's really giving me trouble. Oh well! Maybe next year Tokyo will put on the game again and I can try anew. This time, the game only lasts until January 31st, so if you're in Tokyo I highly recommend giving it a try!