5 Days in Tokyo with Justin Theroux

Cam Wolf

August 26, 2019 at 8:00 AM

“Even if you're not into sea urchin, you would probably dig this restaurant,” Justin Theroux says, as if he's letting me in on a secret. “Everyone knows Jiro Dreams of Sushi”—the Netflix documentary about the slavishly devoted sushi chef Jiro Ono—“but this place is billed as the place that Jiro likes to go.”

It's hidden where all the best places in Tokyo are: through a back alley and past an unremarkable building that leads to an unmarked door. And the sea urchin. Oh, man—the sea urchin! The dish requires surgical precision from the chef: The spiny shells are split open; then the meat is scooped out and whipped into a rice that's been vinegared and cured for a few days. The whole thing is garnished with a couple more ounces of the spineless creature for good measure. “The trick to that place is giving you just enough to make you want it so much more,” Theroux says fondly. It's a dish so good you want seconds, thirds, fourths, and fifths.

You see, Theroux loves Tokyo. Not because he has his familiar spots, his favorite hangs, or the one restaurant he always goes back to. It's just the opposite. “It always feels like it's too brief, being in Tokyo. The draw that keeps you going back is that it's a very hard place to tack down,” he says. “Tokyo is an organism that keeps growing and evolving.”

As a city, Tokyo makes absolute sense to him. When someone has a runny nose, they wear a surgical mask instead of greeting you with a hug. The 7-Elevens have outlines of footprints on the floor to shape the polite, orderly queue of people waiting for egg sandwiches. There are rules everywhere, but if you give in to them, you're “like a leaf in a stream,” he says.

“I'm glad I'm not remembering the names of a lot of these places, because they'll immediately get put in a Time Out guidebook and then become savaged by tourists,” Theroux says. “It ruins the place you went to. You can't go back to it again, because you're like, ‘Oh, it's now a bunch of Australians.’ ”

When Theroux returned from his trip, we got him on the phone and asked him for the stories behind the many stops he made alongside photographer Mark Seliger.

<cite class="credit">Coat, $790, by 3.1 Phillip Lim | Location: Azumazeki-beya Sumo Stable</cite> — Coat, $790, by 3.1 Phillip Lim | Location: Azumazeki-beya Sumo Stable

“The sumo stable was probably the most difficult photo for us to get, because you have to basically sit facing forward, sit on your haunches, or sit cross-legged. It's a place you have to respect for obvious reasons. You can't speak, talk, or communicate. You feel like you're just sort of lucky to be there, watching them work. It's an intense workout too. Bizarrely silent and punctuated by big outbursts of sound. The slapping of thighs and legs, then incredible exertions of energy.

It's mostly drills. If you've ever been to any sort of basketball training, they'll do layups for a while. This is a similar thing. They'll all sort of walk around the circle in a crouched stance, low to the ground. Sort of arms akimbo, then they'll start crossing through the circle in an X formation. Then they'll go back to walking around the circle, then sometimes chanting. Then they'll pair up into twos and they'll do repeated drills: one guy will stand and set his body, and then another guy will explode off the line and slam his body into the other guy. Then he'll push him like a sled backward across the mats. I almost thought it was more interesting than going to an actual sumo match.”

<cite class="credit">Vintage leather jacket, (price upon request), by David Samuel Menkes / Pants, $2,950, by Celine by Hedi Slimane / Boots, his own</cite> — Vintage leather jacket, (price upon request), by David Samuel Menkes / Pants, $2,950, by Celine by Hedi Slimane / Boots, his own

“We were able to hook up with this one famous girl who has this bike, which has the Imperial Japanese flag on the tank with a big, tall banana seat on the back. I had seen photos of it, and I sent a photo of it from the early '90s to Mark. Lo and behold, that same bike showed up with her! It was sort of a dreams-come-true moment, where I was like, ‘Oh, my God. This is the actual bike that I've seen pictures of for years—and I get to ride it!’ The motorcycle itself rides pretty crap. It was a very old bike, so it had a lot of rattle on it and not the best brakes.”

<cite class="credit">Jacket, $1,898, by Michael Kors / Sweater, $920, by Hermès / Pants, $1,000, by Dior Men / Glasses, his own, by Garret Leight | Location: Koraku Sushi</cite> — Jacket, $1,898, by Michael Kors / Sweater, $920, by Hermès / Pants, $1,000, by Dior Men / Glasses, his own, by Garret Leight | Location: Koraku Sushi

“We had a gorgeous meal. One piece at a time, kaiseki-style, where we weren't presented with any menu. You get what you get. And the chef was really just lovely and accommodating. He allowed me to go back there and make a piece of sushi with him. He gave me a small lesson on how to palm the rice, roll it in your hand, place your thumb over it, then the tuna, place it over that, and compact the whole thing and brush it with this special soy sauce. I wanted to give it to him, but he actually was like, 'No, you try it. You made it.' So I tried it myself, and I've got to say, it was really good. I think he was chuffed that we were in there.”

<cite class="credit">Jacket, $11,190, by Tom Ford / Pants, $450, by 3.1 Phillip Lim / His own boots, by R13 / Watch and jewelry, his own | Location: teamLab Borderless Museum</cite> — Jacket, $11,190, by Tom Ford / Pants, $450, by 3.1 Phillip Lim / His own boots, by R13 / Watch and jewelry, his own | Location: teamLab Borderless Museum

“We ended up going to this thing with Eliot Sumner [editor's note: Sting's daughter!] called teamLab, which was this virtual experience. It was pretty rad. It's one of those places that's sort of designed for Instagram. [Looking at] the pictures, you think, Oh, that would be such a wonderful place to walk around by myself. But they shuttle you into these gorgeous rooms at three-minute intervals, 15 people at a time, and it's 15 people holding iPhones at a 45-degree angle above their head and walking around and trying not to bump into things. Then they kick you out.

We actually lucked out. We were getting shuffled out of one spot, and I'm going, 'Ugh, god. We didn't really get the picture.' The woman shuffling us out said, 'Do you have a press pass?' Mark's assistant had his press pass on him. He said, 'Oh, I have a press pass.' That became the golden ticket to get us into Willy Wonka. What we realized is we were able to skip a bunch of lines and spend as much time as we wanted in these places right around the same time that we had to leave. And there was this Hokusai wave room. It was probably one of the simpler rooms where it was a computer-generated animation of waves crashing all around the room projected from the center of the room outward. It was these beautiful blues and whites. It was stunning.”

<cite class="credit">Shirt, $98, by Michael Kors / Pants, $450, by 3.1 Phillip Lim / His own boots, by R13 / Watch, his own / Glasses, his own, by Garret Leight | Location: Tokyo Station</cite> — Shirt, $98, by Michael Kors / Pants, $450, by 3.1 Phillip Lim / His own boots, by R13 / Watch, his own / Glasses, his own, by Garret Leight | Location: Tokyo Station

“I'm a fan of big cities. I love New York; it's my first love. But it always feels like it's too brief being in Tokyo. The things that were there three years ago don't exist anymore, but now there's something that's replaced it. Things that were there 10 years ago absolutely don't exist, but you have a fond memory of it. It's one of those places that's its own living thing, one of those places that keeps opening itself up to you.”

<cite class="credit">Coat, $5,400, by Celine by Hedi Slimane / Turtleneck, $350, by Canali / Pants, his own / Sunglasses, (price upon request), by Moscot</cite> — Coat, $5,400, by Celine by Hedi Slimane / Turtleneck, $350, by Canali / Pants, his own / Sunglasses, (price upon request), by Moscot

“Tokyo at first blush has this very futuristic and orderly [feeling], but once you embrace that, it makes an enormous amount of sense. You go into restaurants, there's no loud music. And because there's no loud music, people speak in softer tones. You can actually unwind in Tokyo, whereas I don't think you can in New York, because space is so limited and because people are so absolutely inconsiderate of one another.

You can say they're being conformist but I actually don't think so. People are extremely polite. Probably the one thing I share with Donald Trump in that I like bowing and not shaking hands. When you think about it, it's sort of an unhygienic habit to grab people with fists and start pumping away.”

<cite class="credit">Robe, $1,300, by Triple RRR / Boxers, $30 (for pack of two), by Calvin Klein Underwear / Watch and jewelry, his own | Location: Park Hyatt Hotel</cite> — Robe, $1,300, by Triple RRR / Boxers, $30 (for pack of two), by Calvin Klein Underwear / Watch and jewelry, his own | Location: Park Hyatt Hotel

“From New York it's a brutal time change. You get that flu-y, sweaty-back-of-the-neck sort of feeling. It starts to feel like a dream for a minute. My strategy [for jet lag] is to sleep on planes as much as humanly possible. Just go to bed. Eat before you get on the plane. That's my big strategy. I say skip all the movies and put on a children's cartoon—put on a Disney movie and knock out. I watched Shaun the Sheep. It's usually a struggle through the first day, but then you feel like a morning person for a couple of days.”

<cite class="credit">Jacket, $2,750, by Savas / Shirt, $395, by Dolce & Gabbana / Pants, $525, by Ring Jacket / His own boots, by R13 / Sunglasses, his own, by Garrett Leight / Jewelry, and bag, his own | Location: Jomyoji, Kamakura</cite> — Jacket, $2,750, by Savas / Shirt, $395, by Dolce & Gabbana / Pants, $525, by Ring Jacket / His own boots, by R13 / Sunglasses, his own, by Garrett Leight / Jewelry, and bag, his own | Location: Jomyoji, Kamakura

“We went to this bamboo forest that was just stunning. Wide, tall bamboo trees. You feel like you're just on a different planet altogether. You walk up a very small footpath, and it diverges into this gorgeous stone staircase that's covered in moss that diverges again onto white pebbles that diverges again into the bamboo forest. You realize you probably only walked 150 yards, but you feel like you've gone through four seasons. It was of those places where you just think, How does this even exist?”

A version of this story originally appeared in the September 2019 issue with the title "5 Days in Tokyo With Justin Theroux."

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