Alex Wise ’19
Tokyo, Japan

Alex Wise was born and raised in central Maryland. When it came time to choose a college, he picked TU, just an hour or so up Rt. 70 from home. Aside from family vacations around the U.S., he hadn’t done much traveling before setting his sights on Japan.

The business administration major’s career path was initially obstructed by a global pandemic, but he eventually settled into a position at a language services provider that offered translation. Wise had taken an introductory Japanese class his last semester at TU, and he had continued studying on his own, by reading books and conversing with native speakers.

“In 2022, after a year [as a project manager working with translators and clients], I decided to apply for a master’s degree program in Japan,” Wise says. “I thought, ‘If you don’t live where the language is spoken, you can’t get to that next level [of proficiency].’”

After earning a master’s degree from the Nagoya University of Commerce and Business, Wise found a job at Bank of America as a corporate audit officer focusing on trading desks. He makes sure individuals who are selling stocks, bonds and securities are following industry and company rules.

When moving to Tokyo, Wise wanted a neighborhood conducive to his hobbies of running and fitness.

“I live in Koto Ward, directly east of the city center,” he says. “There’s a very large, beautiful park named Kiba, about a kilometer from where I live. And I frequently run at the Emperor’s Palace in central Tokyo. And it’s nice to have a large area of restaurants around.”

Among Wise’s favorite places to dine out are Sushiro, a conveyer belt sushi restaurant, and Torimero, which features grilled chicken on skewers and general pub food.

“My favorite sushi is any kind of nigiri, which has raw fish sticking to a ball of rice, and I really like the negima, a skewer of grilled chicken and leeks,” he says. 

I live in Koto Ward, directly east of the city center... it’s nice to have a large area of restaurants around.

Alex Wise

Wise also likes to pick up yaki-imo, a kind of roasted sweet potatoes commonly found at food trucks. Sights he recommends seeing are the Shibuya Scramble, a bustling, vibrant neighborhood with a huge traffic crossing; Akihabara, an area focused on electronics and popular culture genres like anime and manga; Ginza, an upscale shopping district; and Sensō-ji, a popular shrine to visit in Asakusa.

No matter where in Tokyo you go, Wise says a feeling of personal safety will follow (but it’s wise to take care anyway).

“People often mention they feel very safe here compared to the U.S. or a European city,” he says. “People don’t have guns here. Violent crime incidents are rare. And especially when you’re in a city as massive as Tokyo, the odds of becoming a victim to one of those is quite low.”

He also suggests checking out the district of Ueno. In addition to housing the Tokyo National Museum, it also has Ueno Zoo, the home of beloved giant panda Xiang Xiang, and Ameya-Yokochō, a vast, open-air food and handicrafts market.

In Tokyo, the world’s most populous urban area with 37 million residents, there’s no shortage of people, things to do or places to go.