I had the craziest night out in Tokyo thanks to CouchSurfing - but it had nothing to do with staying with random people

• CouchSurfing is an online community that connects travelers with locals for free lodging.
• I rediscovered the CouchSurfing app on a trip to Tokyo, Japan, last year.
• Instead of using the app for lodging, I used it to meet locals and had a wild night out.

On a trip to Tokyo last year to help launch Business Insider Japan, I found myself like many business travelers - alone in a foreign city.

My BI Japan colleagues couldn't have been more inviting, taking me out to their favorite noodle shop and izakaya, but, for the most part, I was on my own. I spent my nights wandering the alleys of the bustling and colorful Shibuya neighborhood.

By the time the weekend came, I was getting stir-crazy.

That's when I rediscovered CouchSurfing, the online community that connects travelers with locals for free lodging.

I've used and been around CouchSurfing for years. When I moved to New York, my brother was something of a superhost. His apartment was an endless carousel of interesting, wild, or curious characters passing through while I too crashed in the living room. It was a formative introduction to adult life. 

As Airbnb became ubiquitous, the CouchSurfing app fell into disuse for me, as it did for many others.

But bored and lonely in Tokyo, I opened CouchSurfing and found it had changed considerably. The company found a way to make the community, the best part of CouchSurfing, accessible.

Tapping into that community led me to a wild night with Tokyoites that I never would have had otherwise - here's how it all went down: