#around tokyo

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Some cans with designs I like!

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Movie experience at Toho Cinemas Shinjuku: the popcorn is tiny, the popcorn chicken is worth it, and my melon soda doubles as a hinge for my makeshift tray.

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I like this one alley because this is when you look to the left:

And this is when you look to the right:

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Handsome Iggy's first trip to the hydrangea path! I can't wait to see it in full bloom again......

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No food but around this time last year, I finally made it out to RyuQKan, the underground "temple" that protects Tokyo from floods! I'd been wanting to go for years, and it was as massive and memorable as I'd always hoped!

This is a little different from my normal posts, but click through for some advice if you choose to go (which you definitely, definitely, DEFINITELY should)! Also, if it's April or May, you should also see the 1200-year-old wisteria while you're out there! It is possibly the best-smelling place in the world.

In terms of content, the tour itself was pretty bare bones. I wanted to do one of their in-depth technical tours (especially because they have titillating names like "Shaft Experience" and "Pump Fluency"), but those only run once or twice a week :( The Underground Temple tour, which runs several times a day, turned out to be a bit of construction and history talk plus 20 minutes of unstructured photo time. Don't get me wrong—it is still an EXTREMELY cool and unforgettable experience, but I really wonder what the big tours are like. Oh well! Guess I will have to visit this super unique and fascinating place again! Poor me.

In terms of accessibility, to participate, you have to be able to walk down ~150 stairs and then up again. There are no elevators or bathrooms. They don't recommend it to people with a fear of heights. I got the sense that the bigger tours might have additional physical demands.

I don't usually bother with guide apps or headsets, but I was glad I did here! There's lots of information to take in and my mind was reeling once we got underground and I saw the cisterns, so I was glad to be able to go at my own pace and have an English reference so I could really process everything. They have WiFi at the museum so you can download it right there.

The bus schedule took me FOREVER to find and I'm not doing that again, so I am saving a PDF and a searchable link here for when I finally go back for my Shaft Experience™. Also, tour reservations here, course descriptions here. You're welcome, future me.

[shoku-and-awe]

Went to Shinjuku Gyoen for the chrysanthemum flower beds exhibition, which was absolutely unbelievable, 11/10, but oops, I only took pictures of food and lens flare. Oh well! Bento from RF1 Lumine was a perfect 10, George Coffee Gohobi Presso was maybe a 3 or 4. But it's nice to be in warm drink season!

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Cold nights and cold drinks! Starting with Lucky Snake (for 2025!!!), ending with the hope that somehow things will look up.....? (Or maybe the acknowledgement that we have are staring down a journey up some dark stairs, man.)