Japan - Day 6 (Shinjuku)
Shinjuku, another shopping center of Tokyo! Home to the Gyoen National Gardens, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. You can do it all here, shop, eat, walk through nature, and get a great view of the city.
We made it to 5:00AM today before waking up! Time to celebrate!
We started off very slow, took a while to get ready and cleaned up the Air BnB a little bit. Today was the first day we head out and weren’t impacted by rush hour! We left at 9:00AM instead of 8:00AM - and we still managed to arrive before things opened in Shinjuku!
It was the usual train rides again Ginza to Ueno and then the JR Yamanote, however we did go the other direction on the JR today!
Upon getting off at the Shinjuku station I realized how crazy the station actually is, I read that it was busy but I assumed it was like the Tokyo station. I was wrong. There are so many connections, and bullet trains, and buses that leave this station it’s hard to figure out how to even get out of the station. It also does not help that there is major construction going on currently.
We came out on the government building side and then had to figure out how to get to the other side so we could head to the Gyoen Gardens. 10 minutes later we figured it out and were on our way!
I picked the gardens first because there were right next to one of the shopping centers I wanted to hit up.
The Gyoen Gardens cost money to enter unlike the other locations we’ve been so far. About $2 a person, not bad at all.
The gardens are very large and have a lot of different unique areas to visit. A greenhouse, English garden, French garden, and a Japanese garden.
We started with the greenhouse. Inside there were some beautiful and unique flowers. We also got a taste of home when we found some cactai!
After the greenhouse we head out into the English and French garden area, I could definitely pinpoint the French garden, not so sure about the English, unless it was the giant grass field.
After this nice open area we head over into the Japanese gardens. Definitely the busiest area of the garden.
After walking for about an hour through the garden we decided to head out and start shopping. It was starting to get pretty busy in the gardens anyway.
First stop was a shopping center that housed many of the Lolita brands. It has been my dream to visit them in Japan. Unfortunately as much as I would love to buy everything, $350 dressing I wear maybe once a year are just not practical.
Everything was beautiful and a I had a lot of fun walking through the stores looking at all of the prints being sold right now. I couldn’t leave without buying something, so I did pick up a bracelet from Angelic Pretty!
You can’t take pictures in any of these stores, so I doubt we will have anything to show in terms of fashion until we get to Harajuku and there are store fronts we can snag a shot of.
Mr. Husband has been a good sport through all of this shopping. He just kind of stand around outside the store while I prance around all giddy inside. I do feel a bit awkward as almost every store I’ve been in I've been the only person.
After all of the Lolita stores had been conquered we head back toward the train station as the second shopping area I wanted to hit was attached to the station. Many of the locations in Tokyo have large department stores and shopping centers attached directly to the stations.
We only visit one floor in this second locations since every shop I wanted to hit were all on the 4th floor. So many cute items! Ones that are actually wearable at home. Unfortunately, even being in Japan where everyone is small I have a hard time finding clothes. Everything seemed to be in a medium, which unless it’s a skirt (length) is still not going to fit me.
I did end up buying a skirt and top from one store, I can’t wait to wear them when I get home!
The one interesting difference between Shinjuku and everywhere else we have been is a distinct lack of English. I never expect those in a foreign country to speak my language. But up until now if someone could speak some English we would do an awkward dance of English and Japanese between each other to figure things out.
While shopping in Shinjuku was like going in blind. The shop girls were rattling off Japanese at me like I was fluent. Luckily in language classes you spend an absurd amount of time on learning to shop, for the most part I was able to figure everything out and communicate sans English. I even tried things on, and picked different sizes and styles. A very stressful 15 minutes - we survived.
Something fun about department stores in Japan is they usually have food at the top! This store had 3 floors of food at the top! Unfortunately there was a lot of pasta options, those were out.
We ended up picking a place that had some yummy looking desserts. It turned out to be an Alice in Wonderland themed restaurant. Good choice! It was cute and the food was really good!
We both ordered a seafood rice gratin and some cake!
10/10 would eat there again.
I don’t think I’ve mentioned it yet, but almost every restaurant has a display of their food outside so it’s easy to see what they are serving and if it’s something you’d be interested in. Definitely makes life as a foreigner easy!
After lunch it was off to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building to get a view of the city. This may seem like a weird place to go, but they have two observation decks on their 45 floor just for visitors.
It was a pretty quick 10-15 minute walk from the station and very easy to find and get to the observation areas.
They do a quick bag check inside and then they send you on your way up an elevator to the 45th floor.
The view at the top is great! It was a bit hazy so unfortunately we couldn’t see Mt. Fuji, but everything else was great!
After the government building we head back to the station to hop on the JR. Unfortunately there was a passenger injury situation so the JR was stopped, we waited a bit in hope that it would resume, but in the end we got on another line to head back to Asakusa. It probably took about the same amount of time so it was no big deal.
Back in the Air BnB, we watched some TV and I took a nap. My nap ended up being about 2 hours. Oops.
For dinner we grabbed something quick to bring back and eat.
We also learned today that I’m allergic to Japan. I have wicked allergies here, which I've never had before. Cough, sneezing, runny nose, water eyes, and a rash. I’ve got it all! I did bring some allergy pills, so we will see if they help. If not, more parks and gardens may be out of the question.
