blog by luke

Memory is a little hazy but i'm sure we woke up a bit earlier today. We set out and got breakfast as usual, I decided to mix it up by trying a Sand Burger, assuming it was Chicken Katsu in a bun.

Thankfully, it wasn't sand in a bun but it wasn't what I expected either. It was more like chicken and pork mixed into one crispy burger thing. I got it microwave and it shrunk about 50% in size, it wasn't good but it was filling. It did actually taste like it had a handful of sand in there.

We headed to the station and made our way to our destation for the day, Shinjuku. Shinjuku is a large shopping area filled with hundreds of shops and large shopping malls all over the place.

The station is a HUGE shopping mall, it's very easy to get lost in all the shops so we avoided that station and when to another one close by, I think Shin-Shinjuku. Much easier to navigate our way out towards the shops we wanted to visit.

Randomly, I saw a sign on the Freshness Burger informing customers, just incase they hated the old ones or wanted to check out the new ones. I thought it was a nice welcoming for the new staff, very friendly and hand drawn. See what I mean about the staff being friendly and passionate about their jobs?

We then continued to a shopping mall, stopping in Forever 21 on the way, I bought a belt. It was boiling outside so we tried to stick to the shade on our way to the Wald9 OIO Annex shopping center.

This shopping center has a lot of big brand names, Levis, Addidas, Fred Perry ect, it also has some smaller shops. There was a summer sale so lots of bargains to be found, despite the horrible conversion rate.

Randomly, I saw a funny hand drawn penguin sign, I have no idea what it says but I liked the picture and it was a nice reminder of someone special back home.

On the top floor there was a specialist model crafts shop. The shop sold lots of kit models, Gundam, Trains ect and also sold all the paints and materials needed. At the back of this small shpo was a large train set which was really well done. I decided to take a few pictures, things like this are interesting. Not trains, but models of towns ect.

The best thing about this shop was the work space. Because many houses and apartments are so small there isn't enough space needed to work on kit models. This store had a great solution, a dedicated workshop for customers to use, I thought this was a cool idea, not that i'd ever use it, just cool for those that would.

When we left it was still quite hot but the area and side of the road we were on had a lovely shade, much needed in the heat!

Our next stop was Sekaido, a large stationary store that spans multiple floors. The top floors are art galleries, there is also a workshop at the top which was holding drawing classes.

The ammount of stuff in this shop was incredible, i've never been in an arts and crafts store like this. Think of any shop you know and each floor was like one of those shops!

When we left we were all quite hungry and decided to go eat. Penny had a well recommended Ramen place in her guide book, it was near by but we were having trouble finding it.

After a while of standing around looking at maps and the guide book, a kind local offered his help. He spoke very good English and told us where it was, he then led us to the shop.

Without this guy's help, we wouldn't have found the shop, the sign was all in Japanese with Chinese Characters, the description in the guide book didn't help either.

The menu was thankfully English on reverse so we all decided what we wanted then used our character matching skills to use the ticket machine and get our dish.

When we sat down the tea was placed on the table almost instantly after our asses were placed in our seats, now that's service! It's a shame the tea was bad, so bad. The only way to dirnk it was to take long sips and then face the horrible after taste.

Our food arrived quite quick, big bowls of Ramen, lovely! Funny to think I had never liked or properly tried it before this trip, it's one of my favourite dishes now.

The Ramen was delicious, I really enjoyed it, big slices of meat all in a tasty soupy water. I highly recommend this place, I think it's called Keika Ramen, you can read more about it here: http://www.ramentokyo.com/2007/06/keika-ramenshinjuku.html

We continued out of the backstreets onto the main road for more shopping and to head towards the main part of Shinjuku.

Randomly, another penguin sign. I'm going to continue to post these so get used to it. Penguins are cool!

After a quick stop off at Muji we found ourselves in a tower building of shops. Not knowing what floor the good shops we on, we pressed all the buttons in the evevator.

Bit of a time waste really, nothing in this building apart from small music and dvd shops. We left and continued on with our wandering and shopping.

Randomly, I saw a funny 'No Smoking' sign, There is no smoking allowed on the streets here in Tokyo. In restaurants there are special smoking areas, also on the street, i've not seen anyone disobey the rules which was good. The smoking floors or carridges in restaurants and trains are HORRIBLE. There is no air, just smoke, I have no idea how people can eat in a smoke filled room.

We had a quick look around Tsutaya, which is sort of like HMV but has a lot of preowned stuff then headed on through Shinjuku. We passed a Baskin Robbins and I really wanted to get an ice cream but there was a HUGE line, no ice cream for me.

Penny's guide book led us to our next location, a store I forget the name of but described as a cheap version of Tokyu Hands. The store sold pretty much everything, it was sort of like Poundland over 3 floors.

The highlight of this shop had to be finding a new and interesting Fanta flavour, Waikiki Hula!

This clocks in 3rd on my list of best Fanta flavours, Mystery, Grape being first and second. It tastes like Lilt, very pineappley with a very slight orangey tang. It works so well and only 50p.

We continued walking and headed towards the infamous seedy night spot, Kabukicho. It's well known for all things I wouldn't blog about or visit, host and strip clubs, bars and i'm sure you get the picture. There are also a lot of restaurants here, i've heard some of the best Katsu places are hidden in the backstreets.

It's wise to walk through this area during the day, at night it really comes alive but you'll be hounded by people trying to get you into clubs or pimps.

None of us had interest in these places, they were shut anyway, but it was nice to walk around there anyway. We spent our time here in the arcades, they're quite small and have older machines. Of course, Penny was trying her luck at the arcade machines and I was trying to find Drum Mania but had no luck.

I did try my luck at one claw machine, it was full of sweets. We all tried this and won quite a lot of sweets. Cas easily won the most, one go and he had a handful, I got a few and Penny got one.

We eventually made our way out of Kabukicho and back onto the main street to continue our wander.

There are qutie a few arcades in the area. We checked out the smaller Taito arcade on one of the main roads. It didn't really have many modern machines but did have a nice music games corner.

One thing I really thought was interesting in this arcade was the guest book in the music area. It was used but not abused, with some kind looking messages in there and lots of drawings.

After a quick stop in the arcade we headed out to explore the streets a bit and look in a few shops, nothing blog worthy but it was nice. We decided to head to the best arcade in the area, the big Tatio one near the JR station and opposite something called Green Peas.

We were quite worn out from walking around so much so headed into the Tatio arcade to spend some time playing games and getting a bit of a rest from walking. As you'd expect, I was straight on the Drum Mania machine, i'm up to Advanced / Expert Level 5.2 now, if that means anything to you, more of a note to me. I started on Begginer level 1, I think i've done quite well and still aim to be Expert 6 before I leave. Really going to miss Drum Mania.

It was near dinner time when we left so we decided to get a quick meal and head back to the hotel for an early night as we had to be up super early the next day.

Cas decided to get a Pork Rice Ball from a stall we passed while walking back to the station. None of us knew what to expect so only Cas got one, he was the food Guinea Pig.

He took his first bite and his face lit up, not literally. He really enjoyed it, so much he got a second one. I had a try and it was as good as he said, pork wrapped around rice.

Me and Penny were still hungry so headed off to find food while Cas went back to the hotel. Me and Penny went to Yoshinoya for some Gyudon, nice, quick and cheap.

We decided to head back, a quick stroll through Shinjuku at night and we were back at the station to head back to the hotel.

Before going back to the hotel, I stopped off at a mini mart to grab a snack. While looking around I spotted a Haagen Dazs Cripsy Sandwhich, Berry Berry Flavour. Excuse the pun but it was Berry nice! The ice cream was quite dense so it didn't melt out of the crispy wafers when you took a bite. It had a nice strawberry taste and the textures went together perfectly.

Another nice day but I can't help feeling Shinjuku is a little over rated. I think it's too heavily built up, the number of shops can be overwhelming and it's quite hard to find your way around.

There's not much here that's different to what you can find in other shopping areas which are much easier to navigate and a little more interesting than blocks of tall buildings.

Kabukicho isn't really worth doing unless you want to go there for the nightlife vibe. We went during the day and it was quite empty, shops were only just opening.

The best things about Shinjuku is the giant Tokyu Hands and the big Tatio arcade, well that's only my personal opinion and reasons for visiting. So in summary, a nice place to wander but not one you'll want to visit often unless you like the nightlife.