Shinjuku after dark

Friday, May 17, 2024
Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
Neons hold off night
Stars hidden above the glow
A city Pulses
After a good night’s sleep Ken has rallied and we are back on track. We left the hotel at about 9am to quieter streets. Deliveries were being made and there were shop owners quietly sweeping their steps. There was a number of people on their way to work and tourists ready to start the day, but most things don’t open until 10am.
With no-one to prepare us a 10 dish breakfast, we stopped in at a Tully’s coffee shop. The options weren’t great, but Ken got a cinnamon scroll and I got a bagel to have with our coffees.
We walked to the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden. We had been following little kids with their mums walking together. They also arrived at the park where there seemed to be a festival of littlies, about 5yrs old, assembling with their mums and teachers. They were all in uniforms with matching hats. A couple of little boys were running around playing, one of them rolled up his piece of paper and pretended to have a megaphone - that’s how you role play being a teacher here.
The park was really lovely, with ponds and tea rooms and a very nice Taiwanese Pavillion overlooking a little pond. We enjoyed the green space of large trees with skyscrapers towering behind. The park is 44 acres in the middle of this bustling city.
Leaving the peaceful park behind we went out onto the street, stopping at the Meiji Jingo Shinto shrine. It was very quiet, with a couple of cleaners giving the statues a good clean.
We continued and entered the Hands department store, which has a bit of everything. It is adjacent to the Takayashima, much more upmarket. We bought a few things in hands, I bailed out when we reached the hardware section - a little too Bunnings for my taste.
We walked a lot more before jumping on the Metro and coming out at Shibuya to see the famous Scramble Crossing, where hundreds of people cross the intersection at the same time. It was actually not too bad today. The intersection is surrounded by noisy and interesting billboards. It will be great to see at night.
Feeling peckish we ended up in a little restaurant below street level where we both had rice, Ken with pork and me with chicken. It was pretty good and we were ready to get back out there. We had done 8 and a half kms before lunch.
Another train, this one to Ginza to do some more shopping. This is a big shopping area. We stopped in at the GU store and then went tot the giant Uniqlo, which is 12 stories high. It was very busy and we bought some stuff. 
Back on the street, we passed Kyukyodo Paper shop where Ken bought some paper and a new sketch book. 
The area has lots of the high end shops, of which we have no intention of buying at. We kept on walking and decided it was time for coffee. We found a lovely little cafe, Italian in style. They didn’t get the Italian thing on no cappuccino after lunch time and couldn’t do a hot latte or a cafe au lait, so I went for an iced latte, which was very good and Ken had a double espresso. Lots of the cafe and restaurants have baskets for you to put your bag and shopping in to keep it of the ground or floor. Very considerate.
Next door to the coffee shop was the Loft département store. It is more of a design store and had some interesting things to see. My phone lanyard (daggy I know, but so useful) had broken 5 minutes before we got there and there were lots of choices for me to replace it.
We were pretty done by now so navigated our way back to the hotel on the train, which was surprisingly quiet for 5pm on a Friday evening. We sat easily and had no issue with crowds. Some of the lines have women only carriages in the morning peak hours so that horrible men don’t grope them in the tightly squashed crowd. 
Back at the hotel, we went straight up to the onsen and relaxed for a while. Ken had some chatty company in the men’s, I had a peaceful, solitary experience and enjoyed one of the free icey poles afterwards.
We headed out into the to the Golden Gai little bars of Shinjunko. The bright nights of the billboards were shining bright as we turned into the side street. We walked up and down the little laneways trying to find the right bar to go into. Some of them were already full. They are very tiny and cramped. Most of them charge a cover charge and have a minimum buy as well. We eventually went into a one, Baruboara-Ya, where there were three young French people were enjoying a meal. We ordered drinks, beer for Ken and ushumi (plum wine for me). The cook was operating a teriyaki grill behind the bar and the tiny room was very hot. We ordered food, nikomi (beef stew) with udon for me and tori ninniku-shoyu (chicken cooked on the grill). My dish was excellent, Ken’s was good. An Italian couple came and sat next to us. We chatted briefly, she said she couldn’t really understand Australians and then one more couple squished into the bar and that was it. The food was good, we ordered another drink and enjoyed the ambiance.
We left and thought we would have one more drink at another bar. We finally selected Kohaku. There was a Japanese couple sitting there and another Japanese man with his daughter. He was keen to chat and told us how his daughter had graduated and got a job and finally had time to go drinking with her dad, for the very first time. He was very happy to be out with her. He told us how he had been to Christmas Island and wished he could go drving with the whale sharks. His daughter was a little embarrassed with the attention. Ken ordered a whiskey (not the really expensive one our new friend had suggested) and I ordered a sake. The bar owner showed me three very large bottles to choose from. I had no idea and went for the one in the middle. Good choice, it was excellent. A couple from New York joined us and we all had a fun time chatting.  The daughter of the Japanese man fell asleep in the corner, she had definitely had too much to drink on the daddy/daughter night out. He eventually got her out the door and we said our goodbyes. We got our bill - $68 for 2 drinks! Everything has been pretty cheap here, I think my sake was the really good stuff. It was a fun end to the evening, so money well spent.
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