I know that I am actually doing this a whole week late, but as they say better late than never and it is a good idea to reflect and remember what adventures were had on the first day of my arrival in Tokyo!
The plane journey was pretty hard, taking an overnight flight and all, but we arrived on early Saturday morning at Shinjuku JR station, after taking the 90 minute N’Ex Train from Narita airport. We took a taxi and had a bit of trouble stuffing the two suitcases in the trunk and then reveled in the sights as the city – still dormant during the early weekend morning.
Above: First shot of Shinjuku in the lovely winter sun on the weekend.
Citadines at Shinjuku was waiting for us. This was a really great place to stay, clean, comfortable, in fact the bed was pretty much like my own bed at home, it was fantastic. It was a short walk from the main shops and close to Lawson’s Convenience Store (and 7-11) which was handy for cooking out first dinner of the night. Which was basically the only day we stayed at home to fend for ourselves.
On this first day we just explored the shops including the fantastic and impressive (also hinting at home)- KINOKUNIYA book store.
Kinokuniya Shinjuku
Kinokuniya was something like 9 floors of books it was seriously awesome (even though all the books were in Japanese!) Even the book store in Sydney’s Galeries Victoria is impressive but this was just cool.
They had lift ladies working there operating the lift and pressing the buttons for you which was a strange experience because we didn’t understand what she was saying. a
That night we made our own typical Japanese home cooked meal – ramen (instant ramen) and gyoza
Dinner
We did a fair bit of walking and discovering the city that first day so we had a nice relaxing night in with a nutritious dinner. The first day was good for discovering the city so we could research the JR and explore/plan the next day: Harajuku and Shibuya.
