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Nishishinjuku

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    • TravelerJapan trip

      Day 1

      April 28 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C

      Long day of travel as we left Glasgow at 14.35pm Friday. Bought some new sunglasses which had some mixed opinions but they are polarised so need them for protection. First flight was 7 hours. Experience with Emirates was great, very good service and food was better than expected, have put a photo in of the double decker plane we were on which was cool to see a flight of stairs on I watched Napolean which was alright and a a French film called anatomy of a fall ! We had a layover of just 1.5 hours in Dubai so we were a bit stressed that any delay would cause us to miss Dubai to Tokyo connection! Luckily went smooth and change was very easy! Second flight was a bit longer (9 hours) but spelt for about 2/3 hours. Was in the middle so find it hard to sleep there! Security was pretty thorough in Tokyo Hanita (2 hours outside of Tokyo centre) so took us a while to get through! One thing I’ve noticed is Japanese love queuing and everything is very orderly! Tickets were hard to get as we ended up needing to go back and buy another set as you need 2x for booking and another 2x for seat number! Arrived late on Sunday night and managed to get some cool looking blips of the suburb we are in Shinjuku! The scale of everything is crazy and can’t get over the massive buildings! We went out late last night for some food and I wanted to go to somewhere local down one of these alleys. Found a authentic Japanese place open at 11.30 which had lots of people on it so we choose there! Being the only non Japanese people there was a weird experience but good none the less. Another thing getting used to is no one at all speaking any English so had to point to different food on the menu and blindly ordered. Food was excellent but turned out after using Google translate we had eaten pig tongue, liver, cow intensities and deep fried ham and some lovely sauces and some lettuce to munch on! One of the eats I tried I had to chew and go to the toilet to spit out as was not nice at all but didn’t want to cause a scene (Tokyo restaurants are tiny and jam packed) managed to spit it out in the toilet but toilets here are from a different planet so pressed 20 buttons trying to flush it! They must have thought I was mad as sounded like a robot taking off. Got a good nights sleep in although trying to fight jet lag , got no internet so can only type on my phone when back in the hotel! Hotel is nice and they have an inbuilt 7-11 so good for supplies. Planning on going out to discover shibuya today and bus tour of Tokyo (best easy of discovering a new city according to Sinead)Read more

    • TravelerJapan trip
      11111
      Day 1

      Day 2

      April 29 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

      Another long day as out for 12 hours with a lot of walking (23k steps!). Left the hotel at around 10am as slept through an alarm because of jet lag. Had some nice Japanese pattiseries for breakfast although mine had crème cheese and custard mixed which was a bit weird. We then headed into Tokyo centre which is around a 30 min metro ride from our local station! We had booked the open top city bus tour and spent an hour and a half touring Tokyo. Luckily was a nice day so nice to sit out in shorts on the bus and learn some history. After we walked 30 mins or so to the famous Tsujiki fish market to see some of the stalls! As we were on our way we spotted a big queue of locals going into a ramen restaurant (usually a sign for good food) so we stopped for lunch there and had a nice bowl of hearty ramen pictured below! They make it all in front of you as you sit around the kitchen on stools at a bar with all Japanese sitting in silence slurping away! Luckily they give you big apron as as it’s good manners to slurp in Japan the broth from the ramen goes everywhere! We both had a nice Japanese beer and are working through them. After we went to the market and looked over all the crazy things they were serving we walked just over 2 hours to Tokyo tower pictured below. On route Sinéad stopped by Uniqlo (one just opened in Edinburgh too) and bought some clothes. We had pre booked a tour up the tower but it was very busy still! Lift takes you up at 600 metres a minute. Amazing views from the top though which makes you realise just how big the city is (32 million people making it the biggest city on earth) those were the same views all 360 degrees round! After the tower we went back to a restaurant we had passed and had some fried pork cutlets with rice miso soup and pickles, was tasty and cheap! With 2 glasses of wine each it and food it came to £20. After we had to get 2 trains home which took about an hour and Sinead was nodding off every few mins because of our walk and jet lag combo! Now back in the hotel for an early ish night as long day again tomorrow!Read more

    • TravelerJapan trip
      1111
      Day 3

      Day 3

      May 1 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

      Long day again as just back after being out for 13 hours! Left at 9.30ish and had a nice breakfast at a bakery next door with egg, bacon bread and some miso soup! We then set off to see an amazing digital art show called ‘borderless’ which we had booked. It was a massive centre filled with rooms that were covered in mirrors and lights! Each room had art that moved and changed and had different scents, very cool experience.

      After we had toured each room and spent a good hour or so in there we had a browse around the local mall which was very posh and clean. The food there was amazing and had been arranged orderly and perfect. The fruit was some of the biggest juiciest non blemished fruit I’ve seen. I had the strawberries and they were amazing! Sinead got an Apple the size of a small football! Imagine Harvey Nichols on steroids with all the Japanese responsible for a section each and working like a well oiled machine. We can’t get over how well dressed everyone is here. It’s like being in a fashion shoot with all the designer clothes.

      We then walked around an hour or so to the imperial palace and the weather got nice and sunny. We walked the grounds with their weird shaped trees and I took lots of pics of the amazing nature mixed with the temple buildings and office skyscrapers. From my very brief stint in my failed sustainable urban management course I could really tell just how well the Japanese landscape architect. Everything has some sort of immaculately groomed greenery on it!

      After the palace we walked another hour to the stadium of Tokyo giants baseball game where we saw a great but very long derby game with the Tokyo giants against the Swallows! We were right up in the rafters with a great view so happy to see that! Both got hotdogs with mustard and ketchup and got a beer from the poor girls that run up and down the stairs with a keg of beer strapped to their backs! Sinead cheered on the other team and hers sadly won but it was a close game with a few home runs and lasted over 3.5 hours….

      After the game we left with 30,000 people although the Japanese were great and every single person left at the same time orderly all taking with them all of their rubbish to the bins inside before they left in a line down the stairs! We got the metro back to our zone Shinjuku and had what I think was our best meal yet. We shared some dumplings and gyoza with some kimchi, chicken and beef stir fry! I had something called a ginger highball to drink which was really refreshing. Another 20k+ steps done and now 1am with an early start Tommorow!      Read more

    • TravelerJapan 🇯🇵
      Day 4

      Letzter Tag in Tokio

      September 24 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

      Heute stand Akihabara am Programm. Akihabara wird auch “Electric Town” genannt, da es sehr bekannt für die vielen Elektronikhändler ist. Außerdem ist dieser Stadtteil das Herz der Anime, Manga und Videospiel Szene 🦄✨

      Eine unser verrücktesten Erfahrungen bisher in Tokio: der Besuch eines Maid Cafés. Hier sind Frauen als Dienstmädchen verkleidet und betreuen dich auf eine sehr “niedliche” und unterwürfige Art und Weise (sie bedienen dich beispielsweise auf den Knien). Die Maids leben einer Fantasiewelt und nennen einen Prinzessin (oder Meister). Das Bestellte wird mit beliebigen Tiermotiven (die man sich selbst aussuchen kann) am Tisch verziert, je nach gekauftem Package performen die Maids auch eine Show oder machen ein Polaroid Foto mit dir (abgesehen davon ist es verboten, sie zu fotografieren). Maid Cafés sind in dieser Gegend (und generell in Tokio) sehr beliebt, das Klientel reicht von Geschäftsmännern bis zu Hardcore Maid Café Fans, die ihr Maid-Polaroid Sammelalbum mitbringen. Uns war der Aufenthalt ziemlich unangenehm, es ist aber jedenfalls eine besondere Erfahrung!

      Danach waren wir pünktlich zum Sonnenuntergang beim Rathaus von Tokio, wo es ganz oben eine kostenlose Aussichtsplattform gibt. Sehr beeindruckend, die größte Metropolregion der Welt von oben zu sehen 🌇      Read more

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    • TravelerJapan trip
      11
      Day 3

      Day 4

      May 1 in Japan ⋅ 🌧 12 °C

      Slight change of plan today as we had originally booked to go to Tokyo Disney Sea but unfortunately the weather took a turn for the worse and the rain started early and lasted all day with heavy downpours! Instead we changed our time for Disney and are going tommrow instead. Luckily the rain is only for one day and we are back to mine weather!

      As it was rainy we decided to go to a Japanese shopping outlet to get some designer clothes cheap! We took the metro early and were right in amongst the Japanese work craze! The metro was rammed and we were crammed on like sardines. I tried to capture what it was like but everyone in Japanese metro looks at the floor on silence as no one dares make eye contact and you could hear a pin drop! Not one person chats.

      We took the metro then train for 30
      Mins and both did some shopping. Normally it’s something I hate but I braved going to Levi’s store and got chatting with a young Japanese worker there who had studied a year in Ireland. He told me about their promotion and I ended buying 3 pairs of Levi’s jeans (light blue, navy and black jeans) all for a combined 13,000 yen which is just £70! got a nice shirt from banana republic cheap too and without tax due to the passport! Sinéad got a great Michael Kors bag 75% off! After a long day of shoping we had coffee and food in the mall and headed back as we were a bit wet from getting caught in the rain! Luckily I’m Japan get package your paper bags with plastic covers!

      More rain and we dropped our bags off at the hotel then set out to go to the famous pokemon cafe in Tokyo centre! (Japan created pokemon) unfortunately when we arrived we found out you needed to book in advance and the next 30 days were sold out! However there was a queue for cancellations so we waited in that and we’re lucky to be told we had sometime drop out so come back in an hour! We came back and both had a Gengar (a ghost Pokémon) themed smoothie and enjoyed the pokemon cafe! Was a big nuts but cool too relive some of my childhood playing Pokémon!

      After the cafe we tried to get into a few places (still need to have some sushi and Sinéad wants udon noodles) everything in Tokyo was packed so we were forced to go to a burger place ! Was decent burger and I love the drink I keep ordering (ginger highball ) it’s basically ginger ale and whiskey with lime! Sinead says it’s a copy Jameson ginger ale lime! But delicious! Sinead found a small metal thing on her burger so they have us the drinks on the house!

      After the burger and getting caught in more rain we went to an underground sherry bar in Shinjuku! I went for Japanese whiskey mixed with Pedro Ximenez and bitters! It had a huge Diamond piece ice cube which they carved up with knifes and was delicious! Up very early tomorrow so an early night (12.30am has become early night for us!)      Read more

    • TravelerJapan trip
      Day 5

      Day 5

      May 3 in Japan ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

      Day 5 started with an early rise! Up at 6.15am as we had to get into Disneyland early as we had heard the queues were crazy! We had a mad rush across Tokyo metro to get to our train on time! Tokyo metro is like a whole city underground, in the morning it’s jam packed and you have to weave in and out of people coming from every direction!

      When we got to our stop (45 mins away) we had to get the Disney Monorail! We had tickets to the sea world rather than the main park as didn’t want to deal with the queues! Despite this there was already thousands of people queuing before it opened at 9am so we queued for an hour or so (luckily in the sun) to get in! Thank god we went today and not yesterday!

      Each ride took about 45-hour of queuing which I was told was not bad to my amazement! The feet are in absolute bits today after 4 days straight of 20k steps and standing on my feet all day! Each section of the park had a different rollercoaster theme and country theme! We went to Italy, USA, morroco which I’ve included above! Also the Japanese are great for not inflating prices at tourist spots! Lunch was about £3/4 which would be £50 in the UK!

      We left after getting tired at 4pm! Train back to Tokyo central and then headed across to Shibiyu to see the famous crossing and go to the sky bar we had booked! We nipped into pick up our JR rail pass before so (we’d be travelling on bullet trains next week) Crossing was amazing with people coming from 8 different ways! We tried it ourselves. After this we went up to the skybar to see the view, it involved another queue so the feet were done at this point. More great views from the top and then search for dinner.

      We settled on a Japanese place and had some Korean noodles and a funny frittata like thing! There’s no English on the menus and no body speaks a word so it’s just pot luck half the time! Was delicious though, and got some Japanese beer with it. Metro stop back and it was an early night. Off to Kyoto in the morning via bullet train.      Read more

    • Werner GötzJapan und Südkorea
      Day 5

      Zugfahren in Japan

      September 11 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

      Wir verlassen Tokyo nach drei Tagen, es geht mit dem Hochgeschwindigkeitszug Shinkansen nach Nagoya und weiter mit einem Schnellzug nach Takayama, einer kleinen Stadt in der Hida-Alpenregion. Zugfahren in Japan ist etwas anders als in Deutschland. Die Züge sind schnell, sauber und pünktlich. Japans Schienennetz ist sehr gut ausgebaut, sowohl für den Nahverkehr als auch für die Durchquerung des Landes. Insofern bieten sich Reisen durch das Land mit dem Zug an. Besonders bekannt sind die Shinkansen, die mit Geschwindigkeiten von durchschnittlich 260 bis 320 km/h das Land durcheilen. Für die gesamte Strecke von etwa 480 km benötigen wir rund vier Stunden inklusive Umstieg in Nagoya und Wartezeit auf den dann von uns benutzen Eilzug. Zurzeit wird eine neue Hochgeschwindigkeitsstrecke zwischen Tokyo und Nagoya gebaut – geplante Fertigstellung 2027 – auf dem der Zug dann mit über 500 km/h verkehren soll. Für die 341 Kilometer benötigt er dann 40 Minuten.
      Besonders praktisch ist der Japan Rail Pass, der zu einem Festpreis unbegrenztes Reisen mit den öffentlichen Verkehrsmitteln und Zügen der Japanischen Eisenbahn (JR) auf dem gesamten japanischen Festland ermöglicht. Er ist etwa für 14 oder 21 Tage erhältlich und eignet sich gut für Reisende, die sich länger im Land aufhalten und viel mit dem Zug unterwegs sind. Zu beachten ist allerdings, dass es auch regionale und Nahverkehrsstrecken gibt, die durch den Pass nicht abgedeckt sind. Wir werden in Japan alle Fahrten mit öffentlichen Verkehrsmittel, sprich Zug und Bus zurücklegen und nutzen Einzeltickets. Ist für uns günstiger. Auf eigene Faust mit dem Zug durch das Land zu reisen, ist im Grunde keine komplizierte Angelegenheit. Man sollte auf den Bahnhöfen nur genügend Zeit einplanen, um auch die richtigen Gleise zu finden. Besonders in Tokyo.
      Etwas anders ist es beim Nahverkehr. Hier nutzt man entweder im Voraus bezahlte Tageskarten, die an diesem Tag unbegrenzte Fahrten mit bestimmten Verkehrsmitteln ermöglichen wie etwa den Tokyo Subway Pass für die Tokioter U-Bahn oder den Kyoto Bus Pass für das Busnetz von Kyoto, der einen Großteil der Stadt und ihre wichtigsten Sehenswürdigkeiten abdeckt. Der Japan Rail Pass gilt für innerstädtische Fahrten nur bei Linien der Japan Rail. Alternativ - und das ist die flexiblere und von uns genutzte Methode - erwirbt man sich eine Suica-Card oder eine Pasmo IC Card, Prepaid-Smartcards, die man auflädt und bei der bei jeder Fahrt die Fahrtkosten automatisch an den Schranken abgezogen werden. Es wird dann auch immer angezeigt, wieviel Geld noch auf den Karten ist, um sie rechtzeitig aufzuladen. Nutzbar ist sie in vielen Metropolen für den Nahverkehr, in Bussen und U-Bahnen. Die Karte fungiert zudem als elektronische Geldbörse, man kann kleine Einkäufe in Zügen, an Verkaufsautomaten, Läden und Restaurants mit dem entsprechenden Suica-Zeichen tätigen oder auch Taxen bezahlen. Das Aufladen der Karte erfolgt an Fahrkartenautomaten oder in Bussen. Es gibt auch eine Welcome-Suica-Card für Besucher, die 28 Tage gültig sind und keine Kaution von 500 Yen erfordern.      Read more

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    • TravelerJapan Rundreise
      Day 4

      Shibuya (Tokio)

      September 17 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

      An unserem ersten Abend in Tokio waren wir im Stadtteil Shibuya unterwegs.
      Es ist der absolute Wahnsinn was da abgeht. Es gibt gefühlt nichts, das es nicht gibt.
      Unser Sushi war mega gut, ich hab noch nieee so gutes Sushi gegessen. Absolut nicht vergleichbar mit dem was man bei uns zu Hause bekommt.
      Außer das komisch gelbe Zeug auf jeder Platte einmal, das hat uns so gar nicht geschmeckt. Im Nachhinein haben wir herausgefunden, dass das eine Delikatesse ist und es die Drüsen der Geschlechtsteile von Seeigeln sind.      Read more

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    • TravelerJapan Rundreise
      Day 5

      Shinjuku by night

      September 18 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

      Heute waren wir noch unterwegs im Stadtviertel Shinjuku und dort im Amüsierviertel Kanukicho und im Kneipenviertel Golden Gai, welches zum Teil doch etwas zwielichtig erscheint. Es reihen sich in engen Gassen an die 300 kleine Lokale.Read more

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    • TravelerI think I’m turning Japanese
      Day 5

      Domo arigato Mr Maloney

      April 11, 2023 in Japan ⋅ ☀️ 11 °C

      Today was going to be a relaxing travel day,. I mean, we only had a three hour flight from Taipei to Tokyo. What could be more restful?

      That's not quite how things played out, which is part of the adventure of travel.

      The day started well, waking early in our beautifully modern Taipei hotel room. I bounded jauntily down to breakfast and restrained myself from consuming mass quantities, apart from a heaped plate of Bread Pudding of course, knowing there were multiple eating options to come, particularly at the opulent China Airlines Business Class lounge at Taipei airport.

      Checking out of the Hotel Indigo North I ordered an Uber to take us the 60km to Taoyuan Airport and was delighted when a Tesla Model 3 arrived. Being China, or Chinese Taipei, naturally the driver had decided Elon hadn't tricked this ride out quite enough, so he had pimped the door handles and added plenty of light up USB connections.

      In 45 minutes we arrived at the airport, checked in, after the attendant had managed to extract the Visit Japan Web QR codes from my phone. (more on that later) we had breezed through customs (take note Auckland!!!) and strolled our way expectantly towards the business lounge. This is when the day took a detour.

      This trip we were flying out of Taoyuan Terminal 2. On our previous Taipei visit we had gone out of Terminal 1. The business class lounges in the two terminals are not the same, in the same way that a Suzkuki Swift and a Lamborghini Aventador are not the same. They are both cars, but..... you get the point. The China Airlines lounge in Terminal 2 is like a bunker. I kept expecting Kim Jong Un to pop up and say 'Hi guy, relax!' It's a long low featureless hall with a sparse food selection and no ambience, and Terry wants his ambience! ;)

      After enduring this lounge disappointment for as long as I could (I know, 1st World problems) I petulantly strutted out and boarded the flight bound for Tokyo. The flight was comfortable and uneventful and I managed to just fit in watching 'The Whale' (okay, but not Oscar-worthy) before we were landing at Narita International in Tokyo.

      Remember that Visit Japan Web QR code I mentioned earlier? I had spent over an hour back in NZ dutifully filling out the forms and checking everything, so I was fully prepared when we arrived at immigration. I had the QR code on my phone screen and was ready to whip it out and gleefully say 'dozo'.

      They didn't even ask for it! What the actual F?!! Come on Japan, stop messing with me. I just know somewhere, behind a screen, there is a little Japanese man laughing his arse off cackling, 'We fooled another one. Stupid gaijin!'

      After clearing immigration, we collected our suitcases and headed into Arrivals to be picked up by the ride I had booked. The driver messaged me with a picture of where to meet. Hilariously, the picture had him at a different terminal. The next 45 minutes had me playing peek-a-boo via messaging to try and have us both at the same location, so he could actually drive us to our Disney hotel.

      Finally he arrived at the correct door and we followed him out to what I expected to be a shuttle van. Boy was I surprised when he ushered us to his Volkswagen Golf.

      Our driver turned out to be a young Chinese guy who is working the driver gig as a second job. We had a great conversation as he drove us the 60+ kms to the Tokyo Disneyland area and our hotel.

      Just after 7pm (after starting our 'relaxed' travel day at 6am) we arrived at the Tokyo DisneySea Hotel Miracosta. This was worth the hassle of today. It is incredibly impressive, in a way only Disney can manage.

      We checked in, which somehow took 20 minutes, and spent the next 15 minutes drooling over all the Disney detailing in our room and the eye-popping view from our window. This hotel is actually inside Tokyo DisneySea, so we look out onto the park. A-maz-ing!

      Tomorrow we are up early to get to the gates of Tokyo Disneyland and make the most of our first Happy Entry. I know how that sounds! :0      Read more

    You might also know this place by the following names:

    Nishishinjuku, 西新宿

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