Shinjuku

I landed at a very wet Narita Airport at 7.40am on Thursday, September 28th. After clearing immigration and customs, I purchased a ticket for the 8.53am Narita Express train to Shinjuku. I was told that the trains were operating behind schedule because of the rain. My train departed almost half an hour late, and it took almost two hours - double the usual travel time - to get into Central Tokyo because the train made extra stops and at times just remained motionless on the tracks. How uncharacteristic of Japan, but with weather disruptions everywhere this could not be helped.

At around 11.20am, I disembarked at Shinjuku and I was pleasantly surprised to see a toilet on the platform directly in front of me. As I was relieving myself, I realized that I left my ticket on board the train. Rats. I anticipated a ticket inspector would want to see my ticket, and that is why I placed it in the seat pocket in front of me. I hurriedly zipped up and rushed back onto the train just in time before the doors closed again. Sigh. I guess this meant I would have to go to the next station - Ikebukuro - and double back. Well, this was better than working out a fare adjustment with a JR (Japan Railways) staff.

I reached my hotel - City Hotel Lonestar in Shinjuku 3 - past noon after doubling back from Ikebukuro. As check in wasn't until 3pm, I deposited my backpack at the hotel and went out in search of lunch. Fortunately, the rain had stopped. Not far from the hotel, I found a little hole in the wall ramen place. I bought my ticket from the machine outside and presented it to the counter staff who gave me a hot steaming bowl of noodles. That hit the spot.

After eating, I decided to wander around the Shinjuku area until check in time; I didn't want to venture too far in case the rain came back. Walking around the area, I came across a couple of shrines. After exploring them, I made my way to the main entertainment district to look for Robot Restaurant. I found it easily and reserved a seat for the 5.55pm show. An annoyingly catchy little ditty with female voices singing "roboto" over and over played at the ticket counter. I swear it sounded like the theme song from My Neighbor Totoro.

One of my goals for my Tokyo stopover was to find Farfetch'd, a rare Pokémon found only in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. This darned critter eluded me during two previous layovers - one in Hong Kong and the other in Tokyo. Well, I had three days in Tokyo and I was determined to find this bird that has caused me so much grief. While sitting at Tully's coffee enjoying a latte, Farfetch'd suddenly showed up on my "nearby" radar on the app. I quickly got up and walked in the direction the app indicated Farfetch'd would be. I found him easily and caught him. Success! Now I can enjoy Tokyo without this constantly at the back of my mind.

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