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Quick update
Jul. 3rd, 2009 08:50 amMore from the travelfront.
Daughter and I walked down to the Shinjuku station at peak hour. Lots of
office workers etc streaming the other way. Had breakfast at the
station in a sort of international food court. At "Vie de France" we
had a peach bun, a golden ball, an egg doughnut, and a chicken glue
sandwich. And two cold lattes, which at least were pretty much what we
expected.
Found the correct train line - it was colour-coded and numbered - and
took a painless train down to Shibuya, where we found the famous
crossing and sat at Starbucks having chai lattes overlooking the
bustling scene. Then we explored. DD checked out the boutiques full
of odd clothing and bought some rainbow socks, and I looked at the
slender young shop assistants in their unbelievable makeup, clothing
and hairstyles. Must be a vocation.
Then we hit a food court to buy bento boxes for lunch, which we had in
the Yoyogi park beside the big fountains. Odd sort of place - well the
whole bloody country is odd, but this was an odd park indeed. Kind of
gloomy and sad for a summer park. Full of evil crows and old people.
We then went into the park surrounding the Meiji Shrine, and I've
rarely seen a more impressive place. Elegant out the wazoo, long
avenues through forest on wide gravel with trees meeting overhead,
grand torii gates and the shrine itself was beautiful and old. A
special place and the contrast with the surrounding urbia was amazing.
We had a bit of a nap and then went out for dinner before the
restaurants got too crowded. Shared a sushi platter at one place -
superb, made up by cooks before us and consumed with gusto and wasabi.
Then we boutiqued for a while more before a second course of pizza and
beef chunks in an underground restaurant.
Wonderful food in tiny intimate restaurants. Honestly some of these
places are smaller than the vending machines outside!
Arranged limousine bus for the morning transfer. We asked about
trains, and it sounded reasonably complex with luggage, so we decided
there were too many chances to go wrong and the bus was the same price
anyway.
Backtracking a little, the red-eye flight into Narita from Sydney was
pretty tough. Neither of us got much sleep, though DD swears I was
snoring at one point. I've worked out the best way to sleep. Watch a
movie and the eyes close automatically after a while.
We were tired and burdened with luggage on landing. Got the Narita
Express through sweet rural areas increasing urbanised and ugly. DD
was so tired she was falling asleep, head bouncing against the window.
Got to Shinjuku station and after all my internet searching I only had
a 75% certainty of what the hotel looked like and where exactly it
was. I was hoping i could see it from the station, and in fact we
found out later that we could if we stood in the right spot, but I
didn't find the right spot and so we took a taxi. Wandering around
downtown Shinjuku with our luggage would have killed us. Taxi was only
ten dollars anyway and got us right to the door.
Left our luggage with four hours to checkin. We explored and wondered
around, looking at the weird foods and clothes. Found a huge
electronic shop and browsed. Finally got back to the hotel half an
hour before checkin at two, and we just sat on some steps trying to
stay awake.
Checked in fine, had showers and went to sleep until evening. Then we
looked around for dinner, which was noodle dishes and soup. Very good
with chopsticks, but we managed ok. Experimented with internet, but
basically we needed our sleep. Our shower stall at home, well if you
took four of them in a square, that's the size of our hotel bathroom,
which has shower, bath, toilet/bidet and vanity all in one. The door
opens outwards because if it opened inwards it wouldn't.
OK, that's pretty much it for the moment. Have to get some photos up.
Daughter and I walked down to the Shinjuku station at peak hour. Lots of
office workers etc streaming the other way. Had breakfast at the
station in a sort of international food court. At "Vie de France" we
had a peach bun, a golden ball, an egg doughnut, and a chicken glue
sandwich. And two cold lattes, which at least were pretty much what we
expected.
Found the correct train line - it was colour-coded and numbered - and
took a painless train down to Shibuya, where we found the famous
crossing and sat at Starbucks having chai lattes overlooking the
bustling scene. Then we explored. DD checked out the boutiques full
of odd clothing and bought some rainbow socks, and I looked at the
slender young shop assistants in their unbelievable makeup, clothing
and hairstyles. Must be a vocation.
Then we hit a food court to buy bento boxes for lunch, which we had in
the Yoyogi park beside the big fountains. Odd sort of place - well the
whole bloody country is odd, but this was an odd park indeed. Kind of
gloomy and sad for a summer park. Full of evil crows and old people.
We then went into the park surrounding the Meiji Shrine, and I've
rarely seen a more impressive place. Elegant out the wazoo, long
avenues through forest on wide gravel with trees meeting overhead,
grand torii gates and the shrine itself was beautiful and old. A
special place and the contrast with the surrounding urbia was amazing.
We had a bit of a nap and then went out for dinner before the
restaurants got too crowded. Shared a sushi platter at one place -
superb, made up by cooks before us and consumed with gusto and wasabi.
Then we boutiqued for a while more before a second course of pizza and
beef chunks in an underground restaurant.
Wonderful food in tiny intimate restaurants. Honestly some of these
places are smaller than the vending machines outside!
Arranged limousine bus for the morning transfer. We asked about
trains, and it sounded reasonably complex with luggage, so we decided
there were too many chances to go wrong and the bus was the same price
anyway.
Backtracking a little, the red-eye flight into Narita from Sydney was
pretty tough. Neither of us got much sleep, though DD swears I was
snoring at one point. I've worked out the best way to sleep. Watch a
movie and the eyes close automatically after a while.
We were tired and burdened with luggage on landing. Got the Narita
Express through sweet rural areas increasing urbanised and ugly. DD
was so tired she was falling asleep, head bouncing against the window.
Got to Shinjuku station and after all my internet searching I only had
a 75% certainty of what the hotel looked like and where exactly it
was. I was hoping i could see it from the station, and in fact we
found out later that we could if we stood in the right spot, but I
didn't find the right spot and so we took a taxi. Wandering around
downtown Shinjuku with our luggage would have killed us. Taxi was only
ten dollars anyway and got us right to the door.
Left our luggage with four hours to checkin. We explored and wondered
around, looking at the weird foods and clothes. Found a huge
electronic shop and browsed. Finally got back to the hotel half an
hour before checkin at two, and we just sat on some steps trying to
stay awake.
Checked in fine, had showers and went to sleep until evening. Then we
looked around for dinner, which was noodle dishes and soup. Very good
with chopsticks, but we managed ok. Experimented with internet, but
basically we needed our sleep. Our shower stall at home, well if you
took four of them in a square, that's the size of our hotel bathroom,
which has shower, bath, toilet/bidet and vanity all in one. The door
opens outwards because if it opened inwards it wouldn't.
OK, that's pretty much it for the moment. Have to get some photos up.
