Tokyo was Awesome!

Not being the creative type, my title for this (my first) blog may be somewhat lame. However, I will do my best and be hopeful that someone will read it and let me know what they think. Constructively, I hope! I will be posting in installments, though I don’t know how many yet. Not that you care, but this was a trip planned by three best friends, though only Jax and I were actually able to go.

3 squares and a cot

We stayed at the Keio Plaza in Shinjuku. Highly, highly recommended. There are less expensive places to stay, but the location is a short walk to the JR station as well as the subway lines, with lots of places to eat close by. It’s really expensive to eat at the hotel ($25 for breakfast, $50 for dinner), though the Poppins Bakery has great food for cheap like croissant-wrapped sausage, bacon bread, and almond croissant. I recommend checking out the basement of Odakyu or Keio department stores (they sit on top of Shikjuku station) for a great selection of Japanese food, from dumplings to tempura to sushi…YUM! And the huge selection of sweets was fabulous, too. Close by is Yoshinoya on the main road south of the station. Awesome beef bowls and really inexpensive if you need to eat on the cheap to save money for other stuff.

Day 1…Explore!

Due to severe jet lag (13 hour difference, Tampa to Tokyo), we were up very early our first morning there. Our room faced east in the direction of Shinjuku Station right on the pedestrian street.

Since it was so clear, we went to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building first. It’s located directly west of the hotel and has observation decks in both towers for free. We went up the south tower and got a great view of Mt. Fuji and Tokyo overall.

From the TMG building, we went exploring east and west Shinjuku. We also attempted to find Nakano Broadway, and though we walked for a couple of hours, we never found it. Yeah, wrong station, not once but twice! I will be posting detailed directions in my next installment.

Well, that’s it for this posting, I hope y’all like what you see. Please stay tuned for my next installment early next week…thanks!