The last couple of days we have been checking regularly the weather forecast as a Taifun has been announced to cross Japan in the next days. The season should be ending however it is not over yet. We have just been informed that the flight will be delayed by three hours, not a big problem, just gives us more time to finish packing.

Here we are burning of desire to get going, it a was a full night, struggling to fit everything in. The biggest challenge was to decide if we bring the tent with us or not, as it needs a lot of space. We decided to pack it with us and worse case we can send it to the hotel in advance if we don’t need it in the second half of the trip.

First breath of fresh air in Narita airport, no sign of Taifun, clear blue sky and nice weather. And it started, we got the tickets for the train, once we reached the JR Station where we realized that we had no idea how to buy a ticket, we saw the ticket machines however we could not figure out the amount. We have found a ticket counter and got the ticket from there, problem solved. After a lot of struggling, pushing the pulling the luggage from the airport to Tokyo Shinjuku Station, we made it to the hotel!

Checked in at the Super Hotel Shinjuku Kabukicho and asked the lady at the front desk for some lunch recommendations nearby. In the end, we decided to go for the Ramen Zundou-ya Shinjuku Shop just around the corner. We had a portion of light and regular ramen and we really enjoyed the food, portions were really generous and the meat was melting in the mouth. Our first ramen experience was great, we had ramen before in Zurich, but they were not as tasty as these ones.

The sun was still up so we decided to go out and see a bit from the city, unfortunately, the Shinjuku gardens were closed for the day so we walked around the streets and visited the nearby temples in the city and took a peak in the Golden Gai neighborhood in the old part of the city.

It was getting dark so we decided to visit the Samurai museum and learn a bit about their history and gear, we had a funny guide which made the visit pleasant and enjoyable.

Slowly, we were getting hungry and we asked the guide to give us some hints about a nice place to eat nearby, the place that he pointed us to was really crowded, so we decided to find something else which was not mainstream and we ended up in Aona which had a limited menu mainly consisting of veal meat. We had the standard and the fatty veal which turned out great, we will return here again next time.

Filled and ready to close for the night we went in the city and took a stroll on the streets.

Just a couple of hours before were empty and now at 10PM they were completely different, as they were bursting with people in suits coming out from work.

It was impressive seeing so many persons on the streets, crowded restaurants and so many gaming facilities, open late in the night.

The life in the city was just starting but we had to go back and get ready for our flight to Memanbetsu (North of Hokkaido) where many adventures await.

Here is a quick overview of our travel map for the day

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If you want you can also browse through the photo gallery below:

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