Shinjuku and Cherry Blossoms

JAPAN

Day 1. Sydney to Shinjuku, Tokyo

This year our travels begin in Japan and after a 10 hour flight from Sydney we arrive late afternoon and negotiate Customs swiftly and exit to find our Transfer vehicle is not waiting for us. After waiting around for a while we finally contact them to find they had the wrong flight details consequently cancelled our pickup. (Travel Agents fault not ours). We decide to take a taxi to our accommodation, which negotiates the traffic with ease and within 30 minutes we are delivered to our Accommodation for the next 3 nights. Citadenes Central Shinjuku Apartments. The room is small but adequate and we unload our bags and head out for a walk to stretch our legs after flying.

It’s now getting dark and the streets light up with neon signs, fairy lights and vehicle lights. The sidewalks are a sea of people and small cafes/ food kiosks line the streets. We just wander to get our bearings and see what is in the area. After an hour or so of wandering we grab a quick bite to eat (at Burger King). Not very Japanese but our brains are still in flight mode and it was easy to grab and eat in our room.

After a shower and a read we hit the sack for hopefully a good nights sleep.

Day 2 Shinjuku

We both slept reasonably well and woke keen to get going and explore. First up is a walk to find where we need to go tomorrow morning to meet our tour. About 30 minutes away. We followed Google maps which gave us a wandering way to get there but discovered a shorter way on our return trip. Back to the Apartment to shed our jackets for lighter ones and some breakfast and then we are off to the train station to find our way to Nippori Textile District about a 40 minute train ride away. After asking at several places we finally got to the right spot and found the ticket booth, purchased our tickets, $2 each, and found the platform we needed, waited for the train and climbed aboard with multitude others. After several stops we grabbed a seat to enjoy the rest of the ride. 10 stops on and we arrive at Nippori and head out of the station to find signs pointing us in the direction of the textile district. This area is much quieter and less people about so ambling along the footpath checking out the shops is quite pleasurable. There are many shops containing everything from leather to silk, buttons to buckles, dress fabric, upholstery, quilting and everything in between. The shops are packed with every sort of fabric you could dream of, you just need to know what you want. Tomato is a popular store, 5 shops actually each containing different merchandise. The main store has one level devoted to quilting fabric And another level had some lovely silks. Further along the road we found Mihama Kimono fabric. Some beautiful samples here, some of which may be coming back to Tasmania.

Heading back towards the train station we find a little cafe with a small store front where we purchase some lovely noodles and drinks for lunch. We head upstairs to find two more levels for seating and eating. Our meals were both very tasty and once we were refueled we headed back to the train station to find our way back to Shinjuku and our accommodation.

After a short rest we pick up the camera and start up Google maps to find our way to the Shinjuku Goyen National Garden. In the early years the garden became an agricultural experiment station and then in 1906 it was made into an Imperial Garden. After the war in 1949 it was opened to the public as a national garden. There are approximately 900 cherry trees of about 70 varieties ranging from early to late blooming. While the first flush of flowers is finishing the blossoms still made a wonderful show and we were only two of many hundreds of people enjoying the blossoms. Another item ticked off my bucket list.

(P:- Judith has for many years wanted to see the Cherry Blossoms in Japan. After around 600 days of planning , day one obliged with good weather for walking and wandering some of this large city. Tokyo (or what we have seen so far) isn’t as modern as I expected but everything is clean and the people we have encountered have been friendly and helpful. Not sure that the Cherry Blossoms were high on my bucket list in Japan but they were/are beautiful and some of the trees where huge both in girth and height! Judith did “well” with fabric purchases which we will categorise as souvenirs. It appears Phil gained extra baggage weight to carry around for the next 80 days and zero souvenirs!)