Shinjuku City

We returned to Tokyo late morning and arrived in Shinjuku City shortly after. According to G Adventures, this would be the second last day, because they always call the next day where we check out of the hotel as being part of the tour, though there is never any touring.

On this occasion we arrived to our last hotel on the tour, retro (in the old not so cool way), Hotel Sunroute Plaza Shinjuku, just too early to check-in. Instead, we made plans. Some of the group travelled across Tokyo to go to the fish markets and Shibuya Crossing, but as that was our plan later in our trip, we decided to stay local, before we met up with the rest of the crew for dinner.

Our first visit was to walk around Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden just east of Shinjuku City. It cost us JPY500 per person, giving us full access to the whole park, which is definitely a whole day activity. It gave us symmetrical gardens, Zen gardens, a selection of reflective ponds and a greenhouse filled with weird and wonderful indigenous and exotic plants. Here is a photo dump!

We had a quick budget lunch and then caught the trains to the south and visited Meiji Jingu, a Shinto shrine nestled in a large wooded area with large avenues to and from it. Entry was free, and it was pretty impressive.

By 4pm, we returned to the hotel ready to check-in properly and a couple of hours later we went for a walk through the narrow Shinjuku Golden Gai alley ways, full of tiny bars and tinier taverns. In the old days it was all red light districts, but nowadays it was much more modern, less seedy but still tiny.