Japan - First Night - Shinjuku

Shinjuku, Tokyo.

Our trip to Japan finally got off the ground. It was hit and miss as far as flying on standby was concerned for Naomi and I. But we were able to leave on November 18th.

Flying in business class is pretty sweet. I guess that's one of the perks of working for an airline. It's going to be hard to go back to economy in the future, that's for sure.

We arrived at Haneda in Tokyo in the late afternoon on Tuesday. Naomi immediately transferred (on standby again) to another flight to her hometown of Osaka. I headed up to Shinjuku Station where I was scheduled to take the 11:15 p.m. night bus to Nara.

This was my second time to Japan. The first was in 2007 with Diane. On that trip I spent time in Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto with side trips to other cities and attractions in the vicinity. This time I thought I'd like to go somewhere different.

I picked Nara because of a picture book on World Heritage Sites in Japan that I took out from the library. There seemed to be a number of beautiful temples there.

Originally I wanted to stay there two days and one night, but circumstances didn't work out. Partially it was because of the busy time (Labor Thanksgiving Day in Japan was celebrated on Sunday, November 23rd) and partially because of our unsure travel times. So I ended up pretty much making it a day trip.

Anyway, in Tokyo I had quite a bit of time to kill. From the airport I believe I took the Keikyu Line to Sengakuji on the Toei Asakusa Line (A7). After tranferring I took the subway to the Daimon station on the Toei Oedo Line (A9/E20). Then I took the Oedo (E) subway up to Shinjuku Station (E1/E27).

After departing the station I asked friendly strangers for directions to the nearby Willer bus stop. That's the company I was using to go to Nara. It's on the west side of the station perhaps 5 minutes away providing you go out the correct exit. Many of Tokyo's train/subway stations have multiple exits.

I wandered the area taking a bunch of photos then stopped for a bowl of Udon noodles with pork for Y500. That's about equivalent to $5 Canadian.

Shinjuku is pretty amazing. It's busy beyond compare. The night life has a life of it's own. There are bars, restaurants, clubs... what have you. Everything to keep you entertained all night long. There were plenty of things to take pictures of that's for sure.