Arriving in Shinjuku, Japan.

Monday, February 6-Tuesday, February 7, 2023

Off to Japan

We arrived at HKG airport three hours early before taking a red-eye at 1:25AM and flew to Japan. Since we're usually in bed by 10PM we were pretty tired. We parked ourselves at the gate and took a nap. We were awoken by staff saying: "Are you taking this flight? It's time to board." Mom and I looked around and the entire gate area was empty. We were he last ones to board the plane. Oops. Good thing staff came to wake us up or we wouldv'e missed the flight. 

We arrived at Narita Airport and I went to pick up our JR Railpass that I had preordered in the US. 

We took the JR train to Shinjuku station. When we arrived at Shinjuku, I thought we had gotten off at the wrong stop. Our hotel is in Tokyo by the Shinjuku Station, but for some reason, I thought we were supposed to get off in Tokyo. After asking three people and being helped by all of them, I walked over to the staff in the station booths and showed them the hotel address. They directed us to exit South Gate. I used Google Maps to direct us to walk the 15 minutes to the hotel and we found it!

PS: Shinjuki Station is the busiest station with 3.6 million riders/passengers going through here a day. No wonder I felt so lost!

We're staying at the Shinjuku Washington Main Hotel. We arrived before teh 2PM check in time and dropped off our luggage at the reception and went to lunch. 

The hotel building has quite a few restaurants to choose from. We didn't look too long and decided on this tomato spot. Mom had ramen with pork and I had ramen with tomato and egg. 

We took a 15 minute walk to Takashima Tokyo Hands since it wasn't time to check in. 

Walked every level of Tokyo Hands and checked out all the goods. I wouldn't say things are expensive or cheap compared to US. You just don't have to pay taxes here. We don't really have that much luggage space, so we'll have to be very selective about our purchases. Mom is already asking me for luggage space. 

After Tokyo Hands, we checked in to the hotel and took a nap. Good to listen to our bodies and rest. 

Took a short walk from our building and into another one and found this spot. It was pretty busy so we decided to eat here. Saw a TripAdvisor recommendation sticker too!

Ordered gyoza and egg over rice. Mom said this is THE BEST meal she's had on the trip so far. I clarified and asked: On the trip to Japan? or including Hong Kong too?

She said including Hong Kong too. She can easily chew the food. She loved the think skin on the gyoza. It was pretty good!

I wanted to try out the Pachinko machines at Fresco which is also in our building. I had no clue on how to play and had to ask the staff person how to put the money in, get a playing card, which button to push the ball out, how to stop/pause the balls. In Pachinko, there are many tiny balls vs the bigger ball in pinball machines. I don't even know how many balls you get in pinball- maybe three?

 I wanted to step outside and get some fresh air. I would've liked to take a walk around, but I knew that mom wanted to go back to the room. It felt so good to be outside in the crisp air.