I managed to get some decent sleep after yesterday’s long day of eating, walking, shopping, eating, walking, shopping, eating, eating, and eating (obviously nine different things haha) – my jetlag has started to die down quite a bit since waking up at 6am.
One of the things that I really like about this AirBnb that I’m staying at in Shinjuku is that there’s just so much personal touch and style to this place – from the Gundam models (scattered all over the place) and the random posters of things such as the “Pasadena Rose Bowl” (which I’ve mentioned in a previous post in which I thought it was nice to see – what a small world that something related to Pasadena (a city in Southern California that I grew up close to + being the first place where I had my first gig after college)), to artsy designs on everyday things like these two cats surrounding a power switch. I feel like this fits so well with an AirBnb, and it gives off the host’s personality, how they like to live, and what kind of things they like and interests they have without spelling it out. It has a charm and a spirit that reminds me of Nintendo.
As mentioned at the very end of my last post, I have plans to hit up Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden (新宿御苑), which is a large, national park that is located in both Shinjuku and Shibuya via Tokyo; however, I wanted to stop by somewhere along the way for some coffee or something before I get to the park at 9am (right when they open for the day) – a nice 16 minute walk from my Shinjuku AirBnb for this coffee shop called Caffé Veloce.
There’s a set of basement stairs that lead to the coffee shop, and right when I started going down the stairs, I was immediately hearing violin music (which a variety of different violin tunes would play all throughout my visit). I might be reaching for this one, but I thought that the slow-medium pace of the violin tunes were ironic given that the name of the coffee shop has the name “Veloce” in it (which means fast in Italian) – quite a contrast it was.
With my limited/basic Japanese, I was able to order a medium sized hot coffee without barely using English! (although, it was instantly conspicuous to the lady taking my coffee order that I wasn’t from around here given how my Japanese was while ordering the coffee haha, dang it!)
As expected, I enjoyed this hot coffee with a bit of cream (I forgot whether it’s 2% or whole milk…it’s been a while since i’ve used either one since I usually use either unsweetened almond or oat milk whenever I drink coffee) + THAT SUGAR SYRUP. YOOOOOOO OKAY. LET. ME. TELL. YOU – this sugar syrup stuff is just too good. It’s pretty addicting to add to coffee, and I’m only going to make an exception this trip to use sugar syrup since well…I’m on vacation and…whatever! Gotta enjoy coffee with a bit of sweetness from time to time anyway. CHYEAH you know what I’m sayin’?!
It was nice to chill here for about 30-35 minutes. After leaving the coffee shop, I walked a short 3 minutes to reach the entrance of Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden.
I arrived at around 8:50am (10 minutes before they open the gates to the National Park), and there were already people outside waiting to get in.
Only ¥500 for entry? HELL TO THE YEAH – that’s a decent price for one of Tokyo’s largest and most popular parks!
Coming into visiting this place, I wasn’t sure what to expect besides trees and a bunch of green like what we have here in Portland’s Japanese Garden – which by the way is on one of my favorite places here in the city – however, it was totally different than that.
Even though there were pathways with trees that enclosed 2/3s of the sky in certain parts, it was a very open park that had this peaceful, quiet spirit about it.
I’m glad that I visited at a time when I was still able to see different color leaves (like how we have it here back home in Portland – red, violet, orange, etc.)
There were about a handful of these traditional Japanese house structures in the park, and when you entered, you would see a view like in the picture below.
This is totally wallpaper worthy – I had this as my mobile phone wallpaper at some point.
Even though the sun was really bright, I definitely enjoyed taking these sort of pictures that made the water glimmer with the reflection of the trees shine with it.
This was one of the many chrysanthemum flower beds / arrangements that pervaded throughout the national park. It’s part of the two-week-long chrysanthemum exhibition that they have in the fall season – Perfect timing, chyeah.
~ Side Note #20: https://www.timeout.com/tokyo/things-to-do/chrysanthemum-exhibition (as quoted from this page): “Just as cherry blossom is the representation of spring in Japan, chrysanthemum (or kiku in Japanese) is the symbol of autumn. More importantly, it is the ‘royal flower’ of Japan – the Imperial Seal of Japan is also known as the Chrysanthemum Seal. At Shinjuku Gyoen, this annual exhibition (since 1929) highlight the regal blooms under protective awnings. They are a sight to behold, and perfect for your Instagram, too.” ~
I can’t get enough of these pathways with the trees in that sort of formation. I think there’s a term for this, no?
More of the flower beds via the two-week-long chrysanthemum exhibition.
A nice variety and just the way they all stand up like that…it’s just really pleasant to see.
This is one of my favorite flower arrangements they have here – for some odd reason, it reminds me of the Spartans (with the strong group of 300) in the Battle of Thermopylae where they had all of the soldiers forming this kind of shield barrier (by having their shields raised up – protecting their bodies as much as possible) to fend off incoming arrows that were multiplicative.
One of the lone islands here in the park – the reflection though! Beautiful.
While I was crossing the bridge and around this area, I met a family of three who were from the LA area – primarily the 626 (aka San Gabriel Valley…like me! I grew up in the 626 btw). What a small world. It was pretty dope talking to the family and just conversing a bit about Japan, LA, and even my adopted home in Portland – seriously though, what were the chances that I would encounter / meet people from the 626 all the way here in Japan? hell yeah dude…that’s just unreal.
I’m not quite certain what that building is (until I just looked it up recently to find out that it’s the NTT Docomo Yoyogi Building) – it’s the fourth tallest building in all of Tokyo. I have to say – it fits pretty well with the garden at this juncture.
Haha OH HELL YEAH you know I like them chrysanthemum flower beds and arrangements. There’s just something about it…maybe I just love chrysanthemums in general – I used to have an obsession with VITA chrysanthemum tea (along with VITA lemon tea back in the college days). Chrysanthemum is usually one of the main things that my family and I love to have in our tea whenever we go to Chinese restaurants in the 626 area (especially during dim sum sessions – soul good).
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my experience at Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden (新宿御苑) – this was a nicely timed visit since the previous two days were just all about trying all these different foods and visiting places in such a go-go-go format. Definitely a great way to finish up my time here in Tokyo before I take the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Shizuoka.
HOLD UP! Before I went back to my Shinjuku Airbnb to gather my belongings and walk over to the nearest train station (to head over to Shizuoka by Shinkansen), I needed to stop by a foreign exchange shop called “The World Currency Shop” in Shinjuku. I talked to my close friend Tony about where to do currency exchange prior to this trip, and he mentioned that he did his currency exchange (from USD to JPY) at one of the local places he found on yelp / trip advisor in the city – so I did just that and found this particular shop in Shinjuku. I was the first customer (I got there about a few minutes before they opened at around 10:30am) there. The timing could not have been more perfect since I had to checkout of my Shinjuku Airbnb by 11am.
The lady handling my transaction was super nice and very courteous about it – we definitely must have exchanged 4-5 bows to each other during my visit there (as I’ve mentioned in a previous blog post, this sort of gesture is quite the norm in Japan)
Given that the current USD to JPY was 1 US Dollar = 108.97 Japanese Yen on that day (I googled it while I was walking to the shop), with my limited / basic Japanese + some English, I was able to exchange $400 USD to ¥42,480 (the exchange rate they gave me at this store was 1 US Dollar = 106.20 Japanese Yen), which honestly was a lot better than if I were to do it at any of the Tokyo train stations or at the Narita Intl. Airport (which I considered doing on the first day I arrived in Japan, but to my better judgment and with Tony’s advice, I decided against doing that since the exchange rate at those places were 1 US Dollar = around 102 or 103 Japanese Yen). Good stuff! I definitely felt relieved that I was offered a decent exchange rate.
~ The player’s strategy #4 ~>I figured that this was a good time to exchange my $400 USD (that I brought just in case, thank goodness I did) since I was pretty cognizant of the fact that Japan is more of a cash-based society – it’s much better to bring cash and not always have to rely on credit to purchase / pay for stuff (plus, there was that apprehension of my BOA travel credit card getting rejected at random – it’s unpredictable. -_-) ~
I walked back to my Shinjuku Airbnb and got there around 10:50am, gathered my belongings, wrote a letter in Min’s + Harumi’s guestbook (writing things such as thanking them so much for letting me stay and that I would definitely highly recommend anyone that I know to stay at their place who’s looking to find a nice place to crash/stay in Tokyo), left them a bunch of my pocket coin change (I think it was at least ¥500 or ¥600 worth), and left the AirBnb right around 11am.
~ Side Note #21: Unfortunately, I didn’t get to say thank you to Min and Harumi in person, which is why I figured that writing in their guestbook would suffice. Also, for the record, y’all should definitely consider staying here if you’re looking to visit Tokyo (especially Shinjuku – let me know if you want a link to their AirBnb – I’d be more than happy to share it with y’all!) ~
On the way to Shin-Ōkubo Station (which is where I need to go to take a 22 minute train ride to Shinagawa Station, where I can take the Shinkansen to head over to Shizuoka Station to get to Shizuoka), I walked by this dog cafe called Bistro Love Dog. Apparently, you could pet their dogs and if you really really like one of them, you could ask to adopt them (as I’ve learned about later on)
Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to stop by inside and check it out (since I had to make sure I get to the Yamanote Line on time to head to Shinagawa Station). Seems pretty dope though!
As expected, the Yamanote line got to Shinagawa Station right on time (11:41am…man these Japanese trains are so punctual.)
The station wasn’t that crowded, so it wasn’t too bad walking to platform #24 (not like how it was in Nagoya, which I’ll get into in a future blog post later this year)
It was a decent 9 minute walk to Platform #24 (with some time left to spare).
That about wraps it up with my time in Tokyo this trip (for now). I’m gonna end this post on this note – Tokyo’s pretty dope and there was quite a lot to eat and take in, but I’m more hyped for the cities that I haven’t been to yet (including my next stop – Shizuoka).
I cannot wait to share my experience about these next cities with y’all. Deuces for now.
Cheers / Wave
Listen to what you see. 