After another big buffet breakfast we headed out to Shinjuku Gyoen to meet Bec’s friends, it wasn’t many stops on the train and we got there a little early so we strolled around the park taking in the sights.
It’s a great spot for hanami, there are a lot of cherry blossoms here! We came here at the perfect time too, most of the trees had blossoms, the weather was pretty nice and there were people everywhere! There were kids running around, lots of photographers, people sleeping, meditating, painting, sketching, a few in traditional Japanese outfits, some playing music and even a couple doing acro-yoga.
We met up with Alice, Arisu and Kanzan for a little picnic. It was so nice for Steve to meet them for the first time and for me to meet little Kanzan! It was almost exactly 3 years ago when I came last to Tokyo for Arisu and Alice’s wedding. Kanzan had so much energy and is so much like his father, this massive park was the perfect place for him to spend it! It was so lovely to catch up in a beautiful park with small bites in the lovely sun. We can’t wait to see Arisu, Alice and Kanzan in Melbourne soon 😉.
After a nice picnic we spent a little more time in the park exploring and taking photos. It is a very picturesque place! I felt like I should have brought my dSLR (which I’ve been leaving in the hotel), but my phone was doing fairly well and it much lighter!
Last night we went in search of matcha soft serve and couldn’t find any but on the way out of the park there was a small stand selling it along with a few other little desserts!
On our way back from Shinjuku gyoen to the station I saw a mochi place and thought we should try one while we’re here. We bought mochi with red bean and shared it on the street! We then ventured to Isetan food market to check out all the food and bought one gyoza each just to try! After that we went to the station to buy our bullet train tickets for our trip to Izu tomorrow 😁.
While looking around for dinner we passed through Kabukicho and thought why not go through the iconic red light district of Shinjuku. We passed the famous robot show that Tokyo is known for. There were a couple of robots you could pose with so we decided to do a selfie with others on the robots in the background 🙄.
For dinner we went in search for a sushi train restaurant and found one not too far away. Unlike a lot of sushi train places that have dishes going around for the picking, this one has screens at each seat where you place an order and the dish comes flying out from the back at a pretty quick pace and stops right on front of you It was pretty cool! There was also matcha tea which made Bec happy!
We picked up a few little snacks from the nearby convenience store for dessert and relaxed for our last night in this fancy hotel.