Tokyo Day 2 - Shinjuku

Today we arrived at the fish market just before 8:30 AM beating at least some of the crowd.  There are a few stalls that are very popular and we are hoping the lines are not going to be too bad.

The first popular stall is the Tamago or Egg Omelet stall called Marutake.  When we arrived the line was pretty short and moved very quickly.  Tamago is a sweet egg omelet that is usually served as sushi, but in this case it was on a stick and was fluffy, sweet, and delicious. And for the price (¥150 => $1.08 USD) it was the perfect way to start our morning,

The plan was for Tim to get a skewer of Wagu Beef this morning, but the line was particularly long already.  I think maybe a tour group got there just before we did, so he decided to skip it for today.

Our next stop was a place that specializes in grilled sticks of Eel and Scallops.  These are pretty nice servings and tasted really good.

Next is something i never heard of and saw in a YouTube video...Tsukuki Age which is Mustard, Mayonnaise, Crab flavored Fishcake.  Tim and I shared it and it was really good with a very obvious mustard flavor.

I was pretty full at this point, but because Tim missed out on his Wagu, I found him some Chicken Teriyaki on a stick which made him happy....can't you tell by the look on his face?!?

Oh...this is interesting.  In Japan it is frowned upon to eat with walking around outside.  This seems like an odd rule, especially in an area selling food on a stick, but you are supposed to buy the food and eat in in front of the stall you bought it at and not walking to the next stall.  There are even signs stating such.

After our market breakfast, we headed to the train station and caught the train to the area of Tokyo called Shinjuku.

Our first stop is the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden, on of Japan's many National Parks.  What a beautiful day to walk around this garden.  There were amazing trees, flowers, wildlife, and many people just out enjoying the park.  There were basically 5 areas of the garden: Mother and Child Woods, Japanese Traditional Garden, Formal (English) Garden, Landscape Garden, and a Greenhouse.

Tim took over the photo taking, so there are many flower pictures.  Here is just a couple.

The greenery in areas of the garden was so beautiful.

This is the area of Bald Cypress trees.

As you can imagine, the Japanese Garden was definitely a highlight.

Tim took many, many photos inside the greenhouse.  Here is just a small sample:

Back outside we actually laid down in the grass for a bit to relax and rest our tired feet.  It was only 12:30 PM and we had already walked quite a bit.

After our rest, we decided to find lunch somewhere to all for a bit more rest.  I found a Ramen place that looked good and we even waited on a line for about 10 minutes until we got to the ordering machine and there was not an option for "no meat" so we left.  There was a menu to a place that was actually upstairs from the Ramen place, so we headed up and ordered a lunch set.  Tim had Chicken Mayonnaise and I had Grilled Salmon and Mackerel.  It was good...not the best, but good.  

As we were finishing we smelled smoke and realized that smoking was actually allowed in this place.  This was a lesson learned that there are restaurants here that actually allow smoking. We will be careful to ensure that smoking is not allowed next time we eat inside a restaurant.  

This building is appropriately called The Cocoon.  

Next on the agenda it to go to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building where there is Free observation deck at 45th floor.  There is actually a north and south building and both have observation decks.  I did some research and found out that the south observation deck is closed on the first and third Tuesday of the month, so we headed to the north building.

It was quite a long walk to get there and it was actually all underground which was interesting.  I think it took us about 20 minutes to get there and when we finally arrived, it was closed for some reason.  The entrance clearly showed the hours and that it should be opened, but it wasn't and the guard just told us to come back tomorrow.

So...we headed all the way back the way we came...all underground back close to where we had lunch.  Next on the agenda is to walk around a couple of neighborhoods in the area, but they are really areas that you want to see later in the day when it starts getting dark.  We found a place to sit and contemplate what to do next when Tim spotted a British Pub at the end of the road.   We decided to walk that way when I spotted Kirin City on the left.  Kirin is  well known Japanese beer and this seemed to be a company bar, so we opted for that and had a couple of beers that we took our time drinking as we figured out what to do,

We thought, why not find another brewery as we wait for it to get later before headed to the night areas?  On the way, we came across Godzilla!  Cool!  I guess that is our scared faces?

We found the Brewery Beer Kobo in the basement of an office building.  It was fun watching business people walking by and going up and down the escalator right next to us.  We kept wondering what our lives would have been like if we had a brewery in the basement of the building we worked in...it probably wouldn't have been good.   😎

After the pint, it was late enough to head to the Golden Gai district.  We headed upstairs only to find out that it was pouring outside.  I guess we will have to postpone this night walk for another evening.  But, a little bit of rain shouldn't stop us from visiting one more brewery...right?  

It was only a 12 minute walk with most of it is underground, so we managed to stay pretty dry.  This is Y.Y.G. Brewery.  I have no idea what Y.Y.G. stands for, but the beer was super good.

We each had a pint and ordered some mixed nuts and olives to go with it.  By 8:30 PM we were beat and headed back to the train station and back to the apartment.  We were pretty hungry, but it was too late to eat anything.  No worries...the plan for tomorrow is to go to a very popular conveyer-belt sushi place for when they open at 11 AM, so we will won't be hungry for long.

Until then...