Day 3 : Shinjuku
It was our first exploration day and we didn't know what to expect. We had a lot to learn in such a short time like how the train lines work, how to read their map and how to find places. So we started with Shinjuku.
We used the Tokyo Handy Guide to navigate. Our main destination was Daiso that we Googled the night before - to buy some things that we needed like : rain poncho, pouch and tote bag. *note : This was my first mistake - pointing out that the place was nearby because we thought that it would be easy to use the map.
I was wrong because :
1. The road was confusing, the place was huge and we were lost. We couldn't find the buildings we were searching for and we kept on going and circling the place. Imagine being lost in a city =.=
2. It's not nearby anymore when you are lost.
We finally found the Daiso after awhile and bought those things.
It was already reaching afternoon, so we needed to eat our lunch because we were getting tired and hungry *we already bought several onigiris in the morning. We checked the map along the road and saw that the Shinjuku Central Park was 300 meters from where we were.
It was our first park :D
I was excited to finally find one. There were birds and the sound of insects, creating a loud symphony of nature. It was beautiful. We found chairs and table to put out our onigiris. There was a girl, eating her lunch while studying. There was an office boy with 2 packs of bento. There were 2 men chatting while resting right behind us.
As we walked to explore the place after we had lunch, we found a nice shrine in a secluded area surrounded by trees :D It was our first shrine. The place was peaceful and silent. I saw several foreigners like us taking pictures, small family taking a formal family portraits in suits and kimono, people came and washed their hand, ring the big bell and clapped their hands twice to pray.
Later I researched and found out that it was the Kumano Shrine :
As we walked to explore the place after we had lunch, we found a nice shrine in a secluded area surrounded by trees :D It was our first shrine. The place was peaceful and silent. I saw several foreigners like us taking pictures, small family taking a formal family portraits in suits and kimono, people came and washed their hand, ring the big bell and clapped their hands twice to pray.
Later I researched and found out that it was the Kumano Shrine :
*
After that we planned our next stop. I wanted to go to the 5-floors Kinokuniya and Shinjuku Gyoen. Surprise, surprise, we were lost again. We started at the Shinjuku Station again, but we failed to figure out where we were heading because there were many buildings with same name like Lumine 1 and Lumine 2 across the road, Shinjuku Station for this and that side of the road - like whaaat. =.= We keep on going in a circle.
We finally found Tokyu Hands & Kinokuniya, but we didn't buy anything. It was getting late. We headed to Shinjuku Gyoen Central Park afterwards and got trapped in the maze again =.= Finally when we arrived at the park, it was already closing. Can you imagine my frustration during that time? We got lost so many times and we didn't really reach our goals. T^T
Shinjuku Gyoen Park is located near the Shinjuku Station, but you need to walk for 10-15 minutes if you know where you are heading. You need to pay 200yen to enter and it only opens from 9.00am - 4.00pm. There are French style garden, British and Japanese landscape garden as well. Too bad we missed that :(
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Note : Later we found out that we missed the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building as well while we were exactly there to go to Daiso. The building got a free-to-go observation deck on the 45th floor :( How can we missed that!
Public transport spent : 648 yen
Public transport spent : 648 yen
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