But firstly – some notes on our meal last night.

Mick had a beer in the bar at our hotel before I joined him for a glass of wine. We then headed across the road to quite a large restaurant we had spotted when we arrived. Luckily we got a seat, but things went downhill from there.

We had to use a tablet (device) on the table to order our meals and drinks; and while English was an option, neither of us possessed the skills needed for this task. I insisted we leave and Mick was far from happy with me. But I had spotted several small restaurants as well close to our hotel. We ended up dining in a very small, traditional restaurant (with 6 tables), that accepted only cash.

Wine is not listed on menus in local restaurants – the choices are beer, sake or shochu.

It was a wonderful meal and experience, but for tonight, Mick is hoping to find an izakaya ( a very small restaurant space where you sit at the bar around the chef), like the ones he went to during his visit to Japan in February.

As I mentioned yesterday, Shinjuku is famous as a commuting hub. In fact, it is the busiest train station in the world!!! When I read that, I remembered that Kubiko told us yesterday that Japan liked to be the best or biggest in ‘thingos’. Bingo!

After learning that fact, I was even more impressed with Mick’s and my efforts yesterday in buying and catching a train to Shinjuku Station from Tokyo Station during Friday peak hour. In reality, we just were pushed along by throngs of people and hoped we were going in the right direction.

Today we ventured from our hotel, in initially cloudy conditions, to observe more closely the neighbouring streets in this ward (suburb). In fact, I had an ulterior motive, I wanted us to locate the meeting place for our next excursion in a few days time. It was just over a kilometre from our hotel, and the instructions said it would be hard to miss.

From here we went in search of a famous street, Omoide Yokocho (Memories Alley), as I was confident that this street would have the little restaurants Mick wanted to visit.

The darkened alley beneath the bright orange flowers contained many izakayas, but few were opened at the time of our visit, and all of them had signs in English saying “No Photos”. According to the brochures, the history of this street goes back 70 years. We ventured back during the early evening hoping to get a space at one for us to enjoy a drink and a meal. But I’ll have to write about that experience in a separate post!

After leaving Memories Alley we went in search of Kabukicho – apparently one of the biggest entertainment districts in Japan, featuring many restaurants, hotels, bars, amusements arcades and a statue of Godzilla’s head. The time of our visit was late morning and most places were closed, or preparing for the next opening. I said to Mick that I was glad we were not walking around here too late at night.

Just across from a famous building – Tokyo Kabukicho Tower (with two hotels, night clubs and a theatre) we noticed several, orderly lines of (mostly) young men; around 50 people in each line. There were 6 lines. Then we noticed that the first line was invited to follow an important-looking man to the entry of a building. Here they displayed their phones (possibly with a QR entry code) and where then given the nod to enter. The building was Maruhan Shinjuku Toho Building. Then the other lines followed, one at a time until all the people were inside.

But what for??

To play pachinko machines apparently. This spot has 1,160 machines, 704 are pachinko, and 456 pachi-slots, which are similar to slot machines.

Pachinko is a mechanical game originating in Japan that is used as an arcade game, and much more frequently for gambling. Pachinko fills a niche in Japanese gambling comparable to that of the slot machine in the West as a form of low-stakes, low-strategy gambling.Robot Restaurant

The whole area is filled with things to see. Huge billboards and screens featuring movies, adds and clever technologies to mesmerise you. This video is 8 seconds long and is worth a look.

Shinjuku certainly has a lot to see and do!