Tokyo, Winter 2008 – Day 1

(26 December 2008)

View from our room at Nishi-Shinjuku Hotel. The garbage truck…

The room – a semi-double

The hotel

Checked-out and left our luggage with the reception to be picked up later in the day as the check-in time for the apartment is not till 3pm. Then breakfast at Mos Burger on the main street, near the hotel.

At Mos Burger, your orders that can’t be served to you when you place the order are brought out to you, unlike most fast food chains. A number for your order is given to you, as shown by the ’27′ on the left in the photo below.

Ours…

After the meal, we went to hunt for the apartment so that we know the exact location when we have our luggage with us. After some searching and enquiring at a koban, we found Palacestudio Apartments. Ours was #905 (Apt 5 on the 9th floor).
getting a hotto kouhi in a can from a vending machine at the main entrance to the apartment building

an interesting product

We then headed to the Tokyo Metropolitan Goverment Building which was just a little further up on the opposite side of the road.

The view from the Observatory at Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, also known as To-cho

bird’s eye view of Meiji Jingu and Yoyogi Park

We were quite fortunate to be able to see Mt Fuji in the distance

Shinjuku and beyond

around the observatory

Next, we headed to Subaru Shinjuku. It was a smalll showroom and housed only 2 cars.

getting a drink after Subaru Shinjuku

at Mosaic Street next to the West exit of Shinjuku Station

we bought our first item here, a mechanical pencil that looked like a wooden pencil

The second ranKing ranQueen store

Walked around the Takashimaya area before heading back to the hotel

We went back to the hotel to get our luggage at around 3.30pm and wheeled our luggages all the way to the apartment. It was a fair walk as we are still not familiar with the area and took the long way.
Next to the To-cho. The apartment building is further up on the right, with the higway at the front

Arrived and found our key inside the codelocked mailbox as per the agent’s instructions. Unlocked and found the key housed inside a keybox, which took a while to figure out how to open as there were no instructions. A little ironic that we managed to unlock and get the key but had problems opening the keybox.