Tokyo Spring Day 7: 19th April 2012

 

 

For the past few days, I was thinking if it's the end of hanami season but not after we visited Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden. As we stayed in Shinjuku area, there's no reason why we should give Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden a miss. This is definitely a must-go garden in Tokyo, especially in Spring, because this place was filled with many cherry blossom species. Shinjuku Gyoen has more than 20,000 trees, including approximately 1,500 cherry trees which bloom from late March to late April.

The gardens have three access gates: Shinjuku Gate, Okido Gate and Sendagaya Gate. As I was a bit lazy to walk, we took off on Marunouchi subway line, and stopped at Shinjuku Gyo-en Mae station, which was a short distance away from the Shinjuku Gyoen. Look out for Shinjuku Mon Exit 1. (Mon means Gate) which means you will be led to Shinjuku Gate.

Follow the signage showing Shinjuku Gate.

After 5 minutes walk, here's the Shinjuku Gate entrance.

Purchased the admission tickets at the machine, 200 yen for an adult and 50 yen for a kid.

Slot in the tickets to pass through. Remember to get a Shinjuku Gyoen map from the Information Counter nearby to navigate around the gardens.

Maple leaves, wonder if Shinjuku Gyoen would be covered with fiery red and orangy hues in autumn. It would be lovely if I could visit this place again in November...:D

 

OK, just one close-up cherry blossom photo...actually there were tons of them, but not to bore you out!

 

This gardens were full of cotton candy look alike sakura flowers.

Many school children were out for camping and picnic under these lovely sakura trees. The gardens are a favourite hanami (cherry-blossom viewing) spot, and large crowds can be found in the park during cherry blossom season.

A pair of old couples were seen snapping pictures away in the garden. They started to chat with us in Japanese....although we couldn't understand each other, but they seemed so happy to know that we were from Singapore. I personally find that old people, especially obasans in Japan are very cheerful, friendly and kawaii. They love to mingle with tourists like us, though they hardly speak our language but they would just ramble on.

A tip to share: If you love to take your time to cover the whole Shinjuku Gyoen in Spring, relax and enjoy the view of beautiful sakura, embrace the meaning of hanami viewing like the locals do, bring your own bento and lunch while picnicking under full bloom sakura tree.

We didn't bring any bento with us, and after a while we heard our rumbling tummies. We walked to a small rest house where they sell coffee, snacks and sandwiches. Grabbed some sandwiches and hot coffee.

The gardens, which are 58.3 hectares in area with a circumference of 3.5km, blend in three garden styles: French Formal, English Landscape and Japanese traditional. A traditional Japanese tea house can also be found within the gardens.

 

 

Wear a pair of comfortable shoes, as you need a lot of walking.

I put on my high dunk Nike shoes which I bought from Harajuku. Super comfy and extra light.

There are so much that you can do here....painting, school outings, picnicking, photo-shooting, taking a slow walk and enjoy the scenery around the gardens.

 

Below was at the French Garden.

 

The fragile beauty of sakura petals created a scene of snowy soft pink flurry as the wind blew. It was trully a magical moment. Just sit and relax under a sakura tree, and enjoy the view.

 

There's no rush, we left all worries behind and immersed ourselves in the beauty of GOD's creation and stunning nature.

On the way back, we decided to stop by Isetan for lunch at the depachika (department storefood halls), which is normally at the basement of the major department stores. Presentation and packaging are the key components of Japanese culture, and probably the most elaborate at depachika.

We got ourselves some cute sesame paste panda bun and azuki paste beary bun...

 

And smoked salmon potato salad, steamed siew mai, and bento boxes lunch.

 

After getting so much stuffs, we couldn't find a place to sit down. At the end, we walked all the way back to the hotel room to eat our lunch.

So much food, and we felt so sleepy. Took a few hours nap, refreshed ourselves, and checked out Kabukicho in the late evening. Kabukicho is a red-light district in Shinjuku, where you can find many host and hostess clubs, love hotels, shops, restaurants, and nightclubs, and is often called a "Sleepless Town".

It is accessible on foot located at the East Exit of Shinjuku.

Many spruikers around Kabukicho, mostly wearing black suits, polished leather shoes, and long trendy hair. They normally are seen standing outside business places like nightclubs, host and hostess clubs, trying to persuade patrons to enter. Not to be mistaken with yakuza or Japanese mafia they are actually quite friendly. Some even willing to pose for a picture or take picture with tourists like what I did below.

Found a yakitori (grilled chicken) shop in Kabukicho. English menu was provided giving us the convenience in ordering our food. A waiter was so kind to offer us a thick blanket, worried if we would catch cold. Night during spring can be a bit chilly in Tokyo.

Yakitori is somekind of izakaya dining. Locals especially working men tend to hang around izakaya which are casual places for after-work drinking. Izakaya serves food and drinks like beer or alcoholic drink.

 

Yakitori which is basically barbequed chicken on skewers, dipped in barbecue sauce, grilled to perfection over hot charcoal, and is then best washed down with a cold beer. There are a list of chicken dishes to choose from like chicken wings, tender white-meat chicken breast fillets, chicken-leg chunks, chicken livers and other internal organs, ground-chicken meatballs (tsukune), and chicken skin. You can choose to have your yakitori dipped in BBQ sauce or just sprinkled with salt before grilling. We had a plate of assorted sashimi, some chicken meat and innards grilled with BBQ sauce and cold beer.

 

 

Azuki (red bean) ice-cream on sticks were served as dessert.

 

 

More pictures of black-suited spruikers, which I took sneakily and fast. Fast enough because I was a bit worried if they saw me and smashed my camera to the ground, as they might feel threatened or provoked by my action. The weather turned chilly, we quickly returned to our hotel after strolling around Kabukicho.