From Shibuya, we took train back to Shinjuku and explored the south side, as well as the side closest to our hotel.
Above the train station is the Lumine shopping centre, which apparently is owned by Japan Rail:
And next to it is the Flags shopping centre.
This is the south side of Shinjuku.
We saw this interesting sculpture.
And who knew there is a Sizzler at Shinjuku?
There’s also a huge Takashimaya department store nearby. Although Takashimaya is not as prestigious as some of the other department stores in Japan, it has branches in Singapore and Paris (both of which I have visited) and at one stage had a branch in Sydney (which has now closed down).
We also ventured into a pachinko parlour.
Pachinko parlours are incredibly noisy – I couldn’t stand being in one for more than 1 minutes – but they are also very colourful and full of strange machines.
As this is the last blog entry on Shinjuku, I thought it might be appropriate to recap places where we have eaten and what I thought of the food.
This place is a 24-hour eatery selling the usual donburi bowls and ramen – I think it’s okay but nothing special – the prices are quite reasonable as it is quite far from the station (generally prices decrease with distance from train stations):
This ramen shop advertise the speciality as “black ramen” – wow the soup is full of garlic and the dish packs quite a punch! Not sure I like it – way too garlicky for me.
Another noodle shop – we had yakisoba here – not bad but again nothing special.
Cheapest place we found – 390 yen for a bowl of fried rice – very small portions though.
This is an billboard ad for a “mansion” development – featuring none other than Takenaka Naoto (竹中直人) – one of my favourite comedic actors – he has featured in quite a number of movies and TV dramas that I enjoy (Water Boys, Swing Girls, Nodame Cantabile).
Full set of photos:
