A hiccup in our plans. Although I had factored costs associated with going to Fuji-Q amusement park, Dean was getting near broke, and I wasn't far behind. I'd have still loved to go to the amusement park, but it just wasn't to be. We had decided this the night before, so after getting a bit of a sleep in, we sat around blogging and doing some research. We were probably going to do some more shopping as well as go to the Government building in Shinjuku, so we set off after breakfast to go explore.
After getting the Yamanote line to Shinjuku (it was longer than taking other routes, but as nothing opens til at least 10 o'clock it didn't matter), we pottered around Shinjuku for a while. Or that was the plan.
We got out of the train station (busiest in the world), but as we were walking an old lady fell on mum and Whitney. She apologised, before going splat head first into the wall. She must have already been bleeding when she hit Mum, as she got some blood on her jacket, but after she hit the wall the claret started flowing. Whitney quickly went and alerted a couple of policeman standing around, while some by-standers stayed with the lady to make sure she was concious, but after alerting the police, we kept going. Mum was obviously shaken after this and felt sorry and wondered if there was aything they could have done to help the old lady, but without knowing the language or circumstances, there was little we could have done. We walked around some random streets before stopping in at a Yodobashi Camera. I needed some batteries, and Conrad wanted to get some more high spec film, but after this, we headed for the Government building. It was a freezing cold day with a solid wind blowing, so anywhere that was in the shade and wind was absolutely frigid. We walked for about 500m before finding the building. It actually has 2 observatories, one in the north tower, one in the south. But with both of them offering nearly the same view, we just did one, taking plenty of pictures of the view.
We went downstairs next, and I got directions for the nearest MOS burger. I felt like a bit of a pillock, but I didn't want to go home without at least having a chilli cheese burger. We wound our way through the streets, before I realised I'd taken a wrong turn. I headed into a convenience store, got some clarification then headed through a back street. By this time, the tribe were getting irritable, having not eaten since about 8, so I suggested they just stop and eat wherever they thought looked good. The lady in the Lawsons had told me to go over the train tracks, but it was actually a subway, so it was under the road. Once we had made it back to a major street (which still wasn't named) we headed down, trying to find a way to get over the train tracks. Whitney then spotted the MOS Burger across the street from a 7-11, just like the lady at the government building had said.
We headed in and found a seat. I ordered a Double Chilli Cheese burger, with the others ordering there own. After a few hours of solid walking, it was never going to suffice though, so after I finished it, I went and grabbed a chilli hot dog to share with Dean. Now that we had food, we were a little happier, but over Shinjuku (the prices aren't that great, and unless you feel like trekking through endless department stores, there isn't many small shops). The plan now was to head to Nakano, which we had skipped on Tuesday. We got off at the station, and walked through the "Sun Mall" a closed in street with little shops lining the sides. This was a Saturday though and filled with people, so getting around was harder. We had only eaten an hour before, so we didn't feel like anything to eat, but with a cake shop up for grabs, I ordered a Strawberry shortcake with the others ordering what they felt like. One qualm I have about Japan is there are never enough seats/benches to sit on. The people are used to eating standing up, so it mustn't worry them, but when you are trying to eat a soft, creamy cake, you really need to sit down. In the end, I found a telephone I could rest my cake box on (they package it nicely, and put some dry ice in as well), and ate my cake, probably getting a ton of cream and crumbs on my face. Fortunately, I had serviettes as well. Now that I had eaten, we checked in quite a few shops. This mall is called Broadway, which would have to be the biggest misnomer around. It's cramped and narrow. Even though this is where Robot Robot is (a store I mentioned in my last trips blog), Dean just was over it at this time. Mum didn't really care if she went to the material shop or not, so with everyone just getting grumpy from the crowds and sore backs/feet, we headed back to Hasegawa. We tried a few things, but by this stage we just wanted some good food (MOS burger is tasty, but it's fast food). We wandered around briefly, grabbing a beer at Brasserie Lion (I grabbed some beer I have never heard of) before we decided we wanted to find a little hole in the wall type ramen place.
We walked up a couple of streets towards the hotel, before finding one across the road from the Center Hotel (where we've stayed before). It was empty, but had a couple of seats reserved. After being seated straight under the air conditioning unit, we had to move (having hot air coming straight on your head is draining), so they sat us in the reserved seats. We then ate some very tasty ramen. While not the best ramen I've ever had, it was pretty tasty. Following a big bowl, the only thing left to do was head back to the hotel and sleep.
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