We decided to save money and flew via zipair. Honestly, unless it’s significantly cheaper or you get lay flat seats, I’d go with a different airline. We paid extra for meals and a 30kg checked bag for our leg into Tokyo and the meals were awful. They were dry and had no real flavor plus, for some reason, they serve it to you 1 hour into your flight…so we ate it 2 hours later lukewarm. The seats are much more narrow both leg and body space and the seats seemed ok but my butt really really hated them. Moral of the story, splurge or use points.
We landed around 8p and went to pick up our wifi from Global Advanced Communications at the JAL ABC counter. Then went to purchase an airport but limo bus ticket for Shinjuku. This was pretty simple and we got to our stop about 1.5 hours later from Narita.
We checked into Hotel Sunroute Plaza Shinjuku and grabbed a bunch of the amenities in the lobby. Then quickly headed back out for our first meal: Ichiran Ramen! We got there at about 11pm and only had to wait about 20 min or so. You order from a machine that prints a ticket and they have you write on a piece of paper your preference of broth. If you want additional items, you can add at your seat but it’s cash only. We both got the standard to tonkatsu ramen and it was delicious. I recommend going with their highlighted broth preferences and you HAVE to get a soft boiled egg. 
We left and explored an arcade/gapachon place nearby before knocking out for the night.
Our first full day, we basically woke up at 6a due to jetlag so we got ready and headed to Dashi Ochazuke for breakfast. It was a little hard to find but google tells you what level these restaurants are. There was no wait and the service was super quick. We ordered a salmon breakfast set and a whitebait and ume plum set. The whitebait set had a more flavorful broth and more complexity so I’d recommend this one. The salmon was also still good just not as good as the other one. Lol. 
After that, we roamed around the supermarkets and went around the Yodobashi shopping area before N had a haircut at Premium Barber. Honestly not bad for the price and they cut your hair in blocked off rooms. After that we beelined it for MapCamera, we wanted to see the Sony lenses. Each floor is a different brand and boy was it packed at 11a!! Pro tip: they will hold a lens for the day for you if you want to come back and buy it later but all the lenses here are not brand new and only come with the original packaging if you pay extra (they will also hold a lens for you if you email them in advance). We opted to buy a new 24-70mm GMII from Yodobashi Camera and a bunch of other things like a camera case and strap. (highly recommend exploring each floor!) We went back to Mapcamera and bought one used lens as well.
With new lenses in tow, we headed to the nearby Uogashi Nihon-Ichi. It’s a small standing sushi restraint but the waitress was super nice and well spoken in English! We had no wait but the turnover in this restaurant is fast paced so I imagine you wouldn’t wait long if there is a line. There are hooks and a shelf for your stuff and you order by pointing at pieces or sets to the sushi chef. We opted for the special set sushi (2970 yen) and a bunch of nigiri pieces (150-300 yen per piece). The miso soup was delicious and flavorful here and all our pieces of fish were fresh and perfectly tasty. The sushi chef serves super quickly after you order as well. Our favorite nigiri pieces were the tuna based ones especially Chu toro and negitoro. The aka ebi was fresh but not quite as sweet as ama ebi. It was a great first sushi meal but nothing that’ll blow your mind away.
We then headed over to Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden (entrance fee 500 yen). This place was crowded but it’s always so nice to walk around Japanese gardens to see the way they harmonize the city with nature. I will say most of the trees were quite bare but some cherry blossoms were starting to show already and you can bet there were hundreds of people surrounding every tree! If you want a prettier and more picture worthy garden experience, I’d probably come when cherry blossom season is full blown or in the spring. We walked around for about one hour and then headed to Uniqlo where we bought lots of heat tech and clothes for the rest of the trip at tax free prices! When you can’t calculate the prices in dollars right away, it’s practically free right??
After that, we ran over to Gyukatsu Motomura at 6p. To our surprise, there was NO LINE. We got extremely lucky as there was a decent line as we left around 630p. This was our fave meal thus far but be ready to sacrifice your clothes cause they will reek of beef and smoke. They are known for beef katsu that you grill and sear on a little stone in front of you. Keep in mind the fire only has a small amount of fuel so don’t be like us and grill all your meats quickly! The best bites were seared perfectly on the outside and super tender in the middle. It comes with miso soup (dark red miso that isn’t my preference but tasted ok), cabbage (drown it in the delicious dressing!), potato salad, some other sides (I think fish roe and brown sugar mochi) and 3 dipping sauces: horseradish? Or cauliflower? goop (my least fave)/ginger garlic/ soy sauce (my fave combo was salt on top with soy sauce and wasabi!). I got the 195 g set (2600 yen) and N got the 130 g set (1930 yen) with beer. For less than $50, we devoured the tender and fatty slices along with our rice and headed back out to brave the cold!
We ended the night searching for yakitori in Omoide Yokocho (“Memory Lane” or aka Pissing Alley because there used to be a scarcity of bathrooms so patrons would urinate in the alley). It’s a cute alley worth the visit but it honestly always feels way smaller than I think! It’s also always PACKED!! Be prepared to order at least one food order and one drink per person if you eat here.
The restaurants were super friendly and inviting to tourists and English speakers so we plopped down at the only 2 spots we saw open on the whole strip. It was next to the ramen place and was it dirty and the roof was filled with grime and soot? Absolutely. Did I worry about the cleanliness as well? Yes. But it was so fun to watch this guy grill skewers in this tiny little space and N absolutely loved all the pig innards that we tried. My faves were the heart and throat cartilage but I really detest intestines of any form. Lol 
We walked to the backside and found another izakaya that was larger and seemingly more touristy called Shimonya. We also got a bunch of skewers here and drinks. Different experience as it was cleaner and we got to watch the chef cook like 20 skewers at a time. It was amazing to see them churn out ticket orders. If you like chicken skin skewers, avoid them here as they were not nearly crispy enough. My favorite skewer here was the tongue root and N liked the pork womb. We also devoured a plate of raw cabbage with miso dip. 
Full and tipsy, we headed home to sleep hopefully past 6a.
This featured blog entry was written by E.M.N from the blog Adventure Is Out There!.
Read comments or Subscribe
By 