Miles Walked: 15
Naps Taken: a 7 minute nap on subway
7-11 items consumed: 3
Highlights: gyoza, 7-11 smoothies, teamLab Planets, Tsukiji
Dislikes: carrying luggage in the subway stations
Our last official day in Shinjuku has arrived. We sure are going to miss the view from this hotel. It has been so much fun being right in the middle of all the neon lights and comforting having Godzilla right next to us (big Godzilla statue right outside our hotel).
We were starving, and after last night’s incredible dinner of ramen and gyoza we only had one thing on our taste buds… MORE GYOZA. Unfortunately, it was 6:30am and what place would serve that or even be open this early… Apparently, lots of places.
We stumbled upon a bar that specialized in different types of Gyoza called Kakekomi Gyoza.This place is open 24 hours and consisted of several Japanese youth still enjoying the previous night of escapades and libations.
They had over 10 different types of Gyoza… Black Pepper, Honey Mustard. Deep Fried, Cutlet, Boiled, Steamed to name a few. Our favorite was the deep-fried gyoza. It tasted so good that I ordered more. We ordered 13 pieces of Gyoza and our bill was only $11.
Japan does service the right way. You order and pay off a tablet and they do not even give you an option to tip as tipping can be considered rude in Japan. They still have some of the hardest and most cheerful workers I’ve encountered in the service industry.
Next came the daunting task of transporting our luggage across Tokyo to our next hotel. The hotel had some confusion about shipping our luggage, so we ended up having to take it ourselves. It wasn’t as bad as I thought, but if you aren’t a young strapping workhorse like myself, you might find all the stairs daunting. Several of the stations did not have elevators easily accessible. On our way to teamLab we stopped at the famous 7-11 to try one of the smoothies. Our verdict, great value but stick with mango and skip strawberry.
Next up, teamLab Planets. This was described to us as an immersive art exhibit. Oh great, modern art .. not my favorite .. in fact my least favorite. Anyone can put a few splashes of ink blobs and call it art. I was in for a surprise, as this was very sensory driven art.
It is hard to describe but imagine wading through knee deep water looking at digital projections of Koi fish, then being bounced around by 6 foot plastic balls, to crawling through floating gardens with live plants hanging from the ceilings! Even the walls were covered in felt! We enjoyed it so much we went back and looked at the exhibits a second time!
This was one of our highlights so far, and we highly reccomend if you are in Tokyo to check out this exhibit!
I would say this was a soothing, relaxing, and calming experience for Jessa… but with me is anything calming and relaxing….. PROBABLY NOT
