Gakusei Travels

Yesterday, I went out and explored Tokyo for the first time, besides just going to the grocery store lol. Sam and I had planned to go to Shinjuku for about a week, and we decided to extend the offer to any other exchange students who were interested in tagging along. A group of five of us (Me, Sam, Emma, Aicha, & Edana) ended up going. Emma and Aicha are from France, & Edana is from the Philippines. Outside of class, I find myself hanging out with them the most, and I really enjoy their company.

We took the train there. I didn’t know this, but there are two different types of trains that run throughout Tokyo: the regular train and the rapid train. Aicha explained that the rapid train is typically better, because it’s faster. So normally, the train ride from Kokubunji to Shinjuku is around 8 stops, which makes for an hour train ride. The rapid train skips all the stops, only going to the major stations. Our ride to Shinjuku took 3 stops and we got there in around 30 minutes. Would definitely recommend if you’re trying to save time. However, the rapid train runs less frequently because of this, so if you miss the train, you may have to wait 10-15 minutes for the next one. We often saw people running for the train, squeezing between the doors at the last second to make it on time.

If you like big cities & the hustle and bustle, then you’ll like Shinjuku like I did. It very much reminds me of New York City with how crowded and fast paced everything is. Getting through the complicated train station alone is chaotic. The streets were packed, and you really have to move with the crowd or else you’re in the way and blocking the flow of traffic. So walk and take your pictures at the same time lol.

We started off by getting lunch. I consider them to be similar to malls, but in Japan they’re called department stores. They’re these several story buildings with various shops on each floor. At the train station, there was a department store where the 7th and 8th floors were nothing but restaurants. Think of them like food courts, but the food is better lol. What’s interesting is outside of a lot of these restaurants, they have these fake food bowls instead of a menu for you to see what they serve. Our group ended up getting Korean BBQ. I had never had it before, but I’ve always seen videos on social media. If you ever find yourself in Tokyo, I do recommend the place we went! It was called Kollabo Lite on the 8th floor. I ended up ordering the yakuniku set for 1500￥, which came with rice, miso soup, and a drink. You grill your own food on the little grill, and because I was scared I’d undercook it, I lowkey burned my food a bit lol.

After lunch, we went to yet another, Kinokuniya. I wish I could’ve taken pictures to show how cool this store was, but they had signs displayed that photography wasn’t allowed. It was just 8 floors of books (yes, as you can see, all the buildings are super tall here). The manga section was just this vast ocean of books that I honestly wished I could buy every single one of. We easily spent an hour and a half there just wandering through the shelves. Sam wants to go back. I do too, but I’m trying my best NOT to spend all my money on books. I do have my eyes set on a few more manga series that I eventually want to get. I might as well get them, because they are cheaper than back at home, but I should probably read the ones I got first, right? lol. I know at the end of the summer I will have to ship these things home, and I’m sure my mom will love getting a box of books on her door step.(￣∇￣)

Once we finally escaped the book store domain, we found ourselves trapped at yet another department store. I firmly believe that department stores are a time loop designed to trap you and keep your circulating through the stores for hours. We were there for maybe 3 hours and I didn’t buy anything…there was just so much to look at on all 7 or 8 floors. I’m also having trouble finding clothes that fit me, because the sizing is different here. Most of the clothes are too small for me, and finding things in a large is rare. But back in America, I usually wear a small! That’s the frustrating part! I did get a couple keychains from the gachapon machines. They have these capsule machines where for about 300-600￥ you can get a little prize like a keychain or a toy. They’re pretty fun, because you never know which prize you’ll get.

At night, Shinjuku pretty much transforms. The entire city illuminates and continues to bustle with life. We briefly walked through Golden Gai, which is a backstreet known for bars. We ended up getting sushi for dinner, but the next time I come to Shinjuku, I want to try some of the restaurants on the street. They had a lot of small chain ramen or yakuniku stands and pubs where people were socializing. Since it’s a touristy area, we saw a lot of other foreigners.

Our university unfortunately has a curfew. We had to be back to campus by 11 PM, which kinda sucked, because I wanted to keep exploring. I know I haven’t seen all of what Shinjuku has to offer yet, so I can’t wait to go back and see more of the city.