Luke.Blog

Woke up today feeling more refreshed after the early night. A quick trip to the mini mart to pick up breakfast and we were off on our way to Shimo-Kitazawa. Shimo-Kitazawa is a small neighboor hood just outside of Shinjuku. It is popular with the young trendy crowd because of the fashion and music stores.

On our way to Shinjuku (to get train) we passed a small homemade fruit juice stand. I decided to get one just because it was Remon.

It tasted vile, I really didn’t want to finish it. What is wrong with Japan, why do they mess up anything Lemon based? It tasted as if a whole lemon, skin included, had been thrown into a blender with a durian. Horrible.It was a bit of a trek trying to find the train we needed to get from Shinjuku to get to Shimo-Kitazawa but eventually we found it with some help from the station staff.

We arrived in a small market street after taking the North Exit from the station. While looking back at this picture, I actually found Wally (Waldo) in it, can you see him?
The market wasn’t very busy and it seemed more like a local market than a big branded one, not a UniQlo in sight.

Eventually we made our first stop in a small shop that sold a bit of everything, Penny was pulled into this shop by her lack of self control.
Shops like this are always interesting, you’ll never know what you might find. In this one, nothing, it was still nice to browse.

We continued to walk around the streets until we passed something that caught our interest, the Samurai Ice Cream shop.
They had Lemon Sorbet on the menu so I ordered that, Cas got Marron which he thought was Engrish for Lemon, it wasn’t.

The ice cream was quite good, not one of the best Lemon Sorbet’s i’ve had but it was good enough to make me have a little more faith in Japan and Lemons. The cup the ice cream was in was actually Shortbread, it wasn’t nice, far too strong. Not sure what made the Ice Cream, Samuari.
We walked around the shops a bit more and headed back through a more neighborhood like area with less shops to the train tracks.

Randomly, I saw some strange graffiti, not much to say about it really, just thought it’d post it.
It took me a while to notice but Shimo-Kitazawa has it’s own mascot, a little Panda. After seeing it a few times in different poses, it made sense that it was the mascot. This one is outside a Jeans Shop, the others were themed to the shop too.

We reached the train tracks after a short walk, after looking around at the area a bit from the track side, I felt as if I was in a sideside sort of town.
The next area we decided to walk around was Kitazawa Azumadori, we didn’t plan this I don’t think, it was just wandering around.

While storlling around we passed a Village Vanuguard, the cool shop that was also in Venus Fort, Odaiba. We had a look in here and bought some small things.
I really like this shop, it has so much interesting stuff packed into it, also, it’s got a lot of character to it. We wasn’t in here too long and kept walking, eventually leaving Kitazawa Azumador.

The next area had loads more shops, they seemed less home run than on the other side of the tracks, I guess this was more of the market than a neighborhood with shops.
We eventually found ourselves near a station exit. We coninued down the road and passed two arcades that we decided to check out.

The first had claw machines, Penny was trying her luck again, as was Cas. I don’t think Penny won anything and after about 1000 Yen, neither did Cas.I decided to try my luck here…

I managed to win 4 prizes. It only cost me 300 Yen, that’s presents for the little cousins sorted.
We walked further down the road and passed a small games shop. We decided to look into try find the games we wanted, Slither Link for Penny and I wanted a rare music rhythm game, Something De Something.

Huzzah! I found it, and at a really cheap price too! As there were two of them in the shop (very lucky!) Penny got one too, no Slither Link for her. We left and continued down the road.
We found a Mister Donut so me and Cas decided to go in and eat while Penny looked around the 300 Yen Store.

There was a smaller choice of doughnuts here so I decided to get what looked like a giant pretzel and Cas got the signature donut, Pon De Ring.
My donut was quite thick coated and glazed, there wasn’t much fluffy middle to the donut, it also had a rich savory and sweet taste, it was odd, a bit crispy and not so great. Cas’ donut is glazed on the outside but the dough in the middle is very chewy with some strength to it, interesting texture for a donut.

We met back up with Penny and walked further down the road, eventually we came across a small arcade. We decided to go in because of the claw machines.
I decided to try my luck on one of the claw games again, this machine had a random sort of plush keychain toys.

I got lucky again and one each of the three designs in the Rikkakuma (Relax Bear) set, these will go to the cousins again, i’ll keep the chicken one.Penny went into the Daiso (think Poundland) and came out with a little gift for me, Soda and Cola flavour gummy stringy things!

They were AMAZING but quite greasy and had a chalky texture after taste. Lots of flavour in them too, will get more if I see them.We walked to the bottom of the street came to a bit of an end, there wasn’t much left to explore.

Randomly, I saw a sign for a bar for cats and dogs to drink beer and cocktails. This is what it is, obviously, just look at the sign.
Cas lead us through the back streets to make our way back towards the station. This was a residential area with houses and the odd small restaurant.

We eventually arrived back at the station, we managed to do a nice circle around the whole area, Cas did a good job of navigating but I suspect it was luck on the way back.. Cheers, Cas!
It was still quite early so we decided to take the train back to Shinjuku.

Shinjuku station is MASSIVE. It’s a huge maze that is broken up into underground shopping centers with many many exits. We eventually found our way out and headed towards Takeshima Times Square.
I won’t post Shinjuku in detail as we’re coming back tomorrow, we only came here to let Penny get the giant Tokyu Hands out of the way.

Me and Cas left Penny to explore Tokyu Hands while we went off to the arcade.

There were claw machines at the bottom, Cas tried his luck again but failed. We went upstairs and was impressed with the Music and Gundam Pod floor. The music games were cheap, loud enough to hear individually and even had headphone ports (it’s uncommon). I played Drum Mania, Ju Beat and Pop’n’Music before we had to head back to meet Penny.We realised we were hungry when we were walking around the food court area in Shinjuku station, The Kitchen.

I decided to get a Beef Curry while Cas and Penny got some pastry foods.
The curry was alright but not as good as Katsu. There was only 3 small lumps of Beef and it was a small portion too, not really worth the money.

Still feeling hungry, I got myself an Ice Bagel from the Bagel & Bagel shop.
The Bagel was interesting to eat, at first it was too dense, felt like 4 bagels and ice cream compressed into one but then after eating it, the flavour burst through, Orange and Mango. It was really sweet and a nice snack but also incredibly filling.

We were all tired so headed back to the hotel for an early night, hoping to catch up on some rest (obviously needed) for tomorrow when we tackle Shinjuku.I really enjoyed browsing around Shimo-Kitazawa. I’d highly recommend checking it out if you’re in Tokyo, you should do that in the morning and then head to Shinjuku, you can easily cover both in one day if you’re up early enough.

It was a nice short day, we were all back at the hotel by 7pm, I know that’s crazy and that we’re in Tokyo and should be out having fun but there’s none to be had when we’re all worn out.We’re here to chill out and have some fun, not to ware outselves out by overdoing it.

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