Shinjuku Shopping

We woke up at 9:00am this morning ready for more shopping at Shinjuku! Set off at 10:00am to take the train there, and met up with my Canadian friend from exchange outside a popular bread shop! We had their delicious pastries for breakfast – I had an iced tea, chocolate almond pretzel (it was massive) and this really nice kumara mochi bread in the shape of a hat! After breakfast we walked to Lumine Est, one of the popular shopping malls in Shinjuku for clothes shopping. We decided to start at the top floor (Level 6) and work our way down.

My friends were able to buy quite a few pieces of clothing they liked so yay! I was on a tight budget (pay day is tomorrow though so yay again!) so I only bought a raincoat (which I desperately actually needed), and a red t-shirt for this week’s Gunma Games. We had lunch at a 定食 place which serves Japanese set-lunches. I had a yuzu shabu-shabu pork set (I love yuzu!) and my friends had cold udon sets which came with a tuna sashimi rice bowl. After lunch it was more shopping till evening where we then said goodbye to my Canadian friend, and we headed to watch some fireworks at Meiji-jingu! The crowds were everywhere here, as this fireworks show was different from the ones I’d been to before. They were actually being let off inside a stadium where you had to pay for seats, but you can see them for free from the surrounding areas. People were standing absolutely EVERYWHERE though – crowding intersections, station entrances, roads, etc. We managed to find a little spot just outside the train station entrance and were still able to enjoy the fireworks. I left my friends a little early (20:00) to go back to Shinjuku Station, and from there to Takasaki Station. Arrived back in Takasaki at 22:30 and cycled back home (in the rain! A chance to use my newly purchased raincoat woo!).