Japan Trip: Exploring Shinjuku

On Day 3 of the trip we decided to play it safe and explore Shinjuku. Unfortunately, due to my stupidity, I didn't realize that we had to buy the train vouchers in the US before going to Japan. That meant we had to buy train tickets individually which ends up costing more money than buying the train pass. Don't make the same mistake I did! We weren't quite ready to take the train anyway so exploring around Shinjuku made a lot of sense. There were a ton of department stores set up around the train station such as Odakyu & Lumine.





On the way to and from our hotel is a McDonalds. I couldn't resist snapping a few pictures of the stuff the McDonalds here doesn't have. Hello? Bacon Potato Pie, McPork & McHot Dogs? OK, I was way too amused by this stuff.






No, we didn't eat anything from McDonalds. Instead, we went to the top floors of one of the department stores and ate at a restaurant called Five F Dining. *shrug* Don't ask me about the name.. I have no idea why it's called that haha.. I also don't question the Japanese. They just do things differently there which is part of the fun. Justyn ordered the hamburg "steak" which is basically an oval hamburger patty seasoned with onions and other things. I had a well known comfort food known as omrice (ketchup fried rice topped with an omelet) which was served with beef stew & fries.






Afterward we found a bar called Kirin City which was set up kinda like a British Pub but everything else is obviously Japanese. I had a Yuzu & Vodka, Justyn had a Guiness (not surprisingly) and then I followed my drink up with a Moscow Mule.






For dinner we met up with Brianna & Yuichi. Yuichi had made reservations at a traditional style restaurant. We had 3 kinds of sashimi, a soy bean curd based appetizer, a variety of fried foods, shrimp salad and steamed pork with ramen noodles. It was delicious and heavily satisfying.