Day 55

As school is all but done now I decided to spend day 55 exploring Shinjuku a little more. The plan was to head there around lunch time, grab an iced macha latte and a bento and sit somewhere to soak up the sun a little. It doesn't cost me anything to go to Shinjuku on the train, and they have a park there so it seemed like a good place to go. When I was done eating, I could go shopping.

I'm sure you already guessed this but my plan did not go as expected. I didn't pass a combini so I didn't get food but I figured I'd be ok with just the macha. I would have been had it not been 90% ice and therefore only lasted about 1 minute. But you know, I can eat the ice while I soak up the sun....no because Shinjuku park (which btw is just a park) has an entrance fee! WTF! I'm not paying to sit on some grass. So I sat outside the gates eating cream covered ice looking through to the greenery. There must be some pretty awesome grass in there if they charge you to go in.

Once I'd had enough of munching on ice chips I headed back in to central Shinjuku for some window shopping. Most of the shops here are only on one floor of 7 or 8 story buildings so if you go in one place, you can find anywhere between 7 or 30 smaller stores in just one building. You could really spend hours here going in and out of all the little places, not to mention the time you could spend in the big department stores. I headed in to one particular store as I thought it was one of those UniQlo t-shirt in a tube shops. I have a pretty funky anime t-shirt that I bought from there a couple of years ago that could do with updating. The UniQlo place was on the second floor but I noticed what was described as a funky bookshop so I went up to take a look. It was crazy in there. All sorts of weird and wonderful things, and some books too! Great place to look for gifts or just some random things that you don't need but just have to have.

I left that building shortly after and had a wander through some other stores including the Studio Alta. Usually, this building is only used as a meeting place as it's an easy landmark in Shinjuku but today I went inside. Saw lots of cool handbags and clothes that wouldn't fit my leg and ugly shoes and snazzy hats. It was pretty fun. Looking for the bathroom I went down to the basement level. A lot of department stores have food places in the basement...this one had cake. Loads of cake and cute things. Took a quick snap of the cute animal cakes which I'm hoping someone will buy for me for my birthday but I don't hold out much hope really.

I needed to meet the girls at school soon so I left the shopping and walked down to Shin Okubo calling in the Family Mart on the way to check baseball tickets and pick up lunch. I went for a natto onigiri (natto = not good) and a banana oreo bar with green tea to wash it down with. Ah well, the oreo bar was good at least. Met everyone at 5ish like planned. Alberto was there and mentioned going to the travel agents to book Korea. Of course, we had to go but they were going to eat first and we were going to buy baseball tickets so we arranged to meet in 1 hour at.....Studio Alta!! Had they told me the travel agents was above Donki then I'd have met them there but you know, cant change things. Plus we got to laugh at the stupid English phrases on the caps outside SA.

The boys arrive a little after 18:00 and we head down to the travel agents. When we arrived we found Jonna standing outside. 50 million people in Tokyo and we randomly bump in to our classmate. She'd just been in to book her trip to Korea too though she's going at the end of June, and us the beginning. She ended up coming in with us while we booked our flights. I let the boys do most of the arranging though I did chip in with a small suggestion about price. If we return on Sunday we have to pay 7000yen Sunday surcharge. So why not stay an extra day, and we can use that 7000 yen for another night in a hostel, all our food and money needs and probably have change in our pockets too. They saw the logic in my thinking so we're booked now for the 18:20 flight out of Narita airport to Seoul on 5th June returning on 8th June. Woo! Korea baby!

With that all sorted, the boys and Jonna headed to the bookstore and the rest of us girls for curry. Rosanna didn't want to walk because she was hungry so she went back to the station and Katharina, Sophia and I went to CoCo Curry House. Turns out it was only a 10 minute walk from where we were (not so far after all) and was most definitely worth it. I had a vegetable curry which I enjoyed very much. Helped clear out my nose too. Damn cold. It was a huge plate of food too, and for only 650yen. I'd love to go back but I don't think I'll have the opportunity :(

So Wednesday is baseball day. Thursday is my last day of school and I'm going for food in Harajuku. Friday Disneyland. Saturday & Sunday Osaka. Monday...who knows. Maybe I'll go for a hike or visit an onsen or go to kabuki. So much to do and lots of free time to do it now :)