Franjapan 🇯🇵 Day 18: Shinjuku, Gundam & Kula Shaker

What a day! Dragged myself out of bed and into the shower, yesterday’s antics meant we were both sleepy. Up to the lounge for breakfast, coffee, a glass of milk, fruit, rice with raw egg, pickles and bacon.

Our original plan had been to go to the National Museum of Tokyo but over breakfast I realised it was closed. Instead we ventured out to Shinjuku to see what the famous business area was all about and hoping to find the last (seriously) presents to take home. Walking from the hotel into the heart of Shinjuku we realised just how massive the buildings in Tokyo are. Two of the biggest being The Cocoon and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building (TMGB), both are uniquely shaped although The Cocoon is just about similar enough to give the Gherkin, architecturally, a run for its money. It was really exciting to see that the TMGB had its posters up for the Olympic and Para-Olympic Games in 2020, I’ll definitely be heading back over here to watch the fencing!

We wondered around Shinjuku (Tokyo Hands & NEWoMan mainly) for a couple of hours we found the rest of the presents, grabbed lunch from a bakery on our way back, dropped off our shopping and chilled in our room for a while.

We also, during our Shinjuku wandering, got to see the Suica Statue! We love Suica, that little penguin has made travelling around the metros super easy! Thank you! 😁🐧

After lunch we headed out towards Tokyo Bay, to go and see Gundam and then Kula Shaker, one of Steph’s favourite bands, play at Zepp Diver City. Gundam are basically mobile suits in the forms of giant robots (the original Transformer robots), meaning that they are piloted by people, they are also the protectors of Tokyo/Japan and there is a life size model of the original Gundam near Tokyo Bay. I was very excited to finally see my favourite robot warrior!

After Gundam we headed for something to eat at the nearest hawker (food market) we had delicious Tonkatsu and then made our way to the gig. It was awesome and so much more chilled than gigs at home! No pushing or lairy drunks it was great!

Now we’re truly knackered, thankfully we made it back for the hotel before everything shut down on the metro at 11pm! Bedtime! Night! 😊🇯🇵😴