Friday 20 September
Goodbye World - Hello Wellington
We had cancelled the morning bus tour of city due to time constraints, so we were free to wander around the streets and find out what Shinjuku was all about.
Wikipedia: "Shinjuku is one of the 23 special wards of Tokyo, Japan. It is a major commercial and administrative centre, housing the busiest train station in the world (Shinjuku Station) and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, the administration centre for the government of Tokyo."
We were up early and packed our suitcases, there was no room for us in our room so we went down to the Baron for the usual American breakfast. Went back upstairs to finish off packing and then back in the lift for another hilarious ride to see how many people we could fit in and arrived in the lobby unscathed. We stored our suitcases and bags in the lobby and went exploring.
We were so impressed by the Metropolitan Building. It is so interesting to look at, the more you walk around it the more parts you can see:
Wikipedia: "The Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, also referred to as Tokyo City Hall or Tochō for short, houses the headquarters of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, which governs not only the 23 wards, but also the cities, towns and villages that make up Tokyo as a whole.
Located in Shinjuku, the building consists of a complex of three structures, weach taking up a city block. The tallest and most prominent of the three is Tokyo Metropolitan Main building No.1, a tower 48 stories tall that splits into two sections at the 33rd floor. The building also has three levels below ground. The design of the building (which was meant to resemble a computer chip), by architect Kenzo Tange (and associates), has many symbolic touches, most notably the aforementioned split which re-creates the look of a Gothic cathedral.
The other two buildings in the complex are the eight-story Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly Building (including one underground floor) and Tokyo Metropolitan Main Building No.2, which has 37 stories including three below ground. There are also two panoramic observation decks, one in each tower on floor 45 (202 meters [663 ft] high)."
Tokyo was successful in bidding for the Olympics 2020 which is shown on the entrance to this building.
Shinjuku Sumitomo Building
We had seen the 'Cocoon' on the way into Shinjuku from the airport and I had taken a photo then, so it was great that we could get up close and personal and take a photo more fitting. It is very impressive.
Wikipedia: "Mode Gakuen Cocoon Tower is a 204-metre (669 ft), 50-story educational facility located in the Nishi-Shinjuku district in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. The building is home to three educational institutions: Tokyo Mode Gakuen (fashion vocational school), HAL Tokyo (special technology and design college), and Shuto Ikō (medical college). Completed in October 2008, the tower is the second-tallest educational building in the world and is the 17th-tallest building in Tokyo. It was awarded the 2008 Skyscraper of the Year by Emporis.com."
Shinjuku is a lovely city, it has lots of tree lined avenues, huge skyscrapers, which are not just blocks of glass and concrete but have some architectural merit. The pedestrian management is good and drivers respect pedestrian crossings, very few people 'Jay walk' here!
Many gambling parlours, full of white and black during lunch hours. Not many small shops selling clothing or high end goods, perhaps technical goods and computer ware are more likely.
We went to Keio department store, it had been recommended by the hotel receptionist. It was just above the underground station and it took us a while to work out which way to the store as all roads seemed to lead to the underground!
Wikipedia: "Keio Department Store consists of 11 floors, including a food department in the basement and several restaurants on the restaurant floor. The department store belongs to the Keio Group, which also operates a suburban railway line from Shinjuku to western Tokyo."
It was a splendid store, each floor packed with lovely things, we walked as far as we could, looking at all the goods on offer, beautiful jackets, skirts, blouses, etc, I tried some on, but I am not the right shape. Lovely assistants trying so hard to please me, pulling the garments this way and that, but to no avail. I was looking longingly at some of the crockery, beautifully etched plates, bowls that tell a story, but apart from the price, we really could not carry it back to N.Z.
As we passed one of the lifts we noticed the lift assistant helping people find their way, we think that perhaps they were crossing over shifts, but their uniforms were immaculate right down to their gloves! There are so many of these little jobs in Japan, everyone seems to wear a uniform and be so proud to wear it, they give the appearance of wanting to do a great job no matter at what level.
We were really looking for a bit of morning tea, just a coffee (green tea anyone?), so headed downstairs to the food hall, which took up the whole of the basement area.
People were queuing up as it was getting near lunch time. When one of the shop assistants had to go out to the back, before they went through the swing doors they turned and hands together bowed to the populous, or anyone who was watching. David and I discussed this later and it was just part of their culture of respect for their fellow man, it happened time and again, not just at this store but pretty randomly throughout our stay. It made us feel good, even to the point of wanting to bow back!
However we were no closer to our morning tea, nothing here, so back up on the street again. I don't think the Japanese do cafes, it's either a whole meal or nothing!
So lunch it was and we saw 'KFC' on the corner as we were heading down the street, so took the easy option. It was not much different in taste or choice to New Zealand, but it was nice at the end of our meal as I was taking our dirty tray to the storage area, another nicely uniformed Japanese lady bowed and took my tray with a smile and emptied it for me.
So back to the hotel, we had a bit of a wait and then went down to meet our transit bus.
The bus/limousine to the airport crawled along, so much traffic and it was nose to tail for the first hour, thank goodness we had cancelled the morning tour we would have been very anxious if we had to take the next bus. It took over three hours to get to the airport, but It did give us the opportunity to take some more photos, and one I can recognise through Wikipedia is the large Ferris wheel:
Wikipedia: "This 115 meter tall ferris wheel is one of the world's largest and offers nice views of Tokyo Bay and Odaiba below. Each cabin seats six (or four in the all-glass cabins), and the complete revolution takes about 15 minutes."
When we arrived at the airport our lovely 'meet and greet' young lady was there to take care of our baggage and she took us straight to the Air NZ check in counter. Our bags were ok and we were given our boarding passes. We decided to go straight through customs and get that done so we could find some seats and have a snack. We still had a few hours to wait so we found a seat and took turns to wander around the duty free, like Tiffanies, Harrods, Bulgari, Chanel, Christian Dior, Helena Rubinstein, Lancome, Shiseido, Omega and Swatch - I didn't buy anything - except some water on special at Boots.
We boarded the plane and had good seats again with an empty seat in the middle three, so we were able to spread out a bit more. It was about 1.00am when I looked at my watch for the last time, and nodded off. I woke up when David came back from the toilet and I asked him what the time was, he said 6.00 am, I was overjoyed, 5 hours good sleep, I felt so good. I then went to the toilet and checked my own watch....... It said 3 o'clock, I was devastated, only 2 hours sleep, I felt ill!! Mind over matter, David had moved his watch on to match NZ time, and I hadn't. I didn't speak to him until we landed! The only other thing of note was that Air NZ have the oldest cabin stewards on record, and they didn't fold the toilet paper into a V! In fact the toilets were pretty poor, and one was out of action.
And land we did, almost home, straight through customs picking up our duty free on the way, it was a cool, crisp day and on the walk over to the domestic terminal we took in gulps of lovely Auckland fresh air.
We had two hours to wait for our Wellington connection. The longest two hours of the whole holiday! It was so noticeable how many fat people there were! We travelled all over Europe for 68 days and I cannot remember seeing so many fat people all together on one area, like it is the norm here. We went up to the domestic gate for Wellington and there was a guy morbidly obese sitting waiting to board. Wow, I thought, I hope he's not sitting next to us. There were several announcements about cabin baggage not exceeding 8kgs, and they weighed them as we went through the gate, we hadn't expected this but fortunately mine was just under. But it did occur to me that there should be a weight that you cannot exceed without purchasing two seats?
Coming into Wellington I hardly noticed the long bumpy flight in and landing, I was too excited! We were near the back of the plane and it seemed an age until we could get our bags down and start walking off, and then I saw them, my little darlings standing with their welcome home banner and lovely smiling faces. And my baby grandson in his buggy, oh yes, and mums and dad too! What an awesome welcome home.