The Excitement of Shinjuku

Shinjuku is a special ward in Tokyo that has the busiest railway center in the world. It is one of Tokyo’s man commerce centers and also houses the city’s government building. Constructed in 1885 the Shinjuku Station averaged 3.64 million daily passengers in 2007. An impressive number for any city in the world.

Beer Hopping

Shinjuku has a very special place in my heart. I traveled to Japan a number of times as a young man, so Shinjuku is one of my old stomping grounds. Although I don’t party like how I used to, the priceless memories of meeting marvelous people remain. At least the great ones I can remember because some of those trips were full of brutal hangovers. Some things I am more than happy to no longer experience, at least not too often.

In Japan, people are very good at beer hopping. Meaning they will stop at an establishment, order a couple of beers, and move on to the next establishment. Within one night it isn’t rare to visit 4 or 5 places for beers. After we did our shopping we did just that. We started our beer hopping festivities.

It was a rainy day so we decided to start with some minor sashimi and clams soup to warm up our engines. The clam soup hit the spot since we tried traveling through the rain without umbrellas.

After a couple of beers at our first establishment, we began walking through Shinjuku‘s commercial center in search of our next bar or restaurant.

When we walked by a huge sign that said Samurai Sushi, I was sold. By this time it was early afternoon so we decided to order a proper sashimi meal for lunch. I am a super big fan of bluefin tuna so that was my first bite of many.

The sashimi chefs were marvelous because every fish on our platter were sliced to perfection.

One of the dishes that stood out was a grilled shellfish with a fatty delicious taste.

Everything was written in Japanese so I decided to take a picture so I can ask a friend later what I ate. Another standout was the unique flavor of my puffer fish sake. I once had crab sake in Osaka so this was up there with that priceless experience.

When we finished lunch we decided to find another place to continue drinking beer. During the walk to our third and final restaurant, we ran across a shrine in the middle of the commercial center of Shinjuku. It caught me by surprise because I had been there countless times and never even notice it. After admiring the artistic craftsmanship and taking photos, we continued on our hunt for more beer.

As we walked a little bit more into the commercial center of Shinjuku, we found a lively oyster bar next to a busy movie theater. I’m also a big fan of oysters so naturally, in my beer field state, I had to order one of everything oyster.

It was eaten over time and with many beers in between but we managed to try all the raw oysters.

Then a few beers after that we managed to squeeze in their cooked oyster menu. Believe me, after our big lunch this was no small feat.

After another memorable day full of priceless memories in Shinjuku, we made it back to our small but comfortable hotel room. I had to get used to the size of a Tokyo room all over again.

Authored & Photographed by:

@stewsak

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