Sinjuku, I mean Shinjuku

This weekend Russell and I went to Shinjuku, twice.  The first, was on Saturday night.  We went there to frequent Russell's favorite tempura place that doesn't cost $500.   The name of the restaurant is Tsunahachi. He has a guy he likes to go to specifically.  So we went and sat at his guy's counter and had tasty deep fried morsels.   My favorite, if you can believe it, are the seasonal vegetables.  This time it was lotus root and broccoli rabe.  So yummy, so light, so crunchy.  They serve their tempura with three kinds of salt:  wasabe, seaweed and sea salt, plus two kinds of radish, regular and with plum.  Outstanding and reasonably priced.  Course the chef, taking a liking to us, (and everyone else who orders three bottles of sake), couldn't resist giving us the "special" fish.  And the deep fried eel bones are delicious, although it's a little alarming watching him "prepare" the eel which continues to wiggle even after being, um, "dissected."

Three different pre fixe menus or you can order a la carte.  All delicious.

Russell's tempura guy.  He has beautiful skin.

That's the eel and the squiggly thing on the plate is the eel bone.

The other squiggly thing, on the right, is the cap for the 3rd bottle of sake.

After dinner we walked around Shinjuku which is fraught with high rises and tons of neon.  Russell likes it because it doesn't feel like Roppongi Hills.  There are very few gaijin compared to Roppongi so you actually feel like you're really in a foreign country, well, aside from the Starbucks and McDonalds.

But the real reason we went to Shinjuku is because I wanted to check out the seedy part.  The seedy part is called Kabuki-cho.  It's like the red light district of Tokyo, except for their neon comes in all colors.  They have hostess bars where all the girls dress like French Maids.  Ok, but can they type?  Russell wanted to go into one, "for educational purposes." I redirected him to Baskin Robbins instead.   Very Japanese I know but ice cream is my favorite dessert.

Apparently they serve "chocolate crap" here.  I think they meant "crepes".

Nigerian guys troll for customers on the street and try to lure you in.  One guy who approached us, who was quite charming, told us his name was Austin Powers.  Uh huh - I'm sure that's his real name.  He gave us his card to prove it.

They also have hotels that offer prices for a "short stay" - two hours, "medium stay" - four hours or "long stay" - all night.  Why not twenty minutes?  Isn't that all it takes?

This one only gives you two choices - rest or stay.

Define "rest"?

Sunday we went back to Shinjuku but this time to Shinjuku Gyoen (garden).  We actually rode our bikes and had a picnic.  It was beautiful.

Isn't my bike cool?

$2.50 per person allows you into the park where the list of "Don'ts is longer than the constitution.  Russell and I determined one of the differences between L.A. and Tokyo is parks versus gardens.  Besides the Huntington Gardens in Pasadena, not a lot of garden action in L.A.  We walked through the Shinjuku garden and counted all the infringements:

No smoking and walking - several old guys doing this - check
No athletic activity - kids playing soccer, badminton - check
No dogs - purse pooches hiding in Louis Vuitton - check
No alcohol - us drinking wine - check

At least no one was blowing their horn.  That's not allowed either.

There are three styles of gardens within the Shinjuku Gardens: 

Japanese, English and French.

Why no American?  Oh yeah, that would be called a park.

This row of sycamores is probably glorious in the Fall, must come back.

"Hey can somebody feed me?  Throw your girlfriend in"

Thank God we didn't see anyone crayfish poaching.

Wide open spaces.

The women's public toilet had this convenient "add a seat" for your kids.

Or maybe for Japanese asses versus American ones?