Tokyo travelogue: Street scenes in Shinjuku

I spent the last partial day of my trip just hanging around the city.

TOKYO — When you read this, or at least at the time it’s going to post, I’ll be only a few hours from landing at O’Hare Airport. This will be the longest Monday ever, as I had a full morning and early afternoon in Tokyo, and the flight left at 6:20 p.m. Japan time. It’s scheduled to land at 4:05 p.m. CT, so in addition to that full day, there’s an 11-plus hour flight AND then I get more of Monday in Chicago before it ends.

I thought I’d show you a few last street scenes from Tokyo. First, I don’t think I told you where I was staying. Here it is:

This was a very nice place to stay. The room was comfortable, the staff couldn’t have been nicer or more helpful, and the hotel had a good buffet that was, by US standards, inexpensive and useful to have on a couple days when it was raining. Also, this location was less than a 10-minute walk from the Tokyo Dome, so on game days I didn’t have to mess with the trains.

I wound up on the top (12th floor) with… not much of a view, just more buildings. Didn’t really matter, mostly was just there for sleeping (and writing at BCB!).

At the top of this post you see Shinjuku Station, one of the busiest in Tokyo. Fairly centrally located, it’s near a major shopping district where you see not only some of the biggest worldwide brands (Nike, Disney, Tiffany, Rolex, among others), but some actual department stores. You know, like we used to have in the US. In Japan, they are still bustling and do quite a good business. Here’s one of them, probably the largest and best-known:

Isetan is the name, and here’s just a sample of some of the things they sell (okay, so I was lazy and just took photos of the cosmetics counters, which were right inside the entrance I happened to choose):

Here’s some of the unusual architecture you can see in Shinjuku:

And a view of one of the major thoroughfares:

And another:

And that’s the thing. If you go to downtown Chicago to shop, you focus on Michigan Avenue and the stores and restaurants there, or a few other areas like River North or River West.

In Tokyo there are dozens of “main” streets like this. The population of the city of Tokyo itself is about five times the city of Chicago, and the metro area is about four times as large. It’s almost incomprehensibly large. And yet the people get around, go where they want or need to go, and are unfailingly polite and friendly. It’s really a wonderful place to visit.

Here are a few other “seen on the street” things. First, a couple of you mentioned the ubiquitous vending machines. Here are two of them:

Soft drinks. Water. Coffee. Juices. Just about anything you can think of non-alcoholic — and a couple of the vending machines I saw at the Tokyo Dome did have beer. I guess it’s just policed by the honor system.

We see 7-Elevens everywhere in the US. And… same in Tokyo:

There’s a much wider selection of goods here, including some simple electronics and enough food choices to make a meal, if you were so inclined.

And… just as in many American cities now…

Some cherry blossoms were in evidence in Shinjuku, with lots of people photographing them:

Here’s something I had wondered about, until it was explained to me. You will see, almost everywhere in Japan (not just Tokyo, saw these in Kyoto and Hakone as well), people walking down the street with large suitcases like this:

The vast majority of people in Japan don’t own cars — especially in Tokyo, where parking is almost impossible to find. So if they are out and about for the day and evening, they’ll take changes of clothes if they need it, or leave space in the suitcase for buying food on the way home. Having been told that, yes, it actually makes a lot of sense.

Lastly, this sign was in my taxi to Haneda Airport:

And, indeed, it worked exactly that way.

People in Japan are respectful of others, and very law-abiding. There are rules around everywhere, as you saw in yesterday’s post, and people just follow them. The rules aren’t too onerous, so it just works to help keep things running smoothly.

So long, Tokyo, or au revoir, because I do intend to return again.

I hope you enjoyed these non-baseball travelogues. When I was in Japan in 2000 for the Cubs vs. Mets games, I departed thinking, “I have to come back and see more of this beautiful country.” And, 25 years later, I had the opportunity to do so and did exactly that — and now, as I leave again, I’m thinking the same thing. There’s still so much more I want to see, and hopefully I can do so.

Before the North American portion of the Cubs’ 2025 season begins Friday, I hope to have more thoughts on the Tokyo Series and why I think it’s such a great idea to have these games.

Thanks for reading, and go Cubs!