Japan Day 1 - Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden, Osaka here We Come!

Finally, I was back to travel again! I got a chance to travel to Japan for 9 Days. And this is a long awaited post after a year hiatus from blog post.

I took a night flight for this trip so we could enjoy full day after arrival. We traveled to Japan with Garuda Indonesia. We got direct flight from Jakarta-Japan thankfully. I've planned this trip with one of my best friend since October 2018 when I attended Garuda Travel Fair in Jakarta Convention Center.

We arrived at Haneda International Airport on September 21th, 2019 at 9 AM. This airport is not as big as Narita Airport, so it's not too complicated. But when we arrived we met many X-1 fans waiting at arrival gate. I asked one of them when I was queuing in toilet. Unfortunately, I didn't have a chance to see them at the airport.

We exchanged JR reservation ticket and bought Suica card (IC card) upon arrival. Where should we change JR ticket? You need to go to the JR EAST Travel Service Center on the Arrivals level (2F). You will find the office located in left hand corner of Arrival gate straight ahead of you just past the Tokyo Monorail ticket machines. It's not long queue, but we have to wait about 15 minutes. You only need to prepare passport and reservation ticket since we buy JR Pass from Traveloka. We make seat reservations since we need to go to Osaka on our first day. The seat reservation is free!

I bought Suica card on Tokyo Monorail ticket machines. It's next to JR EAST Travel Service Center. I need to buy IC card since we have to ride monorail to Tokyo. It is not covered by JR pass.

Tips:

• It's better for you to ride Limousine Bus if you have heavy luggage to carry. Because you need to put you own luggage to luggage place inside the monorail

Since we will go to Gyoen National Garden, we look for coin locker to store the luggage in Tokyo Station. Why in Tokyo Station? Because we will depart to Osaka from here. It will be difficult if we carry luggage around Shinjuku. But I didn't find any big locker left since it was Saturday and we arrived at 1 PM (I bring 30 inch luggage). So we decided to Luggage Storage in Tokyo Station. It costs 700 yen for a day.

We have lunch at Coco Ichibanya Shinjuku. It's near Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden. The place is small, only 4 tables for 8 persons and in bar as I remember. Luckily we don't have to wait, maybe it's after lunch time. I ordered calm & vegetable curry. I'm not too impressed with the taste.

We need to buy a ticket to enter Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden. It's 500 yen for adults. It's not to crowded that time, maybe because it's not peak season. This garden is really beautiful when in Spring and Autumn.

I bought a jeans in Uniqlo when we were back to Shinjuku Station. I forgot to bring my own jeans :'( There was many people queue in front of Apple Store after they launch new iPhone 11. I gave up to enter the store after I saw the long queue.

We rode Hikari Train from Tokyo to Shin-Osaka. We departed from Tokyo at 5.33 PM and arrived at 8.26 PM. Nozomi Train takes 2,5 hours to Osaka but it's not covered by JR Pass. So you need pay additional fee to ride Nozomi Train. Hikari makes more stops compared to the Nozomi. Hikari is the quickest bullet train that the JR pass covers.

I realized I lost my new jeans in cabin when we exit JR lines gate! I rushed to lost and found center at Shin-Osaka station. I was so panicked because the train left shortly after we got off the train. I prayed, prayed, and prayed that they could find it. I just wonder If I need to go to another station to take my jeans back. After waiting for 15 or 20 minutes, the staff gave my new jeans back!!! Alhamdulillah.

We arrived at apartment around 10 PM. It is a self check-in apartment. Another drama about to begin. We could not enter the building with instruction detail from host. We emailed the host and there was no response. Since it's getting dark, I screamed for help. Maybe another guests could help us to enter the building. Luckily, we got help for Hongkong guest. The password is correct, but the instruction is wrong order. Drama for Day 1 was over. We could sleep peacefully!