Shinjuku

Shinjuku

I really enjoyed staying in Shinjuku for our Tokyo trip. *See my hotel review in my previous blog called 5 days in Tokyo.
You can spend a whole day just in Shinjuku if you wanted. Although there might be not a lot to do sightseeing wise, there's plenty of shopping and eating to do!!!
*I read you can get a view of the city in the skyscraper part of town at the Metropolitan Government Office observation decks.

Alot of the shopping can be done just around Shinjuku Station.
At the south of the station there's Lumine1 where u can find Dean and Deluca

 beautiful Laderee (besides macarons, u can get pastries, hot chocolate and frozen yogurt!)

Lumine 2 is on the east side of station, where you can find more trendy clothing spots and a few eateries.

Inside the station there's a few convenience stores and a NYC treat Doughnut Plant on the southside!

But i didn't find the creme brulee donut, which is on my bucket list.


***ALICE IN WONDERLAND CAFE

Northeast of the station, u will find the Odakyu/HALC shopping center along with BIC camera.

One the bottom floor of this center was the Alice and Wonderland Cafe which my friend recommended to me and i loved! It was almost like a secret world with their sliding door that leads to a beautiful cafe of Alice theme. Here's their entrance

Door Opens

Awesome fake food displays outfront

 Fun interior!!!

 Love the hearts chandelier and cute alice outfits worn by the servers

 Beautiful story book menu!!!

 They charge you about a 500 Yen cover charge, but they give you an appetizer for free.
We got a cute cup of ratatoulle which was delicious! I took home their cute coasters

 Got the Carbonara Pasta plate

 And Cheshire Cat dessert.

The food wasn't too pricey. The dishes were good and very cute, but nothing amazing tastewise.
Their hours that were posted on the back of their flyer: October 2012.
Lunch 11-3pm
Cafe Time 3pm-5pm
Dinner 5pm to 11pm



***TAKASHIMAYA SQUARE

Another wonderful meal i had in Shinjuku was at Takashiyama Square at the tonkastu specialty place called Katsukura. My friend told me about how they have a pork cutlet that melts in your mouth delicious!
Takashimaya Square is just a bit south of the Southern exit of shinjuku station. It was about a 10 minute walk from my hotel (Sunroute Hotel). Exiting my hotel, i just had to head right and cross the bridgewalkway by  and it lead us directly to Takashimaya square.
To work up our appetite, we shopped around first- they have a HUGE Tokyu Hands here where i found a bunch of cute stuff:

***KATSUKURA


Katsukura is located on the top floor of Takashimaya with several other restaurants.They specialize in pork cutlet "Tonkastu".

 My friend recommended to get the Toen Tonkatsu which is their specialty.

 I got the smaller size Fillet and my mother got the smaller Sirloin. Her sirloin was actually just as good as the fillet and might have been a little juicier than mine (i think mine was done a little too long). The meals come with a ridiculous amount of sides, so the smaller cutlet size was plenty for us.

 Three sauces. One is the salad dressing (yuzu flavor) and there's a regular tonkatsu sauce and one that is sweeter.

 Side of tofu and you grind your own sesame seeds! Loved this touch!

 Add your tonkatsu sauce after.

 Yummy miso soup! More than just a piece of tofu floating around like u find in LA.

 MY AWESOME MEAL!

This was the most fanciest Tonkatsu meal i've ever had. It wasn't crazy expensive either. It was very elaborate and really delicious!!! Katsukura is a chain, so if you run into one in Japan, i would highly recommend you try it!!! (I spotted one again when i was at the Kyoto train station, but didn't get a chance to eat it again)

***MACARON HEAVEN!!!


On our last day in Tokyo, we did a little more exploring of Shinjuku. We hadn't yet ventured east of the station and there, we found even more goodies. If u walk a few blocks east, you'll find some cool department stores, Isetan being a big one with all the fancy stuff. But the JACKPPOT i found was the DESSERT MECCA at the basement of Isetan. It was full of DESSERTS GALORE, including quite a few places that had MACARONS, which seems even more popular in japan than in the states. Japanese love the French!!! The downside was that Isetan DOES NOT ALLOW PHOTOS. You can probably play dumb and snap a few, but they really frown upon it. And it killed me, cuz it's a photographers DREAM. Everything looks pristine. Cakes are perfectly decorated, cookies are beautifully packaged, beautiful colors everywhere. And did i mention that Tokyo is full of beautiful people too- perfectly make up'd faces and stylish (although some funky) clothes. There's also a savory foods section and even their piles of salads and pastas and fried stuff are perfectly stacked.

If you love desserts, ISETAN's confectionary floor is a MUST!!! I'm sure i could come here everyday for year, try something new and love it =)