Anyone who knows Shinjuku would agree that it’s not a good place for picnic… unless of course you’re talking about Shinjuku Gyoen Park. Now that’s quite a little oasis in the middle of Tokyo’s concrete jungle.
Amazingly, before today I had never been to Gyoen Park before. That’s nearly the equivalent of living in New York City for 4 years and having never visited Central Park before… a disgrace, I know!
In any case, I was pleasantly surprised. For the low low price of 200 yen per person, one can escape the ever growing forest of Shinjuku’s skyscrapers for a real bit of forest … grass and all!
“Oooo – grass!”, I hear you say. It may not sound like anything special – but city parks in Tokyo are generally brown and grey. I suppose the intent is to have them be as “low maintenance” as possible. So, 200 yen for this bit of “normalcy” – good deal.
We brought some grub with us, and picked up more on the way – and had a nice time just hanging out in the park on this hot spring day.
We’re overdue for a video, so feel free to join us …
With summer nearly here – and Naoki’s hair well out of control – it was time to put an end to the madness. We headed back to Chokkin’s this afternoon to get the little guy a cool new haircut.
And for the majority of you that probably think 3,000 yen ($35 CND) is way too much to get your kid’s hair cut – you’re probably right. But for huge benefit of keeping the trauma outside of the home, we think it’s well worth it.