April 11 & 12 Koenji, Higashi Koganei, and Shinjuku

So things were busy the last two days. Some of it was the usual stuff, laundry etc. and some of it was the other usual stuff.. house hunting with some other stuff in between. Yesterday, our realtor couldn't meet with us but we set up an appointment to see a couple of houses today. Later in the afternoon we headed to Koenji to meet a guy from Craigslist that had a nice electric nabe/sukiyaki/yakiniku grill for sell cheap. Turns out he's a Canadian guy who has been here 5 years and is getting ready to head back to Canada. He may have other things to sell as his departure approaches in May. Since you have to pay here to have anything hauled away by the garbage company, foreigners try to sell cheaply or give away a lot of things before they leave back to their home countries. Craigslist always has some good deals on it, they are often listed as Sayonara sells. Anyway, I got a nice item for $15 instead of the $80 it was selling for in a store! Yay!
After the meetup we decided to explore Koenji a bit as it looked interesting and it was an area that we hadn't stopped at to look around yet. It was an area with a lot of Shotengai (a street which has a concentration of shops and restaurants which is usually located near a train station) so it was fun to walk around. We found our favorite tempura shop and stopped for dinner. I had to take a picture of the shop mascot as it always makes me laugh as it looks like an Asian Hitler! I know that's terrible... but don't you think so too?!

 

Today, we got up early and headed to Higashi Koganei to meet with our Realtor. He showed us a couple of nice houses that we really liked. The one house even has an oven which is very rare here in Japan! We told him we would like to try to get that house so he is putting in the paperwork  for us. We still have the paperwork trying to go through on the other apartment but our realtor says it's good to have options in case one doesn't go through. I'd really like to get the house if we can, it's MUCH larger than the apartment at the same price pretty much. The apartment is nice and definitely in a busier area ,(less residential) and more posh so if we don't get the house it's okay but the space in the house would be nice for guests etc.  I took some pictures around Higashi Koganei...seems like it's quite an old neighborhood with lots of mom and pop shops.

 

We stopped for lunch at this little Indian restaurant. the naan and curry were really good! We had mutton curry and chicken curry. (If you look close you can see Gary's reflection in the window)

 

The naan was the size of a ukulele and delicious!

 

 

 

After lunch we headed to Shinjuku as I needed to pick up some postcards and there is a good bookstore there! Shinjuku is a very upscale place, lots of business men and high finance but also lots of young people hanging out at the stores and malls. I couldn't help but take a picture of the Docomo clock tower, I think the clouds in this picture look really cool!

 

 

And a close up!

 

As you can see by the clock tower it was almost 5:30 pm so time to head back to Fuchu! The Shinjuku train station was very busy!

 

 

Shinjuku is a bit far from Fuchu and the trains were full so it was a bit of a long trip back standing the whole way (no train dancing today!). To make it even more fun there was a really cute baby with a really stinky diaper !

 

We disembarked the train in Musashi Koganei and did a little quick shopping at a grocery store there. I was so happy....I found Graham Crackers!!!!! I have inherited my Mom's love of graham crackers and milk and this is the first time I've seen them here! After finishing up at the grocery store we caught our bus back to Fuchu and a hot shower and soak in the tub later I'm feeling relaxed!

It was a very busy day!