A few days before, we decided to buy tickets for one of the Tokyo Giants game (base-ball) and the tickets were due to be delivered at the hotel by noon. Therefore, we had quite an easy morning, stayed around the Shinjuku area and had a nice lunch in a traditional local ramen place.
Once the tickets delivered, we headed to the Tokyo Dome, the sports & leisure complex, located in the North East part of Tokyo. Very impressive stadium with a mini-theme park located next to us. Before entering the stadium, we did a quick stop to buy one of the Giants cap. The only tickets available were standing tickets on the last row. Interestingly, some people had reserved some standing area putting some sort of newspaper on the floor. As expected, it was a long game, so we did not wait for the end to leave, but it was good fun and a proper Japanese experience! Japanese love base-ball; if you ask them, that's probably one of their biggest chance of medals for the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.
Koishikawa Korakuen - 300 yens
Next to the Dome, you can find a very pretty garden called Koishikawa Korakuen. There are a few pretty bridges to see as well as a magnificent pond in the middle. Worth a visit.
Akihara district
After that, we walked to the train station to go to Akihara district. Akihara is literally the paradise of video-game & manga lovers. Akihabara is known as the world leading electronic district and Otaku (geek) culture. From high tech gadgets to maid cafes, where maids will try to attract you into their venues, you can find any possible electronic or manga-related items. There are also all the massive arcades / game centers buildings including Sega. There, I would recommend you to visit the famous retro video game store called Super Potato (1 Chome-11-2 Sotokanda). Inside, you can find all the old consoles & games (and even play Mario on Nintendo if you want to!). You can buy them for a very cheap price. The last floor, unfortunately smoker-friendly, is a retro-console arcade. The area is so big and impressive that it is better to be clear in advance on what you want to buy and where before going there!
In the evening, we went to Shinjuku Golden-Gai, located very close to our hotel.There are numerous tiny eating and drinking establishments (300 in total!) along narrow streets. Some ask for some entry fees but others don't. We ended up having a few drinks in a little bar who could not sit more than 10 people! This was a great discovery that we can only recommend!
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