Day 11 – Onomichi to Shinjuku

Thursday 27 February, 2020
Day 11 | Onomichi to Shinjuku (via Shinkansen)

[Missed the previous post? Check it out here]

Our cycling adventures have come to an end but we still have a few days to spend in Tokyo. We say good bye to our wonderful Onomichi guest house and head to the train station down the road.

We had already pre-booked our seats for all legs of our journey the previous day, which is something we recommend you do prior catching the bullet train as it saves a lot of time on the day. You can go to the counter and ask the staff for assistance, or even do it yourself at the kiosk if you know your way around the touch screen.

Despite having to change trains three times at Fukuyama, Shin-Kobe and Shinagawa, we arrive several hours later at Shinjuku on what feels like a pretty quick trip.

I guess that goes to show all you need is good company and good wifi (read Day 7 of our blog if you haven’t already – you can make pretty good use of your time and the wifi like we did!).

Outside the station we reassemble our bikes, but instead of riding them to our hotel we decide to walk them through the crowded streets of Shinjuku. We have a booking for a magic show later in the evening so get ourselves ready for a night back in the big city.

For dinner, we head to Tendon Tenya, where we went when we first arrived in Tokyo around two weeks ago. I could eat at this place everyday.

Can’t go wrong with tempura and rice. YUM!

We wander around Golden Gai, a not-so-secret collection of local bars that line the dark, narrow alleyways. Because the bars are small with limited seating, some have signs reading regulars only or no tourists. Some bars have a cover charge, and I’ve even heard that some have a sleeping charge where they will charge you 50 USD if you pass out and fail to return to your accommodation.

We continue onto the main area of Shinjuku and its bright lights and neon signs.

We wander past Robot Restaurant, which we visited on a previous (non-cycling) trip to Tokyo.

We also spot Godzilla lurking amongst the tall buildings.

Our final stop is the Tejinaya Magic Show. The only magic show I’ve ever seen is David Copperfield back when I was in high school. Cheye once saw Penn & Teller live in Vegas. This is very different to both of those shows, with a combination of onstage and close up magic.

We wander in halfway through the onstage show, but that’s only because we arrive early and they are performing for another group. We watch the remainder of their show before they send us over to a table for some close up magic. This follows with the onstage show again which we watch this time in its entirety. I won’t go through the show or tricks in case you ever want to see it for yourself, but will leave some photos below for you. It’s one of the most enjoyable nights I’ve had in a long time – adults can still be amazed by magic as much as kids.