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| A few thousand people |
You will have seen my occasion mention of Shinjuku Station and I thought I would comment further about this enormous building. The Station is probably double the size of Weybridge town and is a combination of Railway Station, Department Store and a multitude of restaurants. It is in fact the largest and busiest railway station in the world and about 3.6 million people pass through it each day, that was the figure a couple of years ago, and so it is probably a little higher now. So if you can imagine taking all the people for England's six biggest towns and asking them to walk through one station then you can imagine how large this place is. It has over 200 exits and about 15 train companies operate though it and with about a couple of hundred small places to eat it is one very massive and very busy place to be. Even the locals get lost here and so for us foreigners it can be a little challenging.
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| Add a few more in to the mix |
Anyway on Saturday morning following a recommendation from a friend we decided to go the Imperial Palace where they had opened some of the gardens which are not normally open to the public and it was a good idea until we got there and found that about half the population of Shinjuku Station had the same idea and there were thousands upon thousands of people waiting to get in to the garden. We dutifully joined the masses where we had to wait for about two hours either standing still or shuffling forward a little at a time until we reached the security gate where they did a quick and imperfect pat down, oh well.
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| After two hours wait we got in |
Of course the garden were very crowded so as to make good photos difficult to obtain and of course you could not leave the approved route or you will be shot.
So we hiked around the garden for a while and then headed back to the Isetan Store to purchase some gifts for the friends we were visiting later in the day.
Leaving the Hotel at 1530 we took the Marunouchi Line to Shinjuku Station, yes again, and then looked for the JR Chuo line to our destination but there are so many platforms and fast and slow and rapid and express trains you have to get the correct one or you will miss your stop. As we looked a little lost a couple of people tried to help us, perhaps more to practise their English but frankly most of them had less idea where to go than us. Anyway we found the right train and we arrived at our destination and then spent a pleasant afternoon and evening catching and what we have all been up to over the past few years. At 10.30 we decided
to leave as we were a little tired and so back the same way to Shinjuku Station again where we caught almost the last train back to the station near out Hotel. A lovely day out.
