I started out the day at the Global View hotel right across from Niigata station. I stayed here before and I thought it was mostly stylish and not that great. The biggest problem is the tiny showers in the room. I think they want you to use the big bath in the basement which is pretty nice but the water is very hot. Anyway, there’s still some quirks like I had to figure out where the pajamas are. They’re in the dimly lit lobby and they’re dark colored. If you want a razor you have to buy an “amenity kit” for ¥300 which isn’t that bad.

Anyway, the breakfast wasn’t bad. I think I liked it better at the rattier Daiichi Hotel. They even had a pancake-making robot!

The view from the breakfast place is pretty good too. You can see the station across the way and understand why it only took me about 12 minutes to get from my room to the Shinkanen.

I did the “transfer at Omiya” route where I got off way before I hit Tokyo proper and got on a local train for Shinjuku. I’ve done it before and it’s probably easier than going all the way into Ueno or Tokyo and taking a train across town.

I bought a donut on the way through the station and then left my bags at the hotel. They told me I had a package waiting for me (gifts from one of the Kawasaki’s). I stood outside the hotel and ate the excellent custard donut.

I wandered around Shinjuku for a bit. It’s cold and rainy again and I decided just to sit in a coffee shop and wait for check-in time. I went to Hoshino Coffee and had a club sandwich for lunch. It was good and the coffee there is good too. People just sit in coffee shops to kill time so I did the same.

I had to pick up a bag from a karaoke box where I’d left my bag using Bounce luggage storage app. I checked in and they had me sign for a box. I thought it was smaller than usual and was happy about that until I realized this box came from a different family friend and now I had two boxes to take back to the US!

Then I sat in my room watching YouTube. Mostly videos of people who live in Japan. Hahaha

I couldn’t decide where to eat so I cruised around Google maps for a bit until I found a place that had hamburg steak. It’s an old looking place in underground level between subway stations (it’s a mall, but underground) and I tried it out. As soon as I ordered the “Bambi Set”” (the store is called Bambi) I saw one of the cooks playing pattycake with the hamburger meat. Freshly formed patty! The fried shrimp and crab croquette had a light taste like the oil was brand new. The tartar sauce and demiglace sauce tasted like they were made in-house. It was all very good! I guess that’s why there was a steady stream of customers. Not crowded but good.

Then it was off to Hands to see if I could find the “hair water” my sister asked for. I also figured out that I could pay even more for Pocari Sweat than I do now and a Hands app on the US app store that will allow me to collect points that will expire before I figure out what to do with them. (It’s really inconvenient that Tokyu Hands is now just called Hands.)