The weather was not that great this Saturday. It rained all morning and stopped at around noon. Probably put a bit of a damper on the Sanja Matsuri for the morning, but I'm sure it picked up once the weather cleared.
MAY 17, 2025 SATURDAY Artizon / Shinjuku
Saturday was a partial spare day. I only knew I wanted to be in Shinjuku for the afternoon and early evening for the giant Godzilla projection mapping that only happens on Saturdays and Sundays while we were there. As there was a steady rainfall - you needed umbrellas - we just went to the nearby Artizon Museum for the morning. It was a short walk underground through Kyobashi Station and then above ground for a few blocks.
The Artizon is a private museum originally called the Bridgestone Museum (yup, the tire company) and was one of the pioneering art museums in Japan. They had an interesting exhibit about an artist/designer couple Sophie Taeuber-Arp and Jean Arp of the early 20th century. Their work spanned Dada, Constructivism, and abstraction, challenging the boundaries between applied and fine arts. This exhibit featured 88 works including individual and collaborative pieces—reassesses their creative partnership, highlighting Taeuber-Arp’s geometric compositions and Jean Arp’s biomorphic forms, and emphasizing their mutual influence and enduring legacy in modern art. Some of the pieces were really neat and the textile pieces were interesting too.
The regular exhibits had many paintings from famous painters and some from Japanese painters inspired by Western techniques. There's a fair bit to see here and if you have time or a gap in your schedule I would drop in for a look if you like modern art.
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Some of Jean's puppets.
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Port of Concarneau / Paul Signac
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| Woman with Blue Bodice / Matisse |
After the museum we walked over to Tokyo Station via the Yaesu Mall as it was still raining and ended up doing a bit of shopping at the Daimaru department store there. After this, it was off to Shinjuku to see more anime related shops and the Marui Annex and more Godzilla. We walked through Character Street again and this time, there was a Quintessential Quintuplets popup store. I've watched the anime, but I'm not a huge fan, but I took some pictures.
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| Quintessential Quintuplets |
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| Quintessential Quintuplets Standees. |
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| The Daimaru was selling retort pouch camping / survival rations that were similar to what was used by the JSDF in their hardware / preparedness section. |
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| There was a vending machine on the underground area just outside the station proper that sold tonkatsu sandwiches. I would try one if I had more time. |
We took a train up to Shinjuku and got off before Shinjuku station to be closer to the Marui Annex shopping centre. Marui Annex is now a shopping centre for anime / souvenirs / dolls / etc. I was there to see several shops.
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Back in Shinjuku.
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| Menu for Freshness Burger. |
In Shinjuku we thought it would be easy to find a coffee shop or some place to have a quick bite and a drink, but holey moley. Shinjuku on a Saturday afternoon is insanely crowded. Every Starbucks, coffee shop, dessert shop, and food place we checked was packed with lineups outside. We ended up lucking into two seats at a Freshness Burger and ordered burger combos. The burgers, fries, and pop tasted great after all the searching for a place to take a break.
After this we went to the Marui Annex. Right inside the doors is the original Godzilla store and there are places to buy all types of Japanese traditional type souvenirs like chopsticks, fans, umbrellas, neat chopstick rests, clothes, etc. There are also many anime shops, a gashapon store, doll stores, Seria 100 yen store, and pop up shops.
There are three Godzilla stores in Tokyo now, too. The original one here, one in Shibuya Parco, and one in Diver City Odaiba. I didn't buy much merch here as I already bought items in Diver City (the biggest store), but they have a great statue of the Godzilla from Minus One.
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| Godzilla Minus One |
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Godzilla Minu One. He has huge feet compared to the other Godzillas.
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The Reincarnated as a Slime Anniversary Popup Store. Some of the merchandise was sold out as it had been running for a bit. There were lots of standees.
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| Reincarnated as a Slime. As isekai anime go, this one is one of my favourites. |
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| I enjoyed seeing this popup store! |
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| Prime 1 Studio showroom at Marui Annex Shinjuku. They make some premium figures, really more like fine art statues that I really can't afford, but they are very well made and detailed. |
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| Ghost of Tsushima samurai and fox that leads you to hidden shrines. |
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| Full Metal Alchemist. |
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Evangelion
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| Attack on Titan |
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| Ghost in the Shell. |
After Marui Annex, we went looking for a cafe or coffee shop again. Our feet were pretty tired from walking and standing. A ways away we found a Starbucks with a single free table again and we grabbed it to take a break. Starbucks seems to be doing well in Tokyo, but there is some fierce competition with local Japanese coffee chains. They all have good food and beverage options - putting what we get in North America to shame.
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| Some of the dining / izakaya streets in the east Shinjuku side of the station. |
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| BEAMS Japan. There are all kinds of wares from around Japan here, but it is premium pricing. I actually bought a cool patch of a camping cat that sits on my ball cap now. |
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| Shinjuku Omoide Yokocho entrance area. |
Shinjuku Omoide Yokocho is a warren of small streets with tiny bars, sometimes with just a half-dozen seats. We walked through pretty early, but some of the bars were open and we saw quite a few tourists in them. This area interested us as Midnight Diner is set in this area.
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| Hanazono Shrine |
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| Hanazono Shrine |
Hanazono Shrine is near Shinjuku Omoide Yokocho. It's a historical Shinto shrine located in the heart of Shinjuku, offering a peaceful retreat amidst the bustling city. We basically just passed through here to get to the Kabukicho area.
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| An inari shrine with foxes. |
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| Entrance to the inari shrine. |
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| Back on the Yasukuni Dori, the main street through Shinjuku with all the bright lights and Kabukicho. |
The first stop here was the famous giant Godzilla Head and the displays in the lobby of the Hotel Gracery. They always have a Godzilla themed display going. This time it was a pretty nice diorama with original costumes.
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| Info card about the diorama. |
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| Godzilla versus Mothra (2001). |
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| Godzilla versus Mothra. |
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| The Giant Godzilla head. The deck area was closed this time. I'm not sure if it was because of safety or the weather. I think it was related to all the jumpers from high places like in Shibuya, where many vantage points were closed. |
It was now early evening and we were beat. This holiday was actually quite grueling as it had so much walking and we were on the go for pretty much the whole time. I had wanted to see the Godzilla projection mappings, but we called it a day. I was just too tired to walk all the way over to Metropolitan City Hall. Even if we caught a cab, there would have been a bunch of walking and then we'd have to get dinner and then back to the hotel. We would also have to pack tonight as we would be checking out of the hotel tomorrow morning!
Shinjuku, Metropolitan City Hall, Godzilla projection mapping.
Saturdays, Sundays and holidays
19:30〜19:45 "TOKYO GUNDAM IN THE FUTURE" / "PAC-MAN eats TOKYO"/ TOKYO Time Traveler / Lunar Cycle
20:00〜20:15 "TOKYO GODZILLAs" / "GODZILLA: ATTACK ON TOKYO" / FUSE
20:30〜20:45 "TOKYO GUNDAM IN THE FUTURE" / "Aimer/Zankyosanka" / "TYO337"
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| A cloudy evening, threatening rain in Shinjuku Kabukicho. |
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| Kabukicho lights. |
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| Kabukicho. |
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| Sushiro sushi! |
May 18, 2025 SUNDAY ½ DAY, MORNING
Check out of hotel. Store bags in a locker at Tokyo Station or Luggage Check.
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| At the north end of Tokyo Station there were a bunch of the manga manners posters. Not many tourists would see them here as it is in an out of the way part of the station. We were there for the lockers. |
Head to the Airport by NEX EXPRESS at 2:30 to be there 3 hours ahead of our flight.
We basically had about 4 hours to kill after checking out. I often see the Tokyo Tower or Imperial Palace East Gardens or go up to Akihabara. This time I was going out to Odaiba as I wanted to catch a rare Wigglet.
See my post here about Wigglet Catching.
After this it was all about collecting our bags, going to the airport and stocking up on various cookies and baked goods after going through security. The gift shops at Narita are not as good as the ones at Haneda, but you can get a good selection of baked goods, chocolate, candy, and other souvenirs. The food is fresh and the prices are actually quite reasonable - no crazy markups.
That is the end of this trip. Thanks for following along.
Part 1 Shibuya, Kanda Festival, Azabudai Hills (Teamlab), Akihabara, Ueno
Part 2 Day Trip to Mount Takao, Tengu, and Gotokuji Temple
Part 3 Enoshima Day Trip and Odaiba Gundam
Part 4 Roppongi, Omotesando, Harajuku, Meiji Shrine, Shibuya
Part 5 Ikebukuro, Gashapon Store, Animate Flagship, Tokyo Station Character Street
Part 6 Asakusa and Ueno National Museum
Part 7 Artizon Musem, Shinjuku, and Godzilla
Special - Catching Wigglet At Odaiba Beach in Tokyo Bay
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