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The original was posted on /r/japantravel by /u/Mahxxi on 2024-10-09 18:23:12+00:00.

Yes I know Shinjuku probably might be a bit overwhelming for first time travelers, and I can confirm it is. My fiancé and I stayed here cause close friends of mine stayed here and they told me “it’s like New York but Japan!”

As someone who’s frequent New York and lived in LA, I can confirm that’s 100% true without the violence. We arrived around 3pm, plenty of time for us to sightsee, go eat, get konbini food, all the things you do. We took a nap, woke up, 2am and we’re feeling ramen, so why not try ichiran? It’s a 6 min walk from our hotel, and man did I feel back in downtown LA/NY:

• drunk gals laughing and holding each other up
• young looking clergymen kicking a can around while displaying ultimate bromance
• police officers trying to separate drunk people fighting
• people standing outside clubs
• taxis trying to maneuver around people who aren’t following the walking signals
• a guy literally peeing into a sewer grate

All in 6 minutes!

Honestly, definitely overwhelming for introverts/first timers. Thankfully I grew up in the chaos and it was fun to see that it wasn’t as quiet and introverted as social media claims Japan to be (at least my For You page).

The only downside were the fellow foreigners. For example, minutes ago as we were walking back to our hotel, this couple (I’m going to assume Italian? Kept hearing the man call his parter amore and bella) were drunk af. They were screaming and jumping at people, there were these poor guys waiting for an elevator and they just jumped right at them and screamed “fook me.” Thankfully after they feinted hitting a guy riding on a bike an officer showed up before we were allowed to cross the street to attempt to chill them out.

Otherwise, if you love the chaos and the lights, come to Shinjuku!

Edit: realized posting day by day report would be pretty bad/spamming, so I’ll follow everyone and do a final report of my 14 day trip and report there. I’ll say I did get to visit Harajuku, Shibuya, and more of Shinjuku at night, specifically golden gai. An absolute fun time the entire day throughout!