Bloom Scrolling

Our plan today originally was to try to go to Mashiko which was a town up north that's famous for their pottery. We then realized that we're way too exhausted to have a day trip so instead we made plans to go to 新宿御苑(Shinjuku Gyoen) to see the garden and see some cherry blossoms. Meghal lives for both pottery and flowers.

We started with breakfast at 二足歩行 coffee roasters

We stopped by a stationary store on the way to the garden so Meghal can look at stacks of paper.

I remember the first time I wandered into this garden, ten years ago. I had just arrived at Shinjuku Station and was suffocated by the noise and the crowds. I wanted to be in a place that was more gentle and quiet. I spotted the garden on my map, stashed my luggage in a coin locker at the station, and started until the streets and buildings faded into grass, tress and bushes.

It was just past 11 in the morning, and the garden was still and quiet—it felt like I had the entire place to myself. I explored, got lost in winding paths, found places to sit and rest, lay down on the grass, took photos, and just felt a calming sense of peace. I felt so peaceful that I didn't even notice the time and I stayed there until the park closed around 4 p.m.

Returning this time was different. The park was more alive and busy, probably because of the cherry blossoms. But despite the business we found our pockets of serene and we got to appreciate the nice landscape of the garden.

We walked until my feet started hurting, I had to sit down a couple of times because my leg muscles were struggling.

We got to see a variety of different flowers, and of course cherry blossoms!

I learned that Shinjuku Gyoen has about 1500 cherry blossom trees and has about 70 different varieties.

After the garden, we headed to Ginza for our reservation at Mixology Salon to try their cocktails. We arrived a bit early, around 6:30, but our reservation is not til 8pm.

Ginza was a bit odd, it was mostly shopping for luxury brands which I wasn't super drawn to.

It worked out though, because it gave us time to stop for sukiyaki. It was Meg’s first time having sukiyaki and we had a lot of fun cooking our food in the broth.

We went to Mixology Salon right after and made it just in time.

We're lightweights so we got buzzed from 2 drinks, but it was fun they made us REALLY good cocktails and it was nice to just be able to wind down.

We realized that the mall / building we're in has a rooftop so we went up to the to try to see the skyline.