July 3rd Tokyo

We’re staying at a wonderful hotel The Knot – right across Central park and about 15 min from Shinjuku station. Loved the check-in machines. Our hotel room doors use code lock, making comings and going so much easier and not wasting those magnetic keys. Wonder how they update the code between the stays. Prob all are connected to the central app. The room is small but every square inch is immaculately planned down to the wall with hangers, shoe horn, air freshener, slippers, and bath robes. 

Immediately after the check-in, Dan grabbed a few fantastic bready buns from the downstairs bakery, fittingly called MoreThan. Chocolate bagels, some buns.. I have a feeling we will have a hard time fitting into our clothes by the end of this.  

While waiting for Novichenoks to arrive, we headed out to the Omoide Yokocho area filled with narrow alleys – with scenic tiny restaurants that could seat less than 10 guests. Many also had a narrow staircase to the second-floor sitting areas. The air was filled with a delicious smell of frying meat and other good smells from the numerous establishments around us. We saved the actual tasting for the evening and headed back to the hotel, stopping by a French coffee shop on the way – remarkably awesome pastries. As Polinka noted later, there is no skimping on butter to make these deserts awesome. Everything was so tiny and neat.