Originally Posted by
flowergal
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! This was exactly the kind of information I was looking for! Can't wait to try out Tenkaippin!! Looks like we will be going with the Park Hyatt!!!
In my original post, I said go "West" from the PHT to get to the restaurant area, but I made a mistake, you go East, and Google Maps in my link shows that.
So, the Fuji-view rooms will be on the West side, not the East side of the hotel.
Sorry for the error.
In addition,
kevneerg offered an excellent suggestion about the major department stores in Shinjuku: They each have a food floor in the basement, called "depachika". These are not restaurant courts, but are comprised of elaborate prepared food stalls for take-away (although there are several restaurants too). In Japan, food presentation is much more of an art than in any other country that I have ever been to, and visiting one of these food floors is a real treat. See here:
http://www.foodandwine.com/articles/...ood-hall-craze
http://www.saveur.com/tokyo-japan-de...-basement-food
IME, the
Takashimaya Times Square store (just South of Shinjuku Station) has the most impressive depachika in all of Tokyo. When I took my niece and nephew there a couple of years ago, they thought that the
Takashimaya depachika was the coolest thing they saw in Tokyo, and they had gone to all of the famous and popular tourist spots, so their praise was not lightly given.
Next to
Takashimaya is a store called
Tokyu Hands, which is my favorite store in the World. This store literally sells everything, from scientific lab equipment to Japanese calligraphy brushes and traditional wood-carving and tinkering tools to every kind of pen or pencil I have ever conceived of to robot toilets to stickers etc., etc. It's really an impressive place.
One more thing, I forgot to tell you that my niece and nephew, who are Asian from Southern California, insist that the gyoza at
Tenkaippin are the best in the world-they even went to the one store in Waikiki on their Hawaiian vacation, they love it so much.
If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask. I have been working in Shinjuku and Ikebukuro 3-4 weeks per year for the last 25 years and know every good noodle joint plus a lot of good places to shop.