We’re looking forward for our dream trip to Kansai area this end of November, but the nice weather last weekend was too good to be wasted and Musa also begged me for “park” in the morning (he’s forced to stay at home for two days due to cold) that I decided to go out and search for a spot around Tokyo which has already fall colors. I checked るるぶ (rurubu) website with “東京 紅葉 2017” (Tokyo kouyou 2017) keyword and it turned out only 2-3 parks with the leaves changing color view in the early November. One of them is Shinjuku Gyoen. There we went in the brunch time.

I chose access using Toyoko line and would get off at Shinjuku san-chome station. Surprisingly this uneasy-listening-named station is surrounded by a number of famous shopping center such as Isetan, H&M, Kiehl, and Marui (OIOI). Another unexpected thing, I saw starred place on my map showing “Halal Ramen Ouka” is also nearby. Yey! I finally managed to dine in there without lining up since they had just opened at 12.30 PM. What a perfect chance! Some friends told me the queue for this ramen was crazy. Eventually, the taste was not special for me. 😬

Musa woke up while I was about to start eating. He’s cranky. Seemed still sleepy. At the same time, four new visitors are coming and the staff said that there’s no enough seat left. They only have counter seats. I finally told them if we could move to one seat in the corner which I spared for Musa’s stroller before. Luckily, I could use their free wifi to play Youtube so Musa could stay still while sitting on my lap during eating. 😂

With a happy tummy, we walked together to the park. Since then, Musa mostly explored the park on his feet.

Shinjuku Gyoen fare is very cheap, only ¥200 per adult, but we spent ¥440 for buying drinks on vending machine. Haha. We felt thirsty all the way! Even a half park has been laaarge enough to look around. We started the trip from “Mother and Child’s Forest”. I mistakenly thought that this is a play ground. In fact, it’s merely ‘forest’ 😅

From the ‘forest’, we followed where the most people flowing which turned out into an area with flower arrangement, big pond, bridge, and the iconic view of Shinjuku Gyoen featuring NTT Docomo Office Tower. At this point, trip-with-toddler disaster began to come. Musa found the pebbles along the trail as fun tools to play. He stopped many times while walking just for grabbing two handfuls of pebbles and threw them back to the ground, causing the people who’re passing his route stepped away abruptly 😑

Despite his act, many visitors we met along the park strolling either smiled or laughed at him. Some visitors commented they were shocked to see ‘self-moving stroller’ when Musa’s pushing his stroller since they couldn’t see this little guy behind it. LOL 🤣 And look at his swag in this pic..

It’s probably just less than 50% trees in Shinjuku Gyoen have been changing the color than it’s supposed to be, but I think we came at the perfect timing. Good weather, fresh leaves, not a peak season, and delicate wind.

Easy peasy to find a good spot in the picnic area too.. even though, taking photos with a toddler remained useless. 😫

I actually planned to have short stay in this park, then heading neighboor parks Yoyogi Koen or Meiji jingu mae Koen, but evidently, we even needed more time to hike if they didn’t close at 16:30. Few minutes before the park closed, I found a big yellow tree near the entrance gate and desperately took the last captures of us. The picture below is the best shot among the other blurred photos 😆

Yes, that was last picture of BOTH of us in the park today, but my truly last shots were these anti-mainstream cherry blossoms a.k.a. sakura, which bloomed in the autumn.

Otsukaresama desu, Musa!