First Few Days - Shinjuku

So the school I'm attending is located in Shinjuku, one of the larger districts of Tokyo.  I can't say I know the place VERY well now, but I have walked around a bit and taken a few pictures.  Here are some of them.

I always see this on my way to school.  I have no way of knowing what kind of "Special Weapons and Tactics" are used in this office, but yeah...

This is the area in and around Shinjuku Station.  All the buildings are multiple storeys high - none of this regular-sized business.  Also, Japan drives on the "wrong" side of the road...

So this is a shop called Don Quixote (ドン　キホーテ) after the character from Miguel de Cervantes's novel.  Somehow, they took a guy who fought windmills and made him the namesake of a Wal-Mart type shop.  You can buy everything from clothes to small household appliances to cell phones here.  And apparently, it's open 24/7.  The aisles tend to be so crowded that it can be difficult for two people to go in opposite directions. And you can find REALLY strange things here.  Speaking of cell phones...

...this was the display at the Don Quixote where I bought my cell phone.  None (or very little) of this smartphone business here: most people still have flip-phones like this one:

Which is the phone I purchased.  7700¥ got me this phone, a 3000¥ prepaid card and a charger (which is obviously sold separately).  Those of you know might know something about computer may have noticed the front-facing camera.  Yeah - this flip-phone has a front-facing camera.

Then it was time for a mandatory stop at one of the local arcades.  Actually, arcades are everywhere in Japan - every mall-type place has one.  Unfortunately, you won't get a very good sense of it from the picture, but the place reeked of young male and was deafeningly loud.

Yes, in Japan, Hello Kitty is a big enough deal that Swarovski is in on it.

The amount of hilarious English in Japan is definitely well-known, and quite laughable.  But there's also a good deal of hilarious French.  This place is a tea shop...
EDIT: Apparently this is a legitimate tea company based out of Paris.  Who would have guessed...

Okay, so that's it for now.  I might have another post on the way, with pictures from a visit to Sunshine City (サンシャイン　シティ).  We'll see!