7-Eleven — Konbini in Shinjuku, Tokyo

This is a branch of 7-Eleven on Okubo 1-chome, in Shinjuku, a few minutes from Shinjuku station. What sets it apart is simply that it stays open around the clock, every day of the week, so it fits whatever hour your day in the neighbourhood takes.

What you come for is the food. Bento and snacks are the everyday buy, and the food here is fresh rather than tired. The range is the familiar konbini spread, and a snack or a bento lands somewhere between ¥200 and ¥1,000, so you can eat cheaply without thinking about it.

The shelves hold more than the usual convenience goods: well-selling socks sit alongside the food, and they are the thing worth picking up if you packed light or wore through a pair walking Shinjuku. It is a small, useful find rather than a reason to cross town.

You may wait at the counter while other work gets finished first. Come in expecting to be patient and the rest of the stop is straightforward.

For a traveller based in Shinjuku, this is the corner that is always there: a hot meal, a snack, a pair of socks, at any hour. It is not a destination in itself, but it does the job a konbini is meant to do, at whatever time you need it.