With that we decided to take it easy and head to only one destination Ueno. Reflecting on the past four days, it's really nice to be on a trip with no itinerary, to pressing need to get to xyz and a way to immerse yourself in the culture in the heart of Tokyo away from the shelter of tourist friendly areas. We are fortunately to be able to have Michi's dad here telling all the ins and outs of Tokyo during our stay, leading us to the best places to see, culture to experience and places to eat. Without that in, we would be normal asian tourists saying sumimasen, americaa jin desu (giggle giggle giggle) and bow respectfully as you stumble through the day. We are very fortunate and we can take breaks from the rush.
Even tough we are gaijin, Michi is half Japanese and I'm Chinese so many assume we speak Japanese so I have to clearly say in english "do you speak english?" to set up the fact I can't speak fluent Japanese. They are always polite and very helpful.
The morning started with my usual regimen of responding to work emails, writing and other work related stuff. We ate a couple eggs for breakfast. After realizing the forecast we decided to work into the afternoon before we headed out on our own without our trusty guide. The destination is Ueno, an area known for street vendors and a park with museums and a large pond/lake. By now we were starving and looking for a place to eat. We were looking for a popular chain called Mos Burger but failed to find it on our walk to the station so we proceeded to head to Ueno, the furthest distance from Shinjuku on the Yamamote circular line. This trip only took half an hour so we were famished when we got there at 3.
Walking the streets of Ueno, we saw street vendors selling goods from clothing, shoes, electronics to fruit, fish and meat.
Vendors sold nearly everything in this huge open air market lining the streets. It started to rain heavily while we walked so umbrellas were in order. Fortunately the rain only lasted half an hour but there were very few places for reprieve unless you went into one of the huge department store towers. We stayed outside soaking in the sites and showers.
During our walk I noticed a hole in the wall shop selling gyozas. Having a love for gyozas I deciede to give it a try. It was one of the best and the largest gyozas I've every had and only costing 450. I would highly recommend any traveler to Ueno to visit this hole in the wall shop for some very unique gyozas.
They do have other dishes too like ramen and vegetables but unfortunately we couldn't read they menu since the establishment was geared toward Japanese only since it was a local hangout.
Having finally satiated our hunger at 430 we headed to the state park to see shrines, temples and museums. The weather was actually nice and cool since the rains came in and it was a good walk through the park taking many pictures. Unfortunately due to the lateness of our departure all the places we wanted to see was closed. :( :( :( This park is also known for the cherry blossom walk during the cherry blossom festival in February called Hanami (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanami). Unfortunate we were a little late for that.
We did see one amazing site at the park which was the lotus flower forest! This area, which looks like a gain pond most of the year is host to a forest of lilipads called lotus flowers. They only bloom at a very specific time during the year and they were in bloom when we arrived. Quite an impressive site to see the sea of pads across the pond.
After the walking tour of Uneno we decided to call it a night and head back to Shinjuku to grab a late dinner. This time it consisted of a nice bowl of Soba or Buckwheat noodles. It was a delicious dish that satisfied our exhaustion.
This day was less eventful compared to the previous day but a good one since we needed a chance to recharge. Tomorrow should prove to be another slow morning as we plan on going to see the night life of Tokyo instead of the daytime activities we've been experiencing for the past week.
I hope you've been enjoying my travel blog of Japan. Please write a comment or click on one of the three feedback options so I know that someone other than me is reading this! Second, this entire blog was written on my iPad and published with picture from it. Errors may occur. THX.
- new blog Posted from my iPad
Location:６丁目,Shinjuku Ward,Japan
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