Dodging Disney

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As suggested by Travelling with kids - Tokyo, we'd set aside a day to visit Tokyo Disneyland. (my preferred website is tokyocheapo.com). Neither of the kids seemed particularly keen and preferred to see the pandas and monkeys at Ueno Zoo. I honestly didn't influence their decision, but can't hide my glee.

Tokyocheapo.com would be proud! Ueno Zoo costs $12 entry and Disney was looking like $220 plus themepark lunch and souvenirs. Ueno and Yanaka was awesome and I'm glad my kids prefer to check out real Tokyo.

Ueno revolves around Ueno-koen - a sprawling park with about 3km circumference. Within the park is the Zoo and the Tokyo National Museum. The Zoo exceeds expectations and we luckily time our visit for when the two pandas (Shin Shin and Ri Ri) are feeding. You can't help seeing Po from Kung-Fu Panda, when you watch these black and white beauties chilling while they eat. THey may look relaxed but they chomp through the bamboo. Ri Ri has a rebelious look about him. As if to say "If you're all going to stand there and a watch a man eat, then you can also look at my nuts!". Ri Ri was letting it all hang out.

The colobos and macaque monkeys are ninja like and highly entertaining. We watch them for quite a while ane appreciate their agility and obvious intellect. There are also some interesting birds (apart from the Sacred Ibis) - one looks like a hybrid chicken, hawke, crane. The big cats are impressive, the gorillas asleep an so too are the Ri Ri and Shin Shin as we exit the Zoo.

It's Saturday and 1000s of locals are in the park. The cherry blossoms are almost without blossoms now but the locals are still enjoying hanami. Hanami involves meeting up in the parks and throwing out a picnic rug (or tarp), kicking back and enjoying food and grog for hours. In true Tokyo style the picnic spots are marked and numbered. This doesn't stop them from having a ball - losts of laughter and otherwise unseen boisterous behaviour. Great to see them all letting loose.

There are two large lakes surrounding a shrine/temple on a man-made island and rows of food stalls line the bridge. We hire pedal boats and spend half an hour chasing each other around the lake in central Tokyo. The lake is home to many turtles and they are visible in the water and on the bank. Little Leg's legs don't quite reach the pedals and daddy-o has to do all the heavy lifting. She does offer to steer though.

We've earnt our food on stick and Jules and I can't resist boozing in the park, like a local. The steak on a stake is pretty average and I'll never forget meat-man from Kyoto. The kids struggle to finish their choc dipped donut on a stick and I willingly assist. Also ready to help Jules with her Kirin Gin and Lemon.

We walk through all the hanami parties and past the happy clappers under the sycamore trees, making our way to Yanaka. A maze of little streets filled with coffe shops, bars, boutiques and cemeteries leads us to Yanaka Ginza - a preserved 20th century Tokyo shopping strip. A cluster of two storey shops selling food and clothes. The locals sit on milk crates and enjoy a beer on the street. Deaks stops by some blokes with lead spinning tops and the cool old dude spins one into Deaks' hand. He wasn't even busking or expecting any yen. He was just spinning tops in his stone wash double denim.

We can't resist the choc coated caramel macadamias in the train station vending machine as we wait for the Yanamote line back to Yoyogi. The morning train was quite pretty empty compared to the afternoon sardine can. It peaks as the train approaches Shinjuku and lightens for the final leg to Yoyogi. Half a dozen super mario carts cruise through the intersection near our apartment, all of the drivers appear to be dressed a Super Mario characters.

We find an awesome supermarket 100 metres from our place and pick up some fresh fruit and breakfast foods. There is mesmerizing selection of beers to choice from. While I have 3 cans of asahi in the fridge, I can't resist trying something diferrent - but how does one choose.

A couple of hours of "downtime" in the apartment. Downtime appears to mean diferrent things to diferrent people. The kids take it to mean having sword fits and wrestling on the fold-out sofa/futon. Jules and I block it out and read.

Plan to eat local tonight and just se what's a round Yoyogi. It's becoming aparent that we are living on a pretty cool street. There are boutique bars, a craft beer place, a donwstairs wine bar, a shoemaker and various french and italian restaurants. We find a little Okonomiyaki/Tepenyaki place. The two staff wear army camo t shirts and the playlist is 100% 80s - culture club, new order, blondie. Each table has a hot plate in the centre. I think we are supposed to cook it ourselves but the waitress kindly cooks for us. And the food is amazing! She starts with a Japanese Omelette, followed by thnly sliced beef with garlic and sprouts - so simple and so delicious! The main course is two Okonomiyaki - savoury pancakes/fritters - filled with cabbage, garlic, onions and topped with (in our case) MEAT! We all devour them and the kids plates are all but licked clean. Jules returns to her new favourite drink - Plum Wine and Green Tea - and after a couple of TsingToas (it was that or Carlsberg) I bravely sample the Shochu.

It's the lesser known cousin of Sake. Sake is made from fermented rice, Shochu is from distilled from sweet potato, barley, rice or even brown sugar. It's not as strong as Sake but still packs a punch. It is more widely consumed in Japan than Sake and the drinks menu has pages and pages of diferrent Shochu. I select the brown sugar Shochu - why not? Like Sake, the first sip takes your breath away but it gets more pleasant with every sip. To put it in perspective, beer is 5%, wine 14%, Shochu 25% and Sake 45%. The last of the Shochu goes down nicely, I'm getting a taste for it and the craft beer bartender looks lonely. But...this is a family holiday.

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