Tokyo #1: Ueno Wanderings

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Flight and train to the hostel were fine. I got checked in, but couldn't go to my room until three. I messaged my Japanese friend to come and meet me, since she doesn't live too far away, it didn't take too long for her to turn up. I had asked at reception where the nearest sushi place was and they had pointed it out on the map, and I had gotten them to add the name in Japanese characters as so I could match it to the shop sign. We headed to the sushi place, which was only a five minute walk away. The place we went to was called Magurobito. Since it was after two pm, we got a seat at the conveyor belt straight away. The restaurant was really nice inside. It looked traditional and light and airy. There were several sushi chefs stationed around the conveyor belt. We ordered several plates of sushi and shared them all. This was a new experience for me, I never share my sushi! I normally gobble it all up myself. The sushi was all divine and we chatted and had a good catch up as we ate. Japan is definitely high tech, as when we asked for the bill a waiter came over, and quickly scanned this wand like device over the plates and it printed off a bill. Impressive stuff as the plates were different prices. As we were settling up the bill, I noticed that the restaurant had a card machine,maybe Japan is becoming less of a cash based economy or they just know tourists carry cards.

We decided to wander over to Ueno, as it was only about a fifteen minute walk away. I stopped by the hostel, so that I could take my stuff up to my room. The dorm beds were divided into little pods, with their own lamps, power outlet and more importantly a curtain, to shut out the rest of the room. It was a bit like a poor man's capsule. It should have taken about 15 -20 minutes to walk to Ueno, but we were in no hurry, so it took us a lot longer. We walked along this main street that was a kitchenware street. We had a look in some of the shops. There was a shop that sold the ornamental food, I could have blown my whole holiday budget in that shop, and the one that sold lots of sets of beautifully crated chopsticks. We also stopped in a convenience store to get an ice cream and a drink. We finally made it to the Ueno station area.

We headed to the market, which I had visited last time I was there. The area is called Ameya-Yokocho and runs under the train tracks from Ueno Station. The name means candy sellers avenue, dating back to the post war days when sweet things were a luxury and traders sold sugar coated sweet potatoes. Since rationing was happening at that time, a black market also sprung up in the area and many different things were bought and sold in these alleyways. It was cool to wander around it and see all the different things on offer. The market was pretty busy and it is all packed tightly together. There is a real mix of things on offer, fresh fish, shoes, clothes, and other food items. I really like the atmosphere here.

We also headed into the basement of some building, which housed another market, which specialised in foods from South East Asia. It was good to look around and I would never have known it was there. We walked around the streets surrounding the market some more. We came across a little shrine that I hadn't noticed last time I was here. Tokudai-ji is dedicated to a goddess offering prosperity and abundant harvests. The temple was pretty small, but beautiful. We had a little look around it. One thing that cracked me up was the huge poster of a male model in boxers next to the temple. It was a complete contrast of old and new. I wonder if the temple's goddess enjoyed the view.

We headed over to Ueno Park, which I had visited last time too. I really like this park, it would be cool to have more time to sit and people watch there. We headed to a different part of the park, that I hadn't visited last time. The park is huge. We wandered around the lake, which was filled with lotus leaves, the area was quite busy with people exercising and families out and about. The lake was pretty and we got a nice view of the sky as it changed colour as the sun was starting to set. The temple by the lake was closed as it was after five o'clock, so we couldn't go in for a look around. We had a nice walk around part of the lake, at the other side there were some swan boats to hire. We then headed back and across the road to the part of the park I had been to last time. The temple in this part of the park was also closed, so we just wandered a little and looked at the statue of the man with his dog. My friend was really funny, she said to me, I don't really know why he is famous, you should ask our other friend she's from Kyushu like him, she'll know why he is famous.

We met up with another friend at the park and decided to head for some dinner. We decided on okonomiyaki, which we all eat together last time I was here. We headed to a place that the others had been to before, and said was really good, we wandered the backstreets to find it, but when we got there, they were closed. We headed back to the main station area and went to a new modern restaurant complex nearby. We found an okonomiyaki place and joined the queue as it was pretty busy. While we were waiting we looked through the menu (they even gave me an English one) and decided what we were going to eat. We were a little sad that the okonomiyaki would come all ready prepared as there were no grills on the tables for us to cook it ourselves. I had ordered a beer and was given a small bowl of carbonara, apparently you have to eat when you drink. Our first dish came, which was a cucumber salad, the dressing on it was lovely sesame oil and salt. I could have eaten the whole thing. Next out was the beef stew, that was really good too. The beef was really tender and just melted in your mouth, the sauce was really nice, like a thick gravy and there were also veggies and potatoes in it. Our two okonomiyaki came last. They looked so pretty, it was almost a shame to have to cut them up. We had one regular style okonomiyaki and a modan-yaki, which included a layer of noodles. Both were delicious, but I preferred the one with the noodles. I definitely want to have it again. The food was a bargain, too. Our bill came to less than 6,000 yen.

After dinner, we headed for a coffee. We went to Starbucks as it was the closest to the station. We continued chatting over coffee and cake, before calling it a night. It was pretty early around 9 ish. We walked back from Ueno to my hostel in Asakusa, the walk wasn't too long, although I was knackered by this point, as I had been up since around 5:30 am. I still couldn't get over how quiet the streets were. I couldn't believe I was in Tokyo, one of the most densely populated cities in the world and the streets were so quiet on a Saturday night. Maybe it is because, it isn't a real tourist area or nightlife district we were walking in. I happily flopped on my bed at the hostel.

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Photos

Old and Modern
Tokudai-ji Temple