7:30 AM (Tokyo Time)
Getting up and getting ready to go. Yesterday was a bit of an adventure, but we found our way to the hotel without TOO much trouble. (Except for the little adventure getting out of the Kinshicho station.I didn't realize we had to go to the JR Window every time. (Having the ticket gate shut on me was a bit embarrassing, especially with all of my luggage. Oh well.)
On the way, we just had to ask a few different people directions. The hotel's got a great view. I can even see Tokyo Tower in the distance. Being on the 18th floor helps I guess. ^_^
Saw our first drunk businessman on the platform last night. Welcome to Tokyo. heh heh.
Oooh, I also saw a vending machine that sells Dr. Pepper. Whoo HOO!!
Before heading off to Ueno park, we checked out a small park that was just down the street from our hotel. We saw it the night before when we were wandering around. There were a decent number of cherry trees there, and had a lot of people picnicking underneath them. It was definitely a preview of what we were gonna see in Ueno park.
After checking out the park near the hotel, we headed off to Ueno Park. Getting there was pretty easy. I think we're starting to get used to the train system here. Our only mistake was trying to get to Tokyo Station during morning rush hour. Needless to say, the station was just a LITTLE busy...
Ueno Park was absolutely beautiful with all of the Cherry Blossoms blooming. I don't think the pictures I took even BEGIN to show how pretty they are. I really hope they're still blooming when
we get to Kyoto. The giant whale statue is located in from of the National Science museum that is located inside the park.
Although they look pink in the pictures, most of these cherry blossoms were really white. One close-up I took of them turned out really great. Here's what they look like up close.
On the other hand, the pink cherry blossoms were VERY pink. They looked more like this:
As we were strolling thru Ueno park, we came across several of the small shrines located throughout it. The first one we saw was along the path with all the sakura trees. It's name was Kiyomizu Hall.
Next up on our tour of Ueno Park was a small shrine named Benten Hall. Benten Hall is located on a small man-made island in the middle of Sinobazu Pond.
Near the pond, is another shrine named Gojo-Tenjin Shrine. This shrine is very neat because the entrance of it is lined with small red toorii gates. The route we took actually took us thru this shrine backwards. I think we actually went in the "back gate" and came out the front.
This is the back entrance to the shrine as well as inside the shrine proper
Then, as you work your way back toward the entrance, you come upon these red/orange toorii gates. (Please make note, in the picture on the right, I am standing directly under the gate. And, yes, my head is touching the bottom of it)
And finally you walk up the stairs, you come out the entrance to the shrine (picture on the right).
Next we headed towards Toshogu shrine. It was quite a bit a different than the other shrines we had seen up to this point because it had all these stone lanterns as well as a small place dedicated to the A-Bomb in Hiroshima. It included a lot of pictures as well as a small shrine with paper cranes and a small peace flame as well. (bottom right)
On the way out of the park, we passed by more sakura trees, of course. They were everywhere along the path out of the park.
Until finally we came across the statue of Takamori Saigo, which was erected in 1898. It is one of the more famous monuments in Japan. He is credited with restoring the emperor's power after the fall of the Tokugawa Shogunate.
Right next to the statue is the Tomb of the Shogi-Tai Soldiers. It was built in 1868 to honor the soldiers in the Ueno war at the end of the Edo period.
After looking around Ueno park and seeing all the temples, we headed to Ameya-yokocho, or Ameyoko for short. It is a small shopping area just outside of Ueno Park. In the post-WWII period, this area was best known as the heart of Tokyo's thriving black market. I didn't buy much, but it was neat to look around because there were a variety of different shops. We ate lunch at what Ted said was a pretty famous Soba restaurant (in Ameyoko), but I forgot what the name of it was.
After spending time in Ueno, we headed to Akihabara to do some shopping. And, they aren't kidding, everything electric that you could ever want is for sale there. The prices aren't exactly cheap on most things, but that's what you get for the newest and best electronics. I found a good place called Yamigawa Soft and bought a bunch of DVDs and CDs.
I will say one thing, they are promoting the wazoo out of Final Fantasy X-2. Everywhere we go, there's a video of it playing, posters, everything. It looks pretty cool.
11:00 PM (I have a feeling this will be the most entries I have in one day)
Well, instead of dinner, we went to Tokyo Tower to check it out. It was all lit up and looked pretty cool. I took a bunch of pictures of course. Here are a few of them that actually turned out.
The view from the observation deck was really nice too. Ted didn't want to go up, so I went by myself and looked around (and took a bunch of pictures from up there). The lights of the city were very pretty. Ginza was really brightly lit up. It's kind of hard to tell how good of a view it was from these, but here are a couple pictures from the observation deck.
After Tokyo Tower, we were both hungry, so we stopped at one of their fast food places called Mos Burger. The food wasn't bad, but I'm not exactly sure what was on the top of my burger, but that's fine with me. After dinner, we decided to take a stroll thru Ginza. None of the shops were open (because at that point it was kinda late), but I got some great pictures. I guess we'll have to go back there during the day.
