Day 2 of Japan Trip

Day 2 of our adventures. We had BF at our hotel before going out. They served reasonably good BF though the varieties are quite limited. They have the Jap rice roll, egg mayo bread, a few types of pickles, miso soup etc. The menu is almost the same everyday.

We headed to Ueno Park for some sightseeing after BF. Ueno Park which is just opposite Ueno Station is home to the Ueno Zoo and many museums which include Tokyo National Musuem, National Museum of Western Art, National Science Musuem and many more. Think Japanese really like to go to Musuem as there are many different Musuems in Tokyo. But of course we are not here for the Musuems. Ueno is where you may want to head to if you want to see less modern, and "old" feel of Tokyo. The food and shopping is more affordably priced than what you can find elsewhere.We planned to take a walk in Ueno Park first before doing some shopping at Ameyoko. During the cherry blossom season, Ueno Park is Tokyo's most popular spot for outdoor activties and it boast around 1000 cherry blossom tree in the park.

Map of the Park

Some children playing Baseball in the park

All the cherry blossom tree waiting to bloom

The children there are all so Kawai

Since we are still early, we went to Ueno Zoo. Admission is quite cheap. $10 for adult and FOC for children. It's so relaxing to tour around the zoo in such cooling weather and the zoo does not have those shitty and animal smell like our S'pore's zoo. The zoo is actually quite small and so we only took around 2 hours to tour the place.

This is not part of the zoo animal. Crow in Tokyo is super noisy as the sound they made is like people screaming in pain. Ah! Ah! Ah.

Guess what is this. Black, hard and long stick.

There's some kind of activities happening at Ueno Park. People setting up shops to sell things just like our flea market and some stage performance.

We chanced upon some Cherry Blossom Tree that have bloomed.

A notice board displaying Posters of Wanted People. Scary sia.

You can find food basically at every corner of Tokyo. There's a stall selling fried Mee and Takoball right beside the park and it's quite an experience to eat at the park.

Next, we walked to Ameyoko which is just adjacent to Ueno Park. Ameyoko is a busy market street between Okachimachi and Ueno Station, the site of a black market after WWII. The name "Ameyoko" is a short form for "Ameya Yokocho" (candy store alley), as candies were traditionally sold there. Alternatively, "Ame" also stands for "America", because a lot of American products used to be available on the black market.

Here, you can find lotsa fresh produce (fish and seafood, fruits etc), dried foodstuff, clothes, bags, sportswear etc at affordable prices. Many locals and tourists alike bustle along the street, browsing through the items and filling their stomachs with local delights.

This stall was featured in some variety show previously. For 1000yen, he will pack lots of sweets, chocolates, biscuit etc into a plastic bag. You dont get to choose what is inside the plastic bag.

We had Chirashi Don for lunch. Chirashi Don is basically a bowl of sushi rice topped with different types of sashimi on it. This is the place for cheap, nice and fresh Chirashi Don. It's along Ameyoko and you will never miss it as the place is always crowded. Average price is around $10.

Gindaco Takoyaki. Tasted quite similar to the one in Ion.

Cheap Cheap sports wear. Lelomg Lelong.

Ameyoko is also a seafood market. The stalls sell almost the same stuff and touting is expected here.

Stall selling different varieties of tea

Nice place to buy titbits home for your loved one. It's quite cheap but without the beautiful packaging

5 minutes ride from Ueno Park via the Ginza Line brought us to our next destination – Asakusa. It is over here that one will find Tokyo’s oldest Buddhist Temple – Sensoji, also known as Asakusa Kannon Temple. When approaching the temple, visitors first enter through the Kaminarimon (雷門) or "Thunder Gate". Two statues of the guardian gods Raijin (god of thunder) and Fujin (god of wind) are erected at both sides of the gate. Right behind the gate is the Nakamise shopping arcade that leads almost all the way to the temple. It is long stretch with many shops. The shops here mainly sell traditional crafts, souvenirs of Asakusa and Japan in general, and traditional pastries, rice crackers and sweets. This is one of the best places in Tokyo to buy souvenirs

A five-storey pagoda Gojūnoto, reputedly containing some of the ashes of the Buddha

You can also have your fortune read in this temple. If I'm not wrong, this rack is for people to tie their bad luck slip if you happened to get one. exchanging for the fortune telling slip

We saw a rather interesting sight. Those people will crowd around the incense burner and wafting the incense smoke over their bodies, presumably for good luck or to wash away bad luck? I tried that too. keke

Dinner was at a tempura restaurant near the temple. Daikokuya (大黒家). Arguably Tokyo's most famous tempura restaurant, with a history of more than 100 years. We were ushered upstairs to a Tatami Room.

We regret ordering the tempura set meal (very oily) and sashimi (not fresh). The best we had is their signature ten-don (containing Three Prawn Tempura with a bowl of Japanese Steamed Rice) The special part is that black sauce is poured over it unlike the normal tempura we have. The sauce mixed together with the oil from the tempura made the rice really fragrant. So just come here for the ten-don and skip the rest. The food here is not cheap. Main dish cost about $25 to $30.

Actually wanted to go to Akihabara to see their electronic gadgets and to help Kevin to buy some stuff but Kennie is having a very bad headache. It's so bad that she lie down on the tatami.