Sunday October 26, 2014
It’s very cloudy today and my photos look very grey, but we are
thankful for the cooler weather. I
think Tokyo is having a bit of unseasonably warm weather and it’s so funny
because we are sweating and complaining about the heat (around 70 degrees) while the
Japanese are wearing sweaters, warm ugg-type boots, long sleeves, hats and winter
coats! Even some of the dogs have their
jackets on. It’s very bizarre, but I
guess 70 feels cold to them? It’s cute
to see how pampered some of the dogs appear – wagons, strollers, even being
carried. There are lots of foo-foo dogs
– brown little poodles, shiba inus.
Seems like people go all out and don’t have just 1 or 2 dogs, but a
whole wagon full. We see many dogs riding in the front baskets of bicycles or running along side them on leash.
Tokyo feels much like New York City, except cleaner and more polite. Some observations about the city: the subways don’t smell even
though they are quite warm at times. They are sparkly clean. Most places seem to barely have the A/C on – we are usually always
hot. I don’t notice perfumes or
colognes – I guess living in close quarters and riding subways they realize how
intrusive those harsh smells can be.
You can’t find a trash can anywhere, but there’s no trash to be seen laying around on the ground. Drink vending machines are plentiful, sometimes one on each block. They are all over the place and we grab a milk tea often. We've found both chocolate and lilac flavors, but plain is our favorite. Imagine our surprise when one of our tea purchases comes out piping hot. Take note: the red label means heated, the blue means chilled. We haven't noticed any food vending machines, just drinks and the occasional cigarette machine.
Today we do a ton more walking today starting at the Imperial Palace Gardens. We notice so many joggers that we conclude there must be a running club nearby. We also notice that the street out front is filled with bicycle riders. It is closed on Sunday to car traffic and many are enjoying a bike ride on this lovely warm fall day. The grounds of the Imperial Palace Gardens are surprisingly hilly and my knee is reminding me that we are doing a ton of walking. The walls of the palace are immense, really impressively tall. We walk around outside the Palace walls to find the famously, often photographed Nijubashi bridge.
Our next stop is Ameyoko ( aka Candy Shop Alley) to grab a noodle lunch and do some shopping before
heading to Ueno park. We eat at one of those
places where you order by putting your money into a machine and pressing the #
of the meal you want. It spits out a little ticket that you hand to the person behind the counter. All of the seating inside seems to be counter seating and it appears to be mostly people quickly eating alone and then going on their way. I can appreciate that!
This is our food. Notice the extra bowl. The servers seem to notice when we order one meal and are two people. They provide extra bowls without us even asking. Such attention to detail and great customer service. In America we have to ask for an extra plate and half the time they still don't provide it. By the way, the shrimp dish was delicious. The noodles are good, but I'm not a big fan of the broth. We can't bring ourselves to "slurp" our noodles the way the Japanese do. How do they do that without splattering broth everywhere?
Our next stop is Ueno Park -- time to see Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines. We ring the gong at the Kiyomizu Kannon Temple. It was built in 1631 and survived civil wars and World War II bombings to be one of the oldest temples in Tokyo. It's home to the goddess of conception or child-rearing. Next we see what will be our favorite shrine, Hanazono Inari, aka the fox shrine due to all the fox guards. The shrine is dedicated to Inari, the god/goddess of rice. Even though the temple and park are very crowded, the shrine is very peaceful. Visually it's a very pretty shrine with all the red (orange) tori gates leading to it, plus all the fox statues wearing their red bibs.
We go through the Shitamachi museum in Ueno park, which is very small but interesting. It shows what life was like in the late 1800's and early 1900's in this area. Next we go the Yanaka Ginza shopping area, which is a little street with many food stalls. We are famished and eat some shrimp tempura – standing up. No where to sit and eat here. We see a little donut place that does have chairs so we grab a donut just so we can sit and snack and rest our weary feet. We finish our evening at Radio Kaikan in Akihabara, also known as Electric Town. The kid buys a phone case and I look at all the little action figures and magna collectibes. It’s kind of like walking through a museum. We see these fantastic anime/manga dolls and I can hardly believe the prices -- $300 just for the body Then you have to buy a head, eyes, hair, clothes, shoes, etc. I take a photo of one before I see a small sign that says no photos. There are smaller dolls that are cheaper, but this is not Barbie! The clothes, furniture, and accessories are all so very expensive.
I’m hungry and we try to find something simple to eat, like
a piece of fruit or a salad. One would
think buying one piece of fruit would be easy, but no, the fruit seems to be
sold in huge bunches in the little stores.
We try a ham sandwich from a little coffee house – it had some kind of dressing on it that we really didn’t like. Finally I find a small salad at a 7-11 type
store. Less than $3 and delicious. The little convenience stores stock some fairly decent deli type foods. We are back to the hotel by 8pm. We need to get packed and ready to jump
hotels tomorrow afternoon. It’s raining a bit as we settle into the hotel room. First rain drops since we
arrived.
