Ueno Park is a large park near the Ueno Station. We walked in the wrong direction to start with (always hard knowing which exit to take when you get off the train).
It was very much our day of culture - with a little shopping added in for good measure.
There are lots of shrines, halls and statues in the park.
These little notes were tied outside of the Kiyo-Mizu Hall - not sure what they mean, but we are sure to find out on our organised tour on tuesday!
The Benton-Do Hall (17th Century) was across on a little island in the lake at Ueno park.
There were also little messages hung up outside of this Hall - more elaborate as they were on wood, and some had intricate pictures on them:
We stopped for a curly deep fried potato coated in something very yummy on our walk back over the bridge from the island to the park.
It is the beginning of Spring here (very cold), but some of the cherry blossom trees have started to flower, very pretty.
These pictures were taken at the Gojo Shrine (I think - there are a lot of shrines in the park - they blur together after a while):
They even have buskers here - this one is doing a show with a yoyo
Next stop - was a cultural stop at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, we viewed some carved words:
And then some calligraphy:
And then some more calligraphy:
And some more...
And some more - this one actually had some English in it - "I wanna be a pop star":
In the end we were trying to see what pictures we could see in the works:
This was my favourite section - the Photography. All landscapes. I thought they were just of Japan, but came across Antelope Canyon, Monument Valley and Bryce Canyon, places that Dave and I have been in the US.
Dave's favourite section was the posters/art/craft and other stuff in the last room. We think it was all student art:
Believe it on not, lunch was pizza - it was the only place close to where we were when my tummy started growling. This is me trying to look cute for Dave ( wonder if it worked!):
They had a Fire Emergency display in the park with fire engines - rides in the lift on the fire truck, little kids rides etc. We choose to go through a tent filled with smoke. It was quite the experience. I would not like to be in a fire - you cannot see a thing!
The fire dude helping us out of the tent at the other end:
The emergency display was in front of the fountain, which is in front of the Tokyo Museum:
Now, just because Dave's day would not be complete with a spot of shopping we found the Ameyayokocho Markets at Ueno - another amazing place which is sooooo busy and packed with people. More reasonably priced than the department stores here - but completely different products. The market is also full of local food shops where people obviouusly pick up their groceries on the way home:
Once we got back to the Ginza it was time to touch base with home (we miss them terribly, and wonder if they miss us even the tinniest little bit!)
We went in search of food - I spotted a restaurant yesterday, so we went there. Sin - it is a modern Japanese restaurant. It is one of those restaurants where you take off your shoes in sit on the floor. The menu did not have any English on it. Lucky there were a couple of pictures. So we ordered some food and crossed our fingers and hoped for the best. First they served an appetiser (green chilli, mushrooms and something else - all served in a kind of dressing), then we had a seafood salad (Dave actually enjoyed this, although the fish was raw and it also had caviar in it). It was delicious! We then had Sashimi - Dave surprised me by eating this as well (raw fish), served with veggies which you cooked in the centre of the table. We also had some chicken mincey skewery things (they were nice too). We polished it all off with some dessert, and then some sake (we got them to bring out a couple of their favouurites!) 11,000 Yen later (yes, the most expensive meal we have had so far), we walked out of the restaurant. I really enjoyed it - love experiencing local cuisines in different countries:
We coulnd't resist buying chocolates on the way back to the room. It is White Day here on 14th March (Valentine's Day):
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