Day 18 - Imperial Palace Gardens and Ueno Redux

Another rubbish weather day, it's still high 20's, I think 28 degrees today, but it was also very wet at times! Dan went to the big Mandarake store in Nakano, whilst I was on a mission consisting of two parts!

I was determined before leaving Japan to see the Imperial Palace Gardens, and today I had the opportunity to do so, Tokyo station isn't too far from Shinagawa, and only took about 5 minutes on the Yamanote line. Downtown Tokyo (Marunouchi) is an interesting area, especially as you get deeper into the Imperial Gardens, it's a very well kept park in the heart of a commercial district, skyscrapers everywhere. 

I spent a few hours walking around the eastern park, I couldn't get a good enough view of the palace, but from what I saw of the gardens, it was worth my time and effort! (It was raining quite hard!) The gardens host various areas and old Edo period buildings like an old barracks and armoury, whilst also showing off the bamboo garden and pond. Left the eastern park to get a closer look at the commercial district and found the Nikkei building, seemed a bit boring today!

I eventually got to Ueno around 2pm, in order to complete task 2 on my mission, I was on the lookout for a new bag, mainly because we've accumulated a lot of tat/crap/presents for people/ourselves (delete where appropriate) and as such our original bags are now full and we and in need of a new bag. To cut a long story short, I walked all the way around Ueno Ameyoko market, before finding a cheapish bag to use to bring our stuff back. (2,000 Yen is reasonable considering all the other places were looking upwards of 9,000 Yen!) Once I picked up the bag I headed back to the museum to check out the science museum I missed from before, was interesting, having the English headset helped quite a lot with the referencing as it was all in Japanese!

Day 18 - Imperial Palace Gardens and Ueno Redux

Another rubbish weather day, it's still high 20's, I think 28 degrees today, but it was also very wet at times! Dan went to the big Mandarake store in Nakano, whilst I was on a mission consisting of two parts!

I was determined before leaving Japan to see the Imperial Palace Gardens, and today I had the opportunity to do so, Tokyo station isn't too far from Shinagawa, and only took about 5 minutes on the Yamanote line. Downtown Tokyo (Marunouchi) is an interesting area, especially as you get deeper into the Imperial Gardens, it's a very well kept park in the heart of a commercial district, skyscrapers everywhere. 

I spent a few hours walking around the eastern park, I couldn't get a good enough view of the palace, but from what I saw of the gardens, it was worth my time and effort! (It was raining quite hard!) The gardens host various areas and old Edo period buildings like an old barracks and armoury, whilst also showing off the bamboo garden and pond. Left the eastern park to get a closer look at the commercial district and found the Nikkei building, seemed a bit boring today!

I eventually got to Ueno around 2pm, in order to complete task 2 on my mission, I was on the lookout for a new bag, mainly because we've accumulated a lot of tat/crap/presents for people/ourselves (delete where appropriate) and as such our original bags are now full and we and in need of a new bag. To cut a long story short, I walked all the way around Ueno Ameyoko market, before finding a cheapish bag to use to bring our stuff back. (2,000 Yen is reasonable considering all the other places were looking upwards of 9,000 Yen!) Once I picked up the bag I headed back to the museum to check out the science museum I missed from before, was interesting, having the English headset helped quite a lot with the referencing as it was all in Japanese!

Day 2 - Ueno

Day 2 didn't start too well, we originally set the alarm for around 8am, and slept through that, by the time we got up and ready it was around 10.30am, we decided to visit Ueno today, mainly because of the weather, it was really warm today, perfect weather for seeing some animals trapped against their will, but it is suppose to rain for the rest of the week, and I guess if it's raining it'll be even lamer! So we went to the local mini mart to get some breakfast, I picked up these salmon/rice ball things, I guess you could call it sushi, but it's not quite the same rice, it's a lot sweeter than usual, Dan got a rice cake which he seemed to enjoy.

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We got on the Ginza line towards Ueno, (4 stops away I believe) the first thing I really notice as I leave the station is how Ueno looks like an urban jungle, you turn your head and you see the famous Ueno Park area, but you turn the other way you are greeted by a neon metropolis of skyscrapers and department stores. 

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We killed a few hours at the zoo, it was pretty cool yet a bit harrowing at the same time, it was nice to see all the animals I've never seen before like Panda bears and ... but at the same time, you could see that some animals were clearly distressed with their situation. On the one hand these animals are in a safe and secure enviornment, recieving all the food/water/medical care they require (I assume) On the other hand, they have all these luxaries but at what price? To be trapped in a cage all day to be gawped at by the likes of you and me.

Here's some pictures from the zoo anyway!

 

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We found a really nice looking Pagoda, which is the temple of the Tokugawa shoguns of Japan, it appeared to be closed for maintainance but I still got some nice photos;

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Upon leaving the Zoo, I spotted Toshogu Shrine, which is currently undergoing some renovation, it had a lit flame encased in granite/glass, and it said something about this being lit using the burning embers from the Hiroshima bombing in 1945

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The big hyperbole of the day comes in the form of a dinosaur exhibit toted at the national history museum, it cost about 1,500 to get in, yet, we spent longer queing than actually in the museum, it is probably very educational if you are Japanese and don't have access to our National History Museum in London, which beats this hands down in scale and delivery. It all seemed a bit like a circus sideshow to be quite honest.

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After the museum district we ventured into Ameyobe market, which is never ending alleys of stalls/shops/arcades/restaurants. The big Yodabeshi Camera was interesting to say the least, even factoring in, how well the Yen has been doing as of recent, everything was easily 150% more than the UK equivilent in regards to price, £200 for a 4gb Xbox? £190 for a Wii? £45 for a 16gb SD Card? We just kept walking around aimlessly until we found the arcades and messed about with the UFO machines/Street Fighter 4/Tekken 6 and Taiko no Tatsujin which is great fun!

We eventually saw a hard rock cafe and decided to pertake in some expensive cuisine, by god it was expensive! 2,600 yen for a Burger and Beer! We wanted more beer but I refused to pay nearly£8 per pint! So we strolled around Ameoyobe market until we found this little tempura bar selling pints for about £3 a pint, weren't too bad, had a few and braced ourself for the journey home.

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