Well what a massive day today, we had a real Tokyo experience. Today's agenda was Ueno Gardens followed by the shopping district, Sensoji Temple, Tokyo Skytree Tower and then home.
We left early for Shinjuku Station, middle of peak hour, using the underground walkways. Found our platform on the subway and were gobsmacked at the number of people. Then we got the real metro experience. You see the videos of "shovers" pushing people into train cars in Tokyo, we had that very experience. I stumbled in first and as Lorraine put it, was simply swallowed into a miasma of people. I glanced over and laughed as she was being shoved by this woman wanting to get on. She literally had her back into Lorraine and was pushing backwards to get into the car before the doors closed. No need to hold onto anything, the crowd supports you swaying forward, backward, side to side, it was fucking awesome. We couldn't stop laughing. Next stop, people pile out, people pile in, the shoving begins all over again. We took our stop, getting out to change trains and again another shoving experience. The first train was "full", the "shover" held us over (trains are about every 6 minutes), I took some pictures of the "sardines". I missed getting a picture of one guy as the train passed by looking like he had been splattered across the window, arms overhead and askew, cheek firmly planted on the glass with his head sideways. We boarded the next train, lucky for us this time we were going to the end of the line, the before and after photos are hilarious.
Ueno Gardens is large, it contains the National Museum, the Ueno Zoo (look at the cones marking out the lines for busy days), temples, shrines, market stalls, avenues lined with cherry blossoms and camellias, ponds, and gardens. It was another oasis in the middle of a busy city. The Japanese certainly know how to deliver serenity.
Outside the park is a shopping district. I found another camera shop, and yep, purchased more gear, its just a Nikon lens cover for the new lens, the Sigma cover was painful to use.
From here it was back to the subway station to head to Sensoji Temple (the oldest Buddhist Temple in the world). On the way, we finally found a tea shop where we could purchase a nice matcha tea bowl each. Leading into the temple, we didn't realise was there were some really brilliant market stalls leading up to the temple. We both were able to tick off some more final souvenirs. For me I always buy a hat, hat/lapel pins from each place we visited to pin on the hat, a shot glass, and a mini flag. I had until then everything except for the flag, until I found a great shop. The old man who owned it had been to the Sydney 2000 Olympics so we had a brief chat about Australia. I also managed to finally find some Japanese sandals in my size (3L). Lorraine managed to find some more last minute gifts. We also had some ice-cream that was just creamy and smooth.
The temple was stunning, very large, there was an incense burning area out front where you can add your own purchased incense and then stand in the cleansing smoke wafting out.
From there we decided to walk to the Skytree Tower over the river. We took plenty of photos of the tower but didn't feel the need to ascend it. The wait times were ridiculous and having already seen fairly much the same vista from the metropolitan towers for free, the entry prices seemed excessive to us.
From there we headed back to the subway, we wanted to beat the peak rush home again. As enjoyable as it was in the morning, we did have some delicate souvenirs that couldn't be crushed. We had a little subway mix-up and acting on the instructions we had prepared and downloaded onto my phone got off the train one station too early. After eventually consulting one of the helpful staff as we couldn't work out why the interchange was impossible, we found out the error, boarded for one more stop and changed over lines to make our way home. We did decide to get off one stop early intentionally in order to walk a different way home, same distance, just different view.
After a rest we went across the road for a dinner. Every patron had their own personal curtained off dining area, you have a doorbell buzzer on the table in order to summon the staff, and the food again was just superb. One thing I cannot remember mentioning is that almost without exception, toilets anywhere around Japan are exceptionally clean, some public toilets even have bidets and heated seats. Restaurants such as this also supply you with mouthwash, cotton buds, air freshener, toothpicks, and dental floss, all in the basin wash up area. And the wash up area is spotless.
After dinner we wanted to go to another spot recommended by a friend, but a combination of very sore feet (mine with blisters), sore legs, spots of rain, and very high winds, it just knocked it out of us. We headed back to the hotel to rest, shower, watch some TV and research how to get to Narita Airport tomorrow by train. By the way, Japanese TV has to be seen to be believed and the ads are completely nuts and make no sense.
Tomorrow we will have a quiet day, pack in the morning, check out, organise the rail tickets, then chill out somewhere, before bidding Tokyo farewell. If we can we will post from the airport, if not the next entry will be in two days (backdated to Saturday) from home. Its been a hectic, fast paced, no holds barred visit to Japan over 10 days and it has been simply awesome. Mostly because the Japanese people are simply awesome.
Photos
2018-04-06 - Tokyo Wanderings II
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