A city on Sunday
Population celebrates
The springtime as one

We walked out of the hotel into an overcast day. The city was shrouded in cloud, but it was still bright on the eyes and humid. We started at Shinjuku station and made our way to Ueno. The stations are really well signed and google maps tells you which exit to take out of the underground maze, which makes it easy to get around. There should be no excuse.

We got off at Nippori and found ourselves walking through a cemetery. It was very large. There were a lot of prayer sticks on the graves. I think these are called sotaba (google gives differing descriptions). They are grave markers provided by the Buddhist temples who run the funerals. We saw a priest leading a small family procession of 4 people along the road, may be an anniversary occasion. They didn’t look overly upset.

Time for a late breakfast. We stumbled across a cafe-sweet shop. The friendly owner welcomed us and showed us to a table. We ordered the breakfast set for $6.80 each, which consisted of a very thick slice of lightly toasted bread drowning in salty butter, a boiled egg in shell, a salad and a coffee. It was great value and very tasty - you can’t go wrong with an abundance of butter. An Australian woman was there with her toddler, who was up for a chat, and her boy, about 12. He was well into the routine of Japan, clearing the table and even wiping it down before they left. 

Refreshed, we were back on the street wandering through the calm and green backstreets of Ueno. We were near government buildings and the university and it was quiet on this Sunday morning. We arrived at the Tokyo National Museum precinct and bought tickets. It was busier here. The area encompasses a large campus with many different galleries and buildings. It is a beautiful space, with a pond and lovely gardens. There are also a few traditional tea houses here.

We started in the main building and looked at the History of Japanese Art exhibitions. There were artefacts, textiles, prints, scrolls and re-imagined netsuke (traditional tobacco pouches that hung off the obe sash - similar to the little trinkets the young girls hang off their bags here now?). Some of the art was on woodblock, but there were a lot of traditional scrolls and they were beautiful. I finished in the main building, had a bit of fun doing some stamping in the hands-on section and left Ken to it.

There was a Sunday market happening in Ueno Park. Lots of families were eating, sitting around the large fountain area. There was a lot of delicious looking food markets and also some jewellery and homewares. I passed a street performer, who was dancing, playing a stringed instrument and blowing a wind instrument. She was quite entertaining. 

Ueno Park has a large tree-line avenue. It was busy today, a lot of families were out enjoying the day. I left and made my was across the busy street. Ueno turned into a mad place! It was so busy. I wandered through the Ameyoko shopping district. There were a lot jewellery and shoe places and many, many food outlets. Everyone was having a great day, out on a Sunday enjoying themselves. It is fun to be in a foreign city immersed in the goings-on on your own.

I finally took respite in the Oioi department store, where you can buy many things, including Ikea type products on the top floor. I bought a couple of bits and pieces and stopped for an iced matcha latte before going to meet Ken back in Ueno Park. Google sent us to two different places, but we sorted it and got back on the street.

We left the green of Ueno Park, moved back into the wild crowds of Ueno shopping district, over a very large pedestrian crossing to get over the train and highway and into the Taito district. It was a good walk, through quieter streets with nice houses. Many had a bicycle out the front and neat little bonsai gardens.

We arrived at the knife street. There are a lot of knife and cookware stores. We perused a few before going to the one I had seen many recommendations for - Cutlery Tsubaya. The selection was good for our price point but the owner was busy on the phone, so we went and checked out the rest of the shops. There are some very fancy and very expensive knives out there. We went back to our man and bought me a very nice knife.

We could see the Tokyo Tower in the distance and headed in that direction. We ended up in the Asakasa area. We found ourselves another crowd. There were men drinking outside a bar, dressed in short little robes. Some of them had very little underneath and there was a lot of bum on show. These were men of all ages. Then we saw another group in different coloured robes parading on the main road with a big golden statue. We are thinking there was some sort of competition and they were the winners. We saw lots of groups, all in different colours. There were women in the mix as well. It looked like they’d had a great day.

We kept following the crowd and found another food festival going on. We were ready for a snack and bought some fried chicken in a cup and a pancake type thing filled with cheese. The crowd were spilling around the large temple and we sat and watched them while we ate. 

Time to trek home, we got on the local train at Asakasa, got off at another station, got on the wrong train, got off at Asakasa and then went down into the subway and onto the Ginza line. This was the first time we had been in the stereotypical Tokyo train squeeze - at 5pm on a Sunday evening.

Back home, Ken went and had an onsen and I watched the Eagles - we were winning! We watched the end of the game - we won - before heading out for the night, walking through light drizzling rain. Back on the train, back to Shubuya to see the scramble crossing at night. That place is loud and bright. The billboards are large and colourful neons flashing and blaring out music and information. The crowd was there to have a good time and to experience the crossing. The lights turn green and everyone crosses. As this was mostly a tourist attraction at this time of the night, most people were filming or photographing and not trying to get across quickly. It is fun and exciting.

We tried to get into a few restaurants, a long wait or a tiny space and ended up at a very nice steak place. We both had steak on cast iron plates with vegetables and rice and beers. It was pretty good.

Ready to go home, Ken saw that the giant Don Quixote store was nearby and open 24 hours. This is a whole other amusement park. It is loud and crowded and everyone is running around with their baskets, looking for the best deal. There are a lot of cosmetics, snacks and apparently electrics and clothing too. It was a lot to try and shop in this environment. The litttle screens are yelling at you to buy this product, people are pushing by and it is very bright. There is a tax free counter, but it was 100 people deep, so I paid tax and got the hell out of there. Ken had a good time exploring the place while I was shopping. 

Back across the scramble we said goodbye to crazy Shibuya. It’s been fun. Back on the train and a walk back to the hotel, ready for a cup of tea and bed before another big day tomorrow.