Tokyo, Tokyo, JapanWe have done some quick research about Japan and thought we'd share some of the fun facts we have learned!
1.
Japan is an island country in the Pacific Ocean made up of 6,852 islands.
2. Cherry blossoms are the national flower.
3. Japan experiences over 1,500 earthquakes a year.
4. More seniors than children and they sell more adult nappies/diapers than baby nappies/diapers!
5. Current oldest living person on record is Japanese and aged 116 years. Islanders of Okinawa have world's longest lifespan.
6 Population of Japan is almost 127 million people. It is also the fastest shrinking population in the world as the population decreases by over 1,000 people per day.
7. Japanese have more pets than children.
8. 38 million people live in the Tokyo metropolitan area, classifying it as the largest city in the world.
9. They love vending machines. There are over 5.5 million of them in Japan generating US $62 billion.
10. Baseball is the number 1 sport.
We were impressed by our cheap airport hotel, even at our arrival time of 2am. They had thought of everything, even the best blockout blinds and curtains we have ever had! It was still pitch black in our room when we awoke around 9am.
It was a glorious shock to raise the blinds to a bright sunny day.
We were starving, but Dad told us we had to wait until we reached Shinagawa Station, near where we were staying for our next three nights. So we packed up and headed into the largest city in the world.
Our hunger was abated after discovering a basement food hall just near the station. The Japanese have sure mastered the art of French pastries! The department store food hall, while small, made the Australian David Jones food hall look miniscule and boring!
We had arrived smack bang in the middle of cherry blossom season, and since they had bloomed on 27th March, we had not a second to waste on finding ourselves some cherry blossoms.
We went to Ueno Park, a large park that dates back to 1873, and is home to over 1,000 cherry trees. It also contains many museums and Japan's oldest zoo.
We didn't need to ask for directions as we just followed the masses all heading in the same direction as us. It didn't take long to reach the avenue of cherry blossom trees, where we and the many other locals and tourists admired them.
Ueno Park is a popular destination for Hanami Parties. Hanami simply means "flower viewing". You can do this by walking past the blossoms, or you can bring a picnic and enjoy the viewing of the cherry blossoms with family and friends.
The best spots to view the cherry blossoms and have your party are highly sought after. Remember, you are only vying for a spot with another 38 million people. Someone in your party has to get up very early and bring your tarp down to secure a location. Someone must remain on the tarp until your group arrives, most likely after work on a weekday. Note most of these tarps are laid onto the asphalt, so there is not a lot of comfort. Some people go all out and bring some cardboard boxes for tables and some even tape the boxes together. The food and drink selection also varies. We had fun deciding whose Hanami party we would most like to join. Lucky for us, there were plenty of street vendors selling Japanese specialties! We could tell Dad just wanted to eat it all! It has been 22 years since he last visited Japan!
Our animal lover Abigail thought the flowers were nice, but after hearing there was a zoo, she wanted to visit the animals.
We were impressed by how quickly the line moved to get us into the zoo. We weren't so impressed to learn that if we wanted to see the pandas, the wait was almost one hour. We all voted to take a picture of the panda signboard and keep moving to see the other animals. (We had been lucky enough to see the pandas in Adelaide Zoo last year). After studying the zoo map, Abigail decided she really wanted to see the toucans. We weaved our way around, visiting all of the animals. We greeted our merry kings of the bush, the Australian kookaburras, and then we had a disappointed little girl when we discovered the toucans had been removed for health reasons. Now Mum and Dad have visited a zoo or two around the world and were a little saddened by how some of the animals looked, and the distinct lack of any staff (with the exception of those around the panda exhibit holding up signboards advising how long the wait was.) They also declared that the animals at this zoo were overall the most active of any zoo animals they had seen. There are also almost no English signboards that explain a bit more about the animals anywhere, which is unlike the other large zoos that we have visited in non-English speaking countries.
We finally made our way out of the zoo and found more food stalls. We were all hungry again so this was perfect. We also would like to make the observation that park benches and rubbish bins were few and far between. However, there was no rubbish to be seen anywhere, with the exception of the rubbish piled high behind some fences in Ueno Park that the crows were feasting on.
It was a perfect afternoon for wandering around the lake and then up to the streets surrounding Ueno Station. Due to the heavy bombing of Tokyo during the war, little stores began to open after the surrender under the shelter of the overhead railway line and have remained there ever since. There is a very lively trade of bars, fruit, vegetables, fish and general goods!
The sightseeing was far from over for our first day,. Back on the subway, we alighted at Asakusa. More crowds surrounded the Kaminarimon (Thunder God) Gate at the main entrance to the Sensoji Temple. It was here we spotted many girls wearing the traditional Japanese kimono. Daddy quickly worked out they were Chinese tourists who had hired the kimonos to look the part. We found an Abigail sized kimono for rent but she wasn't so keen!
There are some very touristy market stalls on Nakamise-dori ready to sell you anything and everything Japanese. Us kids really want to sample the chocolate covered bananas dipped in sprinkles. We are not sure how Japanese they are!
We bathed in the smoke of the Sensoji Temple incense, which is supposed to grant you a year's good luck and paid our respects at the temple. A little challenging again with the thousands surrounding us.
We were all very tired eating our Japanese dinner back at Shinagawa Station. We will all sleep well!
Amy
2019-04-06
It looks like you are having an amazing time! We love the photos! Nico has asked if you can take a photo of the seats on the floor. Looking forward to seeing you in July.
Helen
2019-04-06
Looks like you are having a great time even though crazy busy. Im taking notes of your comments and looking forward to reading about your days ahead. X