Day 3

 . . .  When it rains in Japan . . . . we get VERY wet!!!


So first full day here and very excited about the day ahead.  Today's itinerary was a trip into Northern Tokyo . . which is the area we are staying.  So today we are going to:-

• Visit Senso-ji Temple - which includes the Five Story Pagoda, the Hozo-mon Gate and Kaminarimon Gate
• Hit Nakamise-dori (big shopping street)
• Spend even more cash at the Ameyoko Market
• Stroll through Ueno Park 
• Visit the Tokyo National Museum (in Ueno Park)
• Visit the National Science Museum (in Ueno Park)

So, off we went . . .  all full of expectations and excitement.  We walked into Ueno and first of all spotted the new communications tower that is being built.  The Tokyo Sky Tree is the new broadcasting, restaurant and observation tower under construction. Apparently it is the tallest artificial structure in Japan and reaches the dizzy heights of 634.0 metres (2,080 ft).  This is as much as we will see as it won't be completely finished until late 2011.  My piccie isn't that good so I might try to get a better on from a different view later

This led us nicely to the Nakamise dori (dori means street by the way).  Nakamise dori is a huge undercover shopping alley and sells all the stuff you never knew you needed until you saw it!  To Scott's surprise, I had complete control of myself and didn't actually buy anything . . . . I know - I get the shakes just thinking about it!

We sort of walked quickly through this 'cos it was absolutely heaving and Scott was coming out in a cold sweat - anyway, I wanted to get to the Temple.


Sensoji Temple is fantastic

This is the Hazo-mon Gate, the entrance to the Temple.  There were loads and loads of people heading towards the Temple, so we were swept along.  Fortunately everyone wanted photos of the gate, so I was able to snap a few . . . . 


Now we headed up to the main temple.  There's an incense burner in front of the temple where you waft the incense over you for good health . .  had to have a bit of that!

The on into the Temple - no photos allowed, but it was lovely.  Everyone inside was throwing 100Y coins into the front of the shrine and saying a prayer.  It looked fab, though Scott had to stay back.  He's a lot taller than most Japanese and was worried he'd get a 100Y coin bounced off the side of his head!


Next to the Temple is the Five story Pagoda.  Not open and we couldn't go in, but looked rather special from the outside.

There was almost like a carnival atmosphere at the Temple.  There was a small fairground with BIG rides and all along the route from the Temple were food stalls . . . . some looking really nice, other . .  well a bit suspect!  One of the favourites seems to be coated bananas.  A lot of the kids were walking around with blue bananas. I was dying to have one - but bananas hate me, so didn't bother!  But there were a lot of stalls cooking all different kinds of meat and fish  . . . . the smells were wonderful.


There are a lot of smaller Temples surrounding the Seso-ji Temple and one of them for specially for women

This is a lady Buddha - Iwako.

Oh - saw some cherry blossoms . . . . 

Well, OK if you look very closely, you see that they are tied onto the tree and they are made of fabric!  Oh well . . . so near yet so far!!!


It had started to spit on with rain, so we stopped for a coffee and assessed the itinerary and decided to make our way over to Ueno Park.  Ohhh . . . big mistake!  By the time we got there, the rain was getting a little more than spitty, but hey, we are Brits and tourists and we will carry on regardless!!!  


There were a few entertainers in the park - even tough one was doing his act to Revel's Bolero played on Bagpipes . .  Hmmm different!


OK - so now the rain is really coming down.  Time for some cover.  


Went into one of the small museums showing abstract art . . .  not our thing but it was dry! Oh, one notable thing about this museum was the toilet!  when I sat on the toilet, it made a flushing sound to drown out the noise of me pee'ing!!!!  Brilliant!


Came out of there and saw . . . .  THE GATES OF HELL!!!  Yes, Rodin's Gates of Hell was in front of the museum . . . quite creepy close up!

Now, the rain is bouncing off the ground.  Neither if us had brollies, so we were getting soaked.  Also, it was now about 4pm,and the museums close about 5, so we had a quick re-think and we decided to leave the park and museums and come back another day.  Ueno Park is huge and probably needs a good few hours to explore.


We decided to make our way back to the Bunker, via the Ameyoko Market.  Now, there is one main street in this place, but loads of little off shots with loads and loads of shops  . . .  a LOT of leather.  I thought this looked a tad like Jacky Whites Market . . .  until I picked up a beautiful leather backpack (I do love my bags) and thought I would treat myself.  Fortunately, Scott got to it first and noticed that I had mis-read the price and missed a few noughts!!!  The lovely bag was 283,000Y.  With the Yen at 131 (ish) per pound . .  you work it out (about 2 grand)!  Needless to say I don't have a leather bag!!!


And now we are so wet my clothes are sticking to me.  So back to the Bunker to dry off.  We decided to leave Ueno Park and the Market for another day . . .  when it's not so wet.


We then realised we had missed the Kaminarimon Gate at the Temple due to a short cut we'd taken, so we'll have to see that as well.


After drying off, we needed to shop for food type stuff.  There are loads of convenience stores (Lawsons, 7-eleven, Family Mart etc) that sell ready made food to just stab and nuke!  Great . . .  Nic's type of cooking!!! A very helpful man in the Lawson's translated a few boxes for us and I got a typical Japanese noodle, chicken type thing . . . .  very lush

Scott got some chicken (yes we confirmed it was chicken this time) and a noodle dish thing.  He's doing really well with the food surprisingly, so he's not starving to death!!


The jet lag is still getting to us, so after eating it's an early night for us as it's a very early start for Hakone tonmorrow.