Susan's Shanghai Blog - Tokyo Part 2 continued

Day 4

Day 4 started in Ueno. During the Edo Period, the area around Ueno was where merchants and craftspeople lived, worked, and played. Across the street from the Ueno station is the Ameya Yokocho. This narrow shopping street is located under and along the west side of the elevated tracks of the Yamanote Line between Ueno and Okachimachi stations. Originally a wholesale market for candy and snacks, and after World War II a black market in U.S. Army goods, Ameya Yokocho (also referred to as Ameyacho or Ameyoko) today consists of hundreds of stalls and shops selling at a discount everything from fish and vegetables to handbags, cosmetics, and clothes. We walked through all of the stalls on a couple streets and even picked up a bit of tea.

Ueno Park is just across the street from the station and up on a hill. This was once part of the Kan'eiji Temple, a huge, 297-acre complex consisting of a main temple and 36 subsidiary temples. Unfortunately, most of the complex was destroyed in 1868, when 2,000 die-hard shogun loyalists gathered on Ueno Hill for a last stand against the advancing forces of the Imperial army. In 1873, Ueno Park opened as one of the nation's first public parks. It is smaller than New York City's Central Park, but this is Japan's largest city park and Tokyo's most important museum district, making it a favorite destination for families and school groups in search of culture, relaxation, and fun. With its 1,000 cherry trees, it's one of the most famous spots for cherry-blossom viewing in the country.

More puppy-envy! As we were walking through the park, we saw more puppies.

In the middle of Shinobazu Pond stood the Benzaiten (undergoing renovation at the time). The shrine is dedicated to the goddess Benten, one of the 7 Gods of good luck that evolved from a combination ofIndian, Chinese, and Japanese mythology. The original was destroyed in the 1945 bombings and was rebuilt.

The park itself was nice and quiet, although we got to experience it in the rain. We got Tom in front of a totem pole that came from the Lions Club.

Next was the Tosho-gu or Tosho Shrine. As we got to the entrance, we walked down this long walkway lined with 200 stone lanterns called ishidoro. The shrine itself was closed up for renovation. Supposedly it is really great and is one of the National Treasures ... too bad we picked the wrong time and couldn't actually see it.

Next we headed to the Tokyo Edo museum. We weren't really planning on it but we got caught in a rainstorm so we were looking for something we could do indoors. The Edo Tokyo Museum opened in 1993 and it is quite an impressive sight. You start by taking the escalator directly up to the 6th floor where you are transported back 300 years to the Edo period. Edo was the name for Tokyo before it was renamed Tokyo. The first thing that you get to is a replica of the Edo-period Nihombashi Bridge. The bridge spans a huge open plaza which has a variety of things, including a replica of a stage used for various performances, the names of which are included in the banners in front.

Once you cross over the bridge, there are all these replica's, some of the entire Edo area with the castle, some of the "compounds" of some of the highest-ranking officials. For example, this first one is "upper residence" of Matsudaira Iyo-no-kami Tadamasa. This upper residence was built in front of the Otomon castle gate of the Edo Castle, and included a very decorated door for the emperor to enter the residence by. Of course, the emperor sometimes never came by, so the gate was never used in some cases.

This is one of the ancient shoji screens that depicts life in the Edo castle. Here in this one,you can see the Nihomabashi Bridge, that we walked over the replica of earlier.

This is a replica of the Edo Castle down to amazing detail when you lok at the individual people. You can see how they are dressed, what they are carrying, everything.

Then there were artifacts, including warrior dress, and a tea case that carries water (see the bottle on the left side) with drawers and a tray. The last picture is an "orc" from the castle turrets of the Edo Castle. I wonder if this is where they got the term "orc" from for the Lord of the Rings?

They also had a carrier like I've seen in movies where they have a person sitting in it (like Susan is) and they have the servants carrying them (like Tom is!).

In the open plaza is also one of the first buildings in Ginza to be rebuilt using stone and more european styles.

This is showing (maybe not so great) the water system from the old Edo Castle, where they would collect rainwater in the barrels and then use the wooden enclosed "pipes" to transport the water around.

They had several displays of life in the Edo Castle timeframe.

A huge bell was next. Then they had examples of painting, showing how the various colors were added with templates. There was a little video as well and it was quite impressive.

Back on the main floor of the plaza where the theater is, they had the actors there.

They had a couple old things, like this bike, where you could experience what it was like back there. And then the picture of one of the sumo matches, Japan's native sport!. The Sumo stadium and museum was nearby, but since it was raining, we decided to pass on it this trip.

As we were walking around one night, we just happened on the "green carpet" of the TIFF Tokyo, or the Toyota International Film Festival of Tokyo. It was the very end, as all the people had already walked by, but we got to see the carpet up-close.

We then followed the crowds over to an area where they had some of the stars of the new 2011 remake of "The Three Musketeers", staring Logan Lerman, Orlando Bloom, Christoph Waltz and Milla Jovovich. We were back a ways in the crowd, but we could definitely pick out Milla Jovovich and could tell Orlando Bloom was NOT there. The blonde we think was Gabrielle Wilde. The last picture in this group was the area in the Roppongi Hills that the film festival was set in.

Then we went to dinner, and on the way, we stopped by Tokyo Midtown. Starting in 2003 with Roppongi Hills, there seems to have been a trend in Tokyo towards luxury, minicity development projects. Tokyo Midtown contains the tallest building in Tokyo (a 248-meter main tower) and houses office, residential, and retail areas. There is this interesting slope-roofed design center as well that we went out to look at, which is now a gallery and exhibition space. As we went from the main tower to the design center, we crossed over a bridge and guess what we found? A fashion show going on! It was men's fashion, and well ... not something that Tom would wear! Amazing what we just "happened" upon all in one night!

Next came dinner at a place called Robata. We found it in our trusty Fodors book, and were glad we did. It is a tiny little place, dimly lit, and feels more like someone's house than a restaurant. The chef-owner is the 4th generation with this restaurant, which services what the book calls an "inspired version of japanese home cooking". In addition, all of the parts are served on different pieces of pottery (like in the 1st picture) that he has collected from different places across the country. Another "no menu" place: the owner came over and asked us if we wanted to pick out what we wanted to eat from the food that was laid out on the main table (picture #2 and 3) or he could create something. We let him decide and after going through items that we would and wouldn't eat (fish and shrimp okay, squid .. not so much), he went off and started bringing us different courses. You can tell how small the restaurant is from picture #4, since we were in the last table, and you can see the front doors!

The first plate was just a little starter, and then the second had all kinds of different veggies and salads on it. Some we knew what they were, and others we didn't ... but it was all great. Then a bowl of some kind of seafood stew and then some bbq pork.

hmm...i guess we took the picture after w efinished it, but again, amazing pottery! Then there is what used to be a fish under sweet and sour sauce (yum, that didn't last long!) Then the first dessert and the second dessert (it was ice cream which we had to eat quickly ... but you can see the pottery at least).

Here you can see the owner (the older guy in the middle) serving up some of the various dishes to some of the other patrons who had come in. By the time we were done, it was a full house.

And the outside view, just a tiny little hole-in-the-wall, but well worth the trip.

Everywhere we went in that area, there were these little areas, like this one, where it looked like it was more of a make-shift restaurant with little plastic tables and chairs setup. This one, if you look closely, is under the train tracks that you can see up at the very top. So they have built these little restaurants underneath the tracks between the pillars that hold them up. We didn't get a chance to try them out this time, but we'll be back in Tokyo again and hope to try these one night.

Day 5

Last day .. well, half-day really. We started out early and headed over to (what we think is) the Yoyogi Koen, or Yoyogi Park, which is near Harakuju station. When you walk in, they have these great paintings on the pavement of birds and plants.

And of course, more puppy envy going on. There were areas in the park with dogs running and playing together.

Then this guy ... he is dancing (like tap dancing) on a concrete pad in the middle of the park.

Then we walked past the sports centers and came across something that was just setting up. It was a cross between an environmental demonstration, a flea market, and an organic food and clothing celebration.

Talk about orderly .. this was outside of an Apple store, and you can see the nice orderly lines as people waited for it to open.

Then down close to our hotel, we saw this very interesting building. And that was it for our quick weekend in Tokyo!