Tokyo Day 6- Ueno park and Akihabara Electric town

The previous post in the series is here..

We checked into the Tokyo Dome hotel, had chai in our rooms and came out to go back to Ueno Park. It was around 4PM. We walked through the same path we missed the previous evening. Turns out there were no blossoms. We had experienced the best of Ueno park the previous evening at golden hour.

The rest of the group gave me a look that could simply be summarized in one word “Thoo!”. Well, they did not want to disappoint the photographer. I made my apologies and we were deciding where to go. Our walking buddy had called us and asked if we went to the electronic city where there are all electronic stores.

We had no idea, did some googling and found that it was actually where we had stayed the previous day!

We took a cab to Akihabara area and found this LED lit crossing where they sold electronics and video games. Interesting crowd of people all with hair died in all kinds of gold and blue and purple like in video game ads. There was a large electronics store. We walked through all the floors and decided that they were as pricey as the US. We needed some power banks. So we got a power bank each and that was that.

A video highlight reel

When we came out of this area it was already starting to get dark. So we decided to go from here to the main attraction of the evening..

Tokyo Day 5- Ueno park

The previous post in this series is here..

After Senso-Ji temple, we took a cab that dropped us off at Ueno Park. We walked in expecting some Cherry Blossoms. There were none on the path. Then we (I) heard someone talking about a walk path to the left. No one was going there. So we turned right and down to the lake area and saw another temple from the outside and took photos.

By the time we climbed back up, it was cold and chilly. The sun had also set. So we walked back to the entrance. I was going through a temporary brain fade and thinking we should come back to see that road in day light. So the group tried to calm me down from my man-opause and said “okay okay.. we will try to make time and visit this place again during the day tomorrow”.

We also assumed that given it was late evening, we could go back by train. Our memories of doing this in Osaka were nice. Tokyo was different. We saw the first train and got spooked. We had to take the second one having come down to the station. So we crammed ourselves into the next one with the kids being in the middle.

Once out on the other side, we walked back to the Monday Apart hotel.

We made Chai, cooked up Poha, semiya upma and other instant food packets and sat together and ate it !

It was a meal that will stay with me for a long time. It is not like we have not had food together as families before at each others place. This was special. The rest of the families, especially the ladies who would otherwise not eat that much were finishing things off.. for us.. so we could buy stuff of equal weight at Uniqlo ..

that sacrifice is sincerely appreciated!

The first photo below was taken in a cramped elevator in the Akasukabashi train station when we were coming out..

A video highlight including the train after we got off it. It was two stops but we literally had to squeeze ourselves in. Office train traffic in Tokyo was something else!

We did go back to Ueno park again.. Will write about it later.. for now the blog will take a break as we are back to work days. Will pick this up later this week..

A different kind of Tiger mom - Onitsuka - Japan Day 4

The previous post in this series is here..

After we had lunch near the golden pavilion, we took an Uber XL to Kyoto shopping area. It was already early evening and we went to the Onitsuka Tiger shoe store.

The little one had told us that we need to get her a pair of shoes at this store as it is a Japanese product that is cheaper in Japan than in the US. Also not all designs are available in US.

The Tiger mom went into overdrive to make her cub happy. We saw the line at the store was really long. Our friends saw the madness and said “we will go rest in the hotel. When you finish this and come back to the hotel, we can all go back for dinner”.

We stood in line for 2 hours just chatting with others in the line. Then our chance finally came. I had also selected a shoe in blue but it was sold out. Still we picked the version for the little one and also decided all of us should get one given the two hours spent in the line.

Then we made it back to the hotel. There is a Puma store right next to this one and we got socks for my buddy on the way there. We hope the Onitsuka’s are noticed on Bubb road during the local walks.. given their price, I might as well do pooja for it or carry it on my head instead.

Things we do…

We were to have dinner at a vegan place in Kyoto. Again a Jr. selection and she had made reservations. The food was good as was the service but the price was very high compared to other options we had seen. We were happy with the food. Then we made our way back to the hotel.

A very short video..

Our original plan had us spend another day here. We did change plans the previous day. We were going to our next stop a day early. It was going to be our last night in Kyoto..

Will start with our next stop in the next post..