More Ueno

Because this was my first visit to Japan, the first couple of days were full of discovery. Ueno was where I discovered the best convenience store food in the world and started the practice of eating breakfast onigiri from 7 eleven or equivalent every day. Must be one of the best $1.50 breakfasts available anywhere! Oh and hot coffee in a can from vending machines.




I also found that Japan was a lot less difficult to get around than I had imagined it might be in some respects. Despite a complete lack of Japanese, we managed to navigate our way around and communicate with people as much as we needed to.

But it was also hard to interact with some of the more uniquely Japanese culture - like the maid cafes. On our first full day in Japan we wandered into Akihabara, the electronics district of Tokyo where huge multi level video gaming centers dot the streets and where young (looking) girls line the footpaths handgun out flyers for cafes where you pay an hourly fee for some coffee and conversation. I would have loved to hear what kind of conversation $10 an hour buys you, but sadly I think it's all conducted exclusively in Japanese. Probably would have felt a bit creepy to pay someone to talk to you...

It's intriguing to look around Akihabara at all the images of women on billboards, posters, even life sized 3D dolls who look nothing like any of the Japanese women I saw. Not one woman looked like those images... I wonder how Japanese women feel about it.

In contrast to the pop culture of Akihabara, we also visited Tokyo National Museum next to Ueno Park. It's a pretty good museum with lots of historical stuff - and very reasonably priced like all the tourist attractions we visited. But the best part were the gardens at the back - absolutely gorgeous gardens with some traditional buildings, a lake and cherry blossom petals falling like snow. An incredibly peaceful place despite all the other people.

We did also check out a department store in Ueno, the best part being the food hall in the basement, which provided dinner one night - amazingly beautiful sushi platters, fish, meat, sweets. A feast for the eyes!