Ueno 「上野」.

Today's destination: Ueno.

"Ueno is in the historical Shitamachi 「下町」, literally "down-town" district of Japan, a working class area rather than where the aristocrats and rich merchants lived. Today the immediate area, due to its close proximity to a major transportation hub, retains high land value but just a short walk away to the east or north reveals some of the less glitzy architecture of Tokyo. "

Above is what a search on wikipedia will teach you about Ueno. When you go there, you can tell it was/is part of the downtown region of Tokyo... A lot of homeless people are laying about, smells emerge from alleyways as you walk by (other suburbs haven't had this to the effect Ueno does!), the streets are dirtier, and the buildings and walkways are bland and out-dated.

Behind the lack-lustre exterior of it's buildings, Ueno hides some real treasures to find. Ueno Park 「上野公園, Ueno-Kōen」is practically packed with things to see and do.

A leisurely stroll along the paths of Ueno Park will eventually lead you to the Tokyo National Museum 「東京国立博物館」, Tokyo's best museum. Even if you're not one for art (I'm certainly not), the museum is worth a look, just for the samurai armour and Japanese sword displays.

An extensive collection of Buddha's can be found in one section, aptly named "The Path of the Buddha", detailing when and how Buddhism was introduced into Japan, and the various sects and schools of Buddhism, as well as how it impacted on the Japanese people.

Displays besides Buddhist statues include: a large collection of ancient pottery, lacquerware, writing and tea-ceremony-related pieces, scrolls of text hundreds of years old, weapons, armours, folding screens covered in intricate design, and traditional Japanese opera costumes.

It was nice to stroll around and learn a bit more about Japan, even if there were not enough English signs and descriptions about pieces within the museum. Photography is permitted in some areas, but flash is to be turned off.

The quiet of the museum left Ben and I wanting a bit of noise. The remedy: Ameyoko Arcade of course! This arcade-- a series of inter-connected alleyways, twisting around the back streets of Ueno-- is filled with food, clothes and accessories, the vendors of which all eagerly yell out what's hot to trot in their shop today.

We tried to win a few prizes out of a crane game, but no luck for us. I think you need to be Asian to be able to win anything from these ever-popular arcade games. Prizes inside can be cool (ice cream, cartoon figurines), cute (soft toys) or quirky (live fish and sea-monkeys). Ben and I have had our eyes on a pillow inside one of the crane games since we first saw it-- black, with the Space Invaders logo on it. Can't seem to find it after seeing it the first time though.

We stopped for a bite of lunch-- hamburgers today-- and returned to Ueno Park, to locate some temples we'd missed earlier on. Locate them we did-- four of them in fact. Three of them I have no idea what the name is, but they were all pretty cool.

The first one was the lamest. Just one building, no photography permitted within. We had a quick squiz, got our stamp and left for the next one. Didn't even bother buying a charm from there-- they were very commercialised. As in, they sold 'charms' with Hello Kitty on them for like, $7, while every other shrine we've been to has similar (albeit less commercial) charms for less than half that price.

The second temple was somewhat better. Follow a small trail down a slight incline beneath a tunnel of torii (try and say that quickly ten times in a row) and you have a cute little temple. The holy-water spring in which you wash your hands to purify yourself before entering the temple was covered in green moss, and would have been so much prettier if it didn't have chicken wire over the top to keep those damn pigeons out.

Shrine number three was also small, and was nicer than the first, but not as nice as the second.
The path leading up to it is flanked on both sides by a huge pond, packed full of absolutely enormous lily pads. Beneath the giant green leaves swim giant carp (with a couple of turtles thrown in for... no particular reason). I have no idea how any animals survive in the pond without access to much sunlight. Plus, I'd have thought all those plants would choke the waterways, making the pond stagnant and causing toxic blue-green algae to grow.

The shrine itself is a wooden building, inside of which photographs are not permitted (we took photos anyway), which is fine-- not much to see on the inside anyway. Candles, incense, a couple of monks, the shrine, tatami mats to kneel on while you pray. The usual.

The fourth is larger than the others, and is the only I know the name of: Tōshō-gū 「東照宮」. There are two temples around Tokyo that go by this name (and another 128 throughout Japan), and they are both dedicated to the same person: Tokugawa Ieyasu (Google it). One is here in Ueno; the other is a couple hours North of Tokyo in Nikko.

Inside the Ueno Tōshō-gū is a flame. The story behind it goes something like:

After the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a Japanese man from Tokyo traveled down so see if his uncle had survived the blast. When he arrived at his uncle's house in Hiroshima, the ruins were on fire. He collected some of that fire and kept it burning in his home, determined to keep the flame alight until all nuclear weapons in the world are destroyed. The Tokyo government thought this was an exceptional stance to take, so built a shrine within Tōshō-gū, in which contains some of the flame.
Still burning to this day, it serves as a reminder to all who attend the shrine as to the horrible effects of nuclear war and will not be extinguished until the world is purged of all nuclear weaponry.

On either side of the flame are roped of paper cranes. Making a thousand paper cranes is said to bring good luck, so people make them and bring them to the shrine in the hopes that the meaning of the flame will be fulfilled sooner.

On our way home we took a picture of a ridiculously white and fluffy dog. Enjoy.

Pokemon Center「ポケモンセンター」, Shinjuku「新宿」 and Akihabara「秋葉原」.

Once again up bright and early for a day of exploring and sight-seeing in the vast cityscape of Tokyo.

Today's destination is one where all normal 21-year olds head to when in Japan: the Pokemon Center.

Located on the 2nd floor of the Shiodome Building in Shinjuku (though you have to get off at Hamamatsucho station 「浜松町駅」rather than the Shinjuku terminus), the Pokemon Center, as you'd expect it to be, is filled to the brim with all things Pokemon, and of course, children.

It's not too difficult to find. Once you step off the train, follow any parent holding onto a child dressed up in something Pokemon-related (Pikachu visors are currently the trend for kids to wear at the moment) until you reach the store itself.

Entering the store, you immediately realise several things:

1. The cute Pokemon statue right on front of you.
2. The legendary Pokemon floating above your head.
3. Charizard hovering in the corner to your right. And...
   
4. That you are the only person over the age of twelve who has entered the store without children of your own.

In Australia you'd be laughed at and teased. In Japan you're just another person in another store, dedicated to yet another fad.

After scrutinising practically every item in the store, we made a selection of the things we wanted, bought them and moved out before the hordes of children beat us to the cashiers.


From Pokemon-land we made our way back to Shinjuku. Lunch is required, so we stop off at some sub-subterranean noodle bar called Hanamaru. Ordering here is... different. Kind of like those cafeteria-style systems you see on bad American high-school shows. You grab a tray, choose a couple of pieces of tempura, grab a drink from the mini-fridge if you feel like one (else water is free) and move along to the ordering window and tell the waiter which kind of udon noodles you want and what you want with it (for those that don't speak Japanese, you can just point to make your selection) and choose a size (small: 小, medium: 中, large: 大).

The noodles will be handed to you almost instantly, so move along to the cashier to pay for your food. After accounts have been settled, find a table and chow down. It's a quick, easy and inexpensive way to eat in Tokyo, and is very filling.

From Hanamaru we began our hunt for another of Tokyo's temples called Hanazono-shrine 「花園神社」. It was pretty enough, even though it lacked a garden, but I suppose being different is what makes things interesting.

It's funny how the Japanese have all these high-rises, skyscrapers and mega-malls, and then smack-bang in the middle of them all is a shrine.

As per usual, we collected our stamp (each temple has it's own stamp) in our special book, though this one cost us 300yen. So far, they'd all been free, but when the monk handed the stamp back to us we realised why they charge for it. Hand-written, with ink and brush, the name of the temple written in calligraphic style. Nice.

It sure beat the other stamps we'd received so far, which had just been dipped in red ink (always red for some reason) and pressed onto a page in our book.

With calligraphy in hand, we got on the train back to Akihabara, where the perpetual smog had dissipated enough to be able to see the evening sky. I like one of the shots Ben took, of the soft colours of the sky contrasting with the stark, defined outline of a crane on top of a building.

In Akihabara we found a cool sword shop, that sells not only Japanese-style swords, but Western swords and armour, as well as daggers, shuriken (throwing stars), nun-chukas and other weapons. The items in the store were ornamental, so all the blades were blunt, but they were still cool to handle.

These ones were among the cooler ones we'd seen so far-- and some of the cheapest! As soon as we got home, I e-mailed Australian customs to double-check if it is a-ok to bring ornamental swords back home, so hopefully we'll have an answer before too long and will be able to commence buying some blades!

Random summer festival in Moriya! 「守谷の夏祭り」

Today we had a quiet day indoors. Outside it was hot and sticky (moreso than usual), and we were waiting for Taka to tell us about the festival that was on today.

Well, the festival ended up being at night, so we could've gone out during the day, but oh well.

At 7:00pm we got all dressed up in our yukata 「浴衣」(a light cotton kimono, commonly worn in summer) and Taka's mum drove Taka's dad, Ben and myself down to somewhere near Moriya 「守谷」station.

As soon as we got out of the car the resounding boom of huge drums could be heard, resonating off the buildings nearby. Taka's dad bid us farewell and walked off to his friend's house to drink, apparently not coming to the festival.

Ben and I followed Taka's mum, the sound of the festival getting louder as we approached. We turned a corner and were hit by a cultural explosion.

The street was filled with people. Smiling, laughing, drinking, dancing people. Everywhere. The sides of the road were lined with little stalls, selling various wares, from food to shaved ice with flavored syrup, as well as non-consumable items, such as masks, pin-wheels, and gold-fish scooping.

I thought everyone would be dressed in kimono 「着物」or yukata, but a lot of people were just dressed in normal clothes. Ben and I got a lot of looks-- until Taka and Jason arrived, we were the only gaijin 「外人」 (foreigners) there who were dressed in yukata.

We followed Taka's mum up the street for a while, searching for Taka's older brother Tadao, who was performing on one of the portable shrines 「お神輿, omikoshi」that were the chief entertainment of this festival.

One Tadao was located, we said a brief hello before he ran back to his moving shrine to continue dancing and bouncing around waving a lantern.

The portable shrines were lugged up the street by around ten men/women on each shrine, pausing briefly every twenty metres or so to be spun around and around in circles- sometimes spinning so fast that people spinning them would fall over. I was amazed that the people inside the shrines didn't fall out, or even seem to get dizzy-- they just continued to play their instruments and dance around in their traditional costumes and crazy-face masks.

Taka and Jason arrived, said hi, then disappeared somewhere, not to be seen again until later. After spending a couple of hours at the festival (and eating shaved ice) Taka's mum was going to take us back home. But first, we had to swing by Taka's dad's friend's house (conveniently located next to where to the car was parked) to collect Taka's dad.

Taka's dad wasn't ready to leave yet, so we were all invited in to sit around the low-table in their living room and join in the festivities. The entire table was full of food-- tempura prawns and vegetables, Japanese-style fried chicken 「から揚げ」, assorted sushi and sashimi-- all tmade by the couple who owned the house, and all so delicious.

Taka and Jason arrived shortly after we did, so it was good to have some familiar people there. They didn't stay for long, and Taka was apparently staying at Jason's that night, so they left half an hour after the arrived, once more leaving Ben and I to try and assimilate without unintentionally offending someone.

In the end, it was a great night-- we experienced a Japanese festival, wore yukata, and sat around with some Japanese folks, drinking their beer and eating a feast-- all without offending anyone.

Being invited into a private home and sharing their food like this is something many foreigners in Japan will never get to experience, but if you do receive this wonderful opportunity, be sure to:

• Before you eat anything, say 「いただきます, itadakimasu」to convey how much you appreciate receiving the food your host(s) has so graciously provided you with.
  
• Over-exaggerate everything. If you like the food, make out like it's the best thing you've ever eaten. If you don't like the food, still make out like it's absolutely delicious.
• Always look satisfied/happy. If your host is concerned you're not having a good time, they will get offended.
• Be polite. Saying thank you 「ありがとうございます, arigatou-gozaimasu」and slightly bowing your head when saying thanks will work in your favour.
• Comment on things about the home/food that you like-- tell the host how pretty their house is, or how you especially love what they put into the sushi roll.
• Take your shoes off in the entrance hall! You should be used to doing this by the time you're invited to someone's private property, but just in case you haven't, leaving your shoes on is very rude.
• Try to communicate with everyone as much as possible, even if your Japanese is limited [like mine].
• If you know in advance about attending someone's home (unlike us...), try and bring a small token of appreciation with you, be it flowers for the hostess, or a nice bottle of sake for the host. Watermelon also goes down quite well, as do other well-presented fruits/foods.
  
• Don't fill your own cup--it's rude. You won't have to, because your host will always ensure your glass is full. If the host is busy, someone else will pour you a drink.
  

When it is time to leave:

• Bow, say 'thank you very much' 「どうもありがとうございます, domo-arigatou-gozaimasu」and thank the host(s) for such lovely food, by saying 「ごちそうさまでした, gotchi-sou-sama-deshita」
• Bow and thank them again.
• And again.
• Head back to the entrance hall, put your shoes on, bow and thank the host(s) yet again, leave.

Try not to do hit your head on any low door-frames that may be in the house like I did. Not only does it hurt, it's also embarrassing.