We spoilt ourselves by staying in bed and reading for a while, and even breakfasted on our muesli in bed. However, we were on our way by mid-morning but didn't get very far - only a block away where we were in a fascinating area of kitchen and restaurant goods shops, partway between Asakusa and the Ueno train station. Here prices were very reasonable, i.e. non-touristy, and we bought a few little things that caught our eye. We now have a genuine (but possibly Chinese-made) Japanese lantern for our bedroom to replace one that disintegrated years ago. John also got a haircut. We passed an 'express' type hairdresser and for NZ$15 he got a great haircut. It also catered for women but judging by all the clients, I would have come out with a 'short back and sides' too if I'd ventured in. It took us until nearly midday to work our way to the Ueno train station, then it was a very short trip to Tokyo train station.
Our first aim was to wander around the east garden of the Imperial Palace, followed by another garden further to the northwest that is noted for its cherry blossoms when in season. Feeling a little low on energy we nipped into a supermarket and bought a small bento box for lunch, then set off for the east garden. Unfortunately we got distracted by a queue of people in the palace grounds nearby and, reading the confusing signage, thought we had to queue to be allowed into the palace gardens. Nearly an hour later, with an assigned 'free' ticket, personal details taken and passport checked we were one of 300 taken into the palace grounds, to be part of a free one hour tour.
Our Japanese English-speaking guide was very cheerful and we enjoyed learning more about the history of the Emperor and Japan. However, the tour didn't include going into any buildings, and was confined to one part of the grounds, adjacent to the moat and a few of the administrative buildings. It was interesting all the same, but it meant we didn't get back on track to finding the east garden until 3pm.
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| One of the corner guard towers |
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| Nice view back to the city |
With only an hour before the latter closed, we hot-footed through it, to find the acclaimed garden further to the NE. Indeed, some of the cherry trees here were in full bloom, with the blossoms just stunning.
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| The blossoms can be spectacular |
One thing we hadn't quite cottoned onto was that with the variety of cherry trees, some will blossom earlier than others. Therefore, while one may be in full bloom, or even losing its flowers, the one next to it may barely be starting to blossom. Instead of a long line of blossoming trees, the effect can be intermittent, but still glorious. The best trees are just like snow - all great puffs of white, and some through to pink. They can be really spectacular.
The Imperial Palace Grounds make for a lovely park in the middle of Tokyo, and there are some beautiful views to be had of the park against the modern city.
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| Back towards the Imperial Hotel |
We got a bit trapped by the moat around the palace grounds and, constrained by needing to find bridges over it, ended up walking miles to get back in the direction we wanted to go, which was to see three places. Eventually we found the Good Design Store (fun but very little to see), Spiral Market (a design store that turned out to be even smaller) and the International Forum (modern and impressive architecture and multi-purpose building).
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| International Forum Building |
Our final aim was to end up in the Ginza district in the evening, to see the bright lights in the trendy commercial area. We did that. However, we were also knackered. We stumbled around Ginza, where all the name brands sit beside each other, housed in glamorous buildings. Not our kind of shops, but it was definitely fun to wander around.
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| Ginza is all name-brands |
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| A Ginza street at dusk |
We were struck by a few things. Both of us expected more large flashing signs on the sides of buildings, especially at corners, but there weren't so many. Perhaps we weren't quite in the right part of town. The footpaths and streets were very wide, the traffic drove slowly, many of the cars were electric or hybrids and so there was very little traffic noise. The whole area seemed much less manic than we expected, including the crowds.
We dragged ourselves back to Tokyo train station, jumped on a train to Ueno, then walked the 2km home. By 8pm we were well and truly done in, having been on our feet since 10am. We grabbed a small table at a cheap eatery, gobbled some noodles, picked up an ice-cream at the supermarket along with replacement muesli and hobbled to our hotel. We'd walked 24km.