Our walk to Ueno Park got waylaid as we went through the restaurant supplies area, as we found the shops and their contents so interesting. With a few new items in our bags we continued on to Ueno Park.
Due to the time we'd taken, we needed a refuel before Ueno Park so chose a little Chinese place to have a quick bowl of soup. Just as well we got there at 10 to 12 as it filled up very rapidly with "salarymen" taking their lunches. Finally into Ueno Park, home to many museums. I had wanted to have a look at the Museum of Western Art, not because of its contents but because it was one of the limited number of buildings that Le Corbusier did outside France. I wasn't overwhelmed, but the various things on sale celebrating the 60th anniversary of him designing it were interesting, as was the small collection of Rodin sculptures outside.
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| Corbusier's Museum of Western Art, and Rodin sculptures |
Off we went to the National Museum, past more cherry blossoms, which were becoming better every day. The National Museum was very good, with some fabulous pieces of Japanese history. We ended up spending some 3 hours inside it!
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| 3D lacquered box |
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| Detail of a kimono |
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| Japan's equivalent of NZ's Bullers Birds |
We were a little footsore as we found our way out to wander through the park, following the route an information centre woman had highlighted on a map. The blossom was definitely out more than it had been a few days earlier. The best trees are just clouds of white. It is a tradition during blossom season that families and businesses picnic under their favourite tree. At lunchtime it was more families, but later in the day it was great groups of men in suits, with their shoes neatly lined up on the edge of the blue tarpaulins they'd spread out on the ground.
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| Picnics under the blossoms |
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| The main avenue of Ueno Park, a couple of days before its peak |
Some of the avenues of blossoms at the south end of the park were just perfect, very much what we had hoped to catch. We were a bit weary after the circuit of the park, so headed back to our room for a bit before going out again to see the odd area of Akihabara, which is known for its strange cafes, manga, games and roleplaying people. Maybe it was the cold but the odd people were unfortunately not too visible, but the lights were excellent.
Off the main street there are many dozens of weird themed cafes, with maid and animal cafes being popular at the moment. Each cafe has one or more young female touts outside, dressed in strange gear, stocking-legged but with a thick jacket over the top to counter the cold. Very strange.
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| Touts for some of the weird cafes |
Back on the train to Ueno, and a meal of grilled meat. Meat is one of the few expensive things here. Groceries are certainly not cheap, hence the amount of eating out, which is cheap.