Rong's Blog..: Japan Summer Trip 2018 Day 2 (3/6)

After breakfast, we went up to our rooms to rest for a bit. I finished my blog for Day 1 and packed up my stuff. Our next destination is Ueno, closer to Tokyo city but its quite different from where I stayed during my previous trip. This is a cheaper area with more tourists, crowd and variety. We took the Tokyo Monorail and changed to JR Yamanote line to get here.

Unique design as this service the Haneda airport

The Tokyo Monorail serve a few stations nearest to Haneda Airport and it has a unique train design with the middle part for luggages, its the first time I see a local train with this design. We only took 6 stops on this train and changed to JR. It was only noon when we reached the next hotel: Hotel Sardonyx Ueno, so we dropped our luggages and went on our separate ways to explore the city.

Took a rare selfie

During my previous trip to Tokyo in 2014 with P, I had wanted to visit Asakusa but this attraction was eventually eliminated from our itinerary. Since Ueno is in the same area, I decided to spend my afternoon there. It was just 4 stops away on the Ginza line from the hotel. Once I got to Asakusa station, I saw hordes of tourists.

The entrance to the shopping street right after the station

Many tourists taking photos

More information about the Kaminarimon Gate

The weather was rather hot in Tokyo today, with no clouds and the sun blaring down at us. I think this is the first time I see so many people dressed up in Yukata, its almost like visiting the palace in Seoul. Most of these people are locals and there are some tourists as well. The Kaminarimon Gate is iconic of the Asakusa Temple (Sensoji) and appear in many of those souvenirs and food packaging.

The Nakamise Shopping Street after the gate

Before getting to the temple, there's few rows of shopping streets, each leading to a few more alleys of shops. There's many interesting things to look at and many snacks to try, this really reminds me of Taiwan 九份 but of course it's cleaner here in Japan. All the shops that sell snacks reminded their patrons not to walk and eat, even the announcement system was blaring with the same instructions in English and Chinese. I guess it is considered rude to walk and eat in Japan, as the food might be a nuisance to other shops and patrons in such a crowded street. However, that is a norm for night markets in Taiwan, Korea and almost everywhere else. All shops adhere to this and they are also quite particular, there were tourists standing away from the sun eating whatever they had bought but the security guy chased them to the 'designated eating area'.

Mochi and dango.. my favourite!

I really salivate when I saw many shops sell mochi, dango and starchy cakes etc. I was at a dilemma as there are my favourite snacks but its certainly not keto compliant. Finally, I decided to stop and get one of those delicious looking red bean dango to curb my cravings. The shop owner will point to a designated area in the shop for patrons to finish their food. I think it shows that the Japanese place high importance in showing consideration for others and they go out of their way to ensure they dont cause trouble to others.

More of my favourite food 羊羹

Many locals and tourists dressed in yukata

I wish to have a bit of those red bean pancakes!

Finally the entrance to the temple at Hozomon Gate

I actually did enjoy walking down that street as there were many things to see, the whole stretch was about 200m and I finally came to another gate which leads to the entrance of the temple. There were many people telling fortunes using the omikuji, its very much catered to tourists as there are explanations printed in Chinese and English. I've wanted to try it when I was in Meiji Shrine years ago but P was with me so I did not get a chance to do it. Although Sensoji is a Buddhist temple, this practice felt very different from the usual Buddhist ways we know but its still fun to try out with 100Y.

Locals and tourists having fun telling fortune

The English explanation

Happy that I have gotten quite a good fortune paper

Basically there are metal tins lying around with a small hole on top, after putting 100Y into the slot (many some just do it without paying), we can shake the metal bottle till one of the stick drop out from it. We refer to the number written on the stick to determine the fortune paper we will read from. From my picture, there are many small drawers with those numbers written on it, so we just take a paper with the corresponding number on the stick, its much easier for me since the numbers are just Chinese characters.

Nice wrapped incense

Light up at these stoves

Next, I saw people offering incense to the stoves and the cute thing was they all tried to waft the smoke towards them (by doing fanning actions using hands), probably it is good luck to immerse oneself in the smoke. Normally, I dont go to the temple to pray but just for the experience, I paid 60Y to get a bunch of those incense sticks. My eyes stung from the smoke when I tried to stick those into the stoves, so I hope its definitely lucky for me to be immerse in so much smoke.

I cant remember the name of these but it was quite tasty

I was hungry after touring Sensoji so I looked around for possible place to have my lunch. After seeing all those food filled with carbs, I thought I'll like to have some sashimi or some meat. To look for lunch, I walked into one of the nearly smaller streets away from the Hozomon gate. Interestingly, I saw many outdoor stalls selling izakaya style food along the two sides of the street and most of those are filled with customers. I did not feel courageous enough to approach any of these alone so I walked on.

These are really good for 490Y

I reached a kaiten sushi shop (Asakusa Magurobito) in the shopping street and decided to go in for lunch. I really wanted sashimi (no carbs!) but there were none on the plates going around so I had to find ways to place an order. Unfortunately they only had English menu for the sushi, I did not want to try going through a guessing game so I tried picking a few dish off the belt instead. The sushi tasted quite good and fresh. I finally saw the old lady next to me ordering a very salad with sashimi so I told the waitress I wanted one of those. The old lady turned to me and said 'oishi' when she saw my order. I smiled and gave her a thumbs up.

These are made piping hot and wrapped up immediately

It tasted really good!

After I walked out from the shop, I was back to the Kaminarimon Gate, I saw this shop selling 人行烧, apparently its a specialty of Asakusa. I could not resist the temptation to try one as a post-meal dessert, so I bought one to try. It was piping hot although there was a automated machine to wrap it up with a small piece of plastic immediately. There was a lot of notices lying around to remind customers to finish the food before walking off, so that was exactly what I did. I opened the plastic cover and discovered that there was the wordings 雷门 on the pancake and it was really yummy stuffed with my favourite red bean.

Hard Rock Cafe Ueno

I took a train back to Ueno station to exchange my JR pass that will be activated tomorrow when we go for our Shukubo stay at Saitama area. I was delighted to see a Hard Rock Cafe in the station and decided to go in and get a souvenir magnet. I got one of those when I went GCAM 2015 at Gold Coast, think I'll try to get one whenever in see Hard Rock Cafe outlets in a new city.

On my way back to hotel to check in

Hotel Sardonyx Uneo

The whole process of exchanging the JR pass and getting the reserved seat tickets was not as smooth as the previous two times I exchange my Hokkaido Rail Pass. The staff in Hokkaido seemed more willing to help and were more pleasant. I had to go to and fro to three different counters to get my reserved tickets for the three days I travel alone. After I got my pass, it was already 4pm+ so I went back to Sardonyx Ueno to check into the room.

Hotel Sardonyx Ueno

I will be traveling back to Ueno for my last night here in Japan. I was deciding between Dormy Inn Ueno or to go back to Sardonyx Ueno, I decided to check out the location of Dormy Inn before I make up my mind. As I walk towards Dormy Inn Ueno, I actually spotted the Sardonyx signboard from some distance away and I realised that Dormy Inn Ueno is just next to Sardonyx. Honestly, Sardonyx does not impress me that much, the reception area is small and in overall the hotel does not feel as new as the one we stay the previous night. I will probably book Dormy Inn as they have a public bath and the ratings are quite favourable in Agoda and TripAdvisor.

The standard Japanese toilet

A long table to book our stuff

Booked twin sharing this time as Tokyo hotel rooms are typically small

Something new that I've tried out this trip is the use of the Suica apps on my phone and top up as and when needed with Apple Pay. It's really convenient as I dont need to bring the physical card with me to Japan anymore, I can also use it when I pay for stuff at Family Mart and some restaurants, so I do not need to worry about running out of Yen since all these are paid using Apple Pay. This apps only works on the latest version of iPhone 8 and iPhone X.

The Suica apps on my phone

After resting for two hours, I decided to go out and explore the Ameeyeko Street just behind our hotel. It looked like a night market and it was quite busy when I was making my way to the hotel earlier. I eventually found my way to the Skyliner station and I decided to wait for J around the area as she was arriving on the Skyliner soon.

My beloved crepes and ice cream!

The Skyliner Station

Bulletproof coffee at Family Mart

She left her luggage in the hotel room, rested a bit and we went down to look for dinner. I was not exactly hungry but at the same time felt like eating something to fill my stomach. J suggested ramen as she wanted some warm soup and there was a quaint ramen shop just next to our hotel. I was trying hard not to have ramen as its a lot of carbs and I'll feel quite bad if I do not touch the noodles at all. At such a small shop, I was worried that the chef will be offended.