Ueno

What a big day.

Started with my alarm for work going off at 7.05am – not happy as I wanted to sleep in, and ended with me taking the wrong train, which just so happened to be an express, half an hour in the wrong direction. Considering home was only 4mins away from where I was I wasn’t too pleased. Another little adventure!

I just came from dinner with Seiji, as always he chose a funky little place I would never have found myself. I had raw tuna with rice and what looked like a raw egg. Seiji taught me that you break up the egg and mix it into the rice and tuna. Much better as raw egg and me ain’t good mates.

Prior to that Seiji took me to the best thing ever. A head spa! I’ll write about it in another post as it was so good it deserves one!

I spent the day at Ueno Zoo, where I met a Slow Lorris – also in need of its own post. Fell in love.
It’s only 600¥ to visit the zoo which is roughly 6$aud – imagine going to an Australian zoo for that! However… I must admit the cages weren’t fantastic. A few times I felt a bit sorry for the animal and carried on before I thought about it too much. Polar bears, pandas, giraffes, lemurs, gorillas, tigers and a whole heap of animals I’d never seen before were there. Settled on a pork Katsu curry for lunch, sat and people watched for some time.

I was delighted when a Japanese lady speaking English to a group turned to me and spoke in Japanese until I removed my glasses! Think it was the bow in my hair haha.

I found a shrine when I first arrived in Ueno, and all these beautiful wish boards. I read a few of them but thought I couldn’t do one as they all looked quite old. I found a little old man around a quiet corner selling them though so bought one for my family. Made me feel a bit homesick! One of the best things I have done here so far though.

A lovely man had a chat with me on the train, he wanted to practice his English and had visitors NZ. Made me laugh when he asked where my boyfriend was. Didn’t have the heart to tell him there wasn’t one so settled with ‘he’s at work.’ White lie.

Stopped off at a sushi station for a snack in Shinjuku.. No English. At all. You stand at the bar and order your sushi. I ordered by pointing at the fish I wanted and hoping for the best. It was delicious, such fresh fish with generous portions. 200¥ for two nigari pieces, I went for salmon, tuna and scallops mmmm.

Oh! Forgot about the markets in Ueno – they’re awesome! So bustling and crazy! Looked like a delicious place to eat, I was full however. Heaps of cool nic-nacks from clothes to toys to make up. I just walked around for about an hour getting lost in the side streets. Might go back there actually.

Anyway – time for sleep.