Tokyo (Ueno) - May 2018

Japan 2018

Photo album

Friday 11th May

Ikimashou! Mariko and I had our 5:30am alarm set, and were already packed (much of our luggage consisted of jars of honey as gifts... but I'd neglected my sunnies! Hopefully Japan would be cloudy enough) and ready to go. We arrived at Tullamarine in plenty of time for our 9:10 departure on QF79. I managed to get slightly queasy after over-indulging on Mariko's surplus pudding. We landed at Narita right on sunset. I'd planned to be a perfect low-maintenance travel buddy but managed to drop my passport wallet (but not the passport) in the queue at immigration - thanks to the attendant who discovered it and ran along the line looking for the owner!, and I tried a bunch of ATMs but none would accept my Travel Money Card. Mariko charged up my Suica for me, so I was able to make it onto the train. We had aimed at the Keisei Skyliner but ended up on the regular Keisei line Ueno train (a little slower, a lot cheaper) and despite the long day, it was super exciting to be back in Japan.

I'd practiced finding our way from the station to our hotel using Google Maps, and even though we went out the wrong station exit, and I managed to direct us to the wrong side street where there was another Hotel MyStays back-to-back with the one we'd booked, it was easy to sort it all out. Our pocket Wifi gadget was waiting for us - it was the first time I'd travelled with one and it proved to be super handy. I'd already signed into the hotel Wifi to get the Hawks' result, while Mariko was checking us in.

Definitely time to stretch the legs so we headed back to Ueno Station area and had a nice easy Ramen supper, then back via a pleasant late-night stroll of the neighbourhood.

Saturday

We took the metro down towards the Tokyo area and headed towards the Imperial Palace via an ATM that took my card, and then breakfast at Tokyo station. The palace has just launched tours in English, and it was a really cool way to get our holiday properly underway. There wasn't as much history as I expected, in fact the main palace building looked like a 1960s function hall, but the tour guide was full of enthusiasm and it was a nice serene setting compared to the adjacent high-rise district.

After lunch at the 'Kitchen Street' part of Tokyo Station (during which Mariko explained about putting our bags in the baskets under our seats, and how I should pay for things by putting money in the little tray) we went back to the Ueno Park area. There were lots of promotions for the panda exhibit at the zoo. We'd thought of checking out the museums but there was plenty happening outdoors - market areas, buskers, shrines, and the lakes. We wandered through the Ameyoko market and we saw a local matsuri (shrine festival/procession) taking place, and then another close to our hotel.

In the evening we took the train to Kawasaki (committing the sin of being a couple of minutes late, after getting a bit perplexed by the sheer number of lines at Ueno station) to meet some of Mariko's mum's side of the family; they shouted us to a wonderful dinner and it was great to meet everyone! We only had the briefest glimpse of the main street of Kawasaki, but it was quite spectacular with plenty of giant neon signs.

Sunday

We took the Ginza line and then walked through the fashionable Omotesando area, though it was a bit early for most of the shops to be open. We had a bit of a wander around Yoyogi Park and then met up with Yuki (that I knew from Wadaiko Rindo in Melbourne, she'd moved back to Tokyo a year ago), Michael and Yuzen, at the Bondi Cafe next door. It was terrific to catch up with them!

We next headed to Hamamatsucho to join the sumo tour, that the great folks at Japan Explorer had helped organise. There was quite a crowd - there were probably 10 or so group leaders, each with maybe 15 or so in their group. Our group was quite international, including a couple of British guys heading to Australia the next day, and a couple of ladies from Melbourne. We were given train tickets and taken as a group to Ryogoku station (I'm not sure why we didn't just meet there to begin with, perhaps there wasn't anywhere suitable for groups to meet). We had a quick tour of the museum, including seeing pictures of the grand champions over the decades - it was a little surprising to see a number of them prior to mid-20th century being quite lithe and athletic-looking. Our guide gave her own personal run-down of her favourite wrestlers that we would be seeing that afternoon, and would often come to explain details of what was happening, between bouts.

It was the opening day of the tournament and great to see the ceremonial aspects - unveiling of the pictures of the new champions, and a parade of the wrestlers, before the main bouts began. The bouts rarely lasted more than a few seconds, but there was quite an amount of showbiz around each one - ever-lengthening parades of sponsors flags, stretching and stomping, and numerous false starts. The atmosphere in the venue surprised me a little - I was expecting it to be serious and maybe a little austere, but it was actually very casual, with lots of schoolkids and family groups having a fun day out. The food and souvenirs were pretty good value too. The final winner performed a celebratory rope twirl, which seemed a bit strange.

On the way out it was raining quite a bit, and we got a little bit soaked heading back to the station. Once it had eased a bit and we'd dried off, we headed back near Ueno Station and found an Italian Seafood restaurant that we could get to without getting rained on too much. Very tasty!

It was nice to make an internet phone call to mum, who was on a river cruise in Europe, to wish her a Happy Mother's Day.