We managed to get tickets for the bullet train with no problem. I had no idea they came so regularly - several every hour. They are on a different rail system than the local trains, so I wasn't ever very aware of the bullet trains before. The train was comfortable and fast - just as we had been promised. There are apparently domestic flights that are cheaper, but we really wanted the experience - at least once. It was fun. I recommend it. At some point along the way - I can't remember when, Russell called a hotel out of a travel book we had bought the night before. They had room for the next two nights, but were booked solid after that. We decided to take what we could get and figure out the rest of the nights later. The hotel we had found was a ryokan, which is a kind of more traditional inn. This one was not a fancy once - it was just a traditional style room with tatami mats and a lovely fluffy futon. There was also a low table with a map of the area and an electric teapot. That was it. So what would have made it a fancy Ryokan? At least one meal and a hot spring for soaking before going to bed. Doesn;t that sound nice? We didn't end up in one of those this time, though. Alas. The fluffy futon was great, though. Much better than the alternatives we had been trying not to imagine.
So we had a two day grace period before we had to find our next bed. We decided to explore!
By the time we found the hotel it was already evening. We decided to go for a walk, find some food and figure out the lay of the land. We were situated right next to Ueno Park which, among other things, has a well known zoo and is bordered by a large variety of important museums. It was a pretty nice place to land when touring Tokyo. We walked to the other side of the park (everything was closed by then) and found the nightlife district on the other side.
We quickly found a busy street (Ameyoko) with tons of little shops. The street was absolutely packed and bustling as people bought things for the end of the year. We walked along in the flow of people, bought some grilled mochi to snack on and eventually decided to find an izakaya where we could get out of the crowd and have something to eat. We found a nice looking place in an alley off of the main road. When we tried to go in, though (and despite the many open booths) the waiter came hustling towards us, smiling in a friendly manner, and saying, "no, no. No room" and pushing us right out the door. Since the waiter wasn't willing to offer an explanation, we were both pretty sure it was because we were foreigners. We were both pretty bummed out about that, but then we were walking down another alley (which was full of izakayas) and a lady practically dragged us into her store. Appreciative of the change, we went along with it and ate there. The food was good, and Russell even got to do some translating for a young couple that spoke Chinese and English, but no Japanese. We went back to the hotel feeling redeemed.
Once we were back in our hotel we decided that we weren't ready to turn in yet. We went back out into the neighborhood on our side of the park and looked around there. Eventually we happened on a whisky bar with a very friendly bar tender who wanted to tell us all about his whisky, and some regulars who at first gave us confused looks and then discovered Russell could speak Japanese and started joking around with him. In the end we asked the bartender for a recommendation that would be similar to the 12 year Yoichi I've been getting fond of. He came up with another Japanese whisky that Russell had heard of and later informed me would be expensive. It was, but not as bad as Russell had feared. About $20 per glass.
Did I mention we managed to burn through a lot of money on this trip? Yay for vacations!
The next day we decided to start out with a trip to a museum that the guide book said was THE museum to see if you are only going to see one in Tokyo. We walked over, went in, and started looking around. It had the decided feel of being a much larger collection where the museum curator had chosen only the best pieces to highlight whatever they want to the guest to focus on. While this seems like the way a museum should be run, I'm not sure I have ever been to one that was so clearly doing that. They had amazing artwork, metalwork, crafts, etc. on display, but you often only saw one amazing piece - not a whole display jammed full of them. Many of the pieces throughout the museum were connected to the new year, too, which gave the impression that maybe at other times of the year, we would find completely different displays. Maybe that's not the case - after all, New Years is a very important time in Japan and it makes sense that a lot of art would revolve around that time, but it still gave the museum a nice atmosphere. It felt like what we were seeing might be hidden away again in another month.
Both Russell and I were so taken with the central building of the museum that after a quick rest to eat lunch, we went back to see all the auxiliary buildings. It turned out that these were not as interesting. Most of the buildings were even spaces for other things that werent happening that day, and when we did find nooks of artwork, it tended to be a small nook. We did a lot of walking and were very tired, but were still mostly thinking about the cool things we had seen in the central building.
By the time we left the museum we were both tired and decided not to go to the zoo after all. We had had enough of being on our feet. After a bit of a rest, though, we headed off to a neighboring neighborhood - Asakusa. The guide book described this neighborhood as being as close as you could get anymore to what it may have been like in the Edo period - not because the streets are anything like old Edo - but because the buildings are still old fashioned and made of wood and there are many small shops. We decided to check it out. The area was definitely full of people. It had a generally seedier feel than the other parts of Tokyo we had been in, but there was tons of activity and the shops were fun to look at (though too tightly packed to bother going into.
At some point we got hungry and Russell pulled out his phone to search for good food in the area. This turned out to be an excellent tool. The first place he spotted was a highly rated taiyaki shop. Tai means "sea bream" (like the fish) and yaki - as you have likely figured out by now, means "grilled". This is not a grilled fish, though. Not exactly. Taiyaki is like a very think waffle layer with the middle filled with red bean paste (which is very sweet). The grilling molds for taiyaki are shaped like the fish that gives it the name. This particular shop had a line outside of it when we arrived (always a good sign) and ended up being about a 15-20 minute wait as the taiyaki man very carefully grilled two taiyaki at a time. The end result was worth it, though. The outer waffle part was very think and crispy and the red bean paste was clearly homemade with lots of beany chunks. It was delicious and has spoiled me forever on Taiyaki. No other compare. (Though I will continue to grudgingly eat as many of any variety of Taiyaki that I can get).
Next we headed back into the center of shops and found the restaurant area. We ducked into one place that had hot wine advertised. It was a cross between mulled wine (with not quite as much spice) and sangria (with easily that much citrus, if not more). The end result was delicious and made up for standing in the cold for 20 minutes (and it was cold out). Across the way was another taiyaki place. We hit it up later.
We also managed to find a good place for dinner, though I have forgotten where we ended up. In the end, we tumbled back to our hotel to rest our aching feet and find a place to stay for the next few nights.
*secret: it didn't really dawn on me to take many pictures in Tokyo. To make the blog more interesting, I have stolen most of the images from Google Images. I hope no one cares.*
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