Wandering Around Asakusa and Akihabara

 Sumi started her jet lag recovery a little early this morning, so we didn't get moving until...well it was still morning, This was fine, as it gave me time to get stuff in order, do a little work, take a shower, write a novel, etc. We didn't do much exciting: souvenir shopping, eating, lots of walking. But, being Japan, there was plenty to see.

On our way to Ueno Station for brea...our first meal of the day, we took a walk through some of the Asakusa neighborhoods, like Orange Road and Kappabashi.

Brewers font, Beavers poster

This road has a whole series of these lamps with a continuing folk tale and art

Until the curry burger, this place actually looked legit. Still might give it a try sometime.

I don't...you have to see the video to understand

Is that a burger waiting to be eaten or Ponyo?

Orange Road's mascot, Orante, in his house.

A Kappa that has seen some stuff. And has a belly button.

Even Kinko's is getting into the whole Panda thing in Ueno.

So the red thing with hands? Yeah, no idea. It was in front of a shop that sells anime gods and the like. It sings and talks. And claps.

At Anderson's Bakery, we grabbed some food. We are really loving NOT eating convenience store food for meals now that we're back in "civilization". 

The walnut pastry (upper left) is amazing

Today was a day to hit the thrift stores of the Off chain. Book Off, Mode Off, Hard Off, and Hobby Off. They always have good selections of stuff at good prices. I scored some cheap game guide/information books at the Book Off in Akihabara (the best place in the world for this type of thing)

Ultimania Anniversary all three for less than one volume new

We then headed up a ways to a few of the Hobby Off stores. Sumi likes to find cute things there.

Hard Off has electronics and appliance hardware, hence the name.

Ultra discount used original Famicons and Super Famicons (NES for the rest of us)

This is what they call their discount bins.

The second Hobby Off was back up in Amaya Yokocho in Ueno, a long stretch of niche and discount shops and restaurants stemming from post-war rationing black markets. 

Shortly after we encountered the first of Sumi's desserts this afternoon.

Ice Cream, not Soft Cream.

After that, we headed into Asakusa for one final Book Off and the shopping road in front of Sensouji. There were markedly less tourists today (Monday) than over the weekend, making it a much more enjoyable walk.

Japan's IP laws are followed...interestingly

A Starbucks Japan exclusive: Banana Brulee coffee. 

Pandaful Days in Ueno's Parco

Dunno what the truck is carrying, but a cute mascot is a requirement.

A much more relaxed Ueno Station

Hanko Ojii-san. He's been here for as long as we've been coming here.

That's quite a paint job.

The walk down Sensouji's shopping mall was good. Plenty of tourists, but not overcrowded like it was over the weekend. This is where Sumi got her second dessert.

Strawberry parfait for her and Chocolate daifuku with (already eaten) strawberry.

For those of you wondering about dinner, so was I. It was our last dinner here for the trip, so the opportunity could not be passed up. We headed towards Asakusa Station

The rain was just starting to come in

and found ourselves at a surprising place

Well, maybe not all that surprising

We celebrated our last evening in Japan with a return of Sumi's favorite Natsu Nasu Curry, which was absent from the menus when we were up north, possible due to the calendar.

Shiawase dayo

Due to the lack of...well the lack of anything up in Tohoku, we were only able to visit CoCo Curry three times during our trip. While this still averages once per week, I would have gladly traded a few of those convenience store sandwiches and trail mix meals for some curry. The rain really started coming down as we were eating, so no more pictures as we covered everything in plastic and raincoats and run back to the hotel.

We still have a little time to explore tomorrow, as we have n afternoon flight, so tonight is laundry, packing, and organizing things for the long check in process tomorrow. Long only because there is always an unreasonably long line at the terminal. The Japanese love for hour long queues is on full display at the airport. 

Shinjuku Flea Market and Setagaya

 So, after all the typhoon scares and rain forecasting, it was sunny this morning. The rain really is coming in (you can see it on the radar), but it's a little slow. This worked in our favor because rain would have likely canceled the flea market at the Hanazono shrine that we visited yesterday.

Sunday at Ueno Station is a zoo, but we were at the metro station, which is a little less insane without the Shinkansen traffic. After a bakery stop for breakfast we went down several levels to the Ginza line, seeing some wild pandas along the way

Overpriced Ueno Panda merch

They do lean into the whole mascot thing here

The flea market was actually pretty cool. A bunch of vendors were there with various levels of quality, ranging from grandma's junk drawer got dumped into a box to some serious antiques. The prices reflected that, though things were still reasonably priced. We were given an assignment to try and find festive used happi for the taiko group, and at the last stand we found a pile of them and a bonus find.

A potpourri of happi

And...a shakuhachi?

The happi will need some work, but they were cheap to begin with and we got a free one thrown in. The shakuhachi...it is bamboo and a lot cheaper than the plastic ones online. Once I learn how to play it, we'll see what it sounds like.

After our purchases and now looking like homeless people carrying around clothing in a clear plastic bag, we set out for Setagaya to visit with Steve, a family friend whom we always seem to miss when we're here. He lives in Setagaya, so we met up for lunch and a house tour. We arrived at about 12:30, peak Sunday lunch time at the station. After checking out a few restaurants with long lines we got lucky at a Korean restaurant and got seated right away before the rush (there was quite a line by the time we left).

Bebim Bop all around

The food was good and we got to catch up with Steve, who we hadn't seen in quite a while. He travels, like, a lot. He has visited every country in the world. Literally all 196. Well, make that 197. There is a tiny island country off the wets coast of Africa, Cape Verde. He assumed it was owned by Portugal or some other European country like many other of the small islands chains in the area, but it's an independent country. So he managed to miss one, He'll be rectifying that this summer.

After lunch we walked a few blocks to his house, which he has owned for over 50 years. It's a pleasant, comfortable three story house surrounded by larger buildings that came later. During the pandemic, he decided to build his own Japanese garden.

And built his own little "mountain" at the back where his jizou sits

The mountain

We spent several hours talking and had a really nice time. Steve's had an interesting life that I won't go into here in case the authorities are reading this. So, with poor Steve only back from overseas for four days and still struggling with jet lag, he walked us back to the train station and we headed back to Asakusa.

Well, we tried. We had 6 stops on the Den-to-Toshin line to get back to Shibuya. Some electrical problems on one of the trains in the line causes a rather severe delay. Rather than 16 minutes, it took us almost 90 minutes to get back to Shibuya. And there was really no other train we could be on. It was only 5 miles, but with the rain and the bags of stuff we purchased, we didn't want to walk (though it was tempting).

Eventually we made it back to Shibuya where it was raining pretty hard and very busy. Our initial thought was to get some ice cream or something here, but it was now so late and busy, we just took the subway back to Asakusa. By now in was getting late and lunch had occurred almost 7 hours prior. So the battle of favorite foods was had and Ichiran won out. The Asakusa Ichiran is different in two ways: 1) It has regular table seating and not individual booths and 2) Due to the very high quantity of tourists they have a bunch of rules that include not taking unapproved videos. Practically everyone in the shop were foreign tourists, a very different vibe from the Ueno Station shop where it's half tourists and half locals. 

I'm off to learn how tot play shakuhachi and try not to get kicked out of our hotel while doing so, One full day left tomorrow!

Walking around Shinjuku and Asakusa

 We found that the flagship Tokyu Hands is no more. Tokyu Hands was bought by some larger hardware company and rebranded as "Hands" and has a smaller footprint in the remaining stores. On the one hand, not having to experience Ikebukuro' Sunshine City on a Saturday makes me happy, but Tokyu Hands Ikebukuro was kind of a landmark in the area with Nekobukuro, a pet store/cat appreciation place on the top floor. Alas, tempus fugit.

There was a still one of the larger stores in Shinjuku, so we got up at the crack of 9:30 and headed to Ueno Station for breakfast at Anderson's, then hopped on the Yamanote line to get to Shinjuku. Along the way, we made a stop

A giant Hello Kitty flipping you off?

Fortuna...I mean sadly they were closed when we got there, so we didn't do any shopping. In Shinjuku we were going to check out a flea market set up at a local temple that we hadn't seen before. Well, turns out the flea market is tomorrow, so no shopping there either, but we got to see a nice temple hidden among the buildings in Shinjuku.

It was an Inari Shrine, meaning lots of smaller torii

So we turned around at headed to Tokyu Hands were a little shopping actually occurred.

A clear sign that stuff here is tourist crap

An entire corner dedicated to nothing but stickers

And a variety of board and card games

We didn't buy much. Sumi picked up some magnets and a case for her computer cables and I get a few small box Oink games (Japanese publisher). I did get to try out a $130 pen. It wrote about as well as the 5 pack for $10 pens, just heavier. Now the Dr. Grip mechanical pencils on the other hand were pretty awesome.That said, all my stuff needs to be written in pen, so I passed.

Getting hungry, we took the train up to Ikebukuro and stopped at Ten-Ya, a tempura chain that has a pure vegetarian set. It is very cheap, like ¥650 for tempura and rice (about $4), but the tempura was quite good: light and not oily with fresh-tasting vegetables.

After lunch we walked a ways west to a Book Off Plus, a used book store that has "plus", usually clothes and other similar stuff, on a second floor. We didn't find anything in particular we wanted, but it's always fun to browse through a Book Off. It was pretty sunny and warm today (and humid. Storm is coming tomorrow) so we decided to take the train all the way back to Asakusa to do the last bit of shopping. Sumi needs a new change purse. As near as we can tell she left it outside the last convenience store we visited on our trip. She also left her AirPods at our hotel in Kessenmura, but they found them and shipped them to our current hotel. Honestly, with all the moving around we do and all the different hotels and stores we were in over two weeks, I'm surprised that's all we lost.

Anyway, down in the Kanamecho subway station we found a few things of interest. The first is a grand piano they have set up for anyone to sit down and play

The second is a vending machine for fresh squeezed orange juice

For ¥350, you watch the four oranges hit the conveyor belt and roll to their deaths. The juice is squeezed out of sight to avoid showing the slaughter of innocent fruit. The cup is sealed and a straw is available in one of the compartments on the right. It takes 45 seconds and is delicious. 

We had to transfer to the Ginza line in Ginza, and when we came up from the station, we saw the entire street was blocked off to cars and there were tables scattered throughout the main road in Ginza's high-end shopping district. People were waiting in line to get into the stores and we kind of figured there was something special going on. Nope. This is just a thing the Ginza Neighborhood Association does to drum up business. Standing in line to get into a store is a very Japanese thing. I firmly believe that waiting in line is one of the favorite pastimes of the Japanese people. There's no other sane reason to stand in line outside a Gucci shop.

Back in Asakusa, it was getting late so most of the tourists would be trying to find dinner and not take selfies in the middle of the busy shopping street. We took a walk down the shopping road outside Sensouji and eventually found a sufficiently cute coin purse of the correct size. This was serious business.

I present to you, Tama-chan

After a day of walking around in the sun and a very light lunch, dessert was in order. We walked to the local Cafe Gusto, basically a Japanese Denny's. The food is not great, but the desserts are solid.

Yet more proof about Japanese pizza...and Cafe Gusto

Closer that the shrimp one from before...

Parfait WITH corn flakes!

So we didn't bike today, but we did walk about 6 miles, so I'll count that as exercise.