Birdwatching in Tokyo, Gyoza in Shibuya, Crepes in Harajuku and Souvenirs in Meiji

Our last tourist day in Tokyo, we wanted to get a few things done that had been postponed due to all the rain we'd been having. Today was sunny, warm and absolutely perfect weather for walking around. It was our first time running in the sun this trip, reminding us both how much warmer it is with the more direct sun in Tokyo and how nice the blue sky looks.

We headed back to Ueno to catch the Yamanote line down to Hamamatsuchou, where we would board the Tokyo Monorail to get us to Ryuutsuu Center (Distribution Center) in the heart of the Port of Tokyo district. A few minutes walk from the station, in the middle of a trucking and warehouse district, is the Tokyo Port Wild Bird Park, a bird sanctuary smack dab in the middle of one of the largest shipping ports in Asia. But before we made this trek, a bakery stop was required.

Andersen Bakery in Ueno Station. Oishii yo.

The walk to the Bird Park was quite unattractive. If you didn't know there was a park in the area, you'd never choose to walk here. It was full of warehouses, logistics centers and parking lots. But, tucked away between all of these was the Tokyo Port Wild Bird Park.

and that is exactly what this translates to

Heading to the visitor's center, we were surprised to see one wall of the center was all glass, with telescopes set up so visitors could take a look at the birds in the pond that abutted the center. It was very convenient and a nice touch, especially for the dumb tourists who didn't bring and binoculars (in our defense, we weren't planning on birdwatching). They also rented binoculars at the front desk.

The pond was teeming with life. Gray Herons, Greater and Lesser Egrets, Cormorants, Little Ringed Plovers, Spot-Billed Ducks, Common Terns, Grebes and a ton, and I mean a ton, of little sand crabs. The center was built on stilts above the muddy shores of the pond, with a walkway to some metal planks set up so you could walk out over the mud and see the crabs and shore birds up close.

taken through a telescope with an iPhone. MacGuyver would be proud.

This would never fly in the US. The lawsuits...

Look at all the crabs crawling around. There were hundreds and hundreds of them.

Birding blinds are usually single wooden walls erected along a watching point. Here they had large huts with benches around all the windows and telescopes mounted at each facing. It was amazing.

The little ones were all dancing around like this

It was a lot of fun. We ran into an expat from Ohio who showed us a number of birds we may have otherwise missed. It was a lot of fun, and a great excuse to walk around in beautiful weather. 

We made out way back to the station and headed to Shibuya. Our goal was to eat some Ichiran Ramen. In an earlier blog post, we documented our trip to Ichiran, a Ramen place where you never see the workers, other than some disembodied hands that slide your ramen, that you custom order, through a little window. Well, it was also apparently the goal of a sizable portion of the population in Shibuya. There was a line out the door, up the stairs (Ichiran is in the basement of a building) and out into the street. That's what stupid gaijin get for trying to go to a popular restaurant at lunchtime on a Saturday in the summer. Well, we were starving after all the running and walking we'd done. Sumi was ready to break down at hit McDonalds, but I remembered there was an Oushou Gyoza by the station, so we had an unplanned second Gyoza lunch this week. We did not try the sauteed hormone.

I have no idea what they are trying to say. That is literally what is written in Japanese.

After a good lunch, we headed to Harajuku to visit the always-beautiful Meiji-jingu for a walk through the grounds and some souvenir shopping (yes, we've been doing a lot of that. It's because we won't be able to after today). Exiting the station, we took a walk down Takeshita-dori, the main shopping street, which was as crowded as Shibuya, though with a lot more foreigners. There was a specific purpose for this walk

Sweet Box Crepes. The nectar of the gods.

Harajuku crepes are famous, and they are delicious. They are sold from small stands around the shopping area, and are meant to be consumed right there in the street, which often causes large clusters of middle school girls to block the road. Sweet Box had a deal with the cafe next door, Noa Cafe, to let their customers eat in the cafe if they bought an overpriced drink at the cafe. So, we did.

Custard Banana Choco Crepe and Double Chocolate Banana Crepe

After placating our inner children with sweets, we went across the street to Meiji-Jingu.

New wine casks have been hung

Amazing architecture, but too many foreigners.....oh, wait...

These are the "instructions" for roasted soybean and rice tea sold at the gift shop. I still don't know how to make it.

After a long, hot day of walking around, we were ready to call it quits. We headed back to Ueno, passing by the Giant Panda

Yup, that's a big panda, all right.

on our way back to the hostel so we could do laundry and pack up our large suitcase to ship to the airport. We wandered down some different back streets, just to see what was there.

A ukulele shop in Tokyo. Since 1919. That was unexpected.

And finally back to our hostel.

And that wraps up our sightseeing portion of the trip. Tomorrow we move our base of operations to Iida City for the Inadani taiko workshop. We've never been there, so a new adventure awaits!