I planned my day out before I departed this morning and after getting off the train at Ueno and making my way to the metro saw a sign to Ueno Park and decided to change my plans.
There was a lot more concrete in the park than I expected but it was still a nice wander and there were temples and candle holders within it too.
Exiting the park I wandered in vaguely the right direction and then spotted the Tokyo Skytree in the distance confirming I was going the right way.
Before long I arrived at Kappabashi-dori (aka Kitchen town) where it seems you can buy anything you need to setup a restaurant including pots & pans, tables & chairs, clothing, crockery, ovens, plastic food, ….
I checked out the golden turd (aka Asahi Flame)before wandering through the very touristy part of Asakusa.
I caught the metro to Suehirocho and walked through Akihabara and tried out the toilets in the Sega building I had missed on the last visit. They have a peeing game there (bizarre)!
Following a train line while walking can work in some situations but I managed to walk probably about 5 extra kilometres by following the wrong train train line on two occasions trying to get to the Ogawamachi ski shop area, which didn’t have any great deals of stuff I was looking at. The Kanda Second Hand books stores looked quite interesting, with most books being Japanese but some others too.
Wandering further I walked through Kagurazaka which was quite a pretty area.
When looking at my map and looking at the address for Mojo which I couldn’t find on it but thought it was in this area (which I’ve since found it is – maybe tomorrow) somebody asked if they could help with directions. They said Shinjuku was a long way away and to take the subway; sounded like a challenge to me, so I walked there instead via Ushigome which contained lots of apartment buildings.
Entering Shinjuku from far east meant I came in at a different angle which was great. I wandered about for a while and then decided to walk to my hotel in Ikebukuro many kilometres away following close to the Yamanote line. Once past Shin-Okubo it was mostly dull.
Takadanobaba and Mejiro did however have some life to them and the odd cool shop (check out all the balls and shoes (inside) stacked super high).
Close to Ikebukuro I was on a cool street that even had railway control signals and had to wait for a train to pass.
Dinner tonight was Korean and beer (of course).
It’s just past 10pm now and according to my Fitbit I’ve walked 41,883 steps today (a new record) and covered just over 30km. I should sleep well.
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