This is the middle day of the trip. Not sure if it feels fast or slow or what. Wasn't it just yesterday we were singing karaoke in Kyoto? But also we've seen a hell of a lot in that time. Because three of the next four days require some travel (granted Tokyo to Nikko is roughly two hours), it almost feels like we're fast forwarding to the end of my time in Japan, as I leave my two friends to do Osaka & Hiroshima, heading to Ho Chi Minh City for two and a half days.
Anyway, let's not let my weird nature of fast forwarding through vacations get the best of this, as I tried to not have it get the best of me. The day would be centered around Taito and Asukasa, two areas within walking distance of our AirBNB. For some sights our AirBNB is actually quite well located. It's just there's not much nightlife in the area so each night we require ponying up for taxis.
The first stop was a 20 minute walk from the AirBNB, over the river, to the Senso-Ji shrine, probably the best known, largest temple within Tokyo proper. The leadup to it is a three block pedestrian only stretch with stalls selling wares on each side, and an absolute maw of people. Being a weekend, there were a lot of locals as well, but it was quite a scene. Once you reach the end of that, you reach the Senso-Ji and it is quite stunning. Instead of the usual brown frame buildings that most of the temples we've seen have, this one is red everywhere, from the ornate entry gate, to the main building, to the pagoda, to the many smaller temples in the grounds. It is a truly large complex, with some great sightlines of the Skytree in the distance as well.
Nearby the Senso-Ji is Asakusa, a more thrifty shopping district that served both as the natural spot to walk through from the Senso-Ji to Ueno Park and the museums that would take up the rest of the day from a sightseeing perspective, and also the Kappabashi Duogu street, which is a stretch of real estate with kitchenware stores. These stores come in all shapes and sizes, from flea-market ones, to traditional ones (where I browsed and ultimately bought a couple things), to ones catering to restaurants selling restaurant sized or quantities, to super high end kitchenware and Japanese knives. This is cooking heaven.
It was also where we had our lunch, at Nihonkai, which is a sushi spot in a conveyor set-up, but instead of the conveyor you just tell the sushi chef what you want. It seemed to be all locals when we went, but they had an english menu, along with adorable cartoon instructions on how to order and how to use the faucet at your seats to drink tea. The sushi was fresh, well prepared, and affordable. People will always have slightly negative thoughts around these more low-key sushi spots. Certainly there are tons of spots within Tokyo that are hyper expensive, but so far these places have served me well, be it now or on my 2013 trip when I couldn't really have afforded too much more.
The rest of the day was spent at Ueno Park, specifically the National Museum complex. It has three buildings (technically it has more, but we only went to three), laid out around a large sqaure at the North end of the Park. In perfect Japanese style there was a super easy to follow map brochure they give you that lays out the buildings, and what order to see the rooms. One of the things I've noticed about Japan so far is how easy it is to follow the path in these museums, or even many of the sites we went to. The main museums that we visited were the Toyokan, which houses non-Japanese Asian artifacts, the Honkan, which houses Japanese artifacts, and the Heiseikan, which houses archaelogical artifacts (plus a couple special exhibits that we didn't get the ticket to).
We started in the Toyokan, wanting to get the non-Japan stuff out of the way, but even that was a great museum. Not too big - about 13 rooms, that take you through different parts of Asian history in artifact form. About two-thirds of the rooms are focusing on China, but the rest are dedicated to India, to Mesopotamia & Egypt, to Southeast Asia, to the Khmers (unsure why they got their own room...) and to Korea. It was a nice little appetizer for what was to come.
The Honkan was next - in reality both the Honkan and the Heiseikan, as they are connected with a corridor near the end of the Honkan itinerary. Collectively they tell the story of Japan, with the Honkan focusing largely on say 400 BC through the Meiji Restoration. It isn't laid out purely sequentially but half sequential and half featuring specific types of art - say a room around samurai clothing and swords, then a room aroudn calligraphy, then a room around ceramics, etc. The museum is excellent, a great way to understand Japanese history, and to see some truly beautiful stuff. It doesn't overwhelm, but gives you a lot to see in roughly the 2 hours it took us to get through it.
By the way, there is quite a lot we didn't do in Ueno Park - I guess saving a few things for a third trip one day. Be it a couple buildings within the National Museum complex, to the National Art Gallery (which has both a Japanese building and a Western building) to a Zoo to much else. We did walk through the park to its south end, spending a bit of time at the "Panda Mid-Autumn Festival" which had a stage where people were performing, along with 30 or so stalls selling food where we picked up a few grilled skewers. All in all Ueno Park was a good old time.
There wasn't a reall acceptable beer bar around this area, so instead we grabbed a couple "craft" taps at a little beer hall at the base of the Asahi corporate HQ. They don' sell under the Asahi name, I think to give the allure of the fact its craft, but in reality it was just average. It fit what we needed though and was a 10-min walk from the AirBNB, which was crucial with a short turnaround before Den.
Dinner at Den was arguably the one we were looking forward to the most. It is Japan's most reputable restaurant globally, with two michelin stars (granted, a bunch in Japan have three), and a spot in the Top-20 of the World's Top 50 list. I will have a write up later with all the details, but no the whole it was a weirdly cool combination of all the trappings and global nature of a top flight tasting menu spot, and the homeliness of the courses that favored ingredients, flavor and depth over presentation. The place is super reasonable price wise for both (a) a place of its repute and (b) being in Japan. It is not the most expensive restaurant we're going to in Japan, but was right up there in terms of overall flavor and experience.
Post dinner, we headed back to Shibuya which was both (a) quieter on teh whole than yesterday, and (b) had a longer line for The Bellwood - this time unsurprisingly more foreigners than locals, though that would reverse itself by the time we left around 1am. I tried three new cocktails this time, my favorite being a play on a gin fizz, with a home made colo and cold brew mix, with dehydrated figs as a garnish. The cocktails are all super inventive, presented beautifully without going overboard, and the whole decor makes it a truly great time.
We had to head back relatively early to make it to Nikko the next morning, needing to catch the 10am Shinkansen, or risk being in Tokyo for two additional hours. This ends our first part of Tokyo, with roughly two days (Tuesday night, all day Wedensday and Thursday AM) before we leave. So far, I've enjoyed a whole lot about Tokoy but having a hard time placing it comapred to say Seoul. The one thing I'll say conclusively, which is only reiterated each evening we take our roughly ~25 min uber, is that there is no real slow / quiant part of the city, its steel and concrete and glass and lights everywhere. It truly is one of the most impressive megapolises, based on an idealized definition.
