Sayonara Tokyo (for now)

We had our typical konbini breakfast (they are still sold out of shrimp onigiri!) and decided to walk to the little cafe we went to on our first day for a latte and more sweet potato imagawaykis! We kept waking to Ueno Park so that we could visit the National Museum before we had to check out of our hotel.

The Museum was quite big and we only got to see one of the collections, but it was so worth it! We got to see Buddhist statues, historical metalworks, ceramics, porcelain, and Brad’s favourite - swords! The craftsmanship of these hundreds of years old pieces was truly remarkable!

Upstairs, I ventured into the kimono wing to see examples of summer kimono from the 18th century. They were very gauzy, almost transparent, which makes sense given the hot and humid summers. I also really enjoy the historical “textbooks” that were hand painted. The animal images were beautiful! There were also stories told on very long scrolls that were equally impressive!

It was getting close to our check out time, so we had to hurry back through the park. We have really enjoyed staying in Ueno! The area is not very touristy, but there are tons of museums to visit and lots of great things to eat!

We took an Uber to Ueno Station to take our first Shinkansen (bullet train). We obviously had to get bento boxes for our two-hour train ride first, but then we were off to the train faster than a speeding bullet! Haha!

One of the towns we travelled through was Nagano. It is a beautiful little city surrounded by mountains. It was a stunningly green place!

In the end, we travelled about 455 kms online just over two hours. The train was incredibly clean and comfortable - a nice way to travel for sure!

Once we get to the train station, we took a cab to our hotel. The city immediately looks more western as there was more space for buildings and everything is not stacked on top of the other. We settled into our room, and Brad took a nap, while I ran a few errands like getting bus tickets and going to the konbini. We went down to the lounge for the free, happy hour, and made a plan for the evening. We decided to try Kanazawa Curry Company for dinner. It was a small 12 seat restaurant located in a market, and all they served was curry. You had a choice at three, and then you could choose between three different rice options, and then several different sides/toppings. We had the golden curry with the Nato pork katsu and the curry with chicken katsu. Both were so good and different than an Indian-style curry.

After our dinner, we attempted to take the lights on bus. The bus only runs on Saturday nights, and takes you to a number of sites that are lit up in the evening. Because the person at the tourist information centre told us the wrong meeting place (go figure), we missed the first round, but we managed to get on eventually. We took the bus over to the historical district geisha/tea house district with its narrow streets, wooden homes/buildings, and winding staircases. It was very cool to see it at night and we were basically the only people there!

We hopped back on the bus and headed back to our hotel. We are hoping to get an early start tomorrow morning to not only beat the heat, but also to see the gardens that open up early in the morning.Read more