Swan Lake

Our day starts a bit later today - sleep again doesn't come the easiest - we certainly resemble the characters in the film Lost in Translation. So we take it easy this morning and have breakfast and update our blog.

Our itinerary today is to head for Ueno - so we take the subway and our first stop when we get out of the station is to see Ameyoko Arcade. This is street market whose stalls are part of the railway arches. As you step into the market it is full of people, smells, chatter and lots of food and general things to buy. We took a walk down to the end seeing the fresh fish for sale, dried foods and lots of fruit and vegetables.We decided to have lunch here at one of the little cafes - the waitress had an understanding of English so she could help us with the pictures - this translated in to whether the buns had pork in or not. We seemed to understand each other and ordered some japanese style tapas and it was tasty and very filling.

Once we had eaten we walked up into Ueno Park and walked around. This is Tokyo's oldest park and has temples and lily pond lakes and a boating lake. All with the backdrop of high-rise buildings. There are also long tree lined paths which would be beautiful with the cherry blossom when it is out. We were persuaded by Emma to take a Swan Boat out onto the lake and see the park from a different perspective. The park is very busy with people visiting the temples and sights. It is also home to the children's Zoo but we decided to visit one of the many museums instead - The National Science Museum which is a lovely building and houses a rooftop herb garden and 6 floors of general exhibits including dinosaurs and technology. We stayed until closing time 5pm - and to announce the closing of the museum the tannoy played Auld Lang Syne!! Bizzare.

To get to our teatime destination we took the subway 1 stop to Suehirocho at the north end of Electric Town. From coming out of the station you see bright lights, and multi-story buildings all housing the latest in electronics. We took a stroll down the main street and Paul found another branch of the noodle restaurant we had eaten in a couple of days ago. We had our dinner there - drawing back the curtain at the entrance to reveal a tiny room which you sit at the bar to eat your Ramen. The guys are all friendly and helpful and it is a bustling place - even if it does only sit 15 people.Read more