Katsushika

Day 2 dawned bright and early.

With a brisk walk to the Yurikamome monorail station near the cruise terminal, we once again made our way to Shimbashi. But instead of taking a metro line, this time we went to the JR [Japan Rail] train platform to go to Ueno Station. Easy peasy.

We were perusing the Ueno Park map at the station exit when we saw Kazue, our Goodwill Guide, walking up to our meeting point. Like us, she was early, too. Greetings and salutations and we were on our way to our first stop of the day … the Tokyo National Museum [TNM].

TNM was founded in 1872. As such, it is the oldest museum in Japan. It has exhibits that range from art to artifacts from around the world, and has the largest and finest Japanese Collection. There are six buildings on the grounds and the exhibits are rotated throughout the year. The buildings are diverse in style, making for an eclectic ambiance. One can easily spend days at TNM. We had only a couple of hours, so we focused on the Japanese Gallery … and did so at high speed and so I had to restrain my shutter clicks.

We saw ancient art dating from 11,000 BCE to the 7th century CE; displays highlighting the arrival of Buddhism … and the arts associated with this belief; art from the Imperial Court; zen and ink paintings; arms and armors of the Samurai; painted folding screens and sliding doors, and a lot more. In the interactive gallery, we made postcards and Mui tested the weight of a replica samurai armor … heavy! My favorite exhibits were the kimonos and the silk folding screens, though there was so much more that also caught my eye. Returning to the museum and seeing what’s in the other buildings is pretty high on my “when-we-return-to-Tokyo” sightseeing list.

The next place on Kazue’s planned itinerary was the Rikugien Gardens. But we had spotted a few places of interest on the Ueno Park Map. So, Mui took the lead and we went to see these places first.

First up was the five story pagoda of the former Kaneiji Buddhist Temple, which was built in 1625. We found it near the zoo, peeking up above the trees. Turns out that to really see it, you have to enter the zoo. No time for that. Instead, we stopped to see the beautiful Ueno Toshogu Shrine with its gold door, so our time was not wasted. This is a Shinto shrine built in 1627 and dedicated to Ieyasu Tokugawa.

Moving on, we walked to Bentendo Temple, also one of the remaining buildings of the Kaneiji Temple. On the map, it looked like the building was sitting in the middle of a lake. I was looking forward to reflections of the temple on the water. Alas, the pond — appropriately named the Lotus Pond — was covered in every direction with lotus leaves. A beautiful setting, and I’m glad we went to see it … but no reflections.

Handing the reins back to Kazue, we hopped on the metro to the Komagome station. From there, we walked to the unsigned entrance of the Rikugien Gardens on a side street. Designed in 1702, the garden is a kaiyu-style daimyo garden … meaning that it has walking paths that circumnavigate the lake and it was built by a feudal lord of a shogun. We enjoyed a peaceful stroll around the pond. There was little in the way of colorful flowers — except for hydrangea — but the lush greenery was pleasing to the eye … especially when viewed from atop Fujishiro-toge, the highest artificial hill on the grounds.

As hungry as we were, the thought of a late picnic lunch at the gardens was very appealing. But Kazue had other plans for us. We retraced our steps to the Komagome Station and hopped on a train to Asakusa. Here, we dined at Gonpachi, a restaurant overlooking the Sumidagawa … aka Sumida River. Our view included the Skytree, which has dethroned the Tokyo Tower from being the highest structure in Japan.

We all ordered the same lunch special … soba noodles and a tempura rice bowl. Good food except that the dipping noodles were the cold version. I much prefer the hot dipping. Mui and I ordered beer to go with our meal. And we each ordered a dessert.

It was well past 3:30p when we finished our lunch. Mui and I were ready to return to the ship. We were tired … and we now had unfamiliar transportation lines to negotiate from Asakusa back to the port. But Kazue convinced us to take a quick peek at the gate to the Sensōji Temple, famous for its big lanterns. We acquiesced and followed her. We had to walk through a packed shopping street to get to the gate, which was even more crowded.

From the temple, Kazue escorted us to the Asakusa Station, gave us directions for the JR train we needed to take to Shimbashi in order to transfer to the Yurikamome Line. We bought the tickets, found the platform, and confirmed the station on the list. What we neglected to notice was that Shimbashi was greyed out … meaning that Asakusa Station was after Shimbashi if we got on the train from that platform not before it. Yup, we got on the train. No worries. We figured it out quickly enough, disembarked the train, walked to the opposite platform, and reversed our direction. Total time lost … no more than 10 minutes.

Once again, by the time we got off the monorail near the cruise terminal and walked to the ship, our feet were screaming at us for some respite. We relaxed on the veranda with a glass of wine and snacks, and watched as Insignia pulled away from her berth to take us further north as we begin the final segment of our world cruise.Read more