I woke up early-ish with my throat feeling a lot worse than it had the evening prior. I got to procrastinating, stuck to it for a while, and at some point I received a message from Brendan; he was asking if I was up already. After answering positively, he got out of his capsule and said that we should go for breakfast. I agreed and stayed behind to finish up my business as he went to check out.

I followed after Brendan, but instead of checking out, I decided to stay for one more night – something that Brendan had suggested. I handed over my keys after paying and we were on our way to get something to eat.

We walked towards Akihabara (秋葉原), searching for a place to eat breakfast at as we went. We eventually ended up going to a cafe to get sandwiches and coffee at the Akihabara station (秋葉原駅). With our breakfast dealt with, we started wandering around and looking at things. In the end, we didn’t find anything too interesting and ended up heading to see the Tokyo Skytree.

After having walked a little while after getting out of the metro station, we found ourselves at the Skytree. We decided not to get on top, so we just walked some more and stopped by a street performer called Stephen.

Tokyo Skytree (東京スカイツリー)

Tokyo Skytree is really damn high

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I woke up at some point in the morning and was reminded of the lovely sunburn in the back of my neck as I moved my head slightly. I procrastinated for a while before heading out to have a somewhat painful morning shower. After having showered, I headed out to get some breakfast from the Indian restaurant, Sewa (世話).

It was another lovely day with no clouds in sight and with the sun high in the sky. I walked for a few minutes until I got to the restaurant and, as always, ordered the spiciest things they have. After enjoying my meal, I headed back to the hostel to work on my blog.

After having worked on my blog for a while and after a little bit of procrastination, I came to the realisation that I had no plan for the day whatsoever. I knew that I wanted to walk around, so I decided to head out to wander aimlessly in Akihabara (秋葉原).

Popeye servers steaks in Ueno.

I wandered around for a while, going through various stores and their wares, but not really finding anything that I want to buy. When I got outside and started fiddling with my phone, I encountered an old man; a Buddhist monk scammer.

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The morning was the usual one with a bunch of pain everywhere, some procrastinating and writing here and there and then heading out. This time I was going to the Imperial Palace – or that’s what I thought, at any rate. Before that, however, I had to go and break some bills to pay for an additional couple of days.

My hiking boots were still quite soaked, so the walk to get some breakfast / break bills was somewhat uncomfortable. I ate some curry at Sukiya (すき屋) and got back to the hostel to pay for another few days of staying. After this I sat back and relaxed for a moment before I headed out to Imperial Palace.

Before I headed for the palace, I decided to go and post some of the post cards that I had. After a short walk I found the closest post office. With my business done, I started heading towards my destination.

With my socks and hiking boots wet, the seven to eight kilometre walk was as uncomfortable as you’d expect for it to be. At least the weather was nice. After walking a while longer, I got myself some rice balls to eat for a snack.

I decided to take a different route through Akihabara (秋葉原) and so found a couple of stores I would’ve not seen otherwise; one of the stores was an airsoft shop – this thing made me feel like I should start airsofting again. There was another interesting one that was mostly dedicated to ‘moe’ army girls.

Some really fancy stuff here.

Uhhh…

After having passed Akihabara (秋葉原), I walked past several shops that I had seen the day prior, so I knew I was going in the right direction. After a familiar curved road, I decided to turn left.

As I walked down the road I had chosen, I found an interesting shop with old military equipment such as uniforms, flags, guns and swords. All of it looked authentic enough, but I was a bit sceptic. Even if they were real, they’d probably be way out of my pay grade. Having admired long enough, I kept moving along the road until I got to the Eastern Gardens of the Imperial Palace.

The view before the store

An uniform and rifles

More uniforms, swords, etc.

When I entered, I was given a small token so that I could get out. The sights were great, and I spent a good long while just walking around the gardens, taking pictures of pretty much all the things. While I was walking around, I saw a Japanese man reading English text out loud and apparently recording it on his phone; I saw him a couple of times throughout my time at the gardens.

The entrance to the Eastern Imperial Gardens.

Map and rules.

The Hirakawa gate (平川門)

Another, smaller gate.

The Obikuruwa gate (帯曲輪門)

A good looking slope

View from the Tenshudai Donjon Base.

A distant view of the base.

Quite the vast field

People enjoying the day out

Bamboo

More bamboo

Bunch of different bamboo.

Even more bamboo!

A stone cellar

A path going up

富士見櫓

A large guardhouse

Details on the renovation 1/2

Details on the renovation 2/2

Another guardhouse

A fancy lamp

Obligatory close up.

Hey, more bamboo!

Wild grasses

A tea house

A list of prefectural trees

More info on the renovaction 1/2

More info on the renovaction 2/2

At some point I suddenly came to a realisation that the Imperial Palace probably wasn’t open for the general public – so I checked it out. Apparently it’s open only on the third of January and the twenty third of December, the Emperor’s birthday. Other than that, it’s open only through reserved tours by the Imperial Household Agency. With nothing more to do at the gardens, I got out and started slowly making my way towards the Tokyo station (東京駅).

A somewhat desolate feeling park next to the Imperial Palace grounds

Statue of Kusunoki Masashige (楠正成)

The station itself was quite the sight to behold, just like the Kyoto station (京都駅). After having walked by the station for a little while, I decided to get myself something to eat and just walk to my hostel instead of taking a train. I got some curry (again) and got moving.

The Magnificent Tokyo Station (東京駅)

I was tired, but I still decided to continue hunting for souvenirs at Akihabara (秋葉原). After an hour of searching, I had found more stuff to give to certain people. After having found these, I felt quite content and walked at a painfully slow pace.

After having arrived back at the hostel, I went to shower and did nothing useful for the rest of the day.

This is where the twenty sixth day ended.

Withdrew: 0,000 円

Spent: 4,491 円

Remaining cash: 13,117 円

No counting due to being a lazy bum.

Breakdown:

VM – 0,120 円

Sukiya breakfast – 0,561 円

Post office – 0,210 円

7/11 snacks – 0,260 円

Curry dinner – 0,690 円

Souvenirs 1 – 1,480 円

Souvenirs 2 – 1,620 円

Another day in the lovely Ueno (上野) dawned and both my upper left thigh and back were in the oh-so-familiar pain. I quickly got up to sit and started procrastinating until around 11:00. I had decided to go to the Imperial Palace the day prior, so I went for it after I got off my lazy arse.

I walked all the way to the Ueno station (上野駅) before I stopped by a small pizza place to eat breakfast at. I got a small-ish pizza with salami and what I think were meat balls. After having satisfied my hungry stomach, I started walking down towards Akihabara (秋葉原) to reach my destination.

On my way there, a woman was offering me a leaflet. I had ignored so many others before that I decided to bite, but she then of course guided me inside the store she was advertising for. In the store they tried to sell me overpriced holographic post cards, and they were willing to give me four at the price of two just because I was a nice guy. The offer was nice, but they were still way overpriced for post cards. I told them that there’d be no sales and continued onwards.

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I woke up with the familiar back ache around 08:00. I was meant to leave the hotel today, but I didn’t really have another place in my mind, and I didn’t want to start spending stupid amounts of money to stay at another place, so I asked if I could stay for another couple of nights – the guy at the desk didn’t have anything against it. Having received confirmation, I got out to get myself some breakfast and to break a 10,000 円 bill to pay for my stay.

I got myself some pork curry from Sukiya (すき屋) and came back. After having eaten my pork curry, I got my laptop out and checked out how far Akihabara (秋葉原) was; it was a mere two kilometre walk from the Ueno station (上野駅). When I felt like moving again, I got going, taking my umbrella with me.

The walk towards Akihabara (秋葉原) went fairly slowly due to the rain and slippery everything, but I got there after some fourty minutes of walking. On my way there a random Japanese guy drove towards me with his bicycle and suddenly started staring at me and then struck a pose with his hands creating a triangle before just passing me by. I wish I had gotten a picture of that.

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I woke up well rested and with my back hurting like hell. I looked at the clock on my laptop: it was 08:00. I got up – I was still lying on my side, though – and started procrastinating for a while before I got around to thinking about what I should do for the day.

After being done with my bad habit, I started looking at my options here in Ueno (上野). A lot of the things that were listed in the top things lists were in the Ueno Park (上野公園), so I decided to head there. Besides, parks are always pretty nice.

I got myself some breakfast from an Indian place called Sewa (世話). The staff were friendly, the bread was free and the prices were quite decent; I think that I’ve not had Indian food as good as this before. From there I kept walking towards the Ueno station (上野駅).

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