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).
As can be expected, there were tons of people everywhere when I got to the station. Nothing out of the ordinary was going on, so I just moved on to the park.
The park quite lovely even though it was packed with people. I walked around and got to a temple; I took a few pictures and moved on. Before I could get too far, I could hear the drumming of taiko drums. I also noticed some sort of a coffer being carried by a dozen people and violently rocked from side to side. I was intrigued and wanted to see where this would be going.
I moved on from them to take some video of the taiko drummers, spending a few minutes with them before the coffer crowd started slowly advancing towards us. I took some video of this, but unfortunately soon the camera started flashing a “Card Full” message at me – I felt like an idiot. I then dug out my phone and continued.
I watched the proceedings for a while, looking at people getting up some stairs set up around a statue – I think the whole thing was for the statue they posed before – but soon enough I started hurrying my way back to the hostel to get my second card and to empty the one I had with me. But before that, I got the following material:
Having gotten to the hostel and having removed everything from the card, I started walking back to the park. When I got back to the place I left, it was quite empty. The statue was there without any sort of metallic stairs around it, and any tents that had been put up were gone as well. With nothing more to see, I headed off to walk around the lake in the park.
The lake area wasn’t anything too special, but I still got a few pictures. After having walked around it, I bought myself a chopped up, grilled squid, ate it, and started walking around, stopping by to look at street performers.
Out of the performers, one of them stuck to me. He was an energetic young guy doing different kinds of tricks to music. His last performance was done to the instrumental Neon Genesis Evangelion opening song; figuring out the song took me a while. With his show over, I decided to head for the Ueno Zoo (上野動物園).
Time to get in!
The zoo was pretty big and was divided in to an eastern and a western side; I was on the western side. I walked around, looking at the various animals on display and taking pictures of some of them. I also got to witness panda bears eating bamboo. Time went on fast, and the closing time was closing in. I was a bit bummed that I had missed quite a few animals, such as capybaras and EVERYTHING on the eastern side, so I decided that I would come back to the zoo some other day.
As I got out of the zoo, I ended up stopping by a small pizza cafe thing. I ordered a potato, sausage and mayo pizza. I don’t know what I was expecting, but that’s exactly what I got. After having eaten the small pizza that I had been given, I started slowly heading back to the hostel.
After having been at the hostel for a while, procrastinating, watching Umineko related videos, I got really nostalgic. Powered by this nostalgia, I headed out for walk. I kept walking north until I reached an intersection; from there I decided to head to the east for a while.
I kept walking east and was about to start walking back until I noticed the Tokyo Skytree (東京スカイツリー ); I had a sudden desire to get to it. I walked, not really thinking, towards it at a fast pace, taking whatever roads I thought would get me closer to it. After a while of walking, I reached the Tokyo Skytree station (東京スカイツリー 駅). My curiosity satisfied, I started walking back.
I took a different path when I was walking back. Throughout my journey back to the hostel, I kept regretting that I didn’t bring my camera with me; the sights were gorgeous. After having gotten back to my hostel and having taken a shower, I got to procrastinating until I fell asleep.
This is where the twenty third day ended.
Withdrew: 0,000 円
Spent: 4,593 円
Remaining cash: 39,121 円
Started writing around 23:00, so no counting.
Breakdown:
VM – 0,450 円
Sewa breakfast – 1,250 円
Squid – 0,500 円
Ueno Zoo – 0,600 円
Savoia food – 1,030 円
Sunkus dinner + soap – 0,363 円
Laundry – 0,400 円