Day 25 – 22.04: The Yasukuni Shrine

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.

I eventually crossed a river and got to a road called Yasukuni Dori (靖国通り). The road was obviously named after the controversial shrine which housed war heroes / war criminals from the Second World War. Seeing the sign reminded me that I had also wanted to go there, so I checked the map for it’s location. It was quite close to the Imperial Palace, so I decided to go to it first.

I walked for a while, getting lost a couple of times, before reaching the shrine itself. I walked around, taking pictures of the shrine and it’s surroundings until I saw a bunch of suited people and half a dozen guards preventing people from getting on the road. I looked at the mass of people as they suddenly started yelling out “Banzai!” and doing a salute. A few cars passed us by, after which people scattered – I think these could’ve been the royal family or the prime minister or something visiting the shrine.

Dressed up people bowing to the people in the car.

Dressed up people bowing to the people in the car.

With the people scattered and the road passable, I went over to the museum building, taking a few pictures of the few things in the entrance hall that I was allowed to photograph, bought a few post cards and then moved back outside to take a walk around the shrine once more.

It had stopped raining, so it was easier to just concentrate on taking pictures. The gardens around the shrine were lovely and worth the short walk. When my walk was over, I was back at the museum. I thought about starting to walk back to the hostel, but I really wanted to see what was in the paid section of it – so I went back in.

After having gotten in to the second floor, I was met with a sign claiming that no recording of any kind should be done there. A bit annoyed, I started moving along from gallery to gallery, spending most of my time reading the various bits of text that I saw on my way – this is why I never get to see entireties of the museums I visit.

When I had just passed the Russo-Japanese War section and was entering the World Wars, it was ten minutes to closing time; I started rushing through the contents in the museum. The closer to the end I got, the more memorial pictures of those fallen in the Second World War could be seen. Apparently all of people in those pictures have been brought to the Yasukuni shrine (靖国神社). I got out in to the newly started rain and started walking towards Akihabara (秋葉原).

On my way to the shopping district, I stopped by a small curry place to eat a little something before going to hunt for more souvenirs. As it was the type of restaurant where you just give a ticket and a minute or two later they give you the food, I was done with this fairly quick.

With my food finished with, I kept walking until I reached a store that could potentially have some interesting stuff. After having went through several shops, I got back to Kotobukiya and got a little something for a little someone. With my shopping done, I went out and noticed that the rain had gotten a lot worse.

I walked with my feet just begging to stop with each step I took; BOTH of my hiking boots have SOMEHOW had their heel parts get in to such a bad condition that they just suck in the water. The weather kept getting worse, and I finally decided to give up and take the metro just to ease my life a little bit.

I must’ve walked for a kilometre in the tunnels before I finally got to the correct line that would take me to the Iriya station (入谷駅). I had never been to a metro before, so I was a bit cautious. In the end, it was just like riding a train – just underground. When I got back in to the rain at my destination, the walk to my hostel was a short one. While on my way there, I got myself some dinner from the konbini across the road.

After having arrived, I just took a shower and procrastinated for the rest of the evening, not really getting anything done.

This is where the twenty fifth day ended.

 

Withdrew: 0,000

Spent: 5,282

Remaining cash: 17,608

No counting due to starting late again.

Breakdown:

VM – 0,230

Pizza breakfast – 0,780

Yasukuni museum – 0,267

Yasukuni museum entrance – 0,800

Curry dinner – 0,420

Kotobukiya souvenir – 1,800

Metro – 0,170

Lawson supper – 0,815

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