Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Japan Day 2 (or 3?) - Ueno & Asakusa

On Monday, we went to Ueno and Asakusa. We headed to the Ueno Park which was crazy crowded (the Imperial Palace Park was waaaay nicer and less people). Also visited the National Museum of Western Art (admissions at 430yen each - according to +3, I didn't want to go in but he decided I needed some culture lol). This museum was designed by Le Corbusier, apparently the grand master of modern architecture.

Hilariously, +3 thought another building (the Symphony Orchestra building) was the one by designed Le Corbusier. (I guessed correctly hahahaha).

The collection used to be owned by a rich guy called Matsukata, who lost his paintings during the war, and then the Japanese governmnetasked the French government to give them back after the war as part of the peace treaty. Or something like that.

Bought some ice cream from an ice cream truck after, then walked around the area before heading to Asakusa.

Asakusa is like Old Tokyo, and we originally had plans to see the Senso-Ji temple but OMG there were So. Many. People. Decided to just have lunch at a nearby steakhouse (The Very Steak!) which was delicious, despite being a  standing only place. We had 300gm of ribeye steak each. Yum. Popped over to Starbucks where I discovered that they had a short size drink (smaller than the small size, tall). Matcha tea latte = love.

Walked past a building designed by Philip Starck (not sure how to spell), which looked like a black square building with a golden turd (or carrot if you're polite) on the top. Lol. This guy also designed +3's lemon juicer. Hehehe. Sat by the river for a bit then headed back to the hotel.

Explored the area around our hotel in the evening. Booked the wrong Hotel Sunroute - instead of the Hotel Sunroute Plaza Shinjuku that everyone was recommending, I booked the Hotel Sunroute Higashi Shinjuku instead. Thankfully it was also near a sunway station.

The hotel is located near Korea Town and also near the Square Enix building (some office building of some game company- +3 says he feels like he is having an umrah by visiting that building. Lololol). We were also within walking distance (about 8 min walk?) to the Don Quijote shop- the Japanese version of Mustafa. Dinner was at a local Tamoya-like joint opposite the hotel which is open 24 hours. We picked items off the shelf and paid for it before sitting down to eat.

It was a tiring day but fun exploring the city. Passed out when I got back to the hotel. Lol.

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