Ueno, often when Tokyo is depicted it is of alleyways, through tall building lined streets with bright lights,signs, paper lanterns, and small food vendors or restaurants - that is the part of Ueno we stayed in. We stayed pretty close to a major crossroad with bars and restaurants on all four corners. As the dark comes, young people are hired in front of the restaurants to convince people to come in carnival barker style. The bars and restaurants have outdoor seating completely full on the weekend nights we were there. Many of these places will have all you can drink specials for a few hours. We saw so many young hammered mostly men puking in the streets at the end of the night, certainly a contrast to seeing the salary men and women during the daytime with such reservation and composure. Another thing we are unused to is often the bars, restaurants, and cafes allow smoking.
Ueno nightlife...very active weekend fun.
One of many alley ways in Ueno.
Shout out to my home town, one of the cool jeans shop had this retro shirt from my hometown of Ventura, CA...small world to be sure.
Most of the day was actually spent in the neighborhood of Ginza shopping. First stop, the mega-Uni-Glo shop. So many floors and so many people! We also went to a really cool Bumpodo art store and gallery. It’s important to support local businesses too. When travelling it is important to rest, so my evening was spent eating 7-11 food and watching movies while the guys went to dinner.
In the lesson learned category, research your accommodations well. We switched from our first hotel to the one next door because the rooms were very small, the bed was hard springs, the walls were dingy, and there was only one small pillow to sleep on. I know I’m sounding like a typical Bougie American, but honestly it was not a good situation. An expensive lesson to be sure, but we have done fairly well with accommodations and activities considering making plans from 5,000 miles away.
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