The Market Side Of Ueno (Day 6)

Ready for Part 4 of the 5 for Day 6 posting? This is turning out to be a long post indeed.The day turns out to be soooo long... and I know I know! I'm working as slow as a turtle here, can't put the blame on me as the exams are drawing close and I have lots of reading to catch up. Gosh! I hate exams!!! There's so much to read and the mock exams and the past year papers and the craziness of it...

Ahem! Enough complaining and back to the latest post. Ueno are not entirely consumed by the park itself as there's still part of the area that is bustling with Japan's modern jungle.

The Ameya Yokocho, a street market district that evolved out of an open-air black market that sprung up after World War II. Ameya Yokocho or shortly called out as Ameyoko (アメ横) also means candy store alley as candies were traditionally sold there or American alley because a lot of American products used to be available on the black market.

Opening hours and closing days depend on individual stores, but stores typically opens around 10:00 and closes around 19:00. Most stores are closed on selected Wednesdays. Here you can find everything from discounted brand name jeans to seaweed, hair cream to hats, any type of weird combination that you can think of, it'll appear in front of your eyes.

It's a truly cultural place where you will find Viet, Thai and Filipina girls buying shoes, Russian sailors eating doner kebabs from the friendly Iranian take-out, and local schoolgirls buying brand knockoffs. Mom had her fair share of buying as she bought a few souveniers there. I got myself a hat and my gundams from Yamashiroya (ヤマシロヤ), a 7 storey toy store where you will find yourselves lost in time when you are in there (applies only for a big fan of japanese toys).

We also stopped over at a 9 storey electrical store where it basically sells every type of electrical goods that you could name. From handphones to accessories, computers to camcorders, cameras to... I lost count. I got myself a brand new Sony headset, so does dad but he got a better one by Bose.

We had a very late lunch on that day. Dad suggests that we have KFC. Now in Japan, the KFC that they serve is different although the original receipe chicken is still being maintained. We tried out several other receipes that Japan KFC has to offer. No pictures though as our hands were extremely busy tearing up the oily chicken apart. Haha!

One last picture taken at the main entrance of Ameyoko before heading off the area. This place reminds me of Pasar Malam or the usual Sunday Market scene back home.

After all the sight seeing and shopping around Ueno, it was time for us to head back to our hotel for our daily evening happy hour drinks. Time to grab one last snap shot of the Ueno station before heading off.

The train ride back to Ebisu is another long one as I mentioned on my earlier posts that Ebisu is on the other side of town.

Passing multiple of stations along the way including the all time popular Tokyo train station where all trains seems to be concentrated there.

Reaching Ebisu, dad led us to take a long way around to our hotel; by walking on the hilly streets of Ebisu. However, we were pampered by great weather and scenery of the area where flowers blossomed beautifully. Although I know I was extremely tired from traveling the entire day already, but with this kind of environment, it takes any tiredness away for a moment. After that, I continued my brag to mom and dad... "It's a long walk uphill!!" Will blog again soon.