Mid-Morning Stroll In Ueno Park (Day 6)

Back with more to write as this will be the 3rd entry out of 5 for day 6 in Tokyo. After a long walk out from Meiji Shrine, we head back to the JR Yamanote to take a ride to our next destination. Getting to Ueno will take about 40 minutes travelling from Harajuku. It is located on the other side of town.

Ueno (上野) is a district in Tokyo's Taitō Ward, home to Tokyo's finest cultural sites which holds the Tokyo National Museum, the National Museum of Western Art, National Science Museum and a major concert hall used by famed Japanese artists for the concert tour. It also holds the Ueno Zoo, a large numbers of Shinto Shrines and also a black market which I will be revealing more on the next blog post. Ueno is in the historical Shitamachi, literally "down-town" district of Japan, a working class area rather than where the aristocrats and rich merchants lived. Entirely lacking in high-rise condos or whiz-bang shopping malls, by Tokyo standards it's distinctly downmarket, but that means that eating, shopping and drinking are all affordably priced.

Ueno Park (上野公園) was our first destination as we stepped out from the train station. Just across the street from the station, surely you can't miss the park as hordes of people are heading that way. Covering approximately 534 000 square meters, this place hosts the zoo, the shrines and also the museums that was mentioned earlier. Ueno Park is famous during this time of the year as hordes of school children are on their school trip and visitng the park is something not to be missed... that's what I was being told by my dad.

The bronze statue of Prince Komatsu Akihito are being displayed here in Ueno Park. He's the seventh son of Prince Fushimi Kuniye, a member of the Fushimi-no-miya one of the shinnōke branches of the Imperial Family of Japan. He passed away at the age of 58 on the 18th January, 1903.

Ueno Park is not all about the school children, families will also be here to witness the Cherry Blossom during the full bloom week which took place 2 weeks before my arrival into Tokyo. When I got to Ueno Park, the stuff that I saw just tree branches.

As soon as me and my mom got to see one of the many Cherry trees that is still blossoming, we automatically went nuts about it and started to take many pictures of that ONE tree, imagine the behaviour are almost similar like a caveman who never saw what a tree looks like.

First up was the Toshogu Shrine that was located in the heart of the Ueno Park. The name "Toshogu" is a royal title. Literally translated, Toshogu means "Light of the East" or "Sun god of the east". There are about 200 Toshogu shrines in Japan, each built to enshrine Ieyasu as a deity. The original shrine is said to have been built in 1627 by the warrior Todo Takatora, daimyo of Iga and Ise. The shrine survived the World War 2 bomb raids, massive earthquakes and even the major battles of the 1868 civil war.

4 of the 50 large copper lanterns offered by daimyo (one of the feudal lords) during the rule of the Tokugawa Shogunate. Most of the copper lanterns are still located at the Toshogu Shrine in Nikko.

I was largely disappointed that I didn't manage to see the real shrine as it was under construction at that time. No pictures of the shrine was taken as the shrine was covered with a picture poster of the shrine itself, making it useless for me to take the picture in the first place. I took pictures of the shrine's surroundings instead.

The Kan'ei-ji Pagoda, or known as the Five Storied Pagoda, was built for the Tokugawa shoguns and currently stands inside the Ueno Park Zoo. The entire area was originally the grounds for the Kan'ei-ji temple which was erected to protect the Edo castle. But during the Boshin War from 1868 to 1869 the temple was destroyed while the pagoda survived.

Ueno Park are indeed famous with it's many temples and shrines in the area. There's the Great Buddhist Pagoda which was built in 1967, replacing a buddha statue formerly stood on the site.

The Gojo Shrine is located in the Ueno Park too. As you made your way into the temple, you'll be fascinated with it's long row of red Torii's at the entrance.

The shrine is one of the a Shinto shrine dedicated to Inari, the God of Rice. Because rice is such an important staple of Japanese cuisine, Irani shrine are very prevalent throughout the country.

We made it to the west side of the park where the Bentendo (弁天堂) temple is located. Now the Bentendo is a tempe dedicated to the goddess Benzaiten. The temple is located on an island in Shinobazu Pond (しのばずのいけ) . The Shinobazu Pond was not really a great sight during this time of the year as the lotus are in brownish coloured. I ended the Ueno Park tour with a prayers at the Bentendo temple and headed out to the Ueno town... which will be revealed more on my next blog post.

Meiji Shrine (Day 6)

Now before I start off my blog for this posts, I just wish to inform my readers that Day 6 will consists of 5 postings as for this day, we covered a lot of grounds throughout Tokyo. Hope you guys will enjoy the coverage that's being posted so far. Do leave some comments if there's any hiccups or ideas you wish to share.

The train stopped at the Harajuku Station (原宿駅) where dad forced me and mom to exit the train quickly. One thing I found out about the JR Yamanote line is that either you leave the train quickly or else you will overpass the station you intend to stop. Dad told me that Harajuku is the place where you will see all the weird Japanese people with their fashion (either you want to see a barbie doll or a durian punk), you can find it here. However, due to the reason it's the weekday and school are in session, I told my dad that it will be advisable to go back on the weekends.

Instead of turning left to the Harajuku streets, we turned right to head towards the Meiji Shrine. Meiji Shrine (明治神宮) covers a vast area of 700 000 square-meters of land where the area is covered by an evergreen forest. The land coverage itself is huge, wait until you make your way into the shrine, which is located right in the middle of the forest.

Meiji Shrine is a Shinto Shrine. The construction of the shrine began in 1915 and completed in November 1st, 1920. The Shrine, is build to dedicate to the deified spirits of Emperor Meiji (明治天皇) and Empress Shōken (昭憲皇后). When Emperor Meiji died in 1912 and Empress Shōken in 1914, Japanese people wished to pay their respects to the 2 influential figures and that's the reason that the Shrine was built.

Meiji Shrine was destroyed in the World War 2's Tokyo Air Raids. It was then rebuilt through public fund raising effort and compeleted its construction in October 1958. This place is packed with tourists from around the world and normally it is flocked with tourists in the morning hours.

The grounds consists of two areas, the Naien and the Gaien. The Naien, or the inner precinct/garden, centred on the shrine buildings, which include a treasure museum that houses articles of the Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken. The Gaien, or the outer precinct/garden, which includes the Meiji Memorial Picture Gallery that houses a collection of 80 large murals illustrative of the events in the lives of the Emperor Meiji and his consort. It also includes a variety of sports facilities, including the National Stadium, and is seen as the center of Japanese sports. It also includes the Meiji Memorial Hall, which was originally used for governmental meetings, including discussions surrounding the drafting of the Meiji Constitution in the late 19th century.

What we did was to visit the Naien area only, minus the treasure museum. Walking to the shrine is a long tedious walk, but with all the lush greens, great scenery and calm environment; serenaded by the chirping sound of birds and rustling leaves, taking your mind off from the busy life of Tokyo, it was all worth it.

There were several of these Torii (鳥居) wooden gates erected along the way. These Japanese gates are commonly found only at the entry of a Shinto Shrine.

There's also a display of Nihonshu (日本酒) or known as Japanese Sake which is used to offer to the gods. Donated by major companies from around the world (no kidding!) for prosperous business and good luck, no wonder there's so many barrels being displayed.

That's the main Torii before entering the Shrine.

Before entering a Shinto Shrine, stop over the Chōzubachi (手水鉢) for self purification. How to do it? First take the wooden dipper with your right hand and fill it with water. Pour the water over your left hand. Then take the dipper in your left and pour water over your right. Third, pour some water from the dipper into the cupped palm of your left hand. Rinse your mouth with this water, spitting it back out into the palm of your hand. Tough, but you'll get used to it like I did. Where did I learn this? From the internet. Hehe!

As I made my way to the main shrine in the center, suddenly something caught my eyes, as well as many tourists eyes. A Japanese traditional wedding. Meiji Shrine is famous for active Shinto wedding proceedings which can be seen on the inner ground of the shrine. This is an amazing sight to see with the bride in the traditional Japanese wedding kimono (Uchikake), shrine maidens, Shinto priests and the women wearing gorgeously crafted kimono. During my visit, there were 2 wedding proceedings that took place that morning.

Now the Shrine area is a huge place. The materials to make the shrine are mainly plain Japanese cypress with copper plates for the roofs. A few pictures from the outer shrine area.

How to make your worship at the Shinto Shrine? If you watched Japanese films or Anime, probably you might have learned a few things or two from there. Make your way to the Inner Shrine. Throw your coin in to the sasenbako (offerings box). Then ring the suzu (bell) firmly a couple times, but in Meiji Shrine they don't have a bell. Take a step back, bow twice, then clap twice. Spend a few moments in prayer, if you like. Then bow again. Simple right? Do it the Japanese way and the locals will have a respect for you.

Once done, I headed out of the inner shrine to tour about the outer shrine grounds. On the left, there's a big tree with many Ema's (絵馬) being placed. These small wooden plaques were written by worshipers as a prayers or wishes. What made me surprised is that I can find ema in many languages, as tourists from around the world leave their own wishes and prayers. Ema's can be purchased at 500Yen a piece at the Shrine giftshop.

I made my way to the Shrine giftshop to purchase a few Omamori (お守り). It's Japanese amulets usually made of cloth and encloses papers or pieces of wood with prayers written on them which are supposed to bring good luck to the bearer on particular occasions, tasks or ordeals. Omamori are also used to ward off bad luck and are often spotted on bags, hung on cellphone straps, in cars, etc. for safety in travel.

The Meiji Shrine visit took almost an hour or so as walking to the Shrine already takes a quarter of the visiting time. However, the visit to the shrine is worth it as it's one of the most beautiful shrine that Tokyo has to offer. I end my post with a few pictures taken from inside the shrine. Will blog again soon.

Good Morning Tokyo! (Day 6)

I'm back... with a brand new post that is. Hope that I didn't kept everyone waiting until your necks grew long.

A nightful of rain and a very goodnight of sleep, waking up to the sunshine of Japan gives a totally different feeling... the feeling of joy looms in. As I rolled myself in bed to face the window around 8am, looking out of the window to look at how wonderful the weather has turned out to be and the view of Tokyo is magnificient! How come weather changes so fast in Japan!? One day of rain, the following day is sunny. Hmm...

After shower, we head down to the cafe for breakfast. They have English breakfast which consists of multiple range of cereals, juices, breads, yogurts and hot items such as omelette, pancakes, sausages, etc.

And also Japanese which consists of tofu, steamed vegetables, porridge, soba (orderable from the counter), etc.

Did I mentioned that you can name your favourite type of how your eggs to be done and the friendly chefs will cook it up for you?

Even the Orange juice are freshly squeezed!

Seated next to the window near the yard, it's the best way of enjoying spring in Japan. You got to love Spring time where all the flowers bloom and the pollens are extra high in quantities too.

The yard is open for the customers to sit and enjoy the weather and a great variety of flowers are being potted and planted, displayed for the customers to enjoy. The flowers bloomed marvellously during this time of the year. 

With plenty of rain that came down last night, the flowers are certainly in a good mood today eh? (And Yes! This flowers are real...)

Now the cafe does sell a range of chocolates which were crafted and made by their own chefs. These chocolates aren't like any other chocolates you can buy off from the Supermarket. A piece of these babies can costs from as low as 300Yen to a high of 1500Yen a piece. Hmm, I wonder who would buy such expensive chocolates?

After breakfast, we toured around the lobby area and managed to capture a few pictures of the magnificent area where it is decorated with modern european design.

Walking out of the hotel and feeling the morning Tokyo air is another highlight as the tempreature for the day is crisp and chilly, a good day for a walk.

As the rain deterred us from taking a real look on how nice the Ebisu surroundings are, hiding ourselves in the underground passage... with such nice weather today, we walked out to enjoy the scenery Ebisu has to offer. 

The flowers bloomed beautifully around Yebisu Garden Place and the buildings surrounding the area are authentic. I'm starting to fall in love with the place. Hehe!

As we reach the Ebisu train station, time for us to hop on the JR Yamanote line (山手線) to head over to our destination. The JR Yamanote is owned by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East) and it is one of Tokyo's busiest and most important commuter rail lines. Running in a full circle with 29 stations in its path, it connects most of Tokyo's major stations and urban centres. Riding from one station to another is considered cheap, comparing with riding a cab.

During rush hours, you will definitely see the classical sardine way of Japanese riding the commuters. We will try to avoid those period if possible, we do not want to end up being in a can like those Japanese sardines. Hehe!

My first ride on the JR Yamanote line, and of course it's my very first time feeling lost too. In the train, you'll see a picture of the train line which is offered around Tokyo area. Trying to find the JR Yamanote line itself was tough, imagine trying to find other commuter lines that serves around Tokyo? If you are new to Tokyo, you'll definitely get lost on the rail.

I'll post up the next blog the destination that I headed to. Nothing secretive, but just a thriller to keep my readers on the edge. Till then, have a good day.