[26.08.2009]

Today we went sightseeing around Tokyo, all in the name of H!P. To start off we decided to check out Ueno Park as everytime we passed through the station we could see the statue which Reina used in one of her HM@ Mou Tube videos. After getting off the train at Ueno we didn’t know which exit to take, although we somehow managed to take the right one – awesomes! After we found the entrance to the park we wandered around until we could find a trusty map (there’s almost as many street maps in Japan as there are vending machines…almost) as we knew the general direction we needed to go in but just wanted to be sure. The wooded area of Ueno Park was full of Cicada’s which did not please me in the slightest, but was a wet dream for zorrander. Needless to say, I kept my distance from them and flinched like a girly girl a few times when they flew past, but zorrander was getting as close as he could to them and taking photos. Don’t know why I’m so scared of them, but bugs / flying creatures scare the shit out of me…

saigō takamori statue

We found the statue we were after and took a few photos, then had a look at a small shrine that was nearby. One thing I do like about the Japanese culture is the Shinto religion and their places of ‘worship’. I don’t know why but I always feel a sense of peace when I go to them, so I was lucky to visit this one as it would become the one and only I went to on this trip (…). But this one had a pretty cool cleansing trough / fountain so I was happy enough with that.

grand fountain / national museum of western art – ueno park

After leaving the shrine we decided to take a walk to Shinobazu Pond which was not what I was expecting as it was completely covered with lilies and reeds. There really wasn’t much to see so we didn’t stay long before making our way back to the main park. The next place on our list before we left Ueno was a trip to the Hello! Project shop. I knew roughly where the shop is located in Ueno thanks to an online guide, but stupidly couldn’t remember if it was north or south of the station so had to ring gordokaba twice for directions *slaps self*. Funny thing was gordokaba was also unsure of which direction it was in, so after walking the wrong way for a while we had to turn around and go in the opposite direction lol. Once we got to the other end of the station I spotted the coffee shop that gordokaba had told me about, and it was plain sailing from there. After all that though, I wasn’t impressed with this Hello! Project shop and would say it’s the worst out of the three. It’s small and even though the stock is the same as the other shops, it just feels old and musty. I suppose it could have something to do with the ancient poster on the stairs outside…

faded poster fail…

Neither of us bought anything in the shop but zorrander picked up some fruit from one of the market stalls in the street outside, and I just bought a slice of watermelon. Fruit in Japan is GINORMOUS, and really refreshing in the Tokyo heat ♥

Upon leaving Ueno we decided to hit up Tokyo Tower as it’s one of those places you MUST visit whilst in Tokyo, even though it really isn’t that great. When I first travelled to Japan in 2006 I booked an ‘Ultimate Tour’ package and was fortunate enough to have my Tokyo hotel upgraded to a pretty darn posh one (female lift attendants in kimono anyone ^^). My upgraded hotel was right next to Tokyo Tower so I knew that if we walked from the station in the direction if the hotel, we’d get to where we wanted to be. It worked! We found Tokyo Tower and had a look around the two main observation decks, but we didn’t go up to the the highest one as we didn’t want to pay for it lol. Thing is, the view really isn’t that impressive. Okay, so I live in an area of the UK where there’s more green moorland and fields then houses, so seeing a place where there’s hardly any green areas is quite fascinating…for 5 minutes. Then it’s just boring shades of grey <_< The Landmark Tower observation deck was so much better because it’s on a harbour. Yokohama 1 – Tokyo 0!

yuke yuke monkey dance… ~samuii~

Inside the building at the foot of Tokyo Tower is the Guinness World Records museum (amongst many other things), which Morning Musume members have visited a couple of times. We decided that as we were there we’d take a look, but it wasn’t that amazing. Although it is fun recollecting about what H!P members do in these places though, and we had a laugh remembering them all standing on the scales next to this sexy guy…

them some moobs!

We spent a fair amount of time in Tokyo Tower so thought we’d best get some nosh as we I was starving. I saw a sign for Pizza La and decided to try it as Buono! advertise them but…they weren’t that good <_< I’m not that fussy when it comes to food (except for seafood), but the only meat I like on my pizzas is chicken. They didn’t have any chicken toppings and the only one that didn’t feature pepperoni was potato and sweetcorn. POTATO AND SWEETCORN – WTF?! I ate it – it was really bizarre. We also saw a waffle shop called Pink Dot which Buono! also advertise for, so I tried one of them as well. It was bland (do you see a pattern forming?). Although I do have to say it was fun watching the Buono! videos playing whilst we were waiting for our food.

chocolate buono! waffle

The last thing we saw in Tokyo Tower – and the highlight of my day – was Pikachu! As soon as I saw him I wanted to run up and hug him, but that’s not really something that a 26 year old should do. Plus it would’ve gained me some unwanted ‘OMG! LOOK AT THAT STUPID GAIJIN’ attention. As my brain and my body was battling against sense and stupidity some little kids ran up to him and hugged him instead. Oh, how I wish I was a kid again T_T

I hope the guy in the Pikachu suit has been police checked!

Outside of Tokyo Tower we walked around the wooded area outside which Eri, Jun and Lin briefly passed through in Morning Days 1, then we decided to stop off at the Hello! Project shop in Shibuya before going back to our hotel. We met up with gordokaba in the evening and had dinner in a Sukiyaki / Shabu Shabu restaurant called Momo Paradise (awesome name). Quick note – when you go to a restaurant where people are queueing to be seated, don’t just stand / sit down in the queue and wait. That’s exactly what we did and we ended up waiting ages whilst watching all the people that arrived after us go in before us because we hadn’t told them that we required a table…FAIL! I know that Eri talks about Shabu Shabu quite often so I really wanted to try that, but zorrander didn’t think he’d like it so we went for Sukiyaki instead *starts singing Sukiyaki*. We didn’t have a clue what we were supposed to do other than put the meat and vegetables in the pan, so when we started running out of liquid and the pan started to burn I quickly ushered someone over (I didn’t want any flames like the Yakitori incident). Who knew that the two pots of liquid on the table were for topping the pan back up…duh ^^; The meal was really nice and myself and gordokaba ate a lot and drank a lot of beer (as usual). Japanese food is really appealing to me this time so I was glad that I was getting to try lots of different dishes. Sukiyaki goes on my list of food to eat again.

shibuya hello! project shop entrance

Upon leaving the restaurant we made plans for the next day where gordokaba would be joining us for more Tokyo sightseeing. I then wobbled back to the hotel and had a good nights sleep ^^

End of day 06