Big Audrey in Little Tokyo – part 2 – Audpodge and Blither Blather

I know I went on about how I don’t plan things when I’m on vacation, and how I’m all fly by the seat of my pants and “planning things isn’t fun”, but I didn’t realise how gigantic Tokyo is. And how much there is to see. And just how quickly 9 days can fly by – especially when 2 of those days are eaten by travel.

After walking around and seeing a few things on our first day, we realised that time was going to blow by. So we made a list of Shit That Looks Cool, and made loose plans around it.

First up: ramen at Afuri, and the Tokyo National Museum and National Museum of Nature and Science. The museums were in Ueno, a cool little neighborhood where Joel wanted to take photos.

DSCF6895 — I forgot my comb, and I could only find a teasing comb to buy at 7-11. So it took about 30 mins to comb through my wet hair. Oh, what fun.

DSCF6910 — Insta-ramen. You order and pay from this vending machine, and a ticket prints out. You hand the tickets to the cook, take a seat, and then your food is delivered. Like McCafe, except not terrible.

Afuri is a well known ramen place that’s famous for its cold Yuzu Shio ramen: cold ramen soup with noodles, pork, marinated egg, and a giant dollop of cold, jellied, yuzu fruit. It was definitely different, and I’m not usually one for jellied fruit being ANYWHERE near my meat soup, but after the first few bites, I was sold. It was a great combination of sweet and salty, and I ate the entire bowl without feeling bloated and full.

DSCF6911 — Cold Yuzu Shio ramen: don’t knock it til you’ve tried it.

We took a longer wander through Harajuku, which was basically people, people, people, everywhere. There were interesting shops and more delicious crepe stands than you’d expect for a single street.

DSCF6916 — So. Many. People. Also so many hustlers.

We scrambled through Takeshita Street and wandered through the rest of Harajuku, which was mostly high end shopping, dining, and a random shrine and zen garden.

DSCF6934 — CICADAS EUUNNGGGHH. Joel picked up one of the shells and walked toward me, and I told him if that shell touched me, I would leave, get on a plane, and never see him again. I’ve never been so serious.

We left the garden and kept wandering, toward Ueno and the museums. If you like walking, Tokyo is for you. The public transport is great, but there’s much more to see if you’re on foot. Unfortunately for me, I chose to wear a pair of sneakers this day that look very cool, but definitely weren’t broken in. And by the end of the day I had 2 giant blisters on my toes, by our last day I had blisters on 7 toes and on one my heels. Womp womp.

We didn’t ride a bullet train, but we did spend some time in the subway. Most of the maps were also in English, so it was easy to get around. And it was especially easy for me to get around, because Joel was my navigator. Sweeeeeeet.

DSCF6939 — All adverts should have cartoon characters.

When we got to the Museum, we saw some kind of carnival with tents and music and a big crowd. It turned out to be the Pakistan & Japan Friendship Festival. Alrighty, then! There were Japanese and Pakistani food vendors, live musicians, and probably a lot more, but I can’t read Japanese.

Fried chicken was sold out, Joel was devastated. But that long potato, tho.

Frozen beer is a big thing in Japan. It’s not a beer slushie, but it’s served at a super, super cold temperature, and the foam is velvety. We got ate that pancake thing on the right, it was amazing.

DSCF6956 — Mmmm Pancake thing with frozen beers

DSCF6964 — Fountains in front of the museum

The National Museum is huge! We spent a few hours looking through the exhibits. There was everything from swords, pottery, painting, calligraphy scrolls, to Buddha statutes, kimonos, photography and Samurai uniforms and saddlery. I took about 6,000 photos (when I was allowed to, they’re really strict. We saw a few museum employees wave down tourists and watched as they deleted photos from their cameras). I probably could have stayed there all day.

DSCF7025 — funeral procession made of clay

DSCF7046 — View of the garden that was closed for maintenance 😦

DSCF7067 — I fell in love with the kimonos. I want all these.

DSCF7082 — And this one. And the 14 other robes I took pictures of.

We ran out of time to see the Natural History museum, but we did get some shots in with the giant whale.

DSCF7156 — Most restaurants show their meal choices this way – it’s awesome

We decided on a little hole in the wall restaurant that had the best fake food displays. The staff didn’t speak much English, but I had Yakisoba that was off the charts.