Japan to Australia via Eastern Europe - Part 2 - Mushi Mushi Tokyo

Arrival at Narita brought back heaps of memories (as it was only just a tad over one year since we were last here). It was completely deserted (well almost – except for the hoards of Japanese staff everywhere) and by the time we had gotten off the plane, gone through immigration, collected our bags (ours were first off the flight) and gone through a half-hearted customs – it had only taken 20 minutes – a new world record. Things are looking Milhouse indeed – that is until we took the Keisei Line to Ueno Station.

Narita is pretty much out in the sticks of Tokyo. I don’t really think it is actually in Tokyo (as it is about 80kms away from the city centre). We got our 1000 Yen tickets on the Keisei Line (about 10-11AUD worth) and boarded on the next train. Although Japanese trains are well renowned for their extreme punctuality – this train was going to blow that perception completely. It took us 3 hours to get to Ueno station whereas a normal trip should have only been about 1 hour. We kept stopping at every single stop for about 10 to 15 minutes and the driver had kept making announcements (all in Japanese) so we knew things weren’t going to plan. Our train had stopped about 1 minute away from Ueno station (in a underground tunnel no less) – so I kept seeing these visions of Ant and I scurrying with our bags through the underground tunnel – walking to Ueno by foot. After about 15 minutes of this – the train started to move again. So three hours from Narita to Ueno – that must be another world record.

At Ueno – we made (subway) tracks to Asasuka – which is a couple of kilometres away from Ueno. We had checked in at the Hotel Sun – which we found on a “gold” Japanese tourist website which was offering hotel prices at 20-30% cheaper than western tourist websites (a la hotels.com, wotif.com, etc) – although the Japanese website was in engrish.

The Hotel Sun was undergoing a name change to Hotel Unizu (on 1st April) so it was a little confusing to find it. We had reached the hotel a little early to check in (it was about 10:30am-ish and we couldn’t check until 2pm) – so we left our bags and made (subway) tracks to Ueno. For those not in the know – Ueno is a bit of a nth-eastern hub in Tokyo with both metro trains (eg: non-Japanese Rail or JR trains) and JR trains (not affiliated with the character of JR in the TV show Dallas).

Ueno has a big park (imagitively entitled Ueno Park) and is a big tourist magnet during cherry-blossom season. Funnily enough – it was cherry blossom time (which strangely coincided with Taeko and Sacha’s wedding – funny that). Cherry blossom time was a little early this year – but this is probably thanks to global warming or something.

Ueno Park was filled to the brim of tourists taking happy snaps of the cherry blossoms (which was pretty). Not so pretty were all of the blue-tarpaulin mats spread out everywhere. All of these Japanese businesses were staking out spots in the park where they will hold picnics. In the meantime – they seem to hire bums to look after their spots. WTFIWWJ! The park’s paths even had a bit of Japanese “lane traffic control” with directions painted over the path to tell you what direction to walk in - true Japanese orderly style.

Ant and I made our way to the Museum of Western Art – a somewhat small collection of those “Jesus-esque” pictures from the dark-ages or something and a few impressionist paintings (including from Monet and Pissarro) and a Pollock to wrap things up.

We did have our first Japanese toilet bide experience at the museum. After three trips to Japan – we finally mustered the courage to flick the switch on the “heated bide” control panel (situated near the seat). A strong jet of warm water suddenly penetrates your back side – removing the need to use toilet paper when doing a number 2. You can even control the direction and strength – oooh awwh. Ant and I were laughing our heads off. Although at first you feel like you have been violated by an automatic japanese toilet – I have become a convert of the Japanese bides. I now want to install one back in Australia. The toilet in the museum even had an automatic seat warming device.

Ant and I then checked out some of the markets surrounding Ueno station (pronounced “Wen-o” Julie!). There was a 100 yen shop (105 yen after sales tax) full of junky crap (think a Japanese version of Clint’s The Warehouse or Hot Dollar). A lot of the shops in the markets felt a little “expensive knock-off”-esque.

I took some time out and played a game of the “Drum” arcade game. For those not in the know – the Japanese are big into rhythm music games. They love cheesy Dance-Dance Revolution games, cheesy guitar games, cheesy turntable + keyboard games and yes – cheesy Drum games. In the Drum game – you basically bash the sh$$ out of a large Japanese drum in time to J-Pop songs. Ant took a few pictures of me doing drum game as a keepsake.

Feeling a little peckish – we stopped at a “Ticket Restaurant” near Ueno Station. A ticket restaurant (for those not in the know – or for those who didn’t read our previous Japanese adventure on this fabulous site) – it involves putting money into a vending machine and handing over a ticket to the staff who cook you up a meal. I had picked out the same restaurant we went to last time in Japan and I think I choose the same meal as last time – a sort of fish with udon noodle soup dish which Ant picked this time as well and we both enjoyed it. This is a bit of feat – considering Ant hates fish…

We caught the train back to Asasuka and wandered around a bit to get our bearings. Asasuka is heavily populated by tourists – both of the Japanese and foreign variety. There are lots of tacky touristy markets and a couple of bona-fide tourists sites including the Ashasi Brewery and a shrine and bell thingy. Asasuka was the site that my mum and her posse were staying for the wedding – we are dubbing them “Julie’s crew” for the rest of this blog. My mum was trying to convince us to fork out $150AUD to stay at a traditional Japanese Inn (eg: you sleep on the floor, you hit your head on the low ceilings, you have to bath on a plastic stool, etc) – so we opted for the $100AUD western style hotel (with bed and shower)… Ant found where Julie’s Crew were staying at – but they weren’t arriving until later that night. Julie’ Crew (made up of Julie – my mum, my Dad, a few relatives and some friends of my mum) were touring Japan with my mum being the tour leader… This sounds like a recipe for disaster.

Anyhow – feeling pretty tired (after the overnight flight and all) – we went back to our hotel and got the room key and crashed for a couple of hours. Our hotel room was good but a little small (a la Japanese style). It had a shoe box bathroom complete with automatic bide toilet (yes!) and a TV. You could even fork out 1000 Yen to get a card from the lobby which entitles you to watch hard core japanese pron (very Japanese).