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16/02 Yanaka & Ueno

 I had a really slow morning today, I woke up quite early but stayed in bed chilling for a bit. When I went to the hallway to get ready I met my neighbour, a girl from Sri Lanka who was really nice and spoke English! We talked for 5 minutes, but she looked like she just woke up so I didn't want to bother her too much. Knowing that at least 1 person in my building was friendly I figured, why not try to connect with some more people? I put out a note introducing myself and put my instagram account on there just in case anyone would like to meet, I also put some chocotoffs with it. When I got back in the evening only 7 out of the 20 chocotoffs were left and someone wrote 'thank you!' on my note. I guess I could count this as a win? 😊

Around 12:30 I got some lunch from the convenience store, I was planning on cooking myself but honestly I feel like it would be a waste of time and money. Buying all the ingredients for a pasta would cost me around 4 times what buying a premade pasta would cost me. And to be honest these premade meals are really tasty! 

When I finished eating and chilling for a bit more I decided to go on a walk. My mom got me a book with different walking routes trough the city. You take the metro to the station where the walk starts and go from there. I did the walk going trough Yanaka and Ueno. This walk was really cool because it combined one of the oldest parts of Tokyo and one of the newest, most modern parts. 

My walk started at Nippori station, the station right next to the hotel I stayed at the first night! The book guided me trough a neigbourhood filled with old temples and buildings. Really nice to see and it was so incredibly calm compared to the Tokyo I saw yesterday. 




I got to the shopping street of Yanaka wich was a really nice street filled with local businesses and small shops. Yanaka is also know as the cat district of Tokyo, because it's so calm here there are many street cats. The locals feed them and take care of them and basically everything in Yanaka is cat themed. The've made the cats into their own little mascots. 


The book then send me to Nezu Shrine, it was already getting dark and the shrine itsself was closed. I will have to go back there for sure a bit earlier in the day! But I did get to see the iconic torri gates. 



The next district the book sent me to was Ueno, and let me tell you...it was like entering a different world. There were lights and billboards everywhere, music playing on every corner and so many people. It was a bit like Shibuya but I liked the vibe here better. Where Shibuya is just really busy, Ueno had this cosy busy feeling to it. I passed another temple wich again, I really want to see when its still light outside, so I will be going back there. And then I just went into the first street that cought my eye and it turned out to be a huge streetfood market! Right on time since it was around 7p.m. and I was getting quite hungry. I walked around for a little bit and this street was absolutely crazy. The fresh fish was laying right next to the shoes and kebab shops (by the way, kebab here is served with rice... illegal right?) I finally sat down at one of the shops and unfortunatly this was the first food I've eaten here in Japan that was not very good. But I did enjoy the vibe and will for sure be going back to try different streetfood shops! 





It was getting quite cold and I was really tired so I took the metro back to my building and fell asleep the minute I sat down in my bed to relax, that's why this blog is getting posted a day late😅

Around 3:30 a.m. my housemates decided to start moving furniture around??? and around 6a.m. some of them started getting ready so I didn't sleep very good but luckily I could sleep in a little and have a relaxed day today! I'll talk to you later! 


Reacties

  1. Mamasa(rah)16 februari 2024 om 23:40

    Leuk dat je via de wandelingen verschillende delen van de stad leert kennen. Wat een diversiteit zeg. Het lijken inderdaad verschillende werelden.

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  2. FLDL28 februari 2024 om 06:21

    Great discoveries in Tokyo!

    BeantwoordenVerwijderen

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