Akihabara and Ueno

October 20, 2015Japan 2015akihabara, arcade, architecture, Buddhism, buddhist, Ema, food, halloween, japan, katsu, otaku, park, religion, street photography, taito, temple, tokyo, ueno Gallery

Woke up at a decent hour each day due to some construction outside the window.

After the war Akihabara became a center for resale of military surplus, specifically electronics parts. To this day it’s the go-to place to buy electronics. While the pop culture establishments and department stores dominate, you can still find a lot of independent vendors selling niche electronics and parts at a discount.

I didn’t think nails like this would be a thing in Japan, but they are.

There’s a chicken fast food chain, Torikara, where I had some delicious chicken fries. The place is well known for its variety of sauces

Being the Halloween season, many stores have costumes on display.

I visited another shop for various pvc figurines. A very clean shop with hundreds of displays. Those that want to purchase something needs to grab a form and write down the display number and figurine code, then take that to the cashier. A lot of these places have no photos policies, so I didn’t take too many pics.

What the displays look like (these are from the show One Piece)

Gundam maybe?

So all the crazy stuff out in the open was for general audiences?!

Back to the Akihabara arcades

There are a lot of cool fighting games we just don’t get in the states. School of Ragnorok.

Men tend to stick to the floors containing the fighting games…

A few floors have games targeted towards women, usually pop-star themed games (most of them rhythm based)

i’m not sure why some floors are red and others are blue

Released in 1991 and to this day, Street Fighter II is in the majority of Japanese arcades and still pulls in consistent players.

I spent some time trying to figure out how to play this mech simulator. I couldn’t figure it out.

Linked multiplayer Mario Kart game

The sports games are interesting. A lot of them use RFID tagged trading car to play. You can arrange your players around the field below to control the game.

Ueno

Craving some nature, I decide to head to Ueno, which is 2 stops north of Akihabara. Ueno has several temples, museums, and a large urban park.

Ueno Park

Ueno park is a beautiful tourist park full of scenic views, temples, museums, old buildings, and a small zoo. While it didn’t have the vast landscapes free of development that I wanted, the park has several small nooks and crannies void of people.

Shinobazu Pond is full of lotus plants. In the middle is Shinobazunoike Bentendo Temple.

On the other side the lotus pond and temple is this open pond that has swan boat rentals

I spotted several artists paining scenes in the park

Later in the afternoon I found my self just below Kiyomizu Kannon-dō. This is (what’s left of) the oldest Buddhist temple in Tokyo. Built in 1632, much of Ueono park is on the grounds of the temple complex, which once encompassed 68 structures and beautiful gardens. This particular building was moved to this site in 1694 and has since undergone multiple restorations. The circular branched tree you see is called “Pine Tree of the Moon.” the original tree dates back to the 1800s, but after being destroyed by lightening, a new one was planted here in 2011.

The view through the Pine Tree of the Moon.

The hand washing station in the temple

Kiyomizu Kannon-do

Spotted a baseball game in progress

Ueno Toshogu Shrine

The park’s hidden treasure is a small complex tucked away on the west side adjacent to the zoo. Dating back to 1627, the Shinto shrine was dedicated to the memory of the Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu. While it underwent some restorations in 1651, the complex has remained relatively intact since. While a lot of historic buildings in Tokyo look old, but are really just reconstructions, this one truly feels old.

The walkway up to the shrine is lined with these massive stone lanterns

Senjafuda are stickers bearing the name of worshipers. Originally they were printed from woodblock printing in common name templates. They are made from rice paper and adhered to shrines with a rice paste.