12:00 pm — Tokyo, day 2 morning

Edo Sakura Hotel

The “early bird” plan failed completely. Till 11 I’d spent in bed deciding where to go today /and secretly wishing for a “nowhere” as an answer/. Then with the force of willpower and an empty stomach I went in search of breakfast. Hurray to the food!

Quiet Tokyo residential street with shops
Traditional Japanese house with tiled roof

1:30 pm — Calligraphy museum

Ueno Station (上野駅)

Calligraphy museum turned out to be a set of small indistinctive buildings. It is quite small inside, most of the labels are in Japanese and if you can’t read a word in Japanese as I do, with an entrance fee of 500 yen it is still totally worth it. The museum is located a 15 minute walk from Ueno park so you can plan visiting both on the same day.

Kanji carefully carved on wood, talc, bronze, stone, bones are fantastic. Yet what amazed me even more is convex kanji. Removing stone layer by layer only leaving the symbols seems like a tremendous amount of work.

P.S. No photos allowed inside.

Gray concrete calligraphy museum building

2:30 pm — Ueno park

Ueno Park (上野恩賜公園)

Nice place. It even has camera stands with smartphone support at popular places.

Ueno park fountain plaza with flower beds
Red torii gates pathway through greenery
Public camera stand for visitor photos

5:00 pm — Zoo

Ueno Station (上野駅)

Ueno zoo is a nice place to spend half a day. Underwater observation spots are cool and dark rooms for nocturnal animals are quite thrilling.

Elephants walking with zookeepers
Giant panda walking in enclosure
Traditional thatched-roof tea ceremony house

5:30 pm — Pond

Ueno Station (上野駅)

These are parts of the zoo

Lotus pond with city skyline in distance
Five-story pagoda tower among trees

6:00 pm — Polar bear

Ueno Station (上野駅)

One can spend a day here

Polar bear at underwater viewing window
Polar bear splashing into pool
Polar bear swimming underwater

6:30 pm — Tiger

Yushima Station (C13) (湯島駅)

Tiger kept distance

Tiger walking toward camera on platform
Tiger stepping over wooden log

7:00 pm — Zoo

Ueno Station (上野駅)

Just a few animal photos

Sea lions in clear turquoise pool
Green crested bird in enclosure
Tamandua walking across sunlit dirt enclosure

7:30 pm — More calligraphy

Ueno Station (上野駅)

It was quite unexpected to meet a real Japanese calligraphy master right near Ueno station.

Street calligrapher with displayed artworks

11:00 pm — Wrapping the day

Adachi (足立区)

The backpack is re-packed several times, all green, ready to start. I hope to start early tomorrow and next week I’m going to stay away from electricity, thus I might keep the phone in airplane mode to save charge.

おやすみなさい

Illuminated bridge over river at night
Tokyo Skytree lit up over river at night