We woke up and went to the Kombini to grab some food for a makeshift Hanami party at Ueno Park. We got to see the most amazing display of cherry blossoms!!!!
We arrived before the big crowds, which was amazing! We walked around the big pond in Ueno Park and saw a lot of stalls set up selling festival foods. We then headed to Gotokuji to try and see the waving cat shrine. This was a bit disappointing because we didn’t see the iconic waving cats, (we think the section of the shrine with the cats was close due to a funeral, which is totally understandable).
Instead of seeing the cat shrine, we saw the rest of the beautiful temple and had a picnic at the benches set up in the park.
We then headed to Akihabara and had delicious conveyor belt sushi. Then we explored a bunch of the nerdy shops and stalls in the area, including Super Potato!
We then headed to Asakusa, which was swarming with tourists. We saw Sensoji Temple, but the feeling was weird. The blossoms in the temple were pretty though!
It started raining, so we went to Hoppy St., which was near by. Hoppy is a malt, non alcohol beverage that is often mixed with Souju, the Korean alcohol, in order to emulate the taste of beer. It was created to circumvent beer laws that came in place in Japan following the second world war.
The vibe of the little Hoppy restaurant we went into was really cool. A lady and her son seemed to be running it. They were also watching competitive swimming on television.
We finished up the day in Shinjuku, looking at the crazy neon lights and exploring the weird and sketchy alleyways.
