Sakura Trip Part Two

After lunch, I made plans with Mondo to come back to Ueno Park later in the evening after he finished work. As I was preparing to leave Ueno Park, I was approached by a local businessman who asked if he could practice speaking English with me. I had heard that this is not uncommon, and since I had some time, I spent about an hour talking with Minoru who works in an office building near Ueno Station. We went to the Starbucks in the station building and talked about cultural differences, politics and other topics. Minoru, thanks again for the tea and conversation! He gave me some suggestions about places to visit and I also had a list that I made of other parks with hanami that I had found on the Net. I had enough time to visit a couple more places I hadn't seen yet, so I checked my map, found the right train, and headed to Asakusa.


Considering how huge the population of Tokyo is, sometimes I'm surprised by how many things are located not that far from each other in the neighborhoods in the central part of the city. I've posted some pictures and information about Asakusa before, but I had never visited the area next to Asakusa along the Sumida River. One of the most famous sights there is the unusual Asahi Building; it features a huge, golden flame on top of a mirror-black structure. Various explanations are given about the design of the building, and apparently some people think it's truly ugly (if you want to know one particularly derisive nickname, click on the link above and read the article). I liked the design, but it definitely creates a large contrast with the surrounding neighborhood. After looking around the area, I walked back across the bright red bridge in the picture. On the opposite side of the river from the Asahi Building is a long park lined with cherry trees along the waterfront. As I walked through this park, it suddenly reminded me of Waterfront Park in downtown Portland; Portlanders, from the picture, do you agree?


Next I headed to Ginza, a district known for upscale shopping with several famous department stores and malls. I wasn't dressed too much like a tourist, so I went into one of the malls to look around a bit. The stores were amazing, as were the prices (as in "amazingly high"). I saw some VERY classy suits by various designers that I wouldn't mind owning, but many of them cost a large percentage of my monthly salary, so I just window shopped . . . I didn't even consider taking any pictures inside the mall, and I couldn't get a good angle for a picture along the street, so no pictures of Ginza--sorry!


Next to Ginza is Hibiya Park, my next destination, but I'll save that for the next post.