Saturday in Tokyo

Last Saturday was our 3rd day in Tokyo and after an exhaustive two days of fabric shopping we decided to play tourist.  We hired bicycles from our ryokan and rode through the streets of Yanaka.  It was so beautiful, serene and clean!  We watched people sweep the outside of their home to remove any leaves and there was not a spot of rubbish anywhere.  We really could learn at lot from the Japanese.

 

We popped into the local chemist to pick up a few supplies (bandaids for sore feet and hairspray!) and I found these.  Even though I was getting used to face masks I still found them a novelty.

We then went to the supermarket and bought some lunch for later in the day.  The selection of fresh food was amazing!  And the prices were really good too.  On average a lunch like this costs anywhere between 300 and 500 yen which is between about $3.50 to $6.00.

These strawberries were so perfectly shaped and tasted so sweet, I ate them all in one sitting!  

We then rode to Ueno Park and fortunately there were still cherry blossom trees flowering.  Here I am sitting under the trees eating sushi with my red bike and a temple behind me.  This is something I'll remember for a long long time.

We rode around for most of the day and it's truly the best way to see Tokyo.  In the afternoon we went to a local temple and stumbled across a vintage kimono shop - excellent!  I met these ladies inside who didn't speak any English but were happy to pose for a photo for me.  And yes, I bought a kimono - a lovely purple and yellow one.

I also met this young girl dressed in kimono.  In my left hand is a snack of octopus balls.  Yummy but really strong in taste and I could only eat three of the six.  As much as I like seafood, by day three in Tokyo I'd had enough!

When we arrived back at the ryokan later that afternoon, the fabric we had bought the day before had arrived by courier.  You can see that it was way too large for us to get back to the hotel by ourselves!  It was so funny carrying it up the stairs to our room.  Anna had the front half under her arm and I had the back half.  We joked that it was a dead body which it does look like!

On Saturday night we went out  with friends of Anna's to a restaurant which was about a 10 minute bike ride away.  Below is the front of the restaurant and we had a room on the second floor.

There was course after course after course.  The dish I liked the most was this cucumber salad.  At first I didn't know what the meat was - it was quite dense but I couldn't fathom what it was so I asked.  Abalone!!!  So tasty and I'm so lucky to have been able to go to a restaurant with a Japanese family. 

 

When we rode home hours later it was dark and we were a little tipsy from the sake. It was truly a night to remember.