To Ueno - the rest.

Onward to ueno park!


ooo nice flowers!!


Love the splashes of pinks and whites. ok they actually look like tissue paper balls.


Not forgetting to do our part for the environment during such events.


Sad that i couldn't find Engrish here.


Through the many toriis.


The obasan with the funky hair. Me standing there as a decoy.
Wanted to use the instagram pic instead but the obasan's cropped out. so… nah.


Found a really nice tree with full blossom!!


So pwetty *_*


Forgot to crop that man at the bottom left out.


Reaching for the sky. Blue sky = less moisture in atmosphere = good weather. Right?


Pretending that we're at some castle when it's actually just a shrine booth where they sell stuff LOL


From the other side.


Kinda funny photo of people taking pics of the tree.


Applied a few filters to this photo and i think i like this green one best.


Nice perspective view of the shrubby fence.

And at the same time while this was taken, boorish chinese people who just barged through us without saying excuse me and started talking loudly and snapping photos away. Typical!


Another shot against the beautiful tree (just to make sure have enough good shots lol)


Made one round to the other side of the toori. Turn around, turn around!


:p


Shrine cat in the grass xD


I think i was having an attempt at dancing >_>


Many ground sheets were laid to "chope" the best seats.


The tree, very tall. The crow, very big.


Refreshments: vanilla and green tea (while doing some people watching)


In this tiny little hole, your happiness is…
I tried to stifle my giggles. Really.


A mini library at the train station!!?


Please return after reading.
If this were in sg, maybe empty shelves already.


Bought "ekiben" for dinner to share. Supposed famous bento from the town of Yonezawa.


It was so nice. I didn't want to share!!! T_T


I hope he doesn't kill me for this :x

To Ueno - food first.

Day at Ueno for flower viewing! But putting up the food pics first because uh, there's too many.


Flowers!!!!! But fake one orz. I realised the colour of the flowers is the same as my background lol
And panda! which can only mean one thing: We're in ueno. Coz ueno zoo is here.


This atré shopping mall is everywhere, located at train stations. Supposedly a word derived from a French word "attrait" that means "alluring"??? Ok useless fact. I'm more tickled by the name "Free's Shop" on the left.


Sushi time! Decided to eat first before the sun sets >_> The row of 穴子 (anago sushi) (sea eel) so tempting. What you call unagi are the freshwater variant.


And you have me with a gluttony face waiting to pounce on the anagosss.


The plates amazingly lined up in a zig zag manner whenever the sushi chef stopped them from moving and stuffed more plates in between. I was waiting for the tension to break at the point where it couldn't be stuff any more… and then all flip upwards (into our waiting mouths).


Still-unsatisfied look.


寒鰤 (kan buri) (cold yellowtail)!!


It's very good right now coz it's fatty. Fish fats are good for you!
And i really recommend this 元祖寿司 (ganso sushi) "sushi go-round restaurant". Reasonably priced for big fresh portions. Some of the cheaper chains have really dry fish. Don't really like.


Eyeing moar fish.


Wah the plates so high. But the point is, MY BOMBE sounds like MY BOMBAY. L size some more. Not so funny when you know japanese because bombe (from German) is what they call a (gas) cylinder.
So they have their very own dedicated cylinder of gas, joining the status of MYHOME, MYCAR, MYBOOM. These are real Japanese-English words. Once i even heard a MYDENSHA = my train. Must be nice to be so rich.


I am looking eagerly at what comes next. My favourite sushi, engawa!! The fins of halibut(?) I rather call it flatfish. Cheap and yummy. Do try this! It has got a oily milky taste.


I would like to say that these were the amount of what we ate.


g loves the negitoro (negi = spring onions. toro = tuna). Cold and fresh. And the seaweeds wrapping around the rice were so crispy.


Our sushi chef here needs a parrot on his shoulder to complete the look :x At first, from the back looking at the strings looping around his ears, g thought he was wearing a face mask. Then he turned around and, OH.


In one of the ueno alleys, there is a shop called choo-choo-hodo (to the extent of choo-choo??) (WHAT?) selling bubble tea! I couldn't resist. Had to buy.


Oh they sell korean food! Let's see, toppogi, seafood toppogi and kalbi toppogi. OKAY.


And the drinks they offer. "Fruit juice and tapioca". Bubble tea is known as tapioca here. Very funny. It refers to the pearls but my mind can only conjure the image of the unprocessed starchy root, not those pearly balls.
When i first heard of it, i thought it meant the coconut milk dessert with chunks of 蕃薯.


The coconut milk tea with pearls. I still miss gongcha!!
Another mystery: Why is this "uncle joe" and not "choo-choo-hodo" >_>???? They ran out of cups issit?

Hanami at Yoyogi park

Went to quite a few places for hanami (flower viewing) this year, taking the opportunity to visit since g was here. The usual crowded public parks like ueno and yoyogi and some other smaller ones, including private(?) gardens that are opened to us commoners. We just have to part with a small fee to enter and enjoy the surroundings ^^;

Took way too many photos and now am having a terrible time sorting out which are post-able. Shall start with yoyogi first, even though chronologically, ueno was the first we went. But I already randomly clicked on the folder and started arranging/editing them, so it shall do.

Also, we went to both parks slightly too early; at the first stage of blossoming. So most of the trees were still in bud stage orz. Didn't have time to do a revisit during the full bloom period though. The rest of the visits had really pretty sights though since they were in full bloom. By the way, tomorrow's supposedly the start of 桜吹雪 (flower blizzard) where the petals start scattering. Another beautiful event in the wind.


Rock 'n' Roll dance at the entrance.


Another group of Rock 'n' Roll beside them. '60s music?


A man pantomimes. It didn't look very interesting after watching a bit….
And there were kids having group ds session at the side. Um, so they come to the park to play console games?


This dog caused quite a commotion. It was so huge!! I imagine Sirius Black to be like this.


More street artistes.


Couldn't hear what they were singing.


Big group of students (they look young enough) sitting around and singing.


And the bubbling begins. Maybe they making cheesy MV.


Blue sky, happy picnics and bare trees. What more can you ask for?


Two rows of park goers. Having bento lunch or just enjoying the breeze.


This duo attracted a large group of people to their act.


A drumming group.


Oh food! But wait. It says they sell ばくだん (B-O-M-B) on the banners.


The queue to the makeshift toilet was unbelievably long. And it didn't smell until you went inside. According to g, singapore ones have that "fragrance" even when you stand near it. I guess the cold air helps.


Crows and blue sky.


Cute little boy throws stones into the lake(?) and runs away. Repeats action.


One of the rare twigs with flowers.


Most of them were still in this state.


Drunk man and his friend shaking the dead weight up. But it's only the afternoon and he's like that already???


More dangly branches.


They look almost like those plastic flowers on cakes lol.


More buds, more luck.


It is not just sakura that are in bloom.


A grouchy cat on a tree. He sick of people taking pics of him.


A line forming at the men's toilet. Haven't seen that before.


An old couple under a tree. lovely.


More merry making on another side of the park.


I think it would be a very beautiful sight when the trees are in full blossom.


Taking a pic since I'm here.


yay.


Looks like a different species. shrugs.


On the stem-y part.


Too high up for me to grab.


Boy looks like he's lost. He's crying!


Oh hi little boy, why are you alone?


Using the bigger lens. Damn it's heavy. Shaky hands ^^;


Setting sun's in my face again -__-


While we were walking out, this guy from a performing group posed for me when I turned my lens towards him.


Merged two photos with some simple ps-ing hehehe. Now he's sitting on the correct side that I want.


Pretending not to notice the camera LOL


So winterish even though it's spring.


Man with his dogs. Feel like putting the dog's pink ribbons on his hair instead.


Outside, at the bridge, there were some cosplayers standing around.


This reminds me of spawnily somehow. Don't ask me why.


Their doll! Kinda cute.


Tower/Building at a distance.


Right outside Harajuku station.


Was still in manual focus when this man with the chinese fan/peacock hair appeared again!! I thought of those actors/props/costumes on stage in Lion King when i saw him.


Even pigs know.


Taking a pic of a man taking a pic of the Takeshita Street sign.


Every tourist's must-go place.


Fwah. Had to walk through all these people. Luckily this wasn't summer.


Dinner at my favourite Sukiya!! This spicy peppery gyudon was good, I recommended to g.


The curry+gyudon set was good too. But the portion was a bit too big.