Wednesday morning was by far the easiest morning to get up as Tokyo is 9hours ahead most of the group were awake by 5am. Sakura hostel provided breakfast in the form of as much toast, soup and hot drinks as you like, I particularly enjoyed the blueberry jam. Ueno Park was our destination; a walk that should normally take about 15-20 minutes lasted over an hour. There were so many distractions and one was a cemetery. One major difference that the UK could benefit from is the courtesy from the general public, we saw a Japanese man drop some litter but he went back to pick it up. Everywhere in Tokyo was so clean and there were designated smoking areas on the streets that people actually used, it was astounding how their system works. Another stop along the walk was the Shitaya Shrine for business prosperities and happiness in marriage. When we finally made it to Ueno Park we had lunch and entered the zoo. Ueno zoological gardens is the oldest zoo in Japan and with it only costing around £3.50 per adult to enter it was amazing. However I was not entirely convinced that the crocodile was real, and the pandas looked like men in suits, we also saw some kangaroos getting a bit frisky and I saw the biggest hippo I have ever seen.
From Ueno Park we went to the train station to buy our Pasmo cards. These cards worked like Oyster cards but you could use them in vending machines and to pay for taxis. Looking at the map for the train network in Tokyo, is like looking a bowl of brightly coloured spaghetti that has been tipped on the floor, you can basically get anywhere on the train. We met Simon’s friend Daniel with his wife and daughter for dinner. It was more traditional than the previous day’s meal as we were sat on the floor with low tables. It was good that we had Daniel to translate the menu for us; otherwise we wouldn’t have known what we were going to get. After the meal, about half of the group went to Shiboya to see all the neon lights at night. It was incredible with there being different businesses in every floor of the high rises there were so many signs. We came across a Xmas box which you could plug your head phones into and you could chose a Christmas song to listen too.
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