25.11.22 - Asakusa & Ueno

Today takes us to Asakusa. It's a short 15-ish minute train ride and pops you out pretty much right at Kaminari-mon, the popular entrance to Sensoji Temple. We thought we were gonna be here early and it wouldn't be too crowded. Wrong. So very wrong. We got here probably just before 9:30am and it was absolutely packed. A lot of the shops lining Nakamise shopping street up towards the temple aren't even open yet, and the rest are very much geared towards tourists. I definitely don't feel a need to come back, it's not worth the craziness - Nakamisa Street specifically.

Now, we did find quiet streets just by turning a corner. It's pretty amazing how you can turn a corner down a street and suddenly there's no people because everyone is drawn to that one single street. The quiet street we found? It's called Orange Street. Yep, not making that up. Not sure where the name came from but kinda fun. It's a much more pleasant walk and you can actually enjoy the walk instead of trying to elbow your way through people.

See alllllll the people in this picture? Exactly.

On the corner of Orange Street, we stopped by a confectionary store called Mametoku, which sells various nuts, beans and flavored things. We got a few tasty treats and carried on.

Meandering down the various streets - trying to avoid Nakamise - we found ourselves going down Kannondoori which is a covered shopping street, similar to Nishiki Market, except this is more product stores than food stores. Felt a little kitschy to me, but people were definitely walking thru this street so must be relatively popular.

Our next stop is Kappabashi! Talk about a never-ending street...we probably got maybe halfway or three-quarters of the way down and called it quits. But it's a lot of repeat stores in a way, because once you've passed five similar dish store, it gets kinda old after that. But here's a random picture of the main street on our way to Kappabashidougai. If you don't care about kitchen things or dishes, you probably wouldn't need to visit Kappabashi, but the main street is nice (I'm just gonna call this street "463", because it seems to change names at every intersection and I can't remember which part this picture is from).

We're all getting a little hangry and when this happens we can't make quick decisions. So we end up getting various items from Matsuzakaya department store and having a yummy mix-and-match lunch. After lunch, Mom and I make our way over to Parco_ya which is another department store connected to Matsuzakaya. It's a smaller department store with a lot of what I would call more boutique brands and shops, although they do have a section for Banana Republic and Tommy Hilfiger...kinda random. We finish exploring the floors in this store - only seven - and then make our way across the street to the grocery store. The fruit has been amazing! We've gotten strawberries (local), sun gold kiwi (New Zealand), apples (local) and tangerines (local) - they've all be absolutely delicious. The strawberries here are so much better than at home, no comparison. There is actual flavor in these strawberries. So of course we stock up on all of the above. Groceries acquired, it's then time to get pastries for breakfast tomorrow. Back to Matsuzakaya! Everything is so dang convenient.

After a siesta, it's time for dinner. Google maps randomly showed a pin for a place called Vegan Gyoza in Ueno and the pictures looked amazing. It's a 35-mimute walk so we opt for taking the train which is all of a 4-minute ride plus a 7-minute walk to the restaurant. You'd never know this restaurant is here, it's plopped in the middle of what seems like a residential area. But we find it! And oh my gosh it's as delicious as we expected, if not more so. They serve, you guessed it, vegan gyoza. And that is it. You can order a set of all the flavors, either pan-fried or steamed, or individual gyoza of whatever flavors you want. We choose one set of the pan-fried and one set of the steamed. So delicious. Each of the flavors was truly distinct and you could easily tell what flavor you were eating. 10/10 recommend if you want a different spin on gyoza or want something vegan. Or just something really tasty.

Sayonara!