Osaka Tokyo Adventure: Day 4- Asakusa and Ueno

Ohayogozaimasu!  Yes, still on Tokyo posts, but our trip is winding down in reality....  We leave tomorrow.  Booooo.

Today's posts is our last full day in Tokyo.  We had to drop off some omiyage at the Miyamoto store and decided to make this a shopping day.  Since we were in Nakmise, I had to have a melon pan! 

I still get confused since the first place we went to had good melon pan, but now its not served hot,.  Junk.  We bought one anyway.  Its the one on the right.

The one on the left is served hot and tasted better because of it.

I then visited my favorite washi paper store and got some stuff... Yay!  And then the Totoro store around the corner, but didn't get anything there.  Then my favorite mobile stall to pick up something for my new office.

While heading to the tabi store, we passed by the age manju shop... Had to stop so Paul could get his age manju fix,

We got custard cream and chocolate cream.  Yummy!

After picking up tabi for the takio group, we headed to Miyamoto.  Upstairs from the store is where they have some drums displayed and also a drum museum.

Shi Shi...

After Miyamotos, we went to eat Mister Donut!  They had some Halloween ones but I only ate my old faithful...

Look how cute they are!

Mmmmm... Pon de ring!  Paul tried the creme brulee and really liked it.

After Mister Donut, I needed some real food.  I was in the the mood for katsu and remembered the katsu place we went to after the earthquake. So we headed back towards Nakamise....  Here's a shot of skytree.

This guy looks familiar... I swear the katsu place was on that stretch!  So sad we couldn't find it.  I think its no longer there. 

By then I was getting a bit grumpy and wanted to eat anything.  So we wandered around Nakamise and found this place,  Paul thought it was a tempura restaurant.  WRONG!

Any guesses on what this is?

Its called Monjya-yaki.  Hmmmmm.....  Its supposed to be similar to okonomiyaki but more runny.  Blech.

You know its not everyone's favorite when they make a face when you tell them what you ate.  Yikes!  Apparently we cooked it wrong?  Our waiter actually cooked it for us. I'm sure he was irritated that we didn't know what to do, so he did it for us, but then turned off the heat.  I think it should've cooked longer, then it wouldn't have been do runny-ish.  Paul liked it.

After our lunch, we headed to Skytree.  I haven't been there in awhile and wanted to check it out.  This guy greeted us before we entered the mall,

I was still hungry, so we headed to the food court and I got some real food.  Yay!  2nd lunch.

This must be a random photo Paul took.  He said the sign was funny.  Love the translation.

Its Ditto Pikachu!!!  I wanted him but he was too big.  Sad face.

I was good and didn't get any Summiko gurashi stuff either.

Oh yah, in the department store, we also found zaku zaku (didn't eat one though) and Sugar Butter Tree!  Yay.  Good to note for when I need to pick some up.

After we finished at Skytree, we headed back to the room to drop off our loot and pick up the omiyage for Ai-chan.  We headed to Ueno station to meet up with her for dinner. 

She suggested the katsu place upstairs in the station.  Yay!  I went there a few years ago with Mom and Denise and it was still good.  

Kanpai!

Paul got to catch up on all the taiko news...  Had a nice dinner with Ai!

Mmmmmm....

After dinner we had to decide if we would go back to our place or head to Asakusa.  We were supposed to meet Randy and Estuko at midnight but I was getting tired.  We decided to press on!!

Randy invited us to join them at the Tori No Ichi festival that starts on November 1st.  So I guess everyone goes on Halloween night at midnight.  It runs all day and then every week after that.  Business owners bring their old "rakes" to discard and buy a new one for the next year. Its for prosperity for their business.  There were soooooo many vendors with all different types and sizes of rakes.

See all those lanterns?  Randy told us all the sponsors are written on them. Cool yah?

So after you buy your rake (sorry, I don't remember the Japanese name for it) you and the vendor does a little cheer.  It reminded me of a cheer challenge.

There was a long line to get into the temple.

Once you get to the front, there are all these bells on a rope.  Here's what Randy and Estuko taught us... bow, throw the money, ring the bell, clap clap, pray, bow... There's your Japanese lesson for today.

After they bought their rake, we went to go check out the food booths.  It was pretty crazy how many vendors there were!  I didn't get pictures that night but we went back the next day, so will share on tomorrow's post.  We had some food and drinks and then headed back to our hotel.  Estuko said it was only 2 min from our hotel! What?  Didn't realize we were that close!

Thanks Etsuko and Randy!  We would have never gone to that festival if you didn't invite us! That was very cool and I learned a lot!