Tokyo Final Day

I don't head out to Bangkok until Monday morning but I decided to go for it and take an excursion to Kyoto, hence today was my last in Tokyo. Rather than paying about $130 for the bullet train and then having to find cheap accommodations there, I decided to take an overnight bus instead for about $40. I'm doing the same on the way back so since I won't need a place to stay I'll break even and get a little bonus trip in. The downside is that I won't have any chance to bathe until I get to Bangkok with this itinerary and as the weather has been warm, I'm gonna be a nappy mess. A little wet towel bath in the airplane bathroom might be a courtesy to my plane neighbors.

Anyway, today I took it relatively easy, starting off in Ueno with a walk down the arcade. This district was a little rougher around the edges--more like China town style where the shops have their wares spilling out into the street and people are hawking goods:

From Japan

It was hot...I was jealous of the women with parasols

From there I took a long stroll through the large Ueno park and couldn't help but visit the national science museum. Parts of it were hands on a la the Exploratorium and parts were just really well laid out and informative exhibits despite being almost entirely in Japanese. And in the museum gift shop aside from little plastic dinosaurs and such, there was actually scientific apparati for sale!



From Ueno I headed to the Imperial gardens, hoping for a nice grassy spot to relax on and write some postcards. No dice...the imperial gardens have to be the world's largest, most meticulously manicured stretches of putting-green-perfect grass and are fiercely guarded by guards with obnoxious whistles. Here's a picture of one of the buildings though (also not open to the public):



After the gardens, I headed to the hip, commercial area of Rippongi hills. The complex is a super-posh mall and had plenty of things I was not prepared to spend an arm and a leg on. Architecturally it was pretty cool too.




Parkour wet dream

Time to go now, the non-smoking rooms in the internet cafe were all booked so I'm suffocating in the heat and smoke and I've got a bus to catch. I have a feeling my posts will be a little less frequent once I leave Japan (e.g. not daily) as I'll actually be able to afford nightlife-type activities and internet may be harder to find. Stay posted gentle readers, and please comment...it strokes the blogger's ego.

Sayonara!