Tokyo Day 2

Our first night's sleep was disrupted but reasonably long.   Crawling over each other to get out of the bed in the middle of the night was not ideal, but we managed!    We sampled the buffet breakfast in the hotel which was fine.  Scrambled egg is universal.  There was soup, rice, noodles etc on offer but we were rather conservative!  Maybe tomorrow!

Wet park

Outside it was raining and the forecast was for it to last all day.   We took our umbrellas and found the entrance to the metro and hopped on the train to Ueno and followed the crowds of bobbing umbrellas to Ueno Park which no doubt looks great in the sunshine and with the trees in blossom.

Coffee stop

We attempted to stop at Starbucks for coffee (the breakfast coffee having been rather poor) but it was too crowded, so we walked across the wide pathway to a Japanese cafe where we had 'cafe au lait' - a large pot with a small amount of strong coffee and a jug of hot milk.  Enough for 2 cups each. The taste was OK but not great.  However, the restaurant was attractive and the staff very efficient and friendly.

Tokyo National Museum

Next stop the Tokyo National Museum and a dip into the history of Japanese art and artefacts.  We learnt a lot we didn't realise about the differences between Japanese and western art.   I was particularly pleased to see that irregular ceramics were not looked down on, as all the pots I turn out are rather wonky!

My lunch! 

Next stop lunch and as it was still raining we got as far as the cafe where we had stopped for coffee.  Peter had a modest cheese on toast and I had the special 15 vegetable soup/salad/desert option.  It was delicious.  We followed our food with herb tea - an infusion of mint, lemon grass, rosemary and verbena - guaranteed to do all sorts of good things to your stomach, your circulation and your bowels.

Next stop the Museum of Western Art to see a special exhibition about Le Corbusier and Purism - actually being shown in a Le Corbusier designed building.   The exhibition was confined to Purism and was very interesting, despite the fact that we didn't see his later architectural work.   One of the guide books asks why one would go all the way to Tokyo to see second rate western art and we think we were not being unduly influenced by this put-down when we say that some of the paintings were not the artists' best work!

From the sword display

Bowl - interesting carved relief

Wonky tea bowl

Dolls

Coat

Part of a screen

Early figures placed on tombs

Netsuke

Le Corbusier building
Western Art Museum

Plastic menu outside restaurant at metro station

Back to the hotel for a rest before dinner...and then a 10 minute walk to a restaurant we had spotted the day before.  It looked old and busy.  Our research was a little faulty because I had confused it with a Ramen restaurant further up the road.  Anyway it was full of happy, laughing customers and very friendly and helpful staff.   There was a token menu in English from which it was difficult to tell how big the portion sizes were and what to eat with what.   In the end we had a succession of dishes, some more successful that others:  aubergine with meat miso (delicious but very difficult to eat with chopsticks), grilled squid,  a special sushi plate with crab, tuna and salmon eggs, fried chicken and a bowl of rice and two beers.  A rather odd mixture, but a great atmosphere and we were so busy soaking it up that I forgot to photograph the food!