Tokyo Dome: A place to take your children
It is chiefly a sports arena but around it is an entire complex fitted out with a rollercoaster (not for children), amusement park rides - viking boat, up-and-down thing, ferris wheel, roundabouts etc - a waterpark, tonnes of eating outlets and stands and merchandise shops.
It was nice to wander around - it had a great atmosphere, if you weren't queuing for the day's baseball game tickets.
It was not entirely what we had in mind for our day's excursion so after browsing some fandom shops, we hopped on another train towards Ueno, which has a massive park and zoo.
Ueno Park
I couldn't think of a take away phrase or title for this. It is simply a huuuuuuge park that spans two sides of the road, encompassing a huge zoo (the oldest in Tokyo), a temple and 5-story pagoda, a giant lilly lake and a pond with pedalo boats.
We arrived too late to go to the zoo and appreciate it properly - last entries were 4.30, closing at 5. We got there at 4.15, and one had to have queued for the giant pandas (it was one of the panda's birthday that day) by 4 and you weren't guaranteed to even get to see them.
So we'll go back at the end of the week next week - we've not done a zoo this time round and it'll be a change of pace.
The park took us a couple of hours to walk around and I'm sure we didn't see everything. We started with a memorial bench and trees planted by Ulysses S Grant, or General Grant as he was back then.
Then we followed a path that led to a temple. It was quite a bit older looking than others we have seen and we took the opportunity to write down our hopes and wishes on a charm to add to the wall this time. I also bought a "Children's Happiness" charm for my classroom. I might glue it to the underside of a particular group's table...! #tryanything
The giant lilly lake was a real change of scene for us - they stood about a meter and a half tall out of the water and went as far as the eye could see, with the edge of the park marked by a few tall buildings. There was another temple and shrine there, which had particularly good smelling incense.
We decided to go for a ride in a pedaloboat which was a mistake because Hubbo was way too tall for it and was distorted and the seat was bang upright, with my spine riding against the ridge of it as I tried not to scrape the bottom of my wedges against the boat. It was very nice just I have an actual bump bruise on my back! And yes, I'm sure it's not just my vertebrae sticking out! Hubbo tried that question too. It's a bruise and it's raised flesh. So. There. Had a nice view though and got to see how people behaved in their boats. Just because their swan was wearing a bow tie did not mean they were dapper on the water. I almost got to photograph some non-mallard ducks! Exciting! But a couple of teens powered their way up and chased them. #unimpressed
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| Ueno's mascot is the illusive panda |
Then we walked around for a bit after dark, looking for a place to eat and spend some time. There was an area where it was similar to areas of London - you know, built under a railway line and all shacks and lights. We found a bar with cheap snacks and drinks and got carried away.
Then we walked over to a karaoke place to carry on the fun - Hubbo will do it when it's a private room and Bad Religion is popular enough in the country to have loads of songs by them. It's great to see that side of him.
Photos from Ueno Park
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