our wanderings this weekend took us around ueno and tokyo stations the other day. when i was a student i used to come to tokyo station all the time, since i didn't need to transfer to get to otemachi and it's a generally nice area to walk around and go window shopping (or real shopping, sometimes.) the weather finally cooled down, and it was absolutely gorgeous out--just comfortable and breezy enough to walk around and not feel sweaty or anything. i wish it could be that nice every day!! i used to wander around ueno too from time to time, which is how i knew about an eel place that serves eel for surprisingly low prices.
(if you do not know, eel in japan is much more expensive than in the states, especially if it is japan-sourced eel. generally you'd end up paying something like 3600 yen for something like i got in the picture, but i only paid about half that, which is a pretty darn good deal for perfectly cooked eel! even the skin was tender, and eel is one of my favorite foods, so i am picky about the good stuff.)
there are a ton of fancy restaurants and stuff around tokyo station--we didn't go to any before we went home since we were dressed a bit too casually for places like those, but one day i'd like to dress up and take ryan to one of the nice restaurants around here. maybe for one of our anniversaries.
on the flipside, aside from the eel place, ueno has a ton of great izakayas and ramen shops around ameyokocho, the big shopping street there, but it was pretty packed. after we got our eel i didn't want to stay around there too long, so we wandered the park a bit before going to tokyo station.
also, while we were at ueno park we happened to pass by a little hedgehog scurrying around who i DO NOT think was wild (and a few people who passed us thought as much too)?? i could not get a picture of him because everyone and their mom was also trying this and he was scurrying a bit too fast, so he was already overwhelmed, but we wondered if perhaps he escaped from the zoo or...something. i hope he is okay, wherever he is now. the thought of being a lost hedgehog in the big city is more than a little bit daunting if you are not sonic in station square.