T&J Travels #10: Japan 2018 (Part 13)

That moment when our first visit at St. Marc's is at Japan!

+ Bunkyo Festival + 

Our visit is at the edge of winter onto spring. Which means we are too early for Sakura but just in time for the very first blooms of Plum to show.  From what I've read, there are a lot of bloom watching that happens in Japan only that the sakura / cherry trees caught on as the most popular.

When we arrived at the Bunkyo Festival's first day, indeed there are some plums available but not as much as I imagined nor hope to smell. I remembered a blog saying other than having different shades of white, pink and violets, plums emit a sweet smell when in full bloom unlike sakura. Next time I would like to time our travel that is within the two blooms. But I won't complain as much since we are gifted with a few trees with initial blooms. 

We've arrived too early though, hence not much stalls that are open. We did get to see a performance from a guy and his monkey!

+ Ueno Park + 

Since it's just "almost" spring, most trees and even the lilies (Reagan had a swell time staring at the lotus pods he went as much as sending me a photo on our viber just to irritate me) are still all brown. Which is why it's a beautiful surprise when there's one sakura tree that is currently in full bloom. Even the locals can't help but take photos and point in delight. 

Do not come near the water if you have Trypophobia like me.

This is the first sakura on the line of trees that has ever bloomed!

The park is huge! But I could only imagine what this would look like in spring and I bet it would be hard to look for a space to park a picnic mat on. 

+ Akihabara + 

We're earlier than we were yesterday for more window shopping. Maps have failed us though and had us walk a long way instead of getting off at the Akihabara station. Because of this I think we found the street where jewelries are popularly sold although we didn't get any. 

If Shibuya is popular for shopping for the general public, Akihabara is every anime lovers dream. I know we've been shopping so much for the past few days, but it's hard to resist buying anything from here. We got really good deals on Kindles (yes S!!) and Gundam. It is however, really easy to get home because some shops are already at their closing when we came. On the next time I find myself in Akihabara, I would surely 1. come really really early and 2. bring a luggage with me.

WHERE DO WE START?!

I was really tempted in buying Fukubukuro but I have no idea of the animes they mention on the labels. 

+ Gaba + 

Our dinner was a mistake. Reagan and I both ordered a mountain of chicken.  It was really delicious but the serving was horribly too much in one sitting. Pictures don't do it justice. While we were eating we discovered that there is a smaller version of this, too bad no one told us. In the end I had to stop finishing mine.