Jet lag is a bitch. I woke up at ~2am local time and was pretty much awake for the rest of the morning. My two nieces were up at ~4am and we put got them to do their homework (since we had to take them out of school for two weeks). We decided to take it easy the first day so we skipped going to Ueno Park and the natural history museum. Instead, we took a trip to the local supermarket to get supplies, back to the apartment to drop off groceries, then to the coffee house downstairs for a light breakfast. Since I wanted to buy our Shinkasen tickets from Tokyo to Osaka early, we went to the JR ticket office in Ueno station. There we bought our train tickets (~$450 for everyone) and got Suica cards as well. Most sales counter staff understood some English so the transaction was pretty painless.
Ueno Station - Ginza Line
From Ueno Station, we headed to Asakusa and Sumida River.
Asahi Brewery golden turd along the river
After buying tickets for an afternoon river cruise, we went to check-out Sensoji Temple and grab some lunch.
Kaminarimon
Taiyaki (fish shapes pastry filled with red bean and other goodies)
After lunch at an izakaya (narrowing avoiding a whale restaurant), we took a boat cruise from Asakusa to Odaiba. It took about an hour and we crossed under a lot of bridges.
Cruising on Sumida River
Rainbow Bridge connecting Tokyo and Odaiba
Hotaluna - Our river cruise boat/spaceship
Odaiba is a shopping/entertainment area in Tokyo Bay. We got there kind of late in the afternoon, and spent an hour walking around. There were a lot of shops and restaurants but we ended up back at Ueno Station area for dinner. There are several food alleys south of Ueno Station but it took us awhile to find somewhere to eat. Most places were very small, and packed with people. We finally found a table at Tenya, a chain store specializing in tendon (tempura bowl). I think dinner was <$30 for all 5 of us.
Ginza at night from Shimbashi Station
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