Emily: Last night everyone seemed to sleep pretty well; I woke up at 2:11 AM though because Mom was snoring incredibly loudly. We woke up right before the alarm around 7:25-ish. For breakfast Mom and I had muffins that we bought at the market last night. We also watched some TV coverage about the Olympics. At about 8:45 we all left and walked to Shinagawa Station. We took the JR Yamanote Line to Ueno. From the exit of the JR Ueno Station to the Subway station, there was a HUGE panda (stuffed? plastic? cement? I’m not sure) in a glass case. Too bad the panda at the Ueno Zoo died. We took the Subway Ginza Line two stops to Tawaramachi. The fare was 160 yen. From Tawaramachi we walked down a couple of blocks to Kappabashi Dori. This is the street that’s famous for selling wholesale restaurant supplies – everything from cookware, sushi chef outfits, red lanterns, and plastic food. Unfortunately, most of the shops were closed (it was a little before 10 AM). One of the main stores at the corner, marked by a large chef’s head (Italian guy?) had a sign on the door that said it was closed for the week. We couldn’t figure out why. Possibly it’s because it’s obon season (Japanese festival). Anyway, one of the main plastic food stores was open so we went in there. The plastic food samples are SO EXPENSIVE! I was shocked. I bought keychains for friends and I bought a 1000 yen cellphone strap for myself (impulse buy). I also asked the man there if we could take photos of the shop, and he said it was okay (so I did!) We then attempted to find our way to Sensoji Temple without taking the subway one stop to Asakusa Station. It took us a while but then we spotted a small theme park and Debbie noticed that the theme park was on the back side of Sensoji Temple. Might I add that today has been incredibly hot (but that’s just normal). Mom was wearing her FOB hat =]. We walked past the little theme park and found the backside of Sensoji. There was a crazy amount of people there and we don’t know why. There were little booths set up for stuff like okonomiyaki and yakisoba. Maybe it’s a minor festival or something. Mom and I waited outside while Debbie and Candace explored Sensoji (since I just went there roughly two weeks ago). We walked down Nakamise Shopping Arcade, which was also way too crowded. There were a lot of foreigners there too. Debbie and Candace bought some small souvenirs at the store but Mom and I didn’t buy anything. I bought a ramune from the man at the end of the street. While we were walking back to Asakusa Station, Mom and Debbie noticed a big “daikon” (radish) on top of a building. I recognized it as the Asahi building. One of the buildings is meant to look like a beer bottle and the other has a large gold thing on it (supposed to be hops? I think it looks like excrement or something…) The guide book we have says that there’s good restaurants in the Asahi building, so we decided to walk there. We crossed over Sumida River to reach the Asahi building. Some of the restaurants looked really expensive so we decided to try out the cafe on the first floor. The menu at the front of the cafe only listed drinks, so we assumed that there were only drinks and no food (after all, it’s the Asahi beer building). We contemplated what to do in the lobby and decided to eat lunch in Ueno. We walked back over the bridge and to the Asakusa Subway Station. We took the subway to Ueno and went to the JR part of the Ueno Station (just up an escalator). We ate on the second floor at a really small curry udon place. Mom and I ate at the counter and Debbie and Candace ate at a small table. We had to pay ahead of time but it was okay. Our curry udon came with a small serving of brown rice and ginger. It was really really good but then I got really overheated. We wore paper bibs too to prevent splattering udon on ourselves. We must have missed the crowd because when we left the restaurant there were practically 10 people waiting to sit down – there’s only about 8 seats at the counter and 4 at tables. There was a small purse/wallet/bag store right next to the restaurant so Debbie bought a souvenirs for a friend or something (I think). Then we took the Yamanote Line back to Shinagawa and now we’re at the hotel again! This afternoon we will go to Kamakura and watch the fireworks! Hopefully it won’t be too crowded. PS: If you’re reading this, you should post a comment!

This is for you, Alex (if you even read the blog)