First on my agenda today, was to buy a train ticket to get me back to Narita airport in a few days. Since the first Narita Express will not get me there early enough, I have to take the Skyliner Express, which runs out of Ueno Station on the Keisei Line.
Then I ran out to the Yodobashi Camera store in Akiba. I love that place! LOL. Just beware: the store’s theme song will stay in your head, long after you had left. Its words are set to the tune of The Battle Hymn of the Republic, and sung in an animated voice: Marui midori no Yamanotesen (‘The round green Yamanote Line’) Mannaka tooru no wa Chu-ousen (‘What goes through the middle of it is the Chuo Line’) Shinjuku nishiguchi eki no mae (‘In front of the west exit of Shinjuku Station’) Kamera wa Yodobashikame ra! (‘[For] cameras it’s YodobashiCamera!)’
Finally, I walked around the Ginza shopping district a bit, to watch the streetlights come on, and storefronts get lit up, as the sun was setting.
Ueno Station is by Ueno Park, a spacious public park with lots of big ginkgo trees. So the ginkgo leaves on the fence posts along the street is a nice touch.Ueno Station is on the famous green (its color on maps) Yamanote loop line, operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East). Akihabara is the stop for the big Yodobashi Camera store (there are other locations as well). This photo is of the Tokyo Station stop, close to my hotel.Once I am in the Yodobashi Camera store, and I check out all the home electronics, and Canon cameras and lenses, and Seiko watches, and the toys on Floor 6, AND that rousing theme song plays, I just kind of go: yes! you can take all my money! I don’t care! -you sell so many cool things, and I want to buy all of them! This one I will buy in the United States, though: an LED retro bulb (¥1740 equals US$13), that one can use with a dimmer switch. I would love to have one for my nightstand.Now to the Ginza district. On the left is Ginza Place (completed 2016), with its white façade of 5,000 aluminum panels. Kitty corner from it is the Wako Department Store, built in neoclassical style in 1932, with its Seiko clock. It is one of only a few buildings in the city of Tokyo that survived World War II.This golden retriever pooch with his Christmas garb and soft fur, charmed everyone on the sidewalk and in the store that they went into.This store, lit up in red from the inside for Christmas, is the headquarters of Tasaki, one of Japan’s premier jewelers.And here is Fendi (the white corner section), the Italian luxury fashion house, founded in 1925 in Rome.I had to check into the Noritake store (porcelain wares), but did not buy another coffee mug or dish (I have many already). These are figurines called Hina Dolls (price ¥75,600/ USD 655 .. the artist must have used gold powder paste for the gold). In Japan, young girls are celebrated on Mar 3, called the Peach Festival (also Doll’s Festival). The festival is a wish for their happiness and healthy growth as they grow up.One of the side streets out of the main street, called Miyuki-Dori. The bird on the lamppost banner is the Fenghuang, a bird from East Asian mythology that reign over all other birds.This matrix of mannequins is on the first floor of the Uniqlo flagship stoor. I’m on the second floor, with a glass section that provides a view to down below.
