Baaaaa-loney

Whoops.

I thought the day was over, but I was wrong! Patience is a virtue, of which I have none.

After an unintentional nap (jet lag? carrying 20 lbs of camera gear for 9 hours dodging salarymen?) we headed in the evening to Ueno because that was where Sachiko had suggested looking for a pair of boots. We went - after a cup of the phenomenol house green tea in the room to energize - and found ourselves in one of the biggest train stations I've seen yet. I could spend all day looking around at the wares and the people and their unique sense of fashion. The store we ducked into first was a music store because I always have an intent to buy some local music when traveling. Being completely unfamiliar with J-Pop I thought I'd try some of that but nothing really called to me. After a quick listen on one of those Picks of the Week type thing I picked up a CD by an artist named Chihiro Onitsuka, kind of a mellow Japanese piano/rock chick.

Ueno has an enormous shopping district, mostly (from what I've seen) department stores around the JR station and then a maze of tiny alleys lined with huge pachinko casinos, strip clubs, hourly hotels, restaurants, and street vendors. You can find anything from rooms for 2-hour "rest" periods to whisky bars to boot stores to high fashion... even the world's best cream puffs. Seriously, this place (called Beard Papa Sweets. Yay Engrish!) puts all other cream puffs to shame: the pastry is crispy and flakey and the cream is made fresh and piped to-order. I've never had cream like that before! Eating them while dodging men in suits through the smokey haze of yakitori restaurants in the dim street lights was an experience in and of itself. Most of the shops closed at 8 and the proprietors were very kind about kicking us out. But some were open - it was hit-or-miss wandering through the stalls trying to figure out who was leaving and who was staying.


The best store was a place called U2 - I would have happily spent all of my yen in that shop. The bottom floor held the staples of the punk-tinged fashion of the young Japanese men you see everywhere with military-inspired outerwear and raggedy scarves and fingerless gloves. I even found a necklace made of allen wrenches, nuts and bolts! Apparently the style now is overalls-styled pants letting the straps hang down. (Note: I did this about 6 years ago and back then it certainly wasn't considered "cool.")

Funny that there was so much awesome grunge couture there, but I walked out with a pair of the most adorable (And impractical) mittens ever. But how could I not? They look like sheep! ;)

Dinner was in the JR station at a place called "Homemade Curry Time." This place is awesome. Inside it's like a mush between a truck stop and Johnny Rockets. Before you go in, you insert your money into this vending machine thing outside the door and push the button corresponding to the dish you want. It issues a ticket and then you sit down at the counter and hand it to the guy standing there. 3 seconds later he brings out your plate and you eat it with a HUGE spoon while surveying the salarymen next to you. I don't know if the curry was actually homemade or if it was the same boxed S&B stuff that mom used to make, but it was darned good with just enough kick to make your sinuses perk up.

Perfection.