Morning struck again and this time we planned on heading to Asakusa and Ueno. Yesterday was easy mode, but now it's time to face the hydra. The ride from Asakusabashi to Asakusa is just one stop, perfect for round two. We walked down to the station, grabbed the train, and set out on our way. Surprise! Wrong station, wrong train. Hail Hydra.

Tokyo Metro Logo

There are two primary rail systems in Tokyo: the Tokyo Metro and Toei Subway. Add in a few others here and there, like the famed Yamanote line owned by JR East, and you have the reason why it took us an hour to go one station over. The bright side is now we kind of know what we're doing most of the time, knock on wood.

Asakusa

Japanese cola - or is it a hangover drink?!

True to tourist fashion, our trip to Asakusa was mainly to visit Senso-ji, Tokyo's oldest Buddhist temple. At the main entrance is the Kaminarimon (雷門) [Thunder Gate] where tourists packed to get photographs right under the giant lantern. Beyond that is the Nakamise-dori — street with a long line of shops going towards the temple. But wait, there's more! At the end of the Nakamise-dori is another gate, the Hōzōmon (宝蔵門) [Treasure-House Gate]. We were sad to see that the pagoda near the temple was covered up due to ongoing renovations.

After walking through the Hozomon, we decided to each get an omikuji (おみくじ) [paper fortune]. We needed to get ‎¥100 each for the collection box (it's an honor system) so we grabbed a drink at a nearby vending machine to get some change. Since our arrival, we have been adventurous with our drink choices. Lookout for our upcoming post on our food and drink adventures! The day's adventure drink was a Japanese cola (or a hangover drink!). As expected, it was a tad sweet, but it got us to try something new. As far as the fortunes went, Usagi got something labeled "bad fortune." I got a fortune somewhere along the lines of average good fortune. Could be worse, right?

The rest of Senso-ji was sprawling. There were many adorable side streets for goodies and food. We grabbed some buns as we explored, one of which was called a "pizza bun." It tasted like tomato sauce with cheese in a fluffy bao! We also stopped by Adachi-ya and purchased a coat to embarrass our fluff butt. It was a bit hard to figure out the right size since Hinata is still a growing pupper, but the ladies at the store were very helpful (I also think that she's going to be smaller than expected). The temple overall was very crowded both by tourists and school field trips.

Then the rain came. We fled to Don Quijote, a store selling various goods and has restaurants past the 4th floor (though you have to take a different elevator to get there). With our stomachs publicly protesting hunger, we found ourselves in a ramen house at a nearby side street. We ordered our usual dishes: shoyu and miso ramen with a side of gyoza.

How was the food? Good as always! We had a short discussion on how it compared to our favorite place, Tanpopo in Japan Town (SF). Note: It was very similar, just a tad better than what we had back home.

Ueno

Ueno park is Tokyo's version of Golden Gate Park. Similar to GGP, there are a number of museums within the park including a zoo.

We then went to the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Art and viewed their Van Gogh and Gauguin exhibit. The exhibition included works from Claude Monet and Henri de Toulouse-LauTrec, artists we both enjoy.

The exhibit was set up to funnel people through in an orderly fashion — something neither of us are fond of. We like to sit, stare, and examine paintings for hours. As with typical exhibits, the end of the show leads you to the museum's dedicated gift shop. We did like some of the novelty items they sold. Some are definitely things you can only find in an art exhibition in Japan.

There are also various temples scattered around the park. If you like walking aimlessly like us, you're bound to eventually find one.

Ever seen a pond covered in lotuses? Yup, it's there too. According to the printed tourist information, people from years back visited this particular temple using boats. It also said that people let creatures go in the pond as a way to "purify their sins." No, really, the tourist information had that phrase in quotations.

Finally, we ended the day with Kentucky Fried Chicken and another mishap. But first, the chicken...

KFC is massive in Japan and many people wonder why. It's a topic covered by many YouTube vloggers and they are often surprised how delicious this infamous fast food chain's bok-bok meals are. We sometimes like the lard injected chicken from KFC in the US, though we have to plan it ahead of time in order to compensate for feeling of organ death post consumption.

The verdict?

Nope.

Maybe our expectations were raised too high. While it didn't give us the usual crappy feeling after we ate, it wasn't amazing either. It is most definitely less oily than what we expected, but nothing out of the ordinary. Usagi was sad there were no mashed potatoes and gravy.

After dining at the small KFC (note: they are all very small here!), we headed back to the subway station. We passed by another wall of gachapons (capsule machines) and Usagi started getting her coin purse out.

I talked earlier about a mishap with KFC. Yup, you guessed it right. She left her purse there. Luckily we haven't gotten on the subway, though she would have realized it too since her IC card is in her wallet. (IC cards are used to get on public transit, like the Clipper card in the bay area or the Metro card in NY)

And so I ran. Crossed a few streets, ran through the giant intersection (don't worry, the pedestrian light was on) and huffed my way back to to the store. I retrieved her bag and we went on our merry way. No, nothing was missing.

Since I ran all the way there with an injured knee, I thought I deserved a capsule. Now I have a new companion for my desk at work.