Friday afternoon August 15, 2008 Ueno Park

Hi all..it is now Sunday Aug 17th and boy what a difference a day makes. We woke up to a very cool 70 degree day with thick overcast skies and some misty rain falling. It feels so good to have shut all the air conditoners off and to have the windows open and a nice breeze wafting through the office. Ahhhhh.....:-)
I will now finish up the second half of our Friday adventure to Asakusa and then on to Ueno Park.
After looking at all the temple and shrine buildings in Asakusa we headed towards Ueno Park and tried to stay in the shade as much as possible. We walked along many a narrow little street with shrines and grave yards here and there, of which I had to of course poke my head in and see what cool grave stones or statues they had. It must be the season of the red bibs, as they seem to be everywhere.
When we got to Ueno Park the first thing we did was to get a melon flavored snow cone and sit in the shade for a few minutes to cool down and catch our breath. Then we walked along the tree covered paths towards Shinobazo Pond. On the way we stopped to listen to a group playing a pipe pan flute and some spanish style music. Saw some soccer team doing foot agility drills and a kids statue with lots of origami paper crane decorations in a rainbow of colors hanging nearby.
When we arrived at the Pond it was full of large pink lotus blossoms. We visited the octagon shaped Bentendo Temple that sits on a pennisula that protrudes out into the pond. The principle icon here is Happi-Dai-Benzaiten (the 8 armed Buddha Goddess)who is worshipped as the God of Longevity, Good Luck and Entertainment. We then crossed over a little bridge which was full of people observing all the turtles and ducks below in the water. We saw lots of people peddling swan shaped paddle boats around the pond with their feet and then crossed back over the bridge and headed up to the north end of the park. We passed a few other shrines, one with lots of red tori gates and another one with a rounded pagoda type cone top. We were going to walk to see the 5 story pagoda and yet one more shrine but when we looked down the walkway and it looked to be 2 footbal fields away we decided to save it for another visit. The zoo was next and that too we will check out later as I do want to see the Panda Bears that were given as a gift from China.
We stopped to watch a man who had his audience very captivated while he was making some very cool balloon animals--Minnie Mouse, The Pink Panther... We saw the one man bike music man playing all his different instruemtns at once. Kind of like Bert in Mary Poppins. Remember him ?
We then exited Ueno Park which is the place to be they say, during cherry blossom season in March and April for the hanami viewing parties. Continuing on we walked through Yanaka District on our way to the train station. Yanaka is a very quiet area and there was hardly any people around as we walked through the empty little streets. They all must have been at the Shrine or the Park? It was a bit like a ghost town actually and many businesses were closed as well with their metal doors pulled down over the glass windows. We passed many more little neighborhood shrines and cemetaries all along the way. This area survived the 1923 earthquake and WWII bombing as well and so preserves some of the old Shitamachi with tight packed houses and narrow alleys.
Like I said earlier, we had planned to take the train back to the Shrine for the evening prayer and blessing ceremony but we were zapped of every last bit of energy and so we headed home for Taco Friday and more Olympics. We found out later,it was actually 102 degrees when we were dragging ourselves through the park. YIKES !! No wonder we were pooped. The tacos by the way, were delish and the shower felt extraordinarly good as did my bed when I finally plopped down in it.
Another day under our belts and more sights checked off on our Japan Bucket list.
More tomorrow......