JAPAN 2016 | DAY 3 | UENO
The first thing Brian and I did when we woke up from only 4 hours of sleep was checking my computer to track where my phone was. The phone was still moving around Tokyo so it was safe to assume that it was still in the cab. After 30 minutes of carefully stalking my phone’s whereabout, my phone ran out of battery – which meant no more tracking. All hope was lost. Goodbye phone. Goodbye life.
When Tenpachi woke up, we checked the phone’s last location and saw that it was in a particular town called Kita-Senjuu. We carefully studied the map (Thank you Google Maps) and saw that the last location was pointing to a specific parking lot. We then checked the taxi’s company and saw that they had a headquarter in Kita-Senjuu. So we started to freak out (in a good way) the moment we realized the phone may have finally arrived at the taxi home station. Tenpachi was able to find the station’s local number so we immediately called them to see if they had found an iPhone. I had no idea what they were saying, but after a brief moment of probably “Have you seen an iPhone?”, I saw Tenpachi and Brian’s face lighting up with a big smile (and wobbling their heads). The station mentioned that they have indeed found a phone and we had to come and verify that it was ours. Even though we weren’t certain that the phone was mine, we started to celebrate because it felt like we closed one of the biggest FBI investigation cases. Hope was not lost!
We started the day by heading out to Shibuya to eat at curry restaurant Tenpachi wanted to take Brian and me to. We walked around Shibuya looking for the restaurant and while doing so, I got to admire people’s fashion and lifestyle. The curry was great. Except for the part they didn’t thoroughly cook my pork. I had to ask them twice and they still cooked it poorly, which resulted in me not finishing my food. At that moment, I thought Japan hated me. I lost my phone and I was being served raw pork in my food. It didn’t matter because I still loved Japan. We stopped by Mos Burger to grab a small burger because I wasn’t able to have a filling meal at the curry restaurant. Afterwards, we headed towards Hachigo exit to meet up with Maika-san (our friend Yuma’s girlfriend) to head to Kita-Senjuu to rescue my i-hope-its-my-phone.
When we met up with Maika, we had to tell her the situation about my phone and why we had to go to Kita-Shenjuu. Luckily, there was a cool area around Kita-Shenjuu called Ueno so we decided to go there after we found my phone. We finally arrived at Kita-Shenjuu and after navigating through the streets, we were able to find the cab station. We walked in and the man immediately knew the reason why we were there. He pulled a phone out of the drawers and what do you know, it was my phone! Hallelujah. I was so lucky that I was able to find my phone after losing it in Tokyo. What are the chances.
After we got my phone, we headed to Ueno to go to a park and the zoo. When we arrived at Ueno, there was a random festival in front of the zoo so we were able to look around the food vendors and get ourselves some Yakitori and see some interesting performances.
After spending some time at the festival, we headed to the zoo. I was mostly excited because they had a panda. We spent a good amount of our day at the zoo before we left. Brian and I have been having no sleep so it was a little tiring moving around all day. But nonetheless, it was worth it.
Leaving the zoo, we decided to walk next to a pond at a park that was nearby to go to our next destination. I was happy because we got to see some of the remains of the sakura flowers from the blossom.
After we finished walking at the park, we went to a famous market street called Ameyoko. We were able to see people selling their produce and products. It felt somewhat similar to Myong-Dong and Dong-Dae-Mun in Korea. There were so many people packed into one street, but it strangely felt refreshing to be a part of it.
Maika, Brian and I were able to grab some food/drinks at an Izakaya because we time to kill before we had to meet up with Kiku for dinner. We were able to have some heart to heart conversations at the Izakaya and I was able to know Maika more as a person because it was my first time meeting her (I had heard so much about her from her boyfriend). Through talking with Maika, we were able to learn more about Japanese culture.
When we finished up talking, we headed to Roppongi to eat with Kiku. He had made reservations for us at a sushi spot that ranged around $110/person. The experience? Wow. The quality of the sushi? Wow. It was an omakase and experiencing it in Japan was truly amazing. My two personal favorites from the course – Cooked Uni and Toro.
We ended the day by going to a pub and having a beer. It was such a long and eventful day but it was so fun learning about more about the culture of Japan.
