My trip to Japan, day 1!

[owlectomy]

Here at last, some pictures from my trip! This is just the first day. I will try to finish more as I have time.




Ame-Yoko in Ueno at night



Frog fountain in Ueno park



Animal wireframe sculptures in Ueno Park



Handwashing basin at the Kiyomizu Kannondou temple in Ueno



Closeup on the dragon at the handwashing basin



Cherry tree in bloom



Outside the Senju Kannon temple in Ueno



Toki wasureji no tou, which commemorates the 1945 firebombing of Tokyo.



Closeup on the chains of origami cranes beside the monument.



Fox with a bib at the Hanazono Inari Jinja



The station where I caught the train to Tomioka had a Galaxy Express train and this little conductor guy. SO CUTE.



A signpost for directions to the filature.

I took a bunch of pictures inside the filature, but mostly for my own reference and they don't really want you to post them without permission.


The restaurant in Takasaki where I had lunch.



The lunch I had. Spaghetti with spinach and mushrooms.



Frogs outside the Maebashi-Ooshima train station.

 

Comments

[littlebutfierce]

Ohhhh I love Ueno! Those wire animal sculptures are fantastic. ♥

[owlectomy]

Yes, I love them! And I've got some more Ueno pictures from when I was walking around the old neighborhoods on Saturday...

[starlady]

Oh, Ueno.

I've really been wanting to go back to Japan lately, and these pictures don't help with that. :-)

[owlectomy]

Oh, your icon! I love the konbini <3

[starlady]

Who doesn't love the conbini, seriously?

[jesse_the_k]

Nice pix. I know <0 about Japanese culture, so some of these questions will be ignorant; I hope they won't be offensive.

I adore the composition on #2: at first I thought the figure sitting on the edge of the fountain was a dark stone Buddha statue.

The little conductor guy in #11 looks like he could be a photo-op -- kid pokes head through hole and becomes Conductor Guy!

[owlectomy]

Ignorant questions are always fine, though I've got huge gaps in my own knowledge.

Yeah, I think #11 must be for a photo op. Curses, that I don't have a convenient toddler!

[starlady]

Is that guy in the second photo one of the people who live in Ueno kouen?

[owlectomy]

I think so; I went out around dawn so a lot of the people around were living there.

[wintersweet]

I didn't get to see much of Ueno even though we stayed on the other side of the park from the station (in a famous hotel/landmark that's NO LONGER THERE *SOB*), so it was extra fun to see those :)