It has literally been 5 years since I've been to Tokyo for some sightseeing and romping in the city. The truth is I have no real reason to go to Tokyo these days, it's crowded, it's expensive but alas, it is where the action is.
A week ago, my youngest and I, as well as a friend and their kid took a day trip to Ueno zoo. It is the only zoo in Japan where you can see Pandas. It took us approximately 1hr and 20 minutes to get Tokyo from my location in Gunma Prefecture ( countryside near Tokyo ).
As we exited Ueno station the crowd of people waved through the streets like a harmless Tsunami. I overheard a Japanese guy say
"There are so many foreigners, they are really taking advantage of the weak yen."
I had to agree, there were a lot of foreigners around, but IMO Tokyo has always been like that. The thing is it is picking back up after the the covid years. Many may only spot the typical Caucasian or Black foreigners easily, but the majority of tourist in these streets were from Asia, more specifically, China. The couple in the picture below to the left, probably from Indonesia or Bangladesh.
One thing with Tokyo, there is always something to see / do. For instance, jut walking the streets of Ueno, we came across a monkey show. The young lady had trained a Japanese monkey ( Japanese macaque) to do tricks in front of a live audience. The lady was hilarious as well as the monkey and of course they managed to gather a decent crowd.
Once the show was over, monkey took out a thousand yen bill and waved it around, yup, you know what time it is, tip time. The monkey walked around collecting tips with the help of an assistant who held out a basket while the monkey appealed to the people near by. Each person that donated got a postcard of the duo. Very creative business. Not easy to copy overnight.
After monkeying around, we walked through Ueno park and saw a few temples and food stalls and grabbed a bite to eat. So much going on all at once. walking around and seeing the sites made me actually appreciate Tokyo again, You don't have to wonder "What am I going to do today?" You just need to step outside."
My friend also made a good point. After the day was done and we were back in our territory, we had walked a total of 25,000 steps. Yes, living in the big city also keeps you fit as most people walk, bike or take the train.
What's on my mind now? When next Tokyo? I actually enjoyed the big overcrowded city, but living there? Could I do it? Well, I am Jamaican and I adopt quickly, but I do prefer life a bit more chilled, I also like driving myself to where I wanna go.
No mention of Ueno Zoo in this post , WTF? Well that is in a video I posted to YouTube recently on my kids channel. The thing is, I would post these videos to 3 speak but at times, videos that are too large cannot be uploaded and I feel videos that actually bring value to HIVE in a deeper way are what should be posted on 3 Speak. You know, stuff to do with HIVE in Some way.
