Day 278, Tokyo, Japan
It’s a Saturday, and the doggies in the park are everywhere. At the outdoor tables of Starbucks there is practically one doggie per table, either sitting underneath on the owners feet to stay warm or in the owner’s lap ready for a treat at the table. Every little furry friend is sporting a stylish jacket or sweater, and many of the larger doggies are, too. Some dogs walk to the park, while others ride on little pillows in baskets covered by bone decorated cozy blankets. If you had to be a dog somewhere, you’d want to be a Japanese dog.
These two little guys came to Starbucks in a specialized doggie bicycle basket, on pillows, wrapped in their own individual pink doggie blankets. They were waiting patiently for their owner to emerge with a coffee, and hopefully a treat for them.
With our Ueno Museum Passports, we went to the Shitamachi Museum. This is one of the smaller museums on the edge of the park, and maybe my favorite so far. The museum focuses on life in Tokyo in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Shitamachi loosely translated means downtown.
On the first floor there were old Japanese shops and houses that you can walk through. In the once city center, people worked and lived in very small spaces, by Western standards. They had one room as their store front or business, and one small room to live in, in the back. Simple and compact. Fascinating. What makes the displays so interesting is that you can take your shoes off at the door, go inside, and look around.
Here were the old narrow streets between buildings.
Water and wood area.
Below is a candle shop with an office where the customer would come and sit on the cushions to do business.
Next was candy and small toy shop, and the living quarters behind it.
Next was a copper pot making shop.
This is where you leave your outdoor shoes before coming into the store.
Her is a shrine and a phone booth you might also see in the neighborhood.
Instead of using clothes lines and pins to dry clothes, they would thread bamboo poles through wet clothes to hang them to dry.
Upstairs in the museum was a typical, but slightly larger home that also included a kitchen.
This was a typical restaurant/bar from that era.
Since I come from a family that loves games, I took particular interest in these. Maybe my dad can recognize some of these from when he was growing up in Japan.
Early version of Tetris anyone?
I loved the miniatures. 
After the museum, we got a snack at the French pastry shop in the Ueno train station. We’ve noticed that French items are very popular here. Most of the pastries in the shop I’ve never seen in France, but were delicious creative interpretations. 
We took a train three stops to Asakusa, a popular neighborhood in Tokyo.
The main attraction of the area is Senso-ji, a Buddhist temple built in the 7th century. It’s always packed with visitors like us. Nakamise is a shopping street that has traditional Japanese items including kimonos and many popular local foods. There is a mix of extremely well preserved older architecture, mixed with the new.
In this area you can buy the traditional kimonos. It’s not uncommon to see people wearing them around the temple, tourists mostly.
There are numerous covered shopping streets, which reminded me of Paris. But the shops were distinctly Japanese.
Senso-ji the Tokyo’s oldest Buddhist temple, completed in 645. It was built to honor the goddess of mercy Kannon. When entering the temple, you pass through Kaminarimon, Thunder Gate.
As you approach you reach the incense burning area, where people are wafting the smoke over themselves for good luck.
I was fascinated by the size of the large red lanterns overhead. Maybe my dad will translate what they said.
Quite a place, that can’t be explored thoroughly in one day. We will have to return with the girls, perhaps on a warmer, drier day.
