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Unlike Saturday's clouds, Sunday was beautiful!

Satoshi wanted to revisit the Yanesen area (short for Yanaka, Nezu and Sendagi), which he had been to with his guide friends a couple of weeks ago.

One place was Ueno Toshogu, which is a smaller version of the one in Nikko...they were also having a dahlia exhibit..entrance fee was 800 yen per person! worth it though.

Learned about the different types of blooms (cactus, collarettes, anemone, etc)...so pretty! some were super tall!

Recently we've been seeing a lot of fresh flowers placed in large shallow bowls and the area where you are supposed to purify your hands at temples.

With the pandemic, the area where you purify your hands (chozusha) was off limits so that crowds would not gather, instead many temples started to put fresh flowers into the "trough-like" chozusha and it is called "chozubachi" and the decorative flowers are called “hanachozu”

Ueno Toshogu also has botan (peony) exhibits here in the Winter and the Spring, so I am interested in checking these out in the coming months.

Down the street is Kuroda Memorial Hall, which displays some of the artwork of Seiki Kuroda, who is somewhat considered the father of modern Western-style painting in Japan.

Next door is the National Children's Library.

Apparently the outside of the building is the original and the inner building was built by Tadao Ando.

Down the street is Hagiso, a cafe/gallery.

I've had this place bookmarked ever since we visited this area in 2018.

I ordered the fried saba (mackerel) sandwich...1340 yen (tax included)...don't sneeze or the sandwich will fall over...ha!

This was bland, what mustard and mayo they gave was toward the “bottom” of the samdwich, the bread was nicely toasted and the fish nicely fried though

Satoshi had their keema curry...1440 yen (tax included)

He said this was delicious, but the portion looked kind of teeny for him, so I gave him part of my sandwich.

Both of our lunches came with cassis sherbet and choice of drinks (Satoshi had hot coffee while I had iced coffee)

Nearby Hagiso is Isetatsu, a shop that has been in business since 1864 and specializes in Edo Chiyogami paper crafts, supplies, and souvenirs.

This man was personalizing this rabbit paper objet.

We also checked out Ueno Sakuragi Atari, a cluster of refurbished homes turned into shops and restaurants.

I had been wanting to try Vaner's Nordic style baked items...this is 1/4 of their rye bread 400 yen (tax included).

I had envisioned the bread to be dense and maybe dry but was surprised that the outer crust with tons of seeds was hard.as.rock! which was disappointing.

You can also buy items and eat in the courtyard, so I want to go back...

Ogino Sweets has been in business for over 50 years...

We bought their yakidango and kusadango to try...280 yen (tax included) for the two

Too bad it got messed up by the time we got home...it was still delicious though.

Saganoya, a senbei (rice cracker) shop that has been in business since 1914.

We tried their mix 500 yen (tax included)...sweet salty different textures, delicious!

The weather was beautiful and it was nice to be out and about.

Satoshi wants to come back to check out more places that he and his guide friends went to...so we'll be back.

More pictures here if you are interested.

Ogino Sweets (2024: out of business)

5-2-5 Yanaka

Taito, Tokyo

Phone: 03.3822.4605

Closed Mondays and Tuesdays

Hours: 9:00-18:00

Isetatsu

2-18-9 Yanaka

Taito, Tokyo

Phone: 03.3823.1453

Open daily 10:00-18:00

Hagiso

3-10-25 Yanaka

Taito, Tokyo

Phone: 03.5832.9808

Hours: 8:00-20:00 *check their social media for closed days

Vaner (2022: no longer in business)

2-15-6 Uenosakuragi

Taito, Tokyo

Phone: 03.5834.8137

Closed Mondays & Tuesdays

Hours: 8:09-15:00

Saganoya

6-1-27 Yanaka

Taito, Tokyo

Closed Wednesdays

Phone: 03.3821.6317

Hours: 9:00-18:00