sakura walk (bunkyo & taito)

According to the weather dude, Sunday was the only chance for checking out sakura because it would only be cloudy, whereas other days would be rainy 

So we made sure to get out and about as early as we could

We started off at Kichijoji, a temple in the Bunkyo ward

The weeping cherry trees here were beautiful!

Down the street is Joshinji. 

This temple’s grounds are smaller in comparison to Kichijoji, but it seemed like they had more and larger (taller) cherry trees in the compact area

it was our first time to both of these temples and we look forward to coming here again.

We then walked to Yanaka, to have brunch at CIBI (chee-bee)

In the past, we’ve passed this place, and they are always busy, so we marked it “to try”.

On this day, we were lucky only having to wait a couple of minutes to be seated.

Apparently they are an Australian style cafe and even have a shop in Melbourne. 

Many of the staff members speak English as well.

Satoshi ordered their Japanese breakfast, which came with grilled salmon, natto, miso soup and other items...1680 yen (plus tax)

He also had a batch brewed coffee 600 yen (plus tax)

It looked like a lot of food and he said he enjoyed it

I tried their CIBI breakfast, which came with toast, avocado, an oozy egg and salad…loved their seeded bread! 1380 yen (plus tax)

I also ordered a long black coffee 530 yen (plus tax)

capers in oozy yolks is delicious!

There were foreigners as well as locals.

It was nice to sit and have breakfast while listening to others chat.

After brunch/lunch, we walked along hebimichi (Snake street) again and went to check out somewhere that Satoshi wanted to check out.

Nearby was an arare shop that I wanted to check out, Daikokuya.

A tiny shop that has been in business since 1915, they make all sorts of arare (rice crackers)

Lots of items were already sold out.

But we were able to buy things to try, shrimp, sugar, as well as a savory mix and sweet mix...2330 yen (tax included)

The one that was stale was the sweet mix...boo! (top left)

The others were super fresh, crisp and very tasty!

Up the street, we also stumbled on the Chiyonofuji statue, the last time we were here was pre-pandemic.

And then we went back around to a museum that Satoshi was interested in checking out.

While he did that I waited outside.

And then we made our way to Ueno.

Even if my photos don't show it, it was krazy with people, so we quickly went through the side of the park without many sakura trees to the JR Ueno Station and caught the train back to our area.

Mother Nature turned a forecasted cloudy day into a beautiful sunny one.

She's decided to cold snap us back though, and added rain to it too (snow in some areas!).

With the weather all wonky, not sure if I'll be able to check out many more places, if I do, I'll post about it here.

ps steps for this walk was 18885

Kichijoji

3-19 Honkomagome

Bunkyo, Tokyo

Joshinji

2-17-4 Mukogaoka

Bunkyo, Tokyo

CIBI

3-37-11 Sendagi

Bunkyo, Tokyo

Hours: 8:30-17:30

Daikokuya

1-3-4 Yanaka

Taito, Tokyo

Closed Thursdays

Hours: 10:00-17:00