This morning breakfast was served until 10AM, so got there at 9:57AM... after the 2 entries yesterday and the mall hopping on Odaiba I was kinda exhausted, so I needed enough sleep.
After endless thinkings about what to do today, I finally decided for Ueno to see the park and the Todai, the Tokyo Universaty, so not too much for this day to reach the hotel soon and to relax - won't happen, but you will read later.
It started with taking the Hibiya Line from Ningyocho directly to Ueno.
After leaving the station the orientation was guaranteed thanks to the map app.
I went southwards and finally getting close to the Ueno Park, when a sign appeared, the Kanji for Root, Origin or Book, there was a Book Off, it had to be visited.
The offered many products, also many different kinds of articles, very structured, so I'll give 5/5 STARS, also because the prices were better than in other Book Offs, e.g. several DS games were 500 Yen less.
I found an artbook from God Eater Burst, a nice gallery, awesome CG pics, concept arts, overall a great artbook for only 500 Yen instead of 1600.
I went out and headed back to the entrance of the park, the park is very big and has many areas, one of those is a zoo, which I viseted 3 years ago, it was somehow sad to see the animals in their too small cages, compared to the ones in Leipzig these were tiny.
I came to a pond, which looked very calm, it gave me a relaxing mood, too, but when I saw the polluted edges and the fish that ate the swimming garbage I felt sad again.
In the area with the boots I saw a couple, that tried to "destroy" the ropes of the edge, at least it looked like this, because they were hitting the borders over and over, maybe they were unable to turn or even control the boot, but it was funny to take part. She was rowing while he relaxed, took pictures and gave wrong orders, it looked like: this way, this way - it was the wrong way - not like this, not this LEFT, the other LEFT (maybe right or straight), then they changed and finally left the edges for some seconds just to bump in there again.
After leaving the park I had my first Sub at Suway for weeks. Then I went down a road which seemed somehow endless and also felt wrong but I was when I finally arrived at the main gate of the Todai, the Tokyo Universaty, it's the number one of all japanese elite universaties with very difficult entrance exams.
It's world-famous and also appeares in manga and anime just like LOVE HINA, which I read 8 or 9 years ago, great memories about that manga came up.
When I started going on just to have a look around it was hard define, if I still was on the campus, seems like I was, when I saw some students practise some football. It looked funny, because they were not really muscle-packed, so nobody of them looked like a real football player, especially not as linebacker or so.
I mean, a tackle would hurt - I guess - but one wouldn't expect, that such thin guys are able to smash someone down.
After a while I found a way out, which was the one, that I entered, I was thinking about walking 2 km northwards to a Book Off, 2 km eastwards to a Book Off or 2,5 km southwards to Akiba and a bit more than just a Book Off... U can guess, where I went, 50 km westwards for ...a Book Off, no I went to Akiba.
By doing this I passed another entrance to the campus, the Akomon, which means red gate.
On my way to Akiba I also dicovered a shrine/temple and didn't just pass it, but went in.
It was the Kandamyojin-Shinto-Shrine, which was built in 730, sometime destroyed and then has been rebuilt.
I also found a Tanuki there for the first time ever, I wished to see one on my trips before, but I never saw a statue before. A tanuki is a legendary figure, it's appearance is based on a raccoon dog, it's a symbol for luck and wealth. A characteristic is a big "part" of its body. It was also used in games like the Super Mario series, Mario had a raccon suit, which was wrong translated, it was a tanuki suit, in the latest games like Super Mario 3D Land it was correctly, by not tranlating the "animal" and calling the suit tanuki suit. I hope that's not confusing, if it is, just ask me.
Round about 500 m later I arrived at Akiba, went to some shops, also the Book Off, which I rate with 5/5 STARS, I mean, it has 6 floors full of everything that you, someone, an otaku or whoever need or doesn't need. Another premiere of this day was the first Starbucks of this trip, I passed approx. 20 of them but didn't enter before. I had a grande Caramel Macchiato with extra cinnamon and a donut, just spectacular.
This was followed bya some shops, hobby here, figure there, you know, Akiba-Style-Shops.
Finished all preparations already, so the next day with Harajuku and the Yoyogi Park can come... after 7/8 hours of sleep.
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