Tokyo - Day 6 (Ueno - Ameyoko Market - Ueno Park - Sumida Park

On our 6th day in Tokyo we decided to visit Ameyoko Market, Ueno Park, Sumida Park and Tokyo Skytree. We left our hotel around noon and took a train from Nippori Station to Ueno Station (¥140 per person). Ameyoko Market is just 2 minutes (170m) walking distance from Ueno Station. We have no idea what to have for lunch, so we walked along the street to check out some of the restaurants.

While walking along the street we saw this restaurant Nagomiya Yakiniku and decided to give it a try. Looking at a Japanese menu, I wish I would have taken up Japanese language during my university years. So we asked the waiter "what would you recommend?" We told him we preferred beef and he recommended us to try their beef bento set - ¥1,150 and premium beef set - ¥1,700.

My beef bento set comes with rice, salad, kimchi, bean sprout and miso soup. My partner's premium beef set comes with rice, salad, bean sprout, pumpkin and bigger portion of beef slices. The beef slices were served raw and you need to grill your own meat. I love the salad, kimchi and grilled beef. Overall I'm very satisfied with our lunch. Somehow my beef bento set taste much better than my partner's premium beef set.

Nagomiya Yakiniku

Restaurant ambience

Cold drinking water

Salad

Side dishes

Rice

Premium beef set - ¥1,700

Beef bento set - ¥1,150

Soup

Address:

Nagomiya Yakiniku

6-13-6 Ueno,

Taito City,

Tokyo 110-0005,

Japan

After lunch, we walked along Ameyoko Market and I bought a packet of green snack pistachio wasabi - ¥1,026 (including tax). Compared to Don Quijote, it's definitely cheaper to buy it here. Ameyoko Market is a busy street selling various products such as snacks, fruits, fresh fish, dried food, clothes, bags, cosmetics and spices. We bought a piece of Japanese melon from the fruit stall. It's sweet, juicy and soft.

Ameyoko Market

Fresh fruit stall

Japanese melon - ¥200

Address:

Ameyoko Market

4-9-14 Ueno,

Taito City,

Tokyo 110-0005,
Japan

We walked to Ueno Park, a large public park next to Ueno Station. There's Zoo, Museum, Shrines and Temples. You can easily spend all day looking around the park. There's street performance as well. I bought a good luck charm from one of the temple and hope that all my "wishes come true" :) We walked past Ueno Zoo and just right beside the Zoo there's a food festival selling snacks and drinks. There's stage performance and the atmosphere there was very lively. We bought a packet of deep fried chicken with Gyoza and a Green Apple drink. There's an open-air place for you to sit and dine. We took a short break, resting our tired legs while enjoying our tea break in the cold weather.

Kiyomizu Kannon Temple

Shrine in Ueno Park

Street performance in Ueno Park

Shrine in Ueno Park

Temple in Ueno Park

Japanese Lucky Charm - ¥500

Wishes

Chozuya

Street artist

Statue

Shrine in Ueno Park

Chozuya

Ema

Japanese wishing plaque

Shrine in Ueno Park

Orange tree & pagoda

Statue of Prince Komatsu no Miya Akihito

Ueno Zoo

Starbucks Coffee

Food festival

Food stall and Green Apple drink - ¥200

Deep fried chicken with Gyoza - ¥400

Ueno Park

Statue of Saigo Takamori - the last true samurai

We took a train from Ueno Station to Asakusa station (¥170 per person) and from there we walked to Sumida Park. Sumida Park is located along the Sumida River and Ushijima Shrine is located at the corner of the Park. Apart from that, we can see Tokyo Skytree from Sumida Park. The park was very quiet when we reached there around 4.40pm.

Asahi Beer Headquarter Building

Sumida river

Tokyo Skytree

Statue of Katsu Kaishu

Sumida river

Sumida Park

Ushijima Shrine

Tokyo Skytree is just 9 minutes walking distance (700m) from Sumida Park. We had our dinner at Sugimoto and waited at least half an hour for a table. There's chairs outside the restaurant for you to sit and wait. We ordered Matsuzaka beef grade 4 and top quality Matsuzaka beef grade 5. Supposed we wanted to try their shabu-shabu but accidentally ordered sukiyaki as both the menu photo looked quite similar. Ended up our Matsuzaka beef sukiyaki is served with Nagoya Cochin eggs. Sukiyaki is normally cooked in a pan or pot at the table.

The waiter was very attentive and helped us cook our meal. He even showed us a leaflet on how to eat sukiyaki step by step.

a) First add the tallow (beef fat) to the pan and allow it to melt (Do not over cook the tallow as it will not completely melt and could start to smoke). When the pan is heated and oiled, add the beef and lightly fry it.
b) Add the warishita sauce to the beef as it starts to cook.
c) Once the sauce is simmering, add the tofu, vegetables and remaining ingredients to the pan and lightly fry again.
d) Break the raw egg into a bowl and stir it with chopstick. Then dip the beef into the raw egg and eat it.

This is the first time we had sukiyaki and we're not used to dip the beef into the raw egg and eat it. Our dinner comes with starter, main and dessert. We were so full that we couldn't finish our glass noodles and flat noodles. Overall beef was good. It's tender and juicy.

Tokyo Skytree

Dome garden

Tokyo Skytree

Sugimoto

Cold drinking water

Starter comes with chawanmushi, mashed potato, shredded beef, beef slices and salad

Shredded beef and raw egg

Matsuzaka beef grade 4 - ¥6,700 & top quality Matsuzaka beef grade 5 - ¥10,000

Glass noodles, shiitake mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, tofu and celery

Sukiyaki

Dip the beef into the raw egg and eat it

Sukiyaki

Flat noodles

Rice and miso soup

Dessert

Address:

Sugimoto

1-1-2 Oshiage,

Sumida City,

Tokyo 131-0045,

Japan

After dinner we bought strawberry grapes on a stick from Strawberry Mania. The strawberry tasted a bit sourish but grapes were very sweet. Majority of the shop close at 9pm. We left Tokyo Skytree before 9pm and we decided to experience their public bus service. So we walked to Tokyo Skytree Station Iriguchi and took a bus from there to Nippori Station (¥210 per person). Since it's non peak hours, the bus was quite empty. The journey took us almost half an hour to reach Nippori Station. Before walking back to our hotel, we dropped by Family Mart to get some junk food and ice cream :).

Note: ¥1 = RM 0.039