上野

Next Friday, my youngest daughter will go on a school trip to 新潟県 (Niigata Prefecture) on the other side of Japan for a four-day ski-trip.

Her sisters both took the same field trip when they were in the sixth grade…and they both had a great time.
I’ll worry a bit when she goes on this trip (just as I did when her sisters went), but I’m sure she’ll have a good time.

Today, we went to 上野 (Ueno, Tokyo) to get some things she needs for her trip.

After we finished shopping, we went to a カラオケ・ボックス (Karaoke box)…which is a place that has many small, private rooms where you can go to enjoy food and singing karaoke without strangers being able to see or hear you.

Our Karaoke room

Here are some photos that I took around 上野 (Ueno, Tokyo) today:

アメ横 ("Ameyoko") in Ueno

Here’s a video that I took of this corner:

Some more photos I took of the area:

上野の「たぬき小路」

Tommy Lee Jones does TV commercials for "BOSS Coffee"

「若狭屋」 (“Wakasaya Sushi”) restaurant

「立入禁止」 = "Do Not Enter"

Sometimes men need to stay in a cheap hotel for a business trip (or because they missed the last train of the evening)…this type of place is popular for them—A Capsule Hotel with sauna and “Pachinko parlor“:

Capsule Hotel

ちょうちん (Paper lantern) for a 「うどん」 (noodle) restaurant

One of the oldest buildings in 上野 (Ueno, Tokyo) is the old shopping center 「聚楽」 (Jyuraku) will be demolished soon. So I took a photo of it:

上野の「聚楽」

Last Friday, the DVD for the movie “Detroit Metal City” went on sale. There are two versions…the regular DVD of the movie and another version that includes a bonus “making of the movie” DVD.

KISS bass guitarist, Gene Simmons, makes a cameo in the movie and plays on one song on the soundtrack.

I wrote a post about this movie. Click here to see it.

Here the DVD promotion poster:

"Detroit Metal City" DVD promo poster

It was a fun day. The highlight was listening to my daughters sing カラオケ (Karaoke). 🙂

アメヤ横丁

Yesterday was クリスマス (Christmas)…hope you had a  「メリー・クリスマス」 (“Merry Christmas“).
As we often do at Xmas, we had dinner at my wife’s parents’ house. My wife’s aunt and her siblings and their kids were all there too. So it was a big dinner with many people. It was alot of fun.

The day before that (Wednesday, December 24), we went to 上野 (Ueno, Tokyo).
We did alot of shopping in the アメヤ横丁 (Ameya-yokochou) area (or アメ横 (Ame-Yoko) for short).

This is an area that used to be a black market right after WW2, but now it rows of stores that sell everything from traditional Japanese snacks to leather jackets to book bags to jewelery to seafood to…whatever!

People who think that Tokyo is expensive often just don’t shop in the right places. アメヤ横丁 (Ameya-yokochou) is one of the many areas in Tokyo where you can buy all kinds of things at very reasonable prices.

Here are some photos that I took there: