A four-year-old whizzes past me on a little bike while we walk to Ueno Park. Where are his parents? No where, and they don’t need to be, since the streets of Tokyo are so incredibly safe and clean. We are on mile 7 of the day, after waking up at 4am, exploring the neighborhood and closest temple, and signing up for a free walking tour (which unfortunately I had to leave early because I got an extreme migraine and had to lay down in a dark room). Luckily, Chad’s energy is contagious (or is it incessant?) and pretty soon after my headache went away we were on our way to get our first taste of sushi and then another long walk.
We make our way now to Ueno Park, the weather a perfect temperature with the sun setting. I take in the architecture of Tokyo, a light, modern feeling, and a surprising amount brick. As we enter the park, there are a group of Japanese men dressed like Elvis dancing to his music, in a circle, with no one cheering or watching. Curious. We meander throughout Ueno Park as the sun set a cotton candy color. There are food stalls and we eat our fifth fried food of the day. Americans are not the only ones who love fried food. A child starts to scream bloody hell as Ed Sheeran’s song, Perfect, is played by a street musician. The child’s shirt says “Peace”. I’ve noticed that so many children’s clothes are have adorable English phrases on them. I noted one that said “Cute Fun Great”. I love it.
We walk a giant loop around the park, before we head back to the hotel. Mileage is clocking in at 10 miles for the fist day. We end up back to the hotel around 7:30pm, my feet with 5 new bandaids. Just like the energizer bunny, once the battery is drained, Chad’s head hits the pillow, he’s out cold. Day one in Japan, 14 hours of walking, a total of 10.2 miles and a crash onto a pillow.
