Day out in Yushima & Ueno

We came to Yushima shrine again to have a look again before going for lunch.

Back at 香港傳奇(LEGENDARY HONGKONG) again. We were the first in queue today.

Look at all the food we ordered!

We ordered 2/3 plates of each!

There were some that we did not take picture of, including the polo bun, wantan noodles and chicken rice.

We definitely over ordered because by the end we were stuffing ourselves to not waste food.

Overall, the food is not bad, but I would suggest to skip the noodles and rice.

After our very heavy lunch, we walked to Ueno Park.

J snapped these very artistic shots of ducks in the lake.

Sakura was already blooming at Ueno Park!

We had to stop for some pictures :D

Then we spotted an Uncle who brought a bag full of snacks, feeding the pigeons at the park.

As we moved nearer to the station, the sakura trees there were even nicer because they were already in full bloom!

However, there were many people here and it didn't feel as safe to take off our masks for pictures.

After that, we went to explore the underground market in Ueno. I remember visiting once before with Q many years ago. It was like a totally different place, like we were no longer in Japan. 

After IT got her groceries, we went to the BLUE LEAF CAFÉ (上野) for some desserts. This place was very busy and it was pretty hard to find seats for the 7 of us. We eventually managed to get 2 separate tables on the first floor.

Website: http://blueleafcafe.jp/

J and I got coffee and this green tea parfait. The parfait was good, but it would definitely taste better if it was summer.

The other are cramped at this corner table here LOL

After desserts, we continued shopping along ameyokocho and went clothes shopping.

Before heading home, we thought that we'd get dinner at Sushi Ro, but it was pretty popular and had a long queue. We took a number and tried waiting for it but gave up eventually as we felt that we might not be able to enter by their closing time. As it was still the SOE, shops close at 8pm.

We ended up at Obon de Gohan おぼんdeごはん 上野店. J called and they happened to have tables available that they can hold for us. So we rushed there immediately. We were super lucky because after arriving a queue started forming behind us. I guess everyone were trying to grab dinner too before heading home.

I order this udon and rice set while J had steak. His steak definitely tasted better than my order, even though mine looked a lot nicer in picture.

The steak dish, which came with tororo. I am not a fan of tororo and usually will not order sets that come with it.

 

Dimsum at 香港傳奇(LEGENDARY HONGKONG)

Grabbed dimsum for breakfast with the girls at 香港傳奇(LEGENDARY HONGKONG).

By the time we arrived, there was already a long queue outside and we did not get to enter the restaurant when they first opened, so we had to wait outside for quite sometime to get s spot.

The girls got milk tea.

These piggy buns were super cute, but they definitely looked better than their taste.

Frist prawn rolls were good.

So were the char siew sou which had a pretty thick flaky crust, but I was ok with it.

The pan fried radish cake was ok, not as good as the ones from Din Tai Fung.

Steamed har gao which I did not try.

The cheong fun had a thicker skin than expected. It would be better if the skin was thinner.

Wantan mee was not good, but he prawn wanton was very good. Highly recommend just getting it without the noodles.

We were really happy to get so many different variety of dimsum. We also other things like egg tart which I did not manage to snap a picture of.

Sadly, I had to leave after the meal as I had to travel 3 hours to Chiba to check into my hotel, for work the next day.

 

Toritsune Shizendo (鳥つね 自然洞) & Yushima Tenjin Shrine (湯島天満宮)

Today, we came to Akihabara because J wanted to get a new phone. After buying his phone, we went to Toritsune Shizendo (鳥つね 自然洞) for lunch. This place has been on my google map as one of the restaurants that I really want to visit because of it's high ratings on oyakodon.

Website: https://r.gnavi.co.jp/m1e7v6110000/menu1?sc_cid=gorp_menu_all_menu1&_ga=2.31947326.1835646798.1640927209-1571684130.1640927209

Their simple menu.

This is the tokujyo oyakodon set that J got. This costs 3,100 JPY and comes with a chicken salad and tori shinjyo, which is like a fried minced chicken meatball. This was really special as I have never seen this dish before and it was delicious.

The oyakodon itself was also yummy. I just got the normal tokujyo oyakodon for 1,800 JPY.

After lunch, we walked to Yushima Tenjin Shrine (湯島天満宮) to enjoy the peach blossoms.

There were many people and hence, hard to grab a nice shot alone without masks. This place is famous for their peach blossoms and there is a festival here every year during this time.

 

Konaya udon & Ume festival at 湯島天満宮 (Yushima Tenjin)

Konaya (古奈屋), Oazo, Marunouchi

Website: http://www.konaya.ne.jp/

I ordered the えび天カレーうどん (ebiten kareudon) for 1, 380 yen.

First time at such a fancy curry udon restaurant and it was definitely worth the price. The udon was springy,the prawn tempura was succulent and the best part was the curry~!!!! Sooo good~ and so different from what we usually get.

~ ~ ~

One weekend, I decided to go on a Ume flower escapade.

This here is from Tokyo Daijingu. As you can see from the background, there are many people queuing up to pray for love.

After that, I went to Yushima Tenjin (湯島天満宮) which is one of the ume spots in Tokyo.

Website: http://www.yushimatenjin.or.jp/pc/ume/index.htm

There were many people there for the plum festival.

Pretty~

Love the japanese garden view~

Apparently, this is a famous shrine for those who wants to pray for their exams. At the time of the plum festival, there were entrance exams going all around Japan and as you can see here, there are many ema everywhere.

This is the first time I've stopped by this are and I'm really glad that I made the stop because the plum flowers were really pretty!