9th April - Koshikawa Korakuen

Yesterday was the hottest day at 21C so I decided to go to a garden ^-^

It was so hot that about 300m away from my hostel I had to go back and change out of my Jeans and switch to a skirt, then when I got to the garden I had to take my tights off!

The garden was Koshikawa Korakuen near the Korkuen Station. I got the wrong train on the way there (>.<) .. It was the right direction but it was an express train and it went past the stop I wanted to get off at!! --Σ(ﾟДﾟ|||)  That was 170 yen wasted and my getting the right train streak ruined! Ooohhh well!

I got to the Garden and oh my god was it beautiful!! The cherry blossoms were in bloom and the sun was shining.. Perfect!!

I don't have much to stay about the garden but here are some pictures so you can bask in its glory!!

I spent about three hours in that garden!

Later that evening I went to check out the Cherry Blossom parties in Ueno park.

The atmosphere was great!! The air just faintly smelt of smoke and beer and there was laughter everywhere!! From the first picture you can see how busy it was, and that was just one tiny section of the area!

It made me want to do something like it when I was back home ^-^ 

1st April

Today I headed off to Harajuku because I read on the internet that there would be a flea market at Togo Shrine, perfect for buying gifts ^-^, however, there wasn't :( Instead there was a wedding! I was too slow to catch a picture of the bride and groom head on and although I could have moved to get a better photo I felt that I wouldn't want tourists taking photo's of me at my wedding, so I left it. This is the one picture I did grab before scurrying away.

The bride and groom are in their traditional clothes under the umbrella. 

To cheer myself up after my fail of a morning, I treated myself to a crepe, getting 1 of my 5 a day in the form of banana smeared in chocolate, whipped cream and wrapped in a pancake ... it counts towards something ... right?

I also came across these awesome Kimono type thingies and I wanted one but I decided against it because it was 16,950 yen (£125ish) ... (>.<) plus if I keep eating crepes (and purin) at the rate I am I wouldn't be able to fit into it anyway :P 

During my wanderings I came across these two interesting shops.

When I took the picture of Condomania I thought that maybe, just maybe, someone had just taken a random English word, but no, it was a shop dedicated to Condoms. They even had their very own cartoon mascot with a very appropriate slogan ... I guess it's a good thing ... in a way! (*ﾉωﾉ)

The second shop shocked me too, but what didn't shock me was the amount of foreigners around it! Just behind this was a British pub selling fish and chips ... it made me a teeny bit smug ... but not much...

Although I'm not sure what the street was called that I was on, if you took out all of the Japanese people (which would have been difficult as it was packed) I would have felt like I was in London as I was surrounded by western shops (i.e Forever 21, Topshop, H&M to name a few) I had a peek inside in the hope that they were 'Japanified' but unfortunately they were not.