Ueno Park

These are from a bakery on the way to Ueno Park from Ueno Station.  The cuteness just caught my eye. There are a few small temples on the park grounds. Here are some small torii gates.  We went during mid-March and barely any of the Cherry Blossoms were in bloom so it's best to go late March or April to see the park in its full glory. Imagine this walkway lined with cherry blossoms.

Sensō-ji Temple  This is a pretty cool temple to visit, while in Tokyo. A lot of people come in their traditional kimonos.  They'll even take a picture with you.  After getting through the front gate, the path to the temple is lined with booths with great souvenirs and gifts you can pick up. If you look up Sensō-ji Templ on yelp, it says it closes at 5pm, but that pertains to just the temple itself. The shopping area closes later into the night. Around the temple grounds, there are food stands with grilled things, but I preferred the snacks that was nearer the gift shops. Pictured on the right are monakas, which are wafers with sweet bean jam filling. This is a sweet dessert made with Kibi (millet) powder and sweet rice, coated with Kinako (soybean flour). Delicious. Enjoy it with a cup of cold matcha tea.   Bathe yourself in the incense smoke. This is where you are expected to purify your hands and mouth before approaching the temple for worship. If you see this statue, there is a matcha store nearby with some delicious treats. On the way to Tokyo Skytree, we found a casual eatery with Kobe, Tajima, and Wagyu beef in Sensoji. Delicious! 

Tokyo Skytree

Tokyo Skytree is a bit east of Sensoji temple, but close enough to walk to. We went at night, but it would probably be pretty amazing if we caught the sunset from the top deck. You have to buy a ticket to go up. The great thing about Tokyo is that there's always some random character to take a photo with like this Doraemon nearby. The bottom floor of Skytree had some great giftshops if you're looking for Domo-Kun merchandise and some of the more popular animes in the U.S. like Dragonball.  The view from skytree. Outside of skytree, there are also a few shops including this Studio Ghibli shop. So if you weren't able to get tickets to the Ghibli museum and wanted merchandise, then going here or the store in the Sunshine City Convention center.  

Imperial Palace

Southwest of Sensō-ji is the Imperial Palace. You can't actually enter or really see the actual palace. Believe me, I tried to walk around the whole Garden for a good view, but couldn't find one. You can walk through the pretty garden grounds though.

Odaiba City A gian't steampunk looking clock thing. Not sure what is it. 

Pictured on the left is a mini statue of liberty. On the right is the giant Gundam statue. As you can see, they were dismantling it to make way for the Unicorn Gundam debuting Fall 2017.

The Gundam gift shop has some cool merchandise and you can get this cool Gundam green tea latte. 

We couldn't help but go inside the Diver City Tokyo mall for some Sanrio merchandise. 

Eat Gudetama's butt!

Tokyo Tower

On the way back up north, we came across the Tokyo Tower, the 2nd taller structure in Japan, and decided to go to it.

Inside tokyo tower is a mini-amusement park dedicated to One Piece.  There is floor dedicated to One Piece related mini-games.  Fun replicas of the Thousand Sunny's interior. 

This was one of the highlights of my trip. Included with the entry fee is a live action show of One Piece. It was suuuuuper cool! What we didn't know if that before the show, you can stand in line and take a picture with the whole cast. We missed our chance, because we were too busy playing games. :(