Lunch with my Uncle

First full day in Tokyo and I knew I had to make plans with my uncle sooner than later.  My uncle was hesitant to go anywhere because of the storm warnings, but I had to tell him that it wasn't raining at all in Tokyo.  He finally agreed that it would be ok to go to lunch, so Leos and I made our way to his house in Chiba.  It was nice to see my grandma's house again.  We took photos in front of the house and then made our way to lunch.  I really wanted tempura, we that's what he had for lunch.  It was so good!! After lunch we went to my friend's father's house to say hi and have a quick chat.  It was nice to catch up again.  Then we walked to the train station to go back to Tokyo, but came across a mini bamboo forest near my uncle's place. We missed the bamboo forest in Kyoto, so at least we had something. The mosquitos were quite bad so we couldn't stay that long.  Then we went to Akihabara to walk around a bit.  Next we walked to Ueno and had dinner at my favorite chicken place.  It was a great first day in Tokyo. 

                                                     the house I spent MANY summers in

                                                              Leos ordered a BIG meal

                                                                delicious lunch

                                                                    with my friend's dad

                                                                    BEST fried chicken

                                                                        mochi ice cream

                                                                    Tsudanuma Station

                                                                     Ikebukuro

                                                                    I won 3 fries, haha

Osaka to Tokyo

We needed to get to Tokyo and the best way would be by the shinkansen (bullet train).  Unfortunately, Typhoon 10 was in the area and Tokyo was getting a lot of rain (not a drop in Osaka, it was actually 35C) so the exact day we wanted to go to Tokyo, they cancelled all the direct trains going from Osaka to Tokyo.  Our journey should've only been 2.5 hours, but it ended up being almost 9 hours.  We had to get rerouted like everyone else and there were less trains going.  Bullet trains normally go every 10 minutes and now the trains were going every 40 minutes and were packed!!!! From Osaka, we went to Tsuruga, Nagano then Tokyo.  Osaka to Tsuruga was ok, but the next train was horrible!! Such a long line and people were cutting the line and then Leos and I pushed our way in as well.  I sat on the ground while Leos had to stand for 2 hours.  Luckily I heard the conductor say in Japanese that on the same platform there was a train going a few minutes later to Tokyo as well.  Leos and I got off and went to the other train.  We FINALLY got our seats.  It was finally comfortable and we got the real shinkansen experience.  Closer to Tokyo it got crowded again, but we didn't care because we already had our seats. When we arrived to Ueno station in Tokyo, we had to take the subway to get to the station for our accommodation. The accommodation was at a great location.  It had 3 stations for us to choose from to use.  We dropped our bags and went to eat dinner.  It was such a long day and a pity that we lost a full day due to travel. Luckily, everything was safe and we got to Tokyo just fine. 

                                                    prices for the Jrail pass have gone up significantly 

                                  luckily Leos saw this in the morning so we rushed to the station

                                 the press was there to witness the craziness (lines were HUGE)

                                                                    lines of the train

                                                 sitting on the ground and eating my noodles

                                  Leos finally got to work a little bit and drink some beer on the train

                                                                finally getting into Tokyo

                                                                        dinner!