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Arriving at Tokyo Haneda Airport

My ANA flight to Tokyo arrived at the Haneda Airport Terminal 2. Terminal 2 is exclusive to ANA international and also domestic flights, but some ANA international flights may arrive at Terminal 3. The exclusivity doesn't necessarily make the immigration hall any less crowded though as Terminal 2's is much smaller.

At the entrance of the immigration hall, there were 2 queues left and right for passengers with Visit Japan Web QR code. But the entrance was narrow and those queues although not that long (<20 persons each) but still felt like they almost obstruct the entrance. So the staff kept urging passengers to move ahead to the Passport Control. I had a QR so I lined up behind the check-in kiosks instead. After check-in at the QR kiosk, I queued behind Passport Control with everybody else without QR. Somehow, I ended up at a SOFA counter which was opened to everyone to speed things up a bit.

Ueno Station

From Haneda Airport, I took Tokyo Monorail to Hamamatsuchō Station (浜松町駅) to transit to another line that would get me to Ueno Station (上野駅) to board a bullet train shinkansen. At Hamamatsuchō Station, I could take either the green Yamanote Line (山手線) or the blue Keihin–Tōhoku Line (京浜東北線). Since those lines are on the same island platform, one can simply board whichever arrives first, which was Keihin–Tōhoku Line for me.

If I was going to take a shinkansen, you might be wondering shouldn't I get off at Tokyo Station instead? Ueno Station despite being much smaller, it still has all the shinkansen lines that Tokyo Station has, with a notable exception of the popular Tōkaidō Shinkansen (東海道新幹線). For Tōkaidō Shinkansen, you might be better off boarding from Shinagawa Station (品川駅). The size of Tokyo Station combining with the crowds can be unpleasant, especially when dragging a full-size luggage with a backpack. Do visit Tokyo Station though to admire its grant exterior, but not for rushing to the next scheduled train while lugging something along.

Once at Ueno Station, I knew exactly where I needed to go without feeling any confusion once I disembarked, this brought me some relieve despite the drizzle outside; though I did study its layout through a walking video beforehand. Even prior to arriving there, I already felt the station is much smaller than Tokyo Station when I noticed plenty of empty seats after Akihabara Station (秋葉原駅).

Once at Ueno Station, I had about 2 hours before my next scheduled train, so I wander around the area a bit to kill time. Before I do that, I stored my luggage in a locker just outside of the Shinkansen ticket gate. On the way, I stopped by a Fuji Soba (名代富士そば) shop to have breakfast. Its ticket vending machine accepts Suica which I appreciate, and the food was served faster than McDonald's. When walking on the pedestrian bridge where in addition to crossing the road to get to Ameyoko (アメ横) side, you could take a good view of the iconic front exterior Ueno Station, I noticed an uncovered smoking area for commuters. It was drizzling at that time, so it must be a slight annoyance for those smokers; perhaps it was purposely arranged that way which is even better, instead of carving a space out in the station.

Withdrawing cash

Before going to a 7-Eleven chain, I stopped by a NewDays convenience store in the Ueno Station to try to withdraw some cash and found a Mizuho Bank ATM at a corner. Even though the ATM had "International ATM" sign with Visa logo, it immediately spit out my card as soon as I insert. After it did that twice, I went straight to 7-Eleven instead. At 7-Eleven, I withdrew 100,000 yen and was charged 220 yen fee for my Visa card, apparently it's free to Mastercard. I also managed to withdraw cash from Aeon Bank ATM which can be found in Ministop convenience stores, there is no fee but the maximum withdrawal per transaction was 50,000 yen. Anyway, I withdrew this much cash because most of the ryokan (旅館) that I stayed were cash only.

Card payment

Visa Paywave is now much more common compared to 2023.

Shinkansen e-ticket

After a significant price hike of rail passes (that are exclusive to foreign visitors) from 1 Oct 2023, they are now hardly worth considering whereas it was kinda no-brainer for my previous travel. So, this time I purchased Shinkansen e-ticket. E-ticket is linked to public transport card (e.g. Suica, Welcome/Sakura Suica, PASMO, etc) which I still keep from my previous travel, so I didn't have to pick up a physical ticket; just tap and off I go. E-ticket needs to be linked at least 4 minutes prior to departure which is plenty of time. Arrive at least 30 minutes at the station prior to departure, get a card from a machine outside of ticket gate, register the card at eki-net.com, get an ekiben (駅弁) then board the bullet train. Ticket can be only purchased at most 30 days prior to scheduled train. Note that Suica card (different from Welcome Suica) is valid for 10 years from last tap, so you might as keep it if you feel like travelling to Japan in near future.

Ueno

After getting out of the Ueno Station and cash-loaded, I briefly stopped at the Ameyoko (アメ横) entrance. It was weekday 9am at that time with most shops yet to open, so the street was quiet. Then, I walked to Ueno no Mori Sakura Terrace 上野の森さくらテラス that had a nice lookout on the top floor. Once there, I couldn't get to the top floor because the building is not yet open. I later discovered the top floor is accessible from the park which I'll mention later.

I walked past Inchiran (一蘭) a popular ramen chain at the opposite side. From several videos that I watched, this chain just outside of the Ueno Station can get pretty busy. But I didn't see any queue around 9am, probably it was only busy during meal times or weekend. It was a bit tempting but I already had my fill from my soba noodle breakfast.

I visited Bentendo Temple (辨天堂). As I was entering the temple, I saw a meat skewer stall which wasn't open when I was there. I find this to be wild given the proximity. I briefly walked around the Shinobazu Pond before heading to Kiyomizu Kannon-dō Temple (清水観音堂). As I walked past chōzuya (手水舎) of Bentendo Temple, I noticed a tourist rinsed his hand using a scoop hishaku (柄杓), but on top of the basin chōzubachi (手水鉢) which looked a bit off to me as that was equivalent as dipping your hand into the basin. Some japanese also did this. Perhaps the etiquette of using a scoop away from the basin is not strictly adhered to? Next time I think I'll fill up the scoop from the dragon-head-shaped tap instead of scooping up from the basin.

At the entrance of Kiyomizu Kannon-dō Temple, I saw a pair of tourists having a puzzling look at the chōzubachi. Although there was a written guide, I gave them a live demo of chōzu which I learned from this woman; also check out how she performs ceremonial clapping kashiwade (柏手) later in the video, which is only applicable to Shinto shrine not Buddhist temple. I skipped the mouth rinsing part though as I wasn't comfortable with doing it with unwashed hand, people wearing face mask (common in Japan) also skip it. Anyway, I then check out the pine tree that the temple is known for, which has been shaped to a circle called tsuki no matsu (月の松).

As the train schedule was getting closer, I started to walk back to the Ueno Station. Near the Statue of Saigō (西郷像) there was a lift to the ground level but it wasn't working due to operating hours of Sakura Terrace. At least that was the lookout that I was looking for, with a view of train traffic of the Ueno Station.

In the Ueno Station, I went to pick up my luggage from the locker, went through the shinkansen ticket gate. While my partner was looking for ekiben, I looked for drink instead. We arrived at least 30 minutes at the station to give her plenty of time to browse, but turned out she didn't need that as there wasn't much choices. Probably a good thing that she didn't have to stress about choices, unlike the Tokyo Station which had too many options. I had a quick look for drinks and Shinshū buckwheat tea (信州そば茶) caught my eye due to relevance to Nagano in this trip; Shinshū is a former name of Nagano prefecture.

That's it for now for this post, my next post will be about my travel to Takasaki and Maebashi cities in Gunma; yes, I will finally start to talk about Gunma as titled.

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