Wednesday, January 3, 2024

• Finally, a day that I’ve been looking forward to for so many years – a full day dedicated to exploring our home-away-from-home, Ameyoko in Ueno!
• From our very first trip to Japan, Ueno has felt like the neighbourhood we would most like to live in long term; it has an incredible mix of convenience and rewarding effort, old-school black markets and modern experiences, a glorious green space and narrow alleys filled with cosy bars. In short, it has so much of what we love most about Japan, all in one contained, sprawling and vibrant area. If you’re contemplating a trip to Tokyo, I would suggest adding at least a half day of exploring Ameyoko to the itinerary, it’s incredible.

• For anyone still on the fence, there’s a whole genre of YouTube creators who focus on walking Tokyo neighbourhoods; no commentary, just pure ambience and sightseeing. We lived on these videos during the pandemic. Here’s one that does an incredible job of showing off some of the Ameyoko experience – 4KHDR】Tokyo Ueno at sunset – raven treasure, duck attack and Ameyayokocho
  • Thanks, Rambalac, you do incredible work!

• The weather was actually a bit warmer and more sunny than we were anticipating, so today became the first day of this trip I left my winter coat and home and tried a more casual hoodie, which worked pretty well.

• First stop was back to Yodabashi Ueno to try to find a replacement for my poor, dying Fitbit – getting a good count of our daily steps was something we wanted to track during this trip, and having my device die halfway through each day was going to be a problem for that.
• Unfortunately, they were completely sold out. While it was tempting to look at the offerings from Samsung and Huawei, having to learn a new ecosystem steered me away from the idea, at least for now.
• However, I did find something exciting; on the ground floor, they were doing camera-based fukubukuru (lucky bags)! Two types, one larger one for around ¥120,000 and a slightly smaller one for ¥108,000.
• Finally, I understood the appeal of fukubukuru that my wife had known all along – the appeal is in the unknown, the risk, of taking a gamble on something that you might immediately fall in love with or immediately regret deeply.
• While I was happy with my current pocket camera (a Sony RX100 m3 I picked up refurbished a few months before the trip), the thought of taking amazing images of our holiday was a strongly appealing one, and the thought of letting luck decide what that would look like was a strongly appealing one.
• Leaving Yodabashi with thoughts of gambling on the camera lottery running through my head, we ventured deeper into Ameyoko (after swinging past the incredible wall of gatchapon machines)

• Some highlights of exploring Ameyoko include the beautiful tiny shrine hidden in the backstreets, an oasis of calm and quiet in the otherwise bustling streets…

• …Yamashiroya toy store, where each level has a different theme of toys, games, and wonders for children of all ages
• A vending machine that stocked all varieties of edible insects….

• …Hobby Off, which is filled with all sorts of secondhand tools, electronics, instruments and clothes (but sadly, nothing that stood out to us this time)
• I also found an awesome-looking pair of purple velvet, retro-styled sneakers (they might have been Vans?) I made a mental note to come back later in the trip if the shoes I’d packed started causing issues for my feet.
• Finally, it was time to track down some lunch. While we were both in a mood for a good bowl of ramen, every ramen joint we found was still closed for New years. We ultimately found an izakaya we’d never tried before, which looked like it was called Shokudouraku –

• We found ourselves sitting a table next to a doppelganger for Japanese professional wrestling deity, Minoru Suzuki. (If you aren’t familiar with Suzuki’s work, an upcoming post on this blog will include more….)
• I had the garlic sizzling steak, and it was absolutely delicious. Possibly the nicest single meal I had the entire trip (but equally, it had some pretty tough competition, so maybe not? It was up there, regardless). I should have taken a photo prior to chowing down, but the sizzling garlic smelt so perfectly and the first sip of beer so intoxicating, this is the best I could manage –

• After lunch, I could resist the call no longer; we headed back to Yodabashi to take my chances on one of the camera fukubukuru. In sizing up the two options (both of which were sealed and had black tissue paper hiding the gap that might have revealed the contents), the sales clerk suggested that the more expensive one would be better for video, while the cheaper one was more stills-focused.
• I strongly suspect that the more expensive bag was likely a Sony ZF-EV10 (especially as the lady hinted it would pair well if we had Sony APS-C lenses.
• I ended up going with the other option, which turned out to be… the Olympus/OM-System PEN E-P7!
• The full bag included the kit lens (14-42mm f3.-5.6 pancake). half-case, 128GB UHS-I card and neck strap.
• This was exciting to me – I’d previously shot Sony cameras (years ago), but Olympus was new to me. They weren’t the first brand I would have thought of and micro 4/3rds wasn’t the first sensor size I would have gone to…. but I bloody love this system! Experimenting with this camera for the rest of the trip was truly such a joy, to the point where I’ve since built out a library of Olympus glass and take it out whenever I’ve got a free afternoon or weekend. This camera also has me thinking more about my future in a strange way…
• Finally, with full bellies and an exciting new tool to learn, we decided to have our equivalent of an afternoon siesta – our first karaoke stop!

• While I don’t remember which karaoke songs we sung this day, here’s the first half of the list (which was between this and our next karaoke sessions) –

• With sore throats, full bellies and an exciting new tool to learn, we headed back to the hotel to regroup and reload. MBW (my beautiful wife!) was still letting her knees recover, so was happy to set up in bed to do some journalling and take it easy, and I immediately started unpacking my shiny new camera.
• I also jumped online to look at some reviews – did I get a dud? Is there anything it’s amazing at? Or terrible at? Any settings that should be changed immediately? I found this review by James Artaius of Digital Camera World, which certainly filled me with hope that I was on to a winner; “the one camera I can’t live without” is incredibly high praise.
• The review also gave an example of a lens recommendation, the Olympus M.Zuiko 45mm f/1.8. James also found this to be pretty decent – “I’ve used this lens extensively for professional assignments and private commissions, and it has come through every time. Obviously it’s designed as a portrait lens, but I also find it great for street photography and reportage (which are typically the realm of 35mm equivalents).”
• Knowing what we were up to the following day (more on this later), a longer focal length lens, small and light and great for portraiture, sounded perfect, so I was able to find a copy for sale (at a very good price) at another Yodabashi in Akihabara, the next suburb over.
• MBW was looking pretty cosy in bed, so I had a quick solo-trip out to Akihabara. Success, as I was able to pick up my new lens, a new Fitbit (they actually had some in stock), and even came across something to think about for the rest of the trip… (although not today, as I had already spent my budget for the day many times over!)