Day 17: Trains, Ueno Park and Home

Friday morning, we finished packing up our stuff and headed out to Ueno Park. But first we had to stop at the park by our guest house one last time.

We also went by the Shimogoinden Train Museum, which is really just a viewing platform by Nippori Station where you can watch trains including bullet trains go by.

Pictures of some of the different types of trains.

A bullet train!

Two bullet trains in a row. Next time we go to Japan, everyone definitely wants to go on a bullet train.

The kids also liked these "double-decker" trains.

Another bathroom sign asking you to please put toilet paper in the toilet.

After stowing our luggage in some lockers, we went to Ueno Park. It is a huge park home to many museums and temples. 

We enjoyed listening to the woman play on the ocarina while we ate a snack.  She had several for multiple pitch ranges.

We visited the Tokyo National Museum. The museum is HUGE! and consists of a series of buildings showcasing many displays. We didn't have a lot of time here but enjoyed seeing what we could.

Nice tapestry of a samurai.

An old sword.  This is just the hilt and scabbard.  They separated out the blades.

Some more weapons.  The bows they would use were really large.

Another sword.  Here you can see just the blade.  Japanese blades were some of the strongest in the world because of the way they made them.

Engraving on the above sword.

Samurai armor.  A lot of it was woven together, not a lot of metal.  

Some examples of fancy traditional Japanese clothing.  This is a man's outfit.

This is a woman's kimono.

There were many beautiful examples of Japanese art on screens and wall hangings.

Outside, there was a traditional Japanese home.

Another stone lantern in a park.

The kids enjoying playing a bit at the playground.

We rode our train to the airport.  Taking pictures from the train is never easy.

This is what the United area of the airport looks like when its systems are down. We are very thankful that we checked in online ahead of time and that a nice agent printed our boarding passes for us so that we didn't have to wait in these lines!

Our plane to take us to San Francisco. The sun was setting as we took off. I definitely saw Mt. Fuji. It was really beautiful with the dark cone contrasting with the orange of the sun as it set. I tried to get a picture but didn't have enough time.

Sarah and Megan on the plane. For some reason, this flight didn't have personal entertainment devices in the seat backs and the in flight entertainment on the big screens had technical issues. Sure glad we had our tablets with us!

U and Matthew sat behind us.

Dinner wasn't great but people really liked the dessert!

I often reminisce about things, saying "Yesterday at this time...." or "Last week at this time...." It was fun that for the rest of this day, I could say "Today at this time...." and then say whatever it was we were doing in Tokyo at that time. It was the longest day of my life (40 hours). It sure was an amazing trip!