Some stuff I've been up to lately, part 2

Hey again all! Trip to Ueno park this time.
This was the giant lake surrounding the Ueno shrine. You can kind of imagine my surprise when I am expecting a pristine mirror lake, and I see what looks like a water lily plantation when I come up on it. I guess it's hard to annotate on a map when a body of water is choked with water plants. I'm sure it's that way intentionally, but still. I'm also sure the reason for this condition is explained on one of the many signs around that I was unable to read.

The Ueno shrine - it's on a, uh, peninsula I guess? I wanted to say island, but there's a land bridge there. Actually, I guess there's a smaller one on the other side too, so I guess technically it's on a perfectly ordinary body of land separating two lakes. Islet? Fjord? I dunno. Nice, though.

The other, clearer lake. This one, I guess they keep clear by virtue of implanting water jet pumps into the bottom of the lake. This was nice and peaceful. There were ducks.

Nice walkway of torii gates.

The national museum of art, west gallery

Main building of the museum. You know, I never stopped to count or anything, but there are a LOT of art forms that are associated specifically with Japan. This is driven home when there's a building with a hall dedicated to outstanding examples of each individual form, and it takes three and a half hours to walk through it. Fun afternoon, though! I especially liked the galleries of lacquerware, kimono, folding screens, and calligraphy-style paintings. Side note: there was an entire hall devoted specifically to calligraphy, but I didn't spend much time in it, because of two things. One, I don't feel like I can appreciate it without having the language skill, and two, because it mildly annoys me that the Japanese have elevated bad handwriting to an art form.

Huge bridge over Ueno station - not an important sight or anything, but I thought it was cool simply because of the acreage significantly above the street and the tracks, and the surrounding buildings making me feel like I was in a valley between steep mountain ranges or something.

Also, here's some shots of my apartment.

Taken from the far corner of the tatami room. It's only 6 tatami mats in area, not very big. I'd like you to note that when I was doing the initial inspection of the furnishings with the list they gave me, it said that there was a desk and a table. I established that the 'desk' was what I would call a high-end folding TV tray, but okay whatever. I was annoyed, though, because I didn't have a table, and it was going to be a bother. After complaining to the apartment complex, I later determined that THIS was the table they were talking about. I wouldn't even glorify that with calling it a nightstand.

Also, if that thing goes missing, they're going to charge me $140 for a replacement.

Taken from the other corner of the tatami room, the one with the 'table'

Taken from the kitchen area. See the ironing board? It's traditional to do the ironing while kneeling. I guess because most homes don't have room for a standing ironing board I guess? Whatever the reason, it's kind of a pain.

A shot of the kitchen. You know, the only stoves I've seen in Japan only have two burners. I wonder if they would even know what 'putting it on the back burner' means.

I'll do another mini-post soon! Have a good one!