Day 14: A Rosy Outlook

Today, I intended to go to Ueno to visit the National Museum of Nature and Science that I hadn't been able to visit on Day 1 and grab some collab merchandise for Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun at a store in the station. I did manage to get the collaboration merch. It wasn't particularly difficult since it was on a little stand without any traffic inside a bookstore inside the station.

I don't know how Cinnamoroll and the rest of the Sanrio characters can be such prolific collaborators. I only wanted the Iruma-kun characters but it's not like the Sanrio characters are taking anything away. I decided to just get 2 of my favorite characters, Iruma and Clara, but at checkout I got Asmodeus as my random postcard to round out the main trio (since you get one of seven random postcards if you spend ¥2,200 in a transaction)! LUCKY!

As I headed to the museum, I noticed a life-size giant panda exhibit on the top floor of the station.

Heading into Ueno park, it was very busy so I was worried there would be a large line at the museum. However, when I got there I realized that tickets needed to be bought online and that there was a special dinosaur exhibition that has reserved time slots. I checked the dinosaur exhibit time slots and found that there were none for today, so thought I would check the regular exhibits and come back. However, buying a ticket online did not turn out to be what I would call an "easy process". Eager to nope out of any stressful situation, I just hopped back on the train and headed to a different destination.

About 15 or 20 minutes later, I arrived at Kami-Nakazato Station. I actually was a little taken aback when I arrived at the station because I really liked it. It seemed kind of old but was spacious and quiet. Maybe it's a "vibe" thing lol

I even took a photo of the front of the station so that I would remember what the station was called! I probably wouldn't make a trip out of just visiting the station, but it would be a happy surprise if I ended up passing through.

The reason I had come here was to visit the Former Furukawa Gardens that I had tried to visit on Day 3 but that had been closed. Luckily, this time the park was both open and holding the Spring Rose Festival!

After paying the park entrance fee of ¥150, I entered and immediately saw the western-style manor that had been advertised. It and the surrounding gardens are quite nice, it's crazy to think someone used to live here considering how dense the surrounding areas are.

After entering the garden, I was able to view all of the blooming roses. It didn't seem that all of the roses were in bloom yet but quite a lot were.

There were a couple of shops open, including one that was selling a lot of floral-themed merchandise like handkerchiefs and doll outfits. Another was selling ice cream and the final (pictured above) was selling various snacks and drinks.

Here are a few of my favorite roses that I got to see

It was basically this red but IDK if I need to turn off some phone settings it looks a little too saturated or something?

A nifty pink and yellow one!

An orange-ish rose with some rain droplets

Pink ones

After looking through the rose garden for a bit, I entered the wider garden. It's probably the smallest of the parks I've visited by far so you could stroll through the whole thing in just 10 or 15 minutes but it was pretty relaxing. Most visitors were just staying near the manor and rose garden.

It was a bit quieter than I'd expect given the proximity to the streets and wider civilization. Looking into the garden, you could almost forget you were in the city. Unless you looked up slightly.

There were a few even less traveled paths that were even quieter but still not very far from the entrance

After exploring the rest of the park, I called it a day and headed home. I do think the park was worth ¥150 as that's just the price of a drink in a vending machine. The only things I didn't like so much is that the pond water level seemed a little low and maybe stagnant. That itself was a little weird because it was obvious that the pond was man-made and replenished via hoses, which is usually hidden a bit better than it had been here. It's pretty nit-picky but it was a little distracting to me personally. Even with that though, I definitely recommend visiting, especially if you can do so during the Spring Rose Festival. I'm sure it's beautiful year round but the roses are definitely a nice bonus!

After heading home, I grabbed some Sushi for dinner and pastries for snacks at the Atre department store in Sugamo. The Sushi was alright but I wasn't totally sure what each fish was. It had too much whitefish in my opinion but I had chosen the set so that's really on me. Next time I'll just get a salmon set or something.