Ueno Area

Why do guidebooks send people to Ueno for all the wrong reasons? For example, if you go during cherry blossom season, chances are, you’ll see more people than flowers! This kind of beer-drinking banquet craziness is common in Ueno Park during The Season.

But all is not lost! If you buy a ticket for the Tokyo National Museum (specializing in Japanese art and historical objects) in late

March

and mosey out back to their secret garden…this.

Beautiful, serene and uncrowded! You can only get into this small but lovely garden with a ticket to the museum, and what’s special about it is that traditional teahouses are scattered throughout, and during cherry blossom season they are booked solid by private groups performing tea ceremonies, so you’ also wi’ll get to see lots of women in their finest formal kimonos.

The other hack for Ueno Park during o-hanami is to go at night. They hang lanterns in the trees along the main promenade and the crowds are much thinner, despite it being WAY better than daytime.

If you must go to Ueno Park during the day, be sure you head up the stairs and see the temple on top of the hill. It’s worth it just to say you’ve been to the “Hair Pagoda for Priest Tenkai.”

And the Ueno Toshogu Shrine is a surprise of a golden bauble…

and a snap-worthy 5-story red and gold pagoda

This shrine is also where you can see an amazing peony exhibit if you’re in Tokyo in late

April

here many of the plants get their own dedicated parasol to shade them from the sun

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July

brings all the lotus on the Shinobazu Pond into bloom, with the Benten Shrine in the background…

If you’re lucky, you’ll be there when they hang hundreds of glass fūrin bells on the boardwalk, for a sweet soundtrack of summer.

There’s also a charming summer festival in July called Toro Nagashi that includes floating lanterns on the Shinobazu pond

If we go early, we can see the rather obscure ceremony preceding it

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For this year’s dates, search online for toro nagashi shinobazu

And finally, head back to the Ueno Toshōgu Shrine for an exhibit of exquisite dahlias, in late September through

October

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But even if you’re not in Ueno for any of the flower seasons, there are plenty of great things to see year-round! The National Museum of Nature and Science has a highly amusing All Things Especially Japanese wing, with truly excellent life-size dioramas depicting Japanese of yore. The thing I love about these is that they chose moments in the lives of ancient people and really brought them to life. Although they’re obviously wearing clothing that’s so last epoch, their expressions and reactions are exactly like people today.

The Japanese wing also has displays on the evolution of rice, chrysanthemums, goldfish and…dogs. The five kinds of extremely proud-looking Japanese woofers are all represented, including the ACTUAL stuffed Hachiko (she’s the white one) whose statue is everyone’s favorite meeting place outside Shibuya Station

The hall of mammals is a giant roundabout of beady animal goodness

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And if you’re strolling near the pond, there’s a charming small museum called the Taito City Shitamachi Museum that lets you wander through the “street”s and step into the rooms of a bygone Japan. This little timewarp takes you back to the early years of the 20th Century, after Japan had opened to the West, but before WWII.

There are nice exhibits of the random modern and old-fashioned goods that existed side-by-side in per-war Japan…

as well as cute little dioramas of everyday life in those days.

Shitamachi Museum
Open: Every day, except closed Mondays
Hours: 9:30 – 16:30
Admission: ¥300

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And although I wouldn’t usually recommend wasting precious Japan time visiting a zoo, they do have pandas.

SONY DSC — If pandas are your thing, it’s a good chance to see them

Open: Every day except closed Mondays

Hours: 9:00 – 17:00

Admission: Adults: ¥600, Seniors (65 & older): ¥300, Students (13-15): ¥20, Children (0-12): Free.

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Outside Ueno Park, there’s one shopping experience I do make a special trip all the way to Ueno for, but it’s not this:

Ameya-yokocho might have been a great place to experience a shitamachi market street twenty years ago, but the Koshinzuka Street Market and the Nakamise Shopping Street leading up to Sensō-ji Temple in Asakusa are about a thousand times more authentic these days. Unless you’re in the market for some smelly dried squid tentacles to entertain your home country’s customs officials upon re-entry, I’d be very surprised if you can find a Made In Japan tag on anything sold in Ameyoko.

But you should visit Ueno for this toy store. Since the renovated Kiddyland in Harajuku became filled with international brand goods (I can get Snoopy and Barbie back home, thanks), Yamashiro-ya is my go-to emporium for only-in-Japan toystuffs.