Ueno Park, the First Visit!

Ok so today I visited Ueno park to scout out the surroundings.  There are a large number of museums and things of that ilk to see, so I went to check it all out.  What I wasn't expecting was all the crazy street performances and a random zoo!  The whole park is also raised about 100 feet above ground level, and there are shops and train stations underneath it.  Tokyo always amazes me as to how much vertical space everything takes up.

It also amazes me how similar England and Japan are in desiring green spaces.  Everyone has potted plants here, and there are about five large parks in Tokyo.  Maybe it's that dull grey feeling you get when you spend weeks on end looking at concrete that sparks a sudden desire for greenery; a syndrome that must be particularly acute considering the dearth of gardens or allotments here.

The park is also full of couples.  They make me sick with their covorting and whatnot.  That should be made illegal.

Onto the pictures!

This is another example of random history dotted within the city.  This shrine could be five years old, or five hundred, but finding these adds so much to the feeling of Tokyo.  Paris has coffee bars and long lunches, London has the queen and lots of rain; Tokyo has more people than seems possible, and shrines wedged improbably between buildings.

A lot of the statues are also given clothes.  This fox has been given a bib, which I think is something to do with children.  Each shrine has its' own speciality, some are for health, some are for fertility etc.

And helpfully the modern shrines have English descriptions of what they actually do.  It would be nice if they included a little more information thought, like what appeasing this God will do... (My Shinto is a little hazy, but I think people can be deified and housed in shrines like this, so presumably by worshipping here you're actually worshipping the author mentioned, but it doesn't say what happens if you do pray here.)  Do you, for example, become able to touch-type if you pray here?  Or maybe  they still adhere to the traditional religious school of thought, whereby not praying here will mean you lose the ability to read?

Let's wedge as many buildings and people into the smallest area possible!

This is a typical view of the interior walls of a small religious area.  Sometimes the flags are even advertising the Japanese bid for the 2016 olympics!  I want to see a local church fly banners for the next rugby world cup, please.

And this is the view to the right.  (above is left)  These statues are everywhere and initially look the same, yet there are extremely subtle differences between them.  Some have extremely puffed out chests, some have short legs, big teeth, are laying down etc.  I would assume they're bespoke to the shrine that ordered them, and they do all give off slightly different vibes.  The large chested ones look quite prideful, whereas this one is all about guarding the main shrine.  The ones that are lying down look like they're supposed to be doing something, but are just thinking, 'meh, someone else will do it.'

Ok so the couple of shrines I bumped into during the walk to Ueno were a side-story to the main event.  I didn't realise looking at the map just how massive Ueno is.  No building is below 200 metres tall, and even this picture is taken 30 metres in the air, over an enormous walkway.  The park itself is raised above the train station, a road and a ton of shops!  Rather than show you how high it is with a side on comparative shot, you'll see the shot looking down from the park later.  The building philosophy here is astounding.  There's plenty of space in the air afterall.





More posts to follow!

So this is a typical Tokyo side-street.  Notice the signs, they all light up at night.  Also notice the pachinko sign.

Pachinko is a Japanese phenomenon; I will have to write an investigative piece all on its own at a later date investigating pachinko, because their parlours are everywhere.  Literally everywhere.  If you look at the other photos I've taken of Tokyo streets you'll see those signs all over the place; usually in English too.

I don't think this guy is a recognised character like rirakuma, the relaxing bear that was in akihabara; but he's just so ridiculous that I had to take a picture.  I wonder if the hole in his head is for the guy inside to breathe?  Or maybe his character is a dolphin/turtle hybrid born in a lab somewhere.  Who knows.  I certainly don't.

I've been around Tokyo and seen singers and street performers, but unlike the buskers in London they never asked directly for money-in-a-hat - instead they peddled  cd's and merchandise promoting their dance troupe, band or whatever.  In Ueno they do it the european way, and ask for money at the end of their performances.

This woman was some kind of clown/magician/mime artist conglomeration.  My favourite trick of hers was actually 'hat manipulation,' for want of a better term.  She rolled it down her arms, flicked it onto her feet and generally larked around in a very skilful way, with her hat!   Pretty awesome stuff if I'm honest.

So I remember this guy from a book I read, he may well have been the author.  He's dead (sic) famous anyway, enough that there were never fewer than five people taking pictures at his feet.  Being a foot taller than anyone I was able to snap this without including too many tourists.  This was a fact that did not go unnoticed, as several people approached me asking for a foreigners eye view of the statue.

So basically I can't really remember what he's famous for, but he is famous for something.

People were also taking a lot of picture of him from behind; maybe he has a famous ass or something...  Maybe they were just too short to get good photos from  the front?  This is mere speculation of course.

Ok the internet is breaking at the moment, so I'll finish this later.

Ok so this gargantuan department store is called 'yodobashi camera,' ヨドバシカメラ.  I think.  It has the camera I will buy if I get a job, it's fricking amazing.  Anyway, this is the premier shop for all electronics purchasing, not just cameras, and contains some cool stuff.

I've not yet visited don quixote, which is an 'everything under one roof,' kind of store; and is cutely abbreviated to 'donkey,' but I will try and get there in my travels!

So this is the view from the top of the park, looking down on Ueno.  It's really as high as this picture makes it feel, and the city is at least this crowded all the time.  Everywhere I've been  there are this many people, and this many things happening all the time, I'm beginning to see why this is the most populous city in the world.  There are maybe a couple of places that are like this in London, but there are literally dozens that follow this pattern in Tokyo.

The bagpipe playing Japanese man walks into the bar and says...

Yeah this is really a Japanese guy playing the bagpipes.  And then he does some awesome stuff with some diablo too, what's that all about?

Ok so this is the same guy that does the awesome juggling  and diablo in my youtube videos.  Frankly speaking, he has to be gay.  No straight man has the crazy moves he does.

I include this picture because the thought occurred to me, while he was performing this trick, that he must have nads of iron, or have lost them some time ago, possibly performing this trick...

So this is a shrine inside Ueno park.  They are literally everywhere in Japan, and are vital to the sense of being Japanese, even if they average person doesn't really visit them often, or think about it that much.  I'm currently looking at a survey that says 40+% of Japanese think these heritage sites are what defines Japan.  Having these spaces everywhere, housing gods, spirits and all manner of things between this world and the next is quintessentially Japanese.

The concrete lanterns for example, are Chinese, yet they're incorporated into most shrines here, and are considered to be Japanese.  They steal things and claim them as their own... Sound familiar?  The difference is their heritage is celebrated, for better or for worse, rather than admonishing their past like in England.  It also causes a lot of problems, the fact that things like nanjing are buried and not well known within these shores definitely contributes to the 'Japan is the America of Asia,' mentality most Asians have.  'Good' and 'Bad' aside though, all these different curiosities come together to make Japan what it is.

The giant pagoda are quite common here too, although not as common as the shrines themselves.

I couldn't get closer to this one unforunately, and the artsy kind of 'through the leaves' photo doesn't work because the growth is too damn dense!

So these designs are all over the giant chinese lanters.  They're pretty cool, and I've lots of pictures of them; don't worry, I'll only show you this one.

This site appeared to be really old, unlike most places here that have to be rebuilt every so often.  The bell was all rusted and mangled, and I don't think it's still used.

Even the rope looked old in this place.

They also keep a flame from the atomic bombings, just to the right in this picture.  Like the olympic torch, only a lot more morbid.

I was going for an artsy shot of the chinese shrines next to the Japanese style water-sould purification system that I've described previously.

It didn't work, but the other pictures I took were also quite poor, (I put the camera in sports mode so they're really grainy) so I'll put this one up.

This is the atomic flame.  It's been on quite a  journey, but the most interesting part for me was the description of why the first person kept the flame; it wasn't positive.

The first man kept this flame to show his resentment of the dropping of the bombs, yet over time this thing has come to symbolise the desire for peace.  How did that happen?

So yeah I was basically trying not to look american when I was looking at this.

Another view from Ueno park.  It's amazing the variety of things that are contained within this one, albeit large, area.  It's certainly an efficient use of space.

A view of Ueno by night.  It's taken me so long to figure out how to take night photographs!  You wouldn't believe how many of these are blurred...

And finally, the Hello Kitty bus!!!  Cute rules here, and Hello Kittty is the cutest of them all...

Still though, and entire bus?  Really now?  Incredible...


So that's it for Ueno day 1!!!  It's taken me nearly a week to get this single post up and finished, I thank the internet for its' patience in these matter.

Ciao for now!