Ueno to Akiba & Back Again
As I found myself with some spare time today, I thought I’d head back to one place in Tokyo you can always find some lovely views, street entertainers and plenty of homeless people – Ueno. (I didn’t go for the homeless people).
As I’ve been to the park before (I wrote about it here) I was determined to just walk randomly until I found somewhere cool that no tourists would ever think to visit. Unfortunately, the path I chose ended up landing me in the centre of Akihabara, which of all tourist sites in Japan is probably the most visited. Oops. Still, determined to get a few good photos, I whipped out my camera, put on my best “Wow, look at all the buildings!” face, and tourist-ed my way around the place.
This building is pretty close to the station itself. It’s absolutely huge – I was going to go in, except there was a colossal tourist group just outside it, and the police were having a field day asking tourists to show them their Visas. I should state for the record that I do have a Visa, and I was carrying it, but I still don’t like being asked for it, so instead I wandered off down a random side street and kept on photographing.
Well, when I say side street, I mean it was still giant, but it was off to my side. That counts, right? Reguardless, these trees line the way back to Ueno, and the water in the bottom of the photo is part of a statue in front of the “Akiba Square” building. Again, I wanted to get inside but this time I couldn’t find the door, until I walked about 300m away and realised the door was so huge I’d taken it for a wall. Oops. By then I was too far away to put in all that effort to head back, so I just kept exploring.
After getting really, really lost quite a few times, I managed to explore my way back to Ueno, and eventually gave up on defying the tourist hordes and headed to the park. These photos are of things that I didn’t take photos of last time, so hopefully this counts as original material!
This is a look down Ueno’s main street. The blue sign hidden behind the trees is the Keisei Skyliner, that goes all the way to Narita airport. I’ll be getting on it to go home on September 25th. But enough about that!
The park itself was as usual packed, with various street performances going on. My favourite was this one.
These guys were incredibly good – sort of a funky folk inspired flute-athon. I’m aware they aren’t playing flutes in that photo, but I wanted an excuse to use the word ‘flute-athon’. Anyway, they were trying to sell CDs and I was considering buying one, but in the end I passed in favour of buying some delicious Yakitori. (Fried chicken on a stick). These guys honestly were great, but nobody can compete with grilled meat.
Finally, on my way out, I walked past this sort of totem pole which someone had helpfully stuck some chewing gum on, just out of my reach, but visible enough to ruin all my photos. But at the base of it was this sign;
It was quite cool – I had a look around but I couldn’t seem to find these LIONS people. But at least I know if I get in trouble in Japan I can call upon the Tokyo Ueno Lions Club to save me. I think I qualify as part of Japan’s national safety. I mean, without me who would there be to make fun of Japanese politics?!
So again, Ueno Park was 100% great fun, and if you’re ever in Ueno or Akihabara I advise the walk to the other one, because you see some pretty cool sights on the way. Oh, and a whole lot of skyscrapers.
Boring computer bit: Because I’m on the school computer, I can’t see if the photos work unless I put them on Flickr, so all the photos from this update (and a few extra ones) are available on my Flickr page.
