An Evening Stroll in Ueno

When I don't have any other plans, and I still need to get out of the house, I tend to take a usual route from Akihabara, to Jinbocho, to Takadanobaba, to Ikebukuro. Some of the travel is by train, while a lot of it is on foot, so I get a bunch of exercise.

Every once in a while I'll head back to one of the other parts of town; recently, I was in the Ueno area to help out my friend and have some dinner.

 I've written about Ameyoko in the past. It's the major shopping street just south of Ueno, next to and under the train tracks. I spent a decent part of the afternoon wandering around some of the shops. I discovered an Okinawan store down one of the side streets, and a pet shop near that. The puppies looked so lonely.

 After we each had a kebab sandwich, which are pretty easy to find in that area and are really delicious, we strolled through the southern portion of Ueno Park. I've never really noticed the lanterns lining the walkway before, but then I've never been in Ueno Park at night. There are a few different Ukiyoe images that are found on the dozens of walkway lanterns.

 Ueno has two temples, one up the hill and one below. The one up the hill was lit up with spotlights.

 Heading up the stairs, I saw the temple in its completely-shuttered state, something I don't think I've ever seen.

 Back at the bottom, we wandered over to Bentendo. It was a Sunday evening, so the decorations and tents must have been from something that day.

 Bentendo closes its doors as well, but at least this temple has more to it on the outside!

 One of Bentendo's shrines.

 Heading back toward Ueno Station, we noticed a recycling bin with a little bit of artistic freedom.

 Something else I don't recall seeing before was found at the southern end of Ueno Park - this panda shrubbery.

The panda has a friend! My friend is obsessed with pandas, but I think she's seen this before or she was really tired, because she had no interest at all in them. So we headed back to the station and said our goodbyes for the night.

It's nice to know that in a city like Tokyo, I can still find new things, and that there are so many neighborhoods to return to and re-explore.