In the past I’ve posted numerous daytime photos from Ueno on these pages, as at the right time of year, the light is absolutely lovely. Night scenery, on the other hand, has been much rarer, so for a different take on a favourite area, here is a small series shot during a walk that way a week or so ago.
Search Results for: Ueno
Ueno colours and old school looks
Before the pandemic, Ueno’s Ameyoko market street was an area I regularly opted for on days when the light was just right. The atmosphere, trackside location, and most of all those shopping there made it a great place to take photos. Then Covid, and in particular mask wearing changed all that, meaning a once regular haunt became somewhere I rarely visited.
However, with most faces now mercifully uncovered, along with the great light Tokyo is often blessed with at this time of year, it’ll very likely become an irresistible location once again. Definitely so if I can come away with more photographs like the first one — a moment captured very recently. The other shots are all from that other time, providing some nice reminders as well as a good chance to show some previously posted and unposted pictures.
Faces of Ueno from the past
When the sun was out and the sky clear, Ueno, and even more so its Ameyoko market street, were once almost embarrassingly regular destinations for me and my camera. “Where did you go today?” my wife would ask, but before I could even answer, my decidedly sheepish look would have already given the game away, and with mock, wide-eyed surprise, she’d exclaim, “Ueno, again!”
Despite managing to trick her into guessing wrong every now and then, it invariably was Ueno, again, but with its gifts of lovely light and fascinating people, how could I not give in when the conditions were ideal?
I thought about this the other day when I went back after a fairly long break. It had been a similarly long while before that as well. The sky was blue, and timing wise the light was just right, but with Tokyo still in a quasi-state of emergency, and masks very much the norm, it was a stark reminder of why I’ve become something of a stranger. It’s just not the same. Eyes are the window to the soul and all that, but uncovered faces are infinitely more interesting. Sights that will hopefully return in the not too distant future, but until then, here are some people from Ueno of the past.
A hint of old Tokyo under the tracks in Ueno
Tokyo’s Ueno district has its fair share of modern buildings and neon lights, but on the whole it has a wonderfully gritty, even grubby feel to it. A worn, somewhat frayed round the edges look that is often reflected in the people who spend time there.
But under the tracks a real hint of old Tokyo is added to the rough and ready mix. A link to the past that the shadows and yakitori smoke only add to.
Shadowy Ueno?
Tokyo’s Ueno district may well be home to some of the city’s most important museums, but it’s also where many of the poorest call home too. The area’s park in particular shelters an increasingly obvious number of the capital’s growing homeless population, creating an odd environment where day-trippers and the destitute show utter indifference to one another.
Thrown into this unusual mix is also Ameyoko; a decidedly working class shopping district that in post-war Japan was a well-known black market — elements of which are really not hard to imagine even today.
And just like the wider area, it provides glimpses of both light and dark, old and new.
Up, up and Ueno?
There’s a real grittiness to many parts of east Tokyo; areas that often feel a world away from the capital’s more glitzy districts. And Ueno, with its old shopping streets and very visible homeless population, in many ways epitomises this more unforgiving side of the city.
But while some people understandably look down or round about them, others appear to be much more interested in what may be beyond.