A Day at Ueno Park

We spent Tuesday, Oct. 30 at Ueno Park. It’s sort of like the Smithsonian in DC and Balboa Park in San Diego. There are museums, fountains, statues, a zoo, merry-go-round, and a large pond within the Park. So we started with me as the tour guide navigating the Tokyo Metro to get to the Park. Lots of the Metro stations within Central Tokyo have signage in English and the stations are numbered so it’s navigatiable by a Gaijin (foreigner).


We started off seeing the statue honoring Saigo Takamori and his dog (not sure of the breed). Dennis calls him the “last Samurai.” Then we went to the Tokyo National Museum to see a special exhibit of Tokugawa Shogun Clan. There was battle amour, swords, muskets, kimonos from the Tokugawa family, and a princess’s palanquin. There were hoards of people – about 5 rows of people deep to view the exhibit cases. Not to be disrespectful, but it was not my thing. I mostly sought out open spaces so I could breathe and talked with Dennis’s dad. But Dennis was thrilled and it was worth it to see him so excited.

Then we went to the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum for a special exhibit of Impressionist and Post Impressionist art for the Philadelphia Collection. Much more “my thing.” There was one Renoir of a girl that I loved and had never seen before. A few lovely Monet, Degas, Homer, Picasso, and Singer Sargent paintings. I even liked a Kandinski! Several other French and American artists were new to me and Dennis. It was crowded but not quite as bad as the Tokugawa show – only 2 rows deep to see the paintings. Funny that we were seeing a Philadelphia art show in Tokyo. And it’s so nice that Dennis likes this type of exhibit as much as I do!

Then we went to see the Giant Panda, Ling Ling, at the Tokyo Zoo. But Ling, Ling was snoozing. He apparently is more active a suppertime. There was an odd looking creature pacing in his cage – a red panda. Sort of a cross between a fox and panda.

And we went to the Toshogu Shrine. We think this is the shrine where Ieyasu Tokugawa (big cheese for the whole Tokugawa clan that ruled Japan from 1600 to 1867?) is enshrined (or Nikko). [Dennis is here next to me giving me some of these facts.] We were able to go into the shrine unlike at the Meiji Shrine.


Then we walked around the Pond – sort of like Stowe Lake in Golden Gate Park but a little bigger and with lily pads taking over. You would look up from the pond and see the high-rises of Tokyo surrounding the park.

We walked into a Pachinko Parlor to take a look – loud music, lots of flashing lights. But we were too tired to sit down and play. That will be another day. We dragged ourselves back to the New Sanno Hotel for the night.