Today I'm in Ueno
It's just stopped raining
Just as we've come outside
So that's really good luck
I've never actually been to this area of Tokyo before
The main thing here is a big park
Which has some museums in it
I think there's a shrine in there as well
I think this area's famous for pandas
Because they had a panda at Ueno Zoo
So we're just going to have a look round
And explore
Just now when we got here
We decided to have our solo lunch
We each split up and had something different
That's in a separate video
I went to T's TanTan
And Phil had ramen at Ichiran
So we both had ramen
But in separate places
Ueno is indeed famous for the pandas at the zoo
As soon as I got to the station
I saw a sign to the giant panda waiting place
So of course I had to go & find it
Just as we've come out the station
There's a map of the area
All of this is Ueno Park
It's got a really big pond in the middle
With some islands by the look of it
That sounds good
I just love how places in Japan
Have cute character mascots
You can see more of them in my character hunt
Which I also filmed around this area
The link's in the description
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We've just come out the station
This is part of Ueno Park
Quite a lot of people here
We're heading towards the lake
We've just found a little shrine
By the lake
Here's the ema
The boards that people write their wishes on
I wonder why these have horses on
There's a couple of different designs
Some lambs
I think they've all got something on the back
A couple of different designs
There's a mini version of Fushimi Inari!
That shrine in Kyoto with all the red gates
It's just a little walkway
With some red gates on it
It's actually quite full with a tour group at the moment
So I can't get in there
Look how they've put bags on the lanterns
To protect them from the rain
This looks nice
I always like the look of the red flags against all the greenery
We're just outside the zoo
Here's some signs to other things that are around here
A waterside music hall
Some gardens
The royal museum
Bunka Kaikan
That'll be a cultural museum
And a museum of western art
We're just coming up to the pond
They call it a pond on all the signs
I think it's more of a lake
I think it's a lot bigger than a pond really is
Oh wow, there's a straight bridge
That's really long
These plants look strange
I guess they've died off at the moment
A lot of sticks coming out of the lake
And what are these things?
Down here...
Just floating in the water
I wonder what they are
Some sort of seed pods
A bit of rubbish down there as well actually
Usually Japan's very clean
It looks really pretty across there
I love the look of all these trees
We've come to another temple
Outside they've got incense burning
You can smell it
Here's the view around the pond
I'm guessing this looks better at a different time of year
When these plants are alive
Looks like a lot of sticks at the moment
There's quite a lot of lily pads on the pond as well
Ah look over there: swan boats
They have them in a quite a lot of places in Japan actually
Inokashira Park
And I saw them in Fukuoka as well
And here's....
The last cherry blossom in Ueno Park
It's the second half of April now
So we're quite late
The cherry blossoms were early this year
But some varieties bloom at different times
After cherry blossom season's over
It's time for wisteria
From mid April to May
They build tunnels for you to walk through
I found a mini one
It's just starting to bloom
Ahh!
These ones can't get over there!
What if they're friends?
Could he leap over there?
I'd like to see it if they did
They could go under this bridge, couldn't they?
These ones have all the seed pods to play with
Aww!
They're trying to get across!
We're just going to take a walk along this walkway
That's in the middle of the lake
Looks nice
I wonder if these are cherry blossom trees
Or plum blossom trees or anything?
No...
Maybe not
Look over there you can see the SkyTree
Poking up through the buildings
We're not too far away from it
We're on the right side of the city
You can't really see it from a lot of places in Tokyo
Because you're always surrounded by such tall buildings
And skyscrapers all the time
It was raining earlier today
The top is hidden in mist
Might not be such a great view from the SkyTree today
We're only really in Ueno for a quick visit
We came mainly to go to that vegetarian ramen place
So we're just having a walk around the park
Now we're going to turn off and have a look around some backstreets
Just across the road there
If you do have more time to spend in Ueno
There are more things to do
There's the zoo
I've just seen a sign to the Shitamachi Museum
I think that would be about old houses
And how it used to be in Tokyo
There's a few other cultural museums
And art galleries here too
There was a little kiosk in the station
Where you can get tickets for the museums
We're just in backstreets of Ueno here
It doesn't seem quite as shiny
As some other places in Tokyo
It's a little bit of an older area by the look of it
But we're not in the main area I don't think
It looks like we've come to a busier, main street now
There's a cinema up there
A Parco
That's a shopping centre / department store
*Music*
We're at the entrance to Ameyokocho
That's a famous street in Ueno
With small, everyday shops
Interesting to look round
There's pandas again on the sign
We're just down beside the train tracks
Up there is where the train goes
There's a bit of everything down here
There some food stalls
I've seen some fruit
One stall with those white strawberries
Some fish stands
There's some places to eat
I saw some rice bowls with fish on the top
That Phil was eyeing up
For a second lunch
Clothes, shoes
Suitcases
All sorts of things
So that was my walk around Ueno
We went to the giant panda waiting place
Walked around the park
And saw Ameyokocho
Which would have been a great place to have lunch
If I hadn't already had a big bowl of ramen
This northeastern area of tokyo
With Ueno & Asakusa
Is a bit less shiny & modern
With a different feel to the rest of the city
I think it's interesting to see how many sides there are to Tokyo
And there's always more to explore
So I'll see you next week
On Thursday
When I'll be talking about:
Should you go to Osaka?