9 best things to do at Ueno Park: museums, temples, shrines and attractions

You don’t have to travel all the way to Kyoto’s Fushimi Inari Shrine to take some Instagram-worthy photos in a tunnel of vermilion torii gates. The small Hanazono Inari Shrine nestled in a quiet part of Ueno Park boasts a staircase lined with red gates, providing perfect photo op, especially in autumn when the surrounding leaves turn red and yellow. The small sanctuary shares its precinct with the neighbouring Gojoten Shrine. 

Ueno Park has some of the oldest and most respected museums in Tokyo, covering topics such as art, science and history. There are few better places in Tokyo to get a culture fix.

For one of the best collections of Japanese art and artefacts, head straight to the Tokyo National Museum (pictured). If you have kids in tow, they’ll love the National Museum of Nature and Science – it’s full of interactive displays and dinosaur models. And for art lovers, the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum should be your first stop.

While strolling through Ueno Park, you’ll find a number of statues of famous figures from Japan’s history. Close to the Fountain Plaza, for example, you’ll find a bust of the Dutch military physician and professor of medicine in Japan, Anthonius Franciscus Bauduin (1820-1885). Instead of building a hospital on the site of the former Kan’eiji Temple, he encouraged the government to turn the area into a public park. There’s also a statue of physician and bacteriologist Hideyo Noguchi (1876-1928), whose face currently graces Japan’s ¥1,000 banknote.

Don’t miss the striking statue of Prince Komatsu Akihito on horseback (pictured). A former officer in the Imperial Army, the prince was also an important diplomat during the Meiji period (1868-1912). Complete your trip back in time at the statue of Saigo Takamori, one of the most powerful samurai of the 19th century, who led the Meiji Restoration in 1868.

Pokémon manhole covers are littered across Japan, but Ueno Park is one of only two spots in Tokyo proper that’s home to these so-called Pokéfuta. In front of the National Museum of Nature and Science, you’ll find Wynaut and Tyrunt (pictured), while the manhole cover in front of the Tokyo National Museum just across the street features Baltoy and Bronzor. The covers actually double as Pokéstops for the Pokémon Go mobile game, so get your phone ready and spin those stops. For the exact locations, check the Pokéfuta website.

Before it was a park, the grounds of Ueno were once home to a massive, bronze, 6m-tall seated Buddha statue built in 1631. Even though the daibutsu was restored multiple times over the years after earthquakes and fires, a lack of donations after the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake made it impossible to rebuild the statue. The head and torso were eventually melted down for munitions during World War II, but the face was preserved and stored in Kan’ei-ji Temple. 

In 1967, a pagoda was built to pray for the reconstruction of the daibutsu, and the Buddha's face was put on display at its former location in 1972. When you look closely, you can see that this Buddha has a fancy curly moustache – he’s usually clean-shaven in Japan – and his lovely ‘stache is even present on the ema votive plaques you can buy at the site.

To find these panels, head up to the top floor of the Ueno 3153 building – it’s directly connected to Ueno Park. On the side of the building, you’ll find two large panels depicting how the area has changed since the Edo (1603-1868) and Meiji periods (1868-1912). 

The artwork on the left by 18th-century ukiyo-e artist Kyosai Kawanabe shows the first National Industrial Exhibition, held in Ueno Park in 1877. The artwork on the right goes back further, mapping the former Kan’eiji Temple complex as it was during the Edo period.

At first glance, this monument looks like it’s just an ordinary clock, but it has a deeper meaning. Built in 2005 based on a plan by author Kayoko Ebina, the memorial statue of a mother and her children stands for peace and commemorates the victims of the Tokyo firebombings during World War II, including Ebina’s own family. Toki wasureji no to roughly translates as Tower of Remembrance and it was erected to encourage people never to forget this horrible moment in history.

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