Our Spontaneous Discovery of Ueno Park

Over 10 days in Tokyo, and both Jack and I thought we’d explored our area around Nippori pretty well. Turns out, Nippori had a whole other side we had no clue about! When you cross the bridge over the station, you end up in a serene, nature filled suburb! Definitely feels more like the ‘old’ Tokyo that the area is known for.

After what seemed like a surprisingly short walk (or perhaps that’s because the area was so relaxing to walk in) we passed the Tokyo university art museum, and an art gallery soon after. Before we knew it, we were in Ueno Park! 

When we got there, it was night time. The park was illuminated by warm lights, the trees were tall and full, and walking deeper in, we found a lovely open area with a couple of cafes. Naturally, being a Japanese park, there were shinto shrines within it too, a couple for that matter. We strayed away from the main park zone, and suddenly found ourselves overlooking a magnificent temple glowing in the distance!

We’d stumbled upon ‘Shinobazu-no-ike Benten-do‘ temple. Also known as an ‘island temple’ as it stands in the middle of Shinobazu pond. We had to pass a small land bridge to get it to it, and realised that the water was covered by a forest of water lilies, about 2 metres tall! The walk took us around the temple to a larger lake, where we sat under a willow tree to admire the reflections of sky scrapers over the serene water, with some cute ducks too!

Then when we thought it couldn’t get any better, there was a pier that let you walk amongst the huge water lilies. We practically ran across it, and suddenly we were surrounded by a field of water lilies, a glowing temple, and lit-up sky scrapers in the far background. Definitely a place that would have inspired Japanese poets in the past, what a sight!

We haven’t yet seen the park in the day-time, but being there for the first time at night certainly gave it an enchanting feel like no other. We can’t wait to go back again, and this time maybe visit one of the art museums, or walk around the many areas along the sides of the park we couldn’t see at night!

Ps. It was a full moon tonight! 🌕✨