Ueno, Okachimachi Travel Guides

The Ueno/Okachimachi area offers tourist attractions such as the Ueno Zoo, the National Museum of Nature and Science, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum; sightseeing events such as doll memorial services, the Iriya Morning Glory Festival, and the Bunkyo Azalea Festival; and local delicacies such as sukiyaki, motsu-nabe, and soba.

Ueno is the area around Ueno Station in Tokyo. It is home to Ueno Park, Japan's first park, and a downtown area with department stores and restaurants.

Okachimachi was once located in Taito Ward, and now remains as station names such as Okachimachi, Naka-Okachimachi, and Shin-Okachimachi, where the Yamanote Line, Hibiya Line, Tsukuba Express, and other major lines in the metropolitan area run. Yanesen is a combination of the initial letters of Yanaka, Nezu, and Sendagi, and the area has retained its old-fashioned townscape due to the lack of war damage.

In Ueno, you can enjoy traditional Edo-mae sushi, tsukudani (food boiled in soy sauce and sugar), yakitori (grilled chicken), and other delicacies. There is a wide variety of restaurants where you can stop by casually.

Okachimachi also has some long-established soba noodle shops, but Kimchi Yokocho is probably the most famous. There is an old Korean town called Kimchi Yokocho near Okachimachi shopping street. There is a concentration of yakiniku (grilled meat), kimchi, and ethnic costume stores. In Yanesen, you will find a variety of relaxed stores such as soba (buckwheat noodle) restaurants, udon noodle restaurants, and hideaway café restaurants.

The shopping street in this area is Ameyoko. Originating as a black market after World War II, it now sells seafood, dried goods, clothing, sundries, accessories, and more. Especially at the end of the year, the area attracts many shoppers and has even been featured on news programs. Ameyoko is a lively shopping street with a constant buzz of cheerful voices.

Ueno Park is one of Tokyo's most popular tourist destinations, home to the Ueno Zoo, the Tokyo National Museum, the National Museum of Nature and Science, and other facilities.

The Ueno Zoo was Japan's first zoo and, along with Asahikawa Zoo in Asahikawa, is one of the top zoos in Japan in terms of the number of visitors. 1972 saw the arrival of the giant panda, which triggered a panda boom throughout Japan. Other valuable animals such as the okapi and the pygmy hippopotamus are also kept at the museum.

The Tokyo National Museum exhibits Japanese and Oriental art, and attracts more than 1.5 million visitors a year. National treasures, important cultural properties, and other works of art can only be seen here. Ueno Park is also known for its cherry blossoms, which are in full bloom in early spring.