Ueno

Museums, market chaos, and Tokyo's great public park

Ueno does double duty. On one side you have the park with its museums, shrine, and some of the most iconic cherry blossoms in Japan. On the other you have Ameyoko, a market street that still runs on shouting and cash. Doing both in one day is one of the best free-ish days out in Tokyo.

Ueno is Tokyo's museum quarter sitting on top of its scrappiest market street, and the contrast is the point. The park holds the Tokyo National Museum, science museum, zoo, concert halls and a cluster of temples and shrines; the cherry trees along its central avenue host the city's rowdiest hanami parties in spring.

Downhill, Ameyoko runs under the Yamanote tracks where the post-war black market used to be, still shouting prices for dried fish, spices, sneakers and street food. Do the museums in the morning, lunch in the market, then walk north into Yanaka as the afternoon softens. It is the best half-day sequence on this side of the city.