Roll 18 Ueno Park

This roll was Reala 100 (which I wish I had more of) shot on the Diana, which I am so glad came along on the trip. After visiting Hokkaido I returned to Tokyo where I met up with my son, who is currently living in Nagoya, and his friend who had come to visit at the same time. After a whirlwind tour of Nara, Osaka, and Kyoto (none of which made it onto medium format so per my self imposed rule can’t be posted here) we returned for a three day stay in Tokyo. One morning we visited the Meiji Shrine which is located in a large forest right in the middle of the bustling Shibuya district. I was amazed throughout the large cities we visited that all of them are dotted with HUGE beautifully maintained parks which are often the home to one or more shrines as well as lots of museums, lakes and other attractions. I am seriously impressed at how the Japanese have managed to maintain a feeling of unspoiled nature in the middle of some of the world’s most densely populated cities.

Unfortunately most of the shots of the Meiji shrine suffered from severe motion blur. I’m not sure why but this happened several times on this trip. Anyway here are a couple that survived, sort of.

The next day we took the train to a different stop and visited the even larger Ueno Park, home to a large lake (where you can rent boats), a zoo, several museums and a number of shrines. The pictures below were taken at Ueno tosho-gu, a beautiful shrine in the center of the park.

There is also a beautiful shrine named Benzaiten temple located right on the lake. I highly recommend this beautiful spot. I hope to return, and visit the zoo.