Dirty, dingy, decadence lit up by neon signs advertising everything from hats to girls to ‘girls’ and ‘girls’ in hats, if that is your thing. I know that you are thinking, can something be dingy if it is illuminated with neon? The answer is undoubtedly yes, (or no, depending on how you look at it, but I am the author and I have decided to use dingy whilst breaking the fourth wall and acknowledging to you, the reader, that you might have some issues with my choice of words.) A million smells infiltrate your nostrils, some making you want to poke your nose into a stand bar to see what people are eating, some that make you hurry by. Not to be left out, your ears are assaulted too; pachinko halls sing tinny tunes and hawkers invite you to buy leather bags for a good price. This, my friends, is Ameyoko market across the road from Ueno station, and just a stone’s throw away is the peaceful Ueno park and Shinobazu pond which feature elsewhere on this blog. Ameyoko is a microcosm of all the other areas of Japan, there’s the seediness of Shinjuku, the crowded quirkiness of Shibuya, the temples of Asakusa and the ‘charming’ maid cafes of Akihabara. Ueno has plucked an ingredient from each, mixed it up and created a little Japanese wonderland. It feels like the whole of Japan is searching for food, fun, fantasty, or a place to spend an hour and a half with a loved one because you’ve both come over all tired in one of the plethora of hourly rate hotels that advertise their wares. Anyway, if you’ve only got an hour to spend in Tokyo, come to Ameyoko, everything you need, in one place.
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