Tokyo Travel Diaries: Ueno Park & Tokyo National Museum

We visited Ueno Park during our 2nd day in Tokyo last November. Ueno is a large public park where you can find lots of temples, shrines, and museums like the Tokyo National Museum, the National Museum for Western Art, the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum and the National Science Museum. It is also home to Ueno Zoo, which is Japan's oldest zoo.

To get there, we took a train from Shinjuku to JR Ueno Station, and the park is just next to it right when you exit the station. It was such a perfect day to visit since the weather was nice and sunny. It was about 12°C but I was already freezing my butt off lol. I was also in awe of how beautiful the sky was, since you couldn't even see a single cloud.

The park was huge and sprawling and you could easily spend the whole day here. Actually, Ueno Park is one of Tokyo's most popular cherry blossom spots with more than 1000 cherry trees lining its central pathway. We were there late November so the trees were bare, but it still looked beautiful. I can just imagine how pretty this would look with all the flowers in full bloom.

There were also lots of temples and shrines you can visit, as well as so many picturesque areas where you can just stroll and relax. There's no entrance fee if you're just going around the park and the temples, you just have to pay admissions to the museums and the zoo.

One of the main things we planned to do in Ueno was visit the Tokyo National Museum. Actually, I'm not such a fan but hubby is really into these things so pinagbigyan ko na haha. ;p

There was actually a ticket counter when we got off the train station but the line was super long. We opted to buy tickets at the museum entrance where there was also a line but it was just super quick. Admission was 620 yen each.

There were other special exhibitions (like The Art of BVLGARI when we were there) but you had to pay extra for those.

Anyway, the Tokyo National Museum is the oldest and largest museum in Japan. It is made up of multiple buildings, each like a separate museum in itself. They house the largest collection of national treasures and important cultural items in the country.

Honestly, I was just interested in some areas so thank goodness there were seats and couches everywhere so you could take a break and rest. I don't even think we saw all the areas, there were just so many! There were some parts where I just waited for hubby to go around since my legs were killing me already lol. Don't get me wrong, the displays were interesting, I'm just not a museum person. ;p

The museum also offers a Japanese style garden along its grounds, which was one of my favorite areas in the whole park. It was so pretty and relaxing to just sit and look at the pond.

We were already starving after a while and good thing there were some food stalls outside the museum. We just bought food here and ate by the benches.

There really is so many things you can see and do in Ueno Park. If ever we can come back next time, I hope we can during the cherry blossom season to see another side of the park.

Tokyo National Museum in Ueno Park
Hours: 9:30 to 17:00 (extended hours on some Fridays and weekends) 
Closed: Mondays (or following day if Monday is a holiday), Dec 24 to Jan 1 
Admission: 620 yen

Ueno Park map