(448) One day in Ueno Park

The day before yesterday we went to Ueno to see a bonsai exhibition and since the weather was good, we thought we’d walk through the park. It proved to be a good idea since there were a few interesting highlights such as:
 

A birthday party for national hero Saigo Takamori’s 186th birthday under his famous statue on the hill,

 a young lady doing artistic pole-dancing in the grounds of one of the park’s temples,

a ninja-mobile from the Iga region (which is considered one of the ninja “hometowns”)…

…which was part of a fair/promotion campaign for Iga products featuring, among other things, kids dressed as ninja doing gymnastics and dancing to J-Pop,

a gentleman enjoying the sun playing American country on his banjo in front of the national museum,

 and an art exhibition by students of the School of Fine Arts, part of which was adding a curtain made of popcorn at the school’s gate.

Finally we made it to the bonsai which were, as expected, wonderful. The particular one was created by a gentleman working at the Imperial Palace.

(For a bigger version of these pictures both in color and black and white, check my "Japan Arekore" set on Flickr)