Ueno is two cities stacked on top of each other: the culture park on the hill, and the market roaring under the railway arches below. Three and a half kilometres takes you down through both, museum to menchi-katsu in under an hour and a half.
Start at the top, at the Tokyo National Museum — the largest collection in the country, and the Honkan's Japanese galleries are the reason to come. From there the park is a short walk between heavyweights: Le Corbusier's National Museum of Western Art, with Rodin's bronzes out front, then the gold Ueno Toshogu, a 1651 jinja (Shinto shrine) that has outlived everything thrown at it.
Down the slope, Kiyomizu Kannon-do frames the pond through its round pine — the view was planted there on purpose. Then Shinobazu Pond itself, a sea of lotus leaves in August, with the Bentendo shrine on its island. Follow the water out and the mood flips entirely: Ameyoko, the market beneath the JR line, all shouting and bargains. End where it spills onto the street at Okachimachi.
