Ueno made for an excellent introduction to both Tokyo and Japan. The first public park in Tokyo, the area is loaded with museums and temples, a zoo and, perhaps most interesting of all, a homeless village.

Feeling overloaded and hungry from our tour through the Tokyo National Museum, we decided to walk toward the amusement area for some lunch. On the way, we came across a large group of men seated in the middle of an open area. Passing by, we realized they were homeless and were in the middle of some sort of village meeting. Not wanting to disturb the proceedings, we continued past the homeless village - dozens of elaborate blue tents set in a large treed area. The colonized area appeared to have all the amenities of normal village life - roadways, garbage collection areas, electricity and cooking areas. For those interested, I found this link about homelessness in Japan.

Next we went to the zoo, where we saw a couple of giant pandas. The first guy was snoozing, which wasn't so exciting, but the second was happily munching on bamboo. I like pandas!

From the zoo, we walked across the street to Ameya Yokocho, a lively shopping district selling everything from fresh octopus to designer bags. They had cheap sunglasses, too, so Nancy bought a pair.

Finally, we went to Shibuya, one of the busier shopping districts in Tokyo. As expected, it was crazy-packed with people, neon and noise.