Ueno Park -- on the northeast edge of the Yamanote Line -- is one of the largest parks in Tokyo and one of the most popular places in the city for Japanese families on a day's outing. It's a cultural mecca, with a number of attractions, including the prestigious Tokyo National Museum; the National Museum of Western Art; the National Museum of Nature and Science; the delightful Shitamachi Museum, with its displays of old Tokyo; Ueno Zoo; and Shinobazu Pond (a bird sanctuary). The busiest time of the year at Ueno Park is April, during the cherry-blossom season.

Other well-known landmarks in Ueno Park are Toshogu Shrine, erected in 1651 and dedicated to Tokugawa Ieyasu, founder of the Tokugawa shogunate; and Kiyomizu Kannon-do Temple, completed in 1631 as a much smaller copy of the famous Kiyomizu Kannon-do Temple in Kyoto. Ueno Park is also a popular refuge for Tokyo's homeless.