image: Aneta Glinkowska
“The inhabitants of the blue, makeshift tents in the bushes.”
My Ueno memories revolve around the homeless living in the park. In particular, believe it or not, the grooming habits of the homeless. The Ueno homeless, in their homely blue tents with shoes neatly lined up at their entrances, remind me of the character from Imamura’s “Warm Water Under a Red Bridge.”[1] The eccentric character supports his blue tent with stacks of books he’s read. I also think of the group of homeless gourmets from the ramen western “Tampopo.”[2] These are homeless who can fix you a perfect omuraisu[3], hand you the best ramen recipe or direct you to a ramen shop which would get a Michelin Guide star, if there was a category for it.
Once, walking through Ueno to the National Museum, as I was about to enter the museum grounds, I spotted to my left two lines of men, 10 or 15 in all, waiting for something. There were a few blue crates and coolers standing around, as though the group was on a picnic. I realized that the men, quite neatly dressed, were the inhabitants of the blue, makeshift tents in the bushes. They were lined up for a free haircut given by two young women. The idea of a haircutting service for the homeless struck me as unique and, if nothing else, yet another
rare quirk of Tokyo.
A year later, I invited Eugene, a classmate from my Japanese lessons to Ueno Park. As we walked through the park, I told Eugene about the homeless men lined up for haircuts the year before. Mid-story, looking up, I was surprised to find men once again in line at the very same spot. But this time, instead of the bizarre sight of young women cutting hair, the homeless were waiting for their turn with older, male barbers dressed in white uniforms with red crosses on them. Strangely, there was something appropriate about these old men cutting the hair of the homeless.
If you ask an average Tokyo dweller—long or short term—about Ueno Park they will likely tell you of its many cultural institutions or advise you to visit it for exotic street performers, or perhaps a stroll during the hanami season. As much as I enjoy those myself, I’ll tell you, I saw a dozen men getting their haircuts in the middle of the park two years in a row and I keep going back for more of the surreal.
referenced works
- A 2001 movie, called in Japanese: Akai hashi no shita no nurui mizu, about a down-and-out businessman who travels to a seaside town, where he meets a woman with unusual sexual powers. ↩
- Meaning "Dandelion", Tampopo is a 1985 Japanese comedy by director Juzo Itami, starring Tsutomu Yamazaki, Nobuko Miyamoto and Ken Watanabe. This is the quintessential ramen movie. ↩
- Omurice: Rice Filled Omlet ↩
location information
- Name: Ueno Park
- Time of story: afternoon
- Latitude: 35.71711
- Longitude: 139.774203
- Map: Google Maps
033 “Dewy eyes closed, her porcelain arms and legs splayed attractively”
032 “The ika had made too many turns.”
031 “A tongue was moving around my big toe, like a warm slug crawling. ”
030 “Ichor will gush out of this carefully constructed image”
029 “I wince, more than her.”
028 “Their schoolbags were puddled around their socks, forgotten”
027 “Amongst the bottles and the obscure records and the crimson velvet walls”
026 “Nostalgia isn’t an easy indulgence for amateurs”
025 “... but anyway please take one of these little cheese cakes ...”
024 “The inhabitants of the blue, makeshift tents in the bushes.”
023 “Yeah … I’m sorry too. Merry Christmas.”
022 “I was dead broke. It was winter.”
021 “The district's energy had faded to rest on my last night there.”
020 “The slightly bald salaryman didn't correspond to any memory I could conjure up.”
019 “She laughed at my effort and responded in English, ‘Long time, no seduction.’ ”
018 “In my dreamy state, oblivious to signs and announcements I often boarded the wrong train.”
017 “I was fifteen years old and it was one of those nights.”
016 “That ear of corn just wanted to go home”
015 “With his painstakingly coiffured mane blowing in the wind”
014 “Her voice, even across languages, betraying her worry.”
013 “I saw them drawing bamboo sticks from a silver rectangular box.”
012 “A simulacrum of someone else's home, equal parts comfort and loss.”
011 “Jumbled Escheresque insanity where geography in any traditional sense ceases to exist.”
010 “I could hardly make out anything apart from his glowing eyes...”
009 “Shibuya was like a stroke.”
008 “I cried for a while and wiped the dead bracken off my karate pants.”
007 “Both my tie and my disposition hang limp as I calculate the remaining distance to the station.”
006 “I once read about a Chinese maiden whose feet were unbound by a cruel man …”
005 “The Bad Girl strutted off and I was left with a ham egg pie.”
004 “I arrived expecting an irritated Japanese person to step out of the crowd and identify himself as Hideki.”
003 “The woman at the ticket window seemed surprised to see another human being. I was the only visitor.”
002 “Flanked on either side by adult manga shops and the like, the smell of yakitori in the air.”
001 “For two weeks the day began with this morning walk, our shared routine.”
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