Home to several national museums and a major zoo, as well as numerous temples and shrines, Ueno Park is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Tokyo. You’d think it’s been explored by tourists all over, and you couldn’t have been more wrong. The western portion of the park is home to the Shinobazu-no-ike, a lotus-covered natural pond; and at the heart of it is an artificial island built in the mid-17th century to accommodate the Benten-dō temple, modeled after the sacred island of Chikubu on Lake Biwa. Originally,…
