Walking From Hotel Grand Palace to Ueno

I am going to post a few walking course suggestions here. The first few ones will start from the Hotel Grand Palace in Chiyoda ward, close to the Kudanshita crossroad. Of course, if you happen to stay in the nearby other hotels like Hotel Metropolitan Edmond closer to Iidabashi station, or even the Tokyo Dome Hotel, these walk tours still qualify. The purpose here is not to take you by the hand and indicate every other corner where you should turn and all the little streets you would feel sorry you missed if you knew. For that kind of service, consult the project Walking in Tokyo and come back to me. I assume you are staying in Tokyo with a guide book. You did some homework and consulted a few pages over the Internet. Good. Here is another one that may be a little more usable, I hope.


From Hotel Grand Palace to Ueno

This walk will bring you all the way to Ueno district. When you leave the Hotel grand Palace, just go on your right and follow the Meiji Dôri avenue down to the large Kudanshita crossroad. Tôri is Dôri is, street, avenue or boulevard. Go left and start walking all the way down that even larger avenue that is Yasukuni Dôri. I suggest you walk on the right side here.

After you cross the first large crossroad, you will start passing along the bookstores that are still many in this area near the subway station Jimbocho.

Go over the second crossroad where there is a large business attire shop for men on a corner. Turn right then left at the first traffic signal.

Your are now walking a nice small lane that runs exactly parallel to the Yasukuni Dôri we left. Go down that lane to bump again into Yasukuni Dôri that makes a right curb here.

Cross the Yasukuni Dôri. We are going to climb the hill of Ochanomizu, but instead of following the large Meidai Dôri, just follow the small first slope that start heres with the Victoria sports apparel store on your right. At the end of the street, turn right, walk some more then turn left where there is a tiny shrine waiting for you.

You will climb this slope whose name is Ikeda-zaka. Zaka or saka stands for slope. This saka goes up to the top of Ochanomizu hill, right into the Ochanomizu Japan Railway station. Before you reach the top. You will see on your right the Nikolai-do orthodox church. Don't miss it.

At the top of the Ikeda-zaka, turn right and walk a little bit more to the station entrance. Go over and walk along the large and elegant Hijiri-bashi (bashi, that is, hashi, stands for bridge). The cluster of green you see on the opposite side of the bridge is the Yushima shrine. here again is a beautiful place to spend some time.

After the bridge, go along the Yushima shrine wall, cross the street, turn right on that slope that goes down toward Akihabara. After a 100 meters, you will see on your left the lane that climbs toward the - again - beautiful and red Kanda Myojin shrine.

To leave the shrine, find the back exit that is after the shrine parking. There is a small and steep staircase that brings you down between modern buildings to a new large avenue.

When you land on that avenue. Go left and walk up to the traffic light. Cross on the opposite side of the avenue and follow that small steep street whose name is Shimizu-zaka. By now you know what zaka stands for.

By now, things are really straight forward. That Shimizu-zaka will bring you all the way up, then down to the Yushima Tenjin shrine. Definitely yet another place to walk inside out and enjoy.

After this shrine visit, find your way to the large Kasuga Dôri that curbs down toward Ueno district. At the first crossroad, you will see the Ueno Kôen - Kôen standing for park. The Kôen is huge and features many museum with a zoo. The commercial streets in the area deserve a guide book by themselves, which is not the purpose of this blog post.

A non stop-walk from the hotel down to Ueno would take one hour. With all the things to see along the trail, what with the Ueno district itself, three hours should be a minimum.

If you ever use this course overview, leave me your impressions and tell me whether it was useful.