A review by katie_greenwinginmymouth
Tokyo Ueno Station by Yu Miri

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book really moved me, it was such a humane portrait of life on the streets in Tokyo and the struggle to make ends meet in very low waged jobs. The central character has spent his life working away from his family in order to earn enough to support them, but that has meant he’s spent barely any time with them or seen his children grow up. By the end of his life he has ended up sleeping rough in the park outside Ueno Station and by the time we meet him it is his ghost that is narrating the story.

He observes goings on in the park and his thoughts drift in and out of memories of his past and the things he overhears in the park. Gradually we learn his story and through it we also learn a bit about life in Japan and the socioeconomic make up of the country.

The park is the perfect place to set this story as not only is it one of the main places in Tokyo that unhoused people make a home but it is also the location of several museums and concert halls which attract the middle and upper classes - the community of rough sleepers are frequently moved out of the park when there is an official visit from the imperial family. The visitors to the park barely even notice the people who live there in their makeshift tents.

The thing that really stood out to me was how much reading the book felt like listening to a field recording of the park at times - overheard snippets of conversation, bird song, vehicles passing by or maintenance work being done in the park. These everyday sounds are woven in and out of the narrative. There are recurring sounds like the cicadas which mark certain points in the seasons. The central character also talks about how easy it is to listen rather than trying to talk and stumbling over words. It feels like some sort of reflection on how his whole life he has gone unnoticed, and how there is a whole section of society most people forget about. If only they would listen more carefully...