Yu Miri

"Born in Fukushima in 1933, the same year as the Emperor, Kazu's life is tied by a series of coincidences to Japan's Imperial family and to one particular spot in Tokyo; the park near Ueno Station - the same place his unquiet spirit now haunts in death. It is here that Kazu's life in Tokyo began, as a labourer in the run up to the 1964 Olympics, and later where he ended his days, living in the park's vast homeless 'villages', traumatised by the destruction of the 2011 tsunami and enraged by the announcement of the 2020 Olympics." --

Tokyo Ueno Station

JR上野駅公園口

milly

It wasn't that I wanted to die; it was just that I was tired of trying.

I never carried any photos with me, but I was always surrounded by people, places and times gone by. And as I retreated into the future, the only thing I could ever see was the past. 

It was nothing as sweet as nostalgia or a longing for bygone days, just a constant absence from the present, an anger toward the future. I was always lost at a point in the past that would never go anywhere now that it had gone

If I don't exist, I can't disappear either.

At the same time I thought what a thing of sin poverty was, that there could be nothing more sinful than forcing a small child to lie. The wages of that sin were poverty, a wage which one could not endure, leading one to sin again, and as long as one could not pull oneself out of poverty the cycle would repeat until death. 

Alli

But once those roses were in bloom. And once, somewhere, a painter lived. And now, through these pieces of paper divorced from the reality of the past, like fantastical flowers that do not exist in our world, these roses bloom.

I was not afraid of ghosts. Nor was I afraid of death or dying. I was afraid of living this life not knowing when it might end. 

To speak is to stumble, to hesitate, to detour and hit dead ends. To listen is straightforward. You can always just listen. 

The wages of that sin were poverty, a wage that one could not endure, leading one to sin again, and as long as one could not pull oneself out of poverty, the cycle would repeat until death. 

But life is nothing like a story in a book. There may be words, and the pages may be numbered, but there is no plot. There may be an ending, but there is no end.

Monica Cope

Time had slowed to a sluggish crawl. I walked faster, but each step plunged me deeper into the depths of still- ness. If time could pass so slowly that its passage was im- perceptible, thenis death where time stops and the selfis left all alone in this space? Is death where space and the self are erased and only time continues? 

My shock, my grief, my anger were all so great that crying felt inadequate.

If I don’t exist, I can’t disappear either.

taylor miles hopkins

To be homeless is to be ignored when people wallk past while still being in full view of everyone.

To speak is to stumble, to hesitate, to detour and hit dead ends. To listen is straightforward. You can always just listen.

Insomnia, then eternal sleep—held apart from one by death and the other by life, brought closer to one by life and the other by death, and the rain, the rain, the rain, the rain.

sina (she/her) 

To speak is to stumble, to hesitate, to detour and hit dead ends. To listen is straightforward. You can alwavs just listen.

Nobody starts off life in a hovel made of cardboard and tarps, and nobody becomes homeless because they want to be. One thing happens, then another. 

I used to think life was like a book: you turn the first page, and there's the next, and as you go on turning page after page, eventually you reach the last one. But life is nothing like a story in a book. There may be words, and the pages may be numbered, but there is no plot. There may be an ending, but there is no end.

Gixsy ♡

“And I had never been found by the light.”

sad and a really interesting concept, not too crazy about the execution but it was a short enough read to not be too bothered by it

baku

Kiran Aftab

Andrew Reeves

"First published in Japan by Kawade Shobåo Shinsha as JR Ueno-eki Koen-guchi, Tokyo, 2014. First published in Great Britain in paperback in English by Tilted Axis Press, London, 2019."--Title page verso.

Sohini Roy

I thought there were a lot of beautiful descriptions/visuals in this book, but to me it felt very scattered and all over the place. I really felt for Kazu and the hard life he’d had but the book was just kind of difficult to read and often I felt like I didn’t really know where I was in the story. It didn’t feel like it flowed together, but certain parts were engaging.

WINNER OF THE 2020 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD IN TRANSLATED LITERATURE A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR A surreal, devastating story of a homeless ghost who haunts one of Tokyo's busiest train stations. Kazu is dead. Born in Fukushima in 1933, the same year as the Japanese Emperor, his life is tied by a series of coincidences to the Imperial family and has been shaped at every turn by modern Japanese history. But his life story is also marked by bad luck, and now, in death, he is unable to rest, doomed to haunt the park near Ueno Station in Tokyo. Kazu's life in the city began and ended in that park; he arrived there to work as a laborer in the preparations for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and ended his days living in the vast homeless village in the park, traumatized by the destruction of the 2011 tsunami and shattered by the announcement of the 2020 Olympics. Through Kazu's eyes, we see daily life in Tokyo buzz around him and learn the intimate details of his personal story, how loss and society's inequalities and constrictions spiraled towards this ghostly fate, with moments of beauty and grace just out of reach. A powerful masterwork from one of Japan's most brilliant outsider writers, Tokyo Ueno Station is a book for our times and a look into a marginalized existence in a shiny global megapolis.

A Novel

Manuela

Simple quick read. Quite sad overall, the main character experiences a significant death and gets stuck on the idea of having ‘bad luck’ setting him on this set path. Not a bad reflection on how important mindset is, theirs a lot the main character could of been great-full for instead of the negative he only focused on

Kimberly Gajitos

"You never did have any luck, did you?"

I’m utterly devastated but I guess that’s just how life is for some people.

“I was always tired.
There was never a time I was not tired.
Not when life had its claws in me, and not when I escaped from it.
I did not live with intent, I only lived.
But that’s all over now.”

---------------------------------

A sad book that throws the reader into the daily life of countless people (both the homeless habitants and the average passers-by) at the Ueno Park in Tokyo through the eyes of a deceased man, now haunting the park as he looks back on his life. 
Although the writing style was very thoughtful and emotional, I felt like the concept of the story was stronger than its execution. The shifts in the timeline were difficult to follow through the flashes of memories, feelings, and sensations. It was interesting, yet unfortunately not a book that might stick with me for a long time to come.

Reading this is like taking a punch on my face. An uneasy feeling, and it questions your sense of guiltiness, responsibility and humanity as a whole. Tokyo Ueno Station brings upon the apparent societal issues, by looking at the world through the eyes of a homeless man Kazu. 

shuf

disorienting read, but was v v beautiful and i would like to take the time to reread slower. i missed a lot of the text because it felt very descriptive at times and i didn’t have the right headspace for the book :/

esther

reann

Tokyo Ueno Station is a narrative urban fiction seen through the eyes of a homeless, recently deceased man named Kazu—who’s spirit lingers in one of the busiest cities in Tokyo. Over people-watching and snippets of overheard conversations from people passing by, Kazu reminices on his past and take the readers to the miserable twist and turns of his unlucky life.

What strikes me the most in this story is how the protagonist painted a picture of life as a ghost is not as diiferent from the life when he was alive. Not seen or heard, he can only watch as the world continues on—whether he’s living or not, he just floats aimlessly, day after another.

azliana aziz

fatru tamzil

This was quiet, contemplative, but also full of rage.

Athiyya adristi

I changed my mind. Gave a 4 before but it's actually 5.

Claudia Sinclair.

❝ If you fall into a pit, you can climb out, but once you slip from a sheer cliff, you cannot step firmly into a new life again. The only thing that can stop you from falling is the moment of your death. But nonetheless you have to keep living until you die, so there was nothing to do but continue working diligently for your reward. ❞
This was such a heartbreakingly exquisite book. I didn’t expect this book would talk about a man working life in Japan, because I thought this book would be just typical of Japanese-lit ( you know what I mean, aight? aight. ), but turned out, this book evolved into a variety of problems as an outcome of the rapid rise of construction in Tokyo and its Japan history, including homelessness in Ueno Station. Not just that, the story revolves around a poetic ghost tale in Tokyo as well. Everything was wrapped very well and to make the readers easily feel the emotions through the story, the emotions beat perfectly well.

Talking about the main character in this book; my heart whacked for him. I acknowledge that each person in this world lives a different life to one another but sometimes it’s not equitable. He kept experiencing negative emotions to the point that sometimes he found it hard to feel everything, he felt that his life didn’t belong with everyone around him; his family to be precise. Also, it breaks my heart when he compares his life with the emperor of Japan, he thought that their life were different in every situation; it breaks me even more when he compares the Prince with his dead son.  *sobs*

Overall, I admire the literary style in this book; it's vigorous and imaginative while remaining comfortable to read. A tragic story, but one that is equally humanising and empathetic to its characters.

diya

TOKYO UENO STATION by Yu Miri, gorgeously translated by Morgan Giles, narrates the life of Kazu, as a man from Kashima Prefecture who travelled long lengths to Tokyo to support his family, and as a ghost drifting through the fragments of lives, both homeless and homeful, caught in the snare of soundscapes in and around Ueno Station and Ueno Gift Park. Kazu's existence is drawn in sharp parallel with the Emperor's, until the very end. Just as in life, in death, Kazu remains homeless, drifting through the sounds and memories of his life. Using her "outsider" point of view as a Zainichi (Korean-Japanese), Miri writes prose that is poetic, quiet, yet attuned to the neglected voices and thoughts of pain and longing for home. There are times when the imagery is soft and lovely, thoughtful, as if soaked in raincolour. Other times it is vivid, vibrant; sounds of train station activities and overheard conversations break up his narrative, respectively used as tools to shift strikingly from one scene to the next, and to provide glimpses into other people's lives in the shadow of his death. 

"I walked faster, but each step plunged me deeper into the depths of stillness. If time could pass so slowly that its passage was imperceptible, then — is death where time stops and the self is left alone in this space? Is death where space and the self are erased and only time continues?" 

That's another thing Miri illuminates so well: the invisibility of homeless people. Japanese society tends to turn a blind eye upon their existence. Their presence is treated as aged leaves swept from the park's grounds, dusted off into the streets. At a certain time span they are left to wander the streets, gathering tins, discarded books, and other scraps of the housed; only after the appointed time, are they permitted to return, and even so, the space they can use diminish little by little, replaced by flowerbeds, signs and fences. This life they lead of movement and stillness — constantly moving yet stuck in the same place — is surrounded and affected by historical and personal events, ones which are described in Kazu's narrative.

Kazu's powerful emotions, broken up in choked waves, send a foreshadowing that crackles through the pages. It was an emotional journey, and I felt like being carried by those waves. TOKYO UENO STATION is insightful and heartbreaking, and it opened my eyes to the flaws in the seemingly spotless surface of Japan.

fairuza hanun

TOKYO UENO STATION by Yu Miri, gorgeously translated by Morgan Giles, narrates the life of Kazu, as a man from Kashima Prefecture who travelled long lengths to Tokyo to support his family, and as a ghost drifting through the fragments of lives, both homeless and homeful, caught in the snare of soundscapes in and around Ueno Station and Ueno Gift Park. Kazu's existence is drawn in sharp parallel with the Emperor's, until the very end. Just as in life, in death, Kazu remains homeless, drifting through the sounds and memories of his life. Using her "outsider" point of view as a Zainichi (Korean-Japanese), Miri writes prose that is poetic, quiet, yet attuned to the neglected voices and thoughts of pain and longing for home. There are times when the imagery is soft and lovely, thoughtful, as if soaked in raincolour. Other times it is vivid, vibrant; sounds of train station activities and overheard conversations break up his narrative, respectively used as tools to shift strikingly from one scene to the next, and to provide glimpses into other people's lives in the shadow of his death. 

"I walked faster, but each step plunged me deeper into the depths of stillness. If time could pass so slowly that its passage was imperceptible, then — is death where time stops and the self is left alone in this space? Is death where space and the self are erased and only time continues?" 

That's another thing Miri illuminates so well: the invisibility of homeless people. Japanese society tends to turn a blind eye upon their existence. Their presence is treated as aged leaves swept from the park's grounds, dusted off into the streets. At a certain time span they are left to wander the streets, gathering tins, discarded books, and other scraps of the housed; only after the appointed time, are they permitted to return, and even so, the space they can use diminish little by little, replaced by flowerbeds, signs and fences. This life they lead of movement and stillness — constantly moving yet stuck in the same place — is surrounded and affected by historical and personal events, ones which are described in Kazu's narrative.

Kazu's powerful emotions, broken up in choked waves, send a foreshadowing that crackles through the pages. It was an emotional journey, and I felt like being carried by those waves. TOKYO UENO STATION is insightful and heartbreaking, and it opened my eyes to the flaws in the seemingly spotless surface of Japan.

Mary Makarious

** spoiler alert **
           Tokyo Ueno Station by Yū Miri is a slim yet somber novella that offers an intimate look into the marginalized life of Kazu, a deceased homeless man who became a quiet observer. The story captures the quiet desperation of Tokyo's overlooked population, the homeless. 

The author uses Kazu's ghost-like status to draw a strong contrast between the lives of the homeless and the opulence of the imperial family. The book shifts into a surreal, melancholic tone towards the end, a stylistic choice that I did not expect but suits the novella's themes better. Despite this compelling social commentary and the (I think) very cool concept of observing one of Tokyo's famous train stations, the narrative falls short on its execution. The dialogues seem stiff and unrealistic, the non-linear storytelling is hard to follow, and the uneven pacing is jarring. Despite its limitations, the novella deeply explores homelessness and social inequality. 

I would love to read more exploring these concepts and themes but I do not think this book executed it well.

A contemplative, emotional journey through Kazu's life, which has been full of hardships. This book offers a closer look at homelessness in Japan, juxtaposed with the wealth and easy living of the Japanese imperial family. Evocative and wholly touching, this is one of those books that's nearly impossible to explain and therefore which I can only say to read, read, read and experience for yourself.

Alyssa B.

Chloe Garcia

Dave Walker

Kathy Luo

3.5--probably should be 4 but it just made me too freakin sad

Morgan Thomas

While I found some depictions in this book a fresh take, in particular the homeless in Japan, I was ultimately unfulfilled by this book. While slow and boring (something I tend to like) the story about a ghost recounting his life, even I was to bored by this lackluster story. Part of the realization came when I realized it was an effort to pick this back up after putting it down. While the narrator's life was bleak and he had bad luck, it had a more melancholy, sentimental tinge to it which I did not like at all. Deeply unimpressed.

life holds so many capabilities and this novel encapsulated a sad reality faced by many through a unique approach. could seem monotonous on the surface but it was truly gripping to follow along with the reflections of a life lost.

Tokyo Ueno Station

Reviews

Highlights