Tokyo Ueno Station by Yu Miri

 

Catchy Cover Tokyo Ueno Station

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.

*****

Title : Tokyo Ueno Story

Author : Yu Miri

Hardcover : 186 Pages

Published on 2020

Genre : Humaniora, Asians

At first, let's talk about the cover! This book is kind of the one that will be easily fallen in love at the first sight. The colorful and mundane objects in the cover drew my attention directly. I purchased it without even check the rating or synopsis.

Later on, this book belongs to what we called: "Don't judge a book by its cover."

It is a short novel or novella that told a story about Kazu, the old grandpa that dead and haunted an area of Tokyo Ueno Station. 

Thru his eyes, we will hear about chattering from strangers that passed by the area. In retrospect, he will spill about his past life decade per decade.

Kazu's life was never been easy. Even his mother told him that He has so little luck. 

He was born in the same year as the emperor, even his second son born in the same year with the crown prince. But his life nowhere the same compares to the emperor's. He saw the emperor once when he lived in Tokyo during the time of infrastructure construction in the upcoming Olympic game. But that the only thing their life has been crossed. 

Kazu born in Fukushima, a seaside area where the job options are farmer or fisherman. During the first Olympics held in Tokyo in 1964, together with a wave of million men, he came to Tokyo as a construction worker to prepare the event. The salary was better than in their hometown, so he can save up and send money every month to his little family in Fukushima.

It went on for decades. Kazu worked endlessly in Tokyo and came home only several times to met his wife and children in Fukushima. He remembered one trip on holiday to the zoo with his children and cannot afford a helicopter ride. His son resented him for that, at least that he remembered.

In his later life, he decided to come back to the hometown and live off the pension fund. But unlucky events always struck him, he decided to take off to Tokyo and begin his journey as a homeless man roaming a park near Ueno Station.

After that, the story shows the 'unseen' life of a homeless man that definitely made us never saw a homeless man's eyes ever the same again.

Well, it a short read, maybe around 3 hours read but hell, it is the emotional one. Of course it a sad story, but not particularly sob-by. It was elegant writing about a homeless man. Tickling every human conscience that made us asking a question how can life sometimes so harsh to a diligent man? How can we judge someone without hearing the story about him? 

Apart from that, the story has a much bigger message about urbanization, the cost of modern life, and the 'unseen' struggle from our fellow humans.

I must say that it is a fresh point of view for me. Thru Japanese literature, I can see a different view about the life of a homeless man, a convenience storekeeper, a loneliness in the kitchen when parents passed away. 

But I was wrong. The Author may live in Japan since she was born, but she born to Korean parents. Endured the racism, she makes the birth of beautiful masterpiece "Tokyo Ueno Story." Okay, to be honest, I am bit surprised at first, when there is a reference about Korean Church make a donation to the homeless at the park. It is a rare case, a Japanese book mentioned Korean. 

There is one prose that I really love excerpt from the book:

"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 it 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."

Aside from the author, I think we should give much credit to the translator. It is very beautifully written. 

However, I held it to provide a perfect score because lazy me, skipped the part of Buddhism/ Shinto ritual during the funeral and my nonexistent knowledge about the history of the battle of Ueno. A little footnote will help anyway. 

Of course, I recommend you to read it.