Ameyoko - Ueno Station

Ameyoko stands for confectioners alley. Here you can find anything from food items and fish markets to a variety of clothing stores. This market developped post ww2 as a way of trading goods for money. Now that the Japanese government has lifted bans on many foreign goods, the black market basically no longer exists as you can get the items anywhere in Japan now. It was very crowded but was a great place to people watch. I enjoyed watching people "gamble" at the Pachinko parlors. You would not believe the level of noise and the haze of smoke in these parlors. You can see the stacks of metal balls in boxes that some players had amassed behind their seats in the picture above. Apparently the game is very addictive. In Japan gambling is against the law, so you need to trade the metal balls in for prizes or receive a wooden card that you trade in for money two stores down.