Tokyo Ueno Station
Riverhead Books · first published 2014 · 192 pages
The ghost of a laborer drifts through the park beside a busy Tokyo station, remembering his life.
Voices of passersby, history, and memory overlap in short passages, so reading it feels like listening in a crowded place.
For a night on the last train home.
About this book
Kazu was born in Fukushima in 1933, the same year as the future emperor, and came to Tokyo to work on construction for the 1964 Olympics. He sent money home for years and spent his last years among the homeless in Ueno Park. Now, unable to rest, he drifts through the park, hearing strangers talk and remembering his family. What remains is a quiet, unsparing look at people left out of a nation's celebrations.