In the centre of the Tokyo megalopolis is a green, lush park with thousands of daily visitors. It sits adjacent to the hectic Ueno train station, one of the city's busiest transit hubs. Surprisingly, the park is calm and relatively quiet in spite of the countless school children who come here to explore its museums and gardens. Ueno Park was established in 1873 on the former grounds of the Kaneiji Temple, a prominent Buddhist temple of the Tokugawa shogunate. The park was one of the first public spaces created during Japan’s modernization period in the Meiji era.

Old, massive trees play their part in keeping the place a calm oasis in the world's largest city. This camphor is one of many whose boughs stitch a layered canopy overhead the crowds. Trees in Japan are revered objects. In Japan’s Shinto religion, trees are often regarded as sacred entities, believed to house divine spirits, or kami. Kami embody the essence of life, nature, and existence in Japanese culture. When we get close to ancient trees like this one, they have an ethereal presence that can only be experienced, not described.