Minna no Ueno is an online community that invites everyone to experience Ueno, whether in person or vicariously from around the world. Hosted on Piazza, a web platform that helps communities connect both online and offline, the group seeks to showcase all that Ueno has to offer, from its world-class museums to the natural splendor of Ueno Park and the atmosphere of the neighborhood’s shopping streets. We spoke with three organizers in charge of running Minna no Ueno in 2020 to find out more about the group’s origins and activities.
— How did Minna no Ueno come about?
Noriko Kondo: As the UENO Cultural Park committee’s outreach grew, we started to talk about wanting a forum for exchange with a wider swath of people, including visitors to Ueno Park and people who live nearby, to supplement the direct, face-to-face interaction possible at events. That’s when we came up with the idea of making a community meeting place on the Internet. We use a regional social networking app called Piazza, which lets us exchange information online and reach people who can then join us for offline events.
Minna no Ueno community organizers Noriko Kondo (top left), Kaoru Hamano (top right), and Sachiko Ueda (bottom right). All are former participants in the Tobira Project co-organized by the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum and the Tokyo University of the Arts — Kondo for two years, Hamano and Ueda for five years — and they continue to connect their communities with art. ＊
— The group launched in 2019. How
would you describe its activities now?
Kondo: Each day,
you’ll find lively conversation under the Ueno Area subcategory on Piazza. In
addition to information on events and goings-on around town, sometimes people
will post pictures from walks and write about their experiences around the
neighborhood. Anyone is welcome to contribute. It’s a relaxed platform, like
chatting with your neighbors.
Kaoru Hamano: As members of the project, the three of us also post about our days. Plus, in order to grow the community, we try to plan events about once every month. In the past, we organized an original tour of the Museum-Zoo Station with UENOYES.
The three organizers work together to brainstorm ideas for the group’s wide variety of monthly events. Tours of the Ueno area led by experts always draw a large turnout and have proved to be a participant favorite.
Sachiko Ueda: As a
result of the novel coronavirus pandemic, we haven’t been able to meet up in
person as easily as before. Instead, we’ve been planning more online events,
such as virtual tours of the art museum and other cultural institutions. When
the number of COVID cases dropped back down last autumn, we organized outdoor
events focusing on the nature in Ueno Park, and even joined in the Geidei Hedge
project at the Tokyo University of the Arts.
— Are you working on any special projects
now?
Hamano: We’re
aiming to flesh out a map of Ueno that reflects all the information posted to
Piazza by community members.
Kondo: The Ueno Map will be packed with insider tips from locals, making it an excellent guide to discover new perspectives on the neighborhood, from shops you might have overlooked to peoples’ favorite scenery. It’s wonderful to be able to share this kind of personalized recommendation that you wouldn’t be able to find in an ordinary guidebook.
Minna no Ueno events are announced under the “Ueno Area” subcategory of the Piazza app.＊
— You’ve also been hosting many online
events.
Ueda: In
September 2020, we organized an online, VR tour of the National Diet Library’s
International Library of Children’s Literature. It was our first VR stream, so
we held a lot of meetings and test runs in advance to make sure the event would
be a success. Although it was nerve-wracking, we received overwhelmingly
positive feedback afterwards. It turned out to be a great event.
Kondo: The International Children’s Library took digital footage of its premises when closed due to the pandemic. Although the library was able to reopen, they placed a cap on the number of in-person visitors each day, and suspended their guided architectural tours. That’s when the library uploaded the virtual tour to their website*. Since they had such a nice system already in place, we planned the event as a way to share the content with an even wider audience.
(*Note: The library’s VR tour ended on December 28th, 2020.)
Although most in-person activities slated for 2020 were canceled due to the pandemic, the group was still able to use Piazza to organize last-minute cafe meetups in between Tokyo’s states of emergency, and hold a variety of online events.
—What plans do you have in store for the future?
Kondo: We’re
conscious of creating a welcoming environment that makes it easy for
first-timers to participate. We would be delighted if more people tagged along
and were able to feel a closer connection with Ueno.
Hamano: It would
be great if people posted more messages to our page. Even small anecdotes about
daily life are welcome! While the posts may seem small and personal on an
individual level, en masse, they become a valuable fountain of institutional
knowledge. Together, we can create a unique guidebook to Ueno, the only one
like it in the world. I think it’s a lovely concept.
Ueda: I think the pandemic has shown how it’s more important than ever that we all support each other as a community. Most of our members are older, so we would be thrilled if more younger people would get involved, and help make our group even more diverse.
Text: Naoko Tsunoda (Fillmore East) Photos courtesy of Minna no Ueno (excluding ＊)
