The cherry-tree-lined paths of Japan’s first public cemetery are used by locals as shortcuts through the neighbourhood and as a place for picnics during hanami (cherry-blossom viewing) season. Accessible either from Roppongi or Aoyama it’s a peaceful place for a stroll and the elaborate stone-carved tombs are rather impressive.
Buried here are John Manjiro, the shipwrecked young fisherman who became the first Japanese person to go to America; and Professor Ueno, owner of Hachikō, a dog famous in Japan for returning faithfully to wait for his master at Shibuya Station for nine years after Ueno died suddenly in 1925.
