Eisaku Miyajima, 68, has watched the town of Ueno every day for more than 30 years from a small folding chair on the concrete stairway leading to the stone statue of Saigo Takamori in Ueno Koen park.
He's one of a handful of street artists who set up their easels on the steps and offer to sketch portraits of passersby from around 2,000 yen.
While the number of artists who gather on the stairway -- the only location unofficially endorsed for this purpose by the park's administrative officials -- has changed since he's been around, little else has, according to Miyajima.
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