A HOT day in Central Tokyo

Well, it was hot here today.  I know it was hot back in Minnesota, too.   I looked it up and it was slightly cooler here (about 5 degrees), but the same humidity.  So I mostly feel your pain.  I forgot to set an alarm and slept in until 1...yikes.  After waking up, not believing what time it was, and then confirming that yes, I had just slept 13 hours, I got moving and headed to Doutor for some coffee and a sandwich (and a sweet potato, of course).  I brought all of my stuff (maps, Grutt Pass, Guidebook) with me so that I could decide where to go while I was eating Lunch/Breakfast.  

After throwing around a few ideas, I settled on Central Tokyo.  I had only been here once for the Imperial Palace tour, and there were a few museums that I get into for free with my pass.  While I was perusing my book, it recommended a Hawaiian restaurant in Central Tokyo, so I called Mike to tell him and we decided he would meet me there for dinner. 

I hopped on the train and found a MUCH easier route there which took me under 20 minutes to get there, compared to the 40 it took last time!  The first museum I wanted to go to was the Bridgestone Museum of Art.  Yes, Bridgestone Tires.  Over here, everything is owned by a company.  Museums, art galleries, sports teams, train lines, you name it.  Hardly anything, it seems, is owned by the government.   After about a half a mile walk, I found the museum.  According to my book it had all sorts of amazing art, including Monet and Pollocks.  I thought I was going to have two great art days in a row! When I got up to the desk though, completely covered in sweat, the receptionist told me that the Museum was closed.  This apparently was completely random, as it said on everything that it is open on Thursdays, but it was closed and there was nothing I could do.  I couldn't even figure out why it was closed, since her english was very limited. I headed back out into the humidity to find what was originally going to be my second stop, The National Film Center.  This was about a third of a mile from the Bridgestone, so not so bad.  I stopped on the way to down a bottle of water though..it was SO HUMID.  

I made it, and the Center was pretty cool.  They have an exhibition room where it basically goes over every single bit of history of film and cinematography in Japan.  They started by filming their plays, and by not allowing women actresses, so the men had to dress up as women, like they did in the plays.  This was the 1920s though, and once they found out that it was super uncool to do this in the West, they decided to let women act.  

 They had a bunch of examples of old movie posters, which I thought were pretty cool:

 They had little monitors like this all over the place, too, showing clips of some of the first films in Japan.

 After about an hour of wandering through everything, I ended up in a room that had more recent film posters and pictures of people going to movies.  Here's a crowd of people in Tokyo waiting to get into Mary Poppins:

 James Bond:

 It was a pretty cool place, and I was thrilled that they had English translations for everything, and that it was free with my pass.  If I didn't have my pass it would have been 200 yen to get into, which still isn't bad.  The Film Center itself is a pretty cool organization, which is committed to preserving and studying film in Japan.  It has a massive library, which holds almost 40,000 films.  It's kind of in a random area, surrounded by tons of corporate buildings and headquarters, but I later read that it's in what used to be a whole street of cinemas.  So that explains that!  Here's the view on the block of the Center, with the brother headquarters right there.

 Then I headed over to the Mitsuo Aida Museum, which was going to be my last stop before I met Mike for dinner.  This was in the Tokyo International Forum, which was a GIANT convention center.  It was seriously huge, and it took me awhile to figure out where exactly this Museum was.  After wandering around and unsuccessfully asking for directions, I found it:

Mitsuo Aida was a Japanese calligrapher and poet.  I knew absolutely nothing about him, but I got in for free with my pass (normally it's 800 yen!), so I was more than happy to check it out.  I actually really liked a lot of his poetry, and I was really glad that they had english translations next to all of it.  

Not sure if you can read this, but here's a little introduction about him. 

 All of the rooms were like this, with the original one that he had made and then the english translation next to it:

 Here he is!

 Here are some of my favorites:

The whole museum was supposed to be a modern version of a temple that he used to go to:

 I headed out, and got this lovely view of Tokyo Station.  It was designed in 1914 by Tatsuno Kingo, in the Queen Anne style.  It is said to be modeled after the Amsterdam Centraal Station.  Because it has a steel frame, it survived the great 1923 earthquake, but it lost its two upper stories and cupolas in WWII.

 I found the place we were meeting and got there about an hour ahead of schedule.  To my delight, they had my favorite kind of Kona Beer, and it was the cheapest yet!  I got a beer and waited for Mike, and planned out some day trips for myself.  Before I knew it, Mike was there, and we had two of the most delicious burgers we've ever had.  I had a side of pumpkin soup (I LOVE PUMPKINS!), and Mike had sweet potato fries that came with maple syrup to dip them in. Delicious.

 Afterwards, we decided to walk around the outside of the Imperial Palace, since Mike hasn't seen it yet:  It looked cool at night, but I was kind of bummed it wasn't lit up more.  Can you see that building in the middle?  That's one of the original keeps.

 I love the city at night!

 View of the keep on the left, palace moat in the middle, city on the right:

 Then...there were swans, floating around the moat!

We headed home and neither of us have moved since...ha! It was a long, hot day, but it was definitely fun!
It's supposed to rain for the next week...gross...so I think I'll be visiting a few more museums!  I'm glad I got to the zoo yesterday while the sun was out!
Have a good day everyone, hope you're recovering well after the fourth!