Well, we decided (as mentioned in the previous posts) to head to some museums on Sunday. We took the subway to Ueno, which is basically a giant park, surrounded by museums. Since it was Mike's birthday weekend, we went to the Museum of Science and Natural History first. This seemed like it should be fun to me, since I love the Science Museum of Minnesota...boy was I wrong.
Here's the park: I thought it was pretty cool how the trees stretched over the road:
Here was a train outside of the museum:
Mike in front of the Museum:
Mike, again, in front of the train:
We got inside the museum and got hooked up with some English audio guides. At first, I was really happy that we had them, since nothing was in English. Then I realized that it was probably the most boring recording of anything that humankind has ever known.
Here's some marbles showing the different plates in the earth around Japan, which explained why there are so many earthquakes, this was actually semi-interesting:
A model of Japan:
A map of all of the volcanic hot springs:
Some lava rock, appropriately named "cow-dung bomb"...which might also be a good name for the museum...:
Some examples of wildlife that live in Japan:
And all of the shellfish:
Big crab:
Here are some meteorites that have hit Japan:
Here's a dinosaur thing:
The oldest rock in Japan...I think:
Some limestone?
Some fossils:
The skeleton of a sea lion.
Some deer butts:
Crabs dressed in ninja outfits?
Snakes live here:
Cats and turtles now live in Japan...NO WAY!
Here's the oldest skeleton found in Japan, so I guess that's kind of interesting:
Some pots:
Here was a model of how skulls have evolved over time...looked like a bunch of skulls to me!
Here was my favorite part! A demonstration of how the people of Japan have evolved over time. Here's our first couple. She's found some conch shells, while he's speared some fish...naked!
Our second couple, not quite as naked, but she's making some stew, he has some fish, and the dog is there, too:
so was a naked boy! I couldn't help it. I know, I know, I'm immature.
Couple number three! He has his hair into a fashionable side bow, while she's cooking up some rice:
Here's a nanny with a kid, talking to a priest:
The priest had on some wicked cool shoes:
Another scene...no clue what's happening here, I got so sick of hearing the audioguide that I shut it off:
Here was an empty show case that was supposed to be modern-day Japan..this kid happily obliged. So he was REAL. Pretty cute.
After that they had a whole room devoted to the evolution of the clock. I joked that it was to signify how much of your life you would never get back after going to the museum.
Even Mike was getting bored, so we decided to high-tail it out of there.
Here was my favorite part, a giant sculpture of a whale. Why was it my favorite part, you might ask? Because it was at the exit!!!! Woo hoo!!
After that, we decided to go to Harajuku, which is supposed to be cool on Sundays, and have a bunch of crazy teenagers dressed in crazy outfits. When we got there, though, it was raining. So began "the dance of the umbrellas", where everyone tries to avoid crashing into each other's umbrellas. For the most part, it worked.
Here was about the craziest dressed person we saw...it's not that crazy though, I've seen girls (or maybe boys?) dressed like Zombie Bo Peep's, and this was just a regular Lil' Bo Peep.
We found a place called "Hub British Pub", which advertised half-off drinks until 7. That sounded great to us! We got in though, only to realize that the only thing that was excluded was beer and wine...what?? You could get any cocktail for half off, so 240 yen (3 bucks), but beer was about 9 bucks. Go figure. Not wanting to go back out into the rain, we each got a beer.
There was a questionnaire in english, so I filled it out and let them know exactly how I felt about the happy hour not having beer. Not very "happy" if you ask me.
Mike tried one of the happy hour specials, which was a guinness mixed with coke. It tasted like...a guinness mixed with coke. Pretty weird.
I tried a ginger ale type drink, which was ok. Couldn't believe that you could get a pint of ginger ale and liquor for half the price of a pint of beer. Unreal!
We ordered some edamame, which were COLD and I thought they tasted like fish. Mike loved them though!
Then we ventured back out into the rain, and headed home, where we ate dinner and watched The Other Guys (one of Mike's favorite Will Ferrell Movies). It was a nice night in after a strange day out! I've been having a really hard time sleeping the last few days, which I can't figure out. Maybe it's some sort of weird jet lag thing, coming at me 2 weeks after we got here? Anyways, after laying in bed until the sun came up on Saturday night, I told myself that if I wasn't asleep by 11:30 on Sunday night, I would take one of my prescription sleeping pills. I did, and boy did it backfire. I still didn't get to bed until 3:00 am, and when I woke up at 2 in the afternoon on Monday, I felt groggy, confused, and awful. YIKES! Lesson learned: Drugs are bad. I had big plans to go to some museums today, but they obviously didn't happen. Instead I worked on making plans for my parent's visit, and then walked to Mike's subway station to meet him for dinner on his way home. Then we headed out on a mission to find a fun bar near our place. We found a place, but when we got the bill, realized that they charged a 500 yen a person "sitting fee"...so for 4 HALF pints of beer, we paid around 43 bucks. Ouch. I guess a lesson for the past few days is that Tokyo can be crazy expensive.
Anyways, regardless of what time I go to sleep tonight, I'm going to wake up with Mike tomorrow and walk to a coffee shop that's on his way to the subway station. Then I will sit there and drink copious amounts of caffeine until I feel awake! So there! Take that, sleep! In other words, w
ish me luck. If I make it through the morning, I'm heading to some art museums that have been calling my name (not Mike's) since we got here. Goodnight to us, good morning to you!
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