A weekend in Tokyo

I'm going to wrap the whole weekend up into one blog...sorry if it's a little long! I started my weekend on Friday by waking up, having a sweet potato and coffee breakfast (the best kind), and then heading to the Edo Tokyo Museum in Ryogoku.  I found a train that took me there pretty quick, and then from there it was pretty easy to find the museum.  This guy was out front...not sure what's happening here, but it couldn't have been fun for the poor turtle:

 The whole museum is lifted up on stilts, which I read was modeled after a rice farming building. It looked like an intergalactic spaceship.

 Once I got in (for free thanks to my GRUTT Pass), this is what I saw.  The whole museum is about Tokyo over the ages.  It starts when it was called Edo, and then brings us up to present day (kind of).  The bridge you see in the center is modeled after an original bridge that was in Tokyo.  Fun fact, Tokyo means "new capital", while Kyoto is the old capital.  They have the same letters, just backwards.. So To-Kyo, or Kyo-To.  I never noticed that before and thought it was cool!

 Here's what a theater looked like from the front:

 The top of a float that would be carried through the streets during a parade.

 The whole museum had little models everywhere of what streets and sections of Tokyo used to look like.  This first model is of one person's estate.

 I thought it was pretty cool, but couldn't believe how much stuff they had for one family.
Here's a model of what it would have looked like during the edo period.  There's a model of the bridge that I mentioned earlier:

 Here's what a main street looked like:

 Here was a thing that people could get carried in when they had to go places.  This was supposed to fit 4 people back in the day...as you can see, it currently fits one small child.

 Here's some samurai stuff.  Fun fact: Samurais were the only people allowed to carry two swords.

 Some battle gear...looks pretty uncomfortable to me:

 A mask, with a built-in blonde mustache.  Even back then they were interested in blondes! Ha!

 A lap desk!  Turns out college students did not invent these:

 Here's a fancier people carrying thing:

 A model of a boulevard.  You can see the community well in the middle there.  They built sewage systems back then that were pretty complex, which I thought was interesting.

 I stopped for some water and saw this...thanks but no thanks:

 There were fires all of the time in edo.  Everything was made of wood, which didn't help matters, and people were always cooking, burning incense, and smoking, which created some bad situations.  Because of that, firefighting crews were established, and to announce that they were the good guys coming in to fight the fire, they would carry these banner things:

 Here's a fire-fighting water pump:

 Here's an actual size display of a baby being born.  The woman giving birth is on the left, seated, while the midwife is sitting on that bench thing.

 There's the midwife, washing the newborn off, and the dad sitting over on the left.  Because the women are so small, there would be a lot of bleeding and tearing...gross, I know, and they didn't quite figure out stitches, so the women were told to stay there, right where they'd given birth, for 7 days so they could heal.  Unfortunately this was also a good way for sepsis to take over, so they didn't often make it through that week.

Here's a dude working on some wooden crafts:

 Here's a cool demonstration on how wood block printing works.  They would have a different pattern for each part, and then color it in later with paint made from natural sources.

 Here's the wood block on the bottom, the pattern that it made on the paper, and the colored in version on the top:

 Here's a model of shops that sold books and comics:

 A 1/10th version of a merchant's ship:

 Here's a chest full of gold coins that you could pick up to see how heavy it was...it was heavy.  I would not have wanted to be a merchant lugging that around all day:

 Here's a display on the history of currency.  Fun fact: Before they figured out the gold and silver standards, they used rice as currency.

 Here's a close up of some people in a diorama.  The details were amazing:

 Always ones to be prepared, here's a mini shrine that could be carried around with you, in case you had to get in some worshipping on the go:

 Tokyo Bay back in the day: (that rhymed!)

 Here's what Tokyo was like by the docks, where people would do their trading:

 The portable pillow! Super comfortable looking, right?

 An old post from Edo:

 Some headpieces for the ladies, or men who were playing ladies in plays.  That's right, they were all wigs!! They didn't really get their hair to do that!

 A 300 year old kimono:

 Here's a cool display of what a Kabuki theater was like:

 Here's the villian:

The heroine (played by a man, of course):

 And the guy telling the story:

 Here was a model of the inside of a theater.  These theaters were HUGE.

 They also had a display of all of the people that helped with the special effects.  It was kind of cool, they used a lot of trap doors and tricks to keep the people entertained:

 Here's the front of the theater:

 A full version of that float I showed earlier

 The bridge:

 Then we moved into the Meiji area, where the westerners came in and took over.  Here's a western style building:

 An old rickshaw...which still exist today:

 An original bicycle:

 Comfy looking seat, right?

 Here was a model that was in the floor...it scared me, because it was dark and then it lit up and suddenly I was standing on it.  I felt like godzilla.

 Here's a street scene from the 1800s:

 First National Bank of Japan:

 Nikolai Cathedral:

 Western Style buildings:

An old phone booth:

 This tower used to stand in Asakusa.  After the great Kanto Earthquake in 1923 it, along with most of Tokyo, was destroyed:

 A theater!

She looks familiar...

 Here's a view of what that tower looked like after the earthquake and subsequent fire:

An old Ford!

 

 Here's a house during the war era. Because of frequent bombings, they taped their windows to try to keep the glass panes from breaking.  They also had helmets everywhere (you can see one hanging up on the right)

 And special lampshades to hide light from going out into the street so that bombers couldn't see where the cities were.

 Here's a bomb that was dropped:

 Here's a machine gun from an American B29, that was shot down.  They were displayed at a nearby elementary school as war trophies. When they lost the war, though, they buried these, and they were later recovered when someone was excavating the area for a building:

 Some gun or bomb pieces??

 Here's a piece of iron with  machine gun holes through it...powerful guns I'd say!

 Here's a piece of steel that was twisted after being bombed:

 Here's a map of which parts of Tokyo were destroyed in the air raids..so, pretty much all of it:

 Balloon Bomb:

 USA! USA!  I mean...here's when they surrendered after the Atomic Bombs were dropped:

 Here's the olympic torch from the 1964 Tokyo games:

 Pretty much my favorite picture ever:  Sumo guy getting out of a tiny little car:

Here's a picture of the black market that cropped up once the war was over and the Americans were taking over.  It sprung up in Eastern Shinjuku, which is where the red light district is now (remember when I got lost there?)

 Here's a full-sized model of a Japanese house.  Here's the dining room:

 Little shrine:

 The drawing room, which was being used as a storeroom...what?

 Hallway:

 Kitchen:

 To get out of there, you went down a GIANT red escalator.  It had a part that was flat, which I've never seen before.  I got a little nervous, because it was escalator, flat part, then back to escalator.  But I just stayed put and I was fine.

 Here's the plaza underneath the museum:

 The escalator that you come out of:

 My plan after this was to try to find a restaurant that my book had recommended, and then to head one subway stop down to check out another museum.  After wandering around for 15 minutes looking for the restaurant, I realized that there were two different stations, and that the restaurant was near the other station.  I decided to just get on the train and try to find lunch at my next stop.
When I got off at the next stop though, it was sketchy.  To get to the street level you had to take a bunch of flights of stairs with a lot of corners.  There were signs everywhere with a creepy looking guy, and a police man chasing him.  I took this to mean that crime was high here.  So far, I haven't felt unsafe in Japan, but this was my first time where my spidey sense was telling me to get the heck out of there.  Once I made it to the street, it was run down and gross looking.  I decided that this must be why none of my books talked about this place.  I decided that the museum that I was trying to find wasn't worth it, and I quickly headed back to the station and got on the first train out of dodge.  The train I was on was on the Shinjuku line, which I figured would be good and get me home if I didn't want to stop anywhere else.  As I was studying the map though, I realized that one of the stops would take me to the Museum of Modern Art and the Science Museum (not to be confused with the Museum of Science and Natural History, which was the super boring museum we went to last weekend), so I figured I would stop there.  My book said that both museums had cafeterias, too, which would solve my lunch problem!  The museums are in a park that is part of the palace grounds, so there were cool moats and bridges everywhere.  This was my first view: a moat filled with lily pads!  Very pretty!

 This bird was just hanging out:

 Here's a gate that I should have gone through (more on that later):

Because I missed a turn, I ended up going a little further than I needed and then having to cut over a different way, which meant that I found the art museum first. I wanted to get food first so that I wasn't crabby when I was looking at the art.  I got in, and was then informed that because they are about to do a remodel, the cafe was closed.  I was already in the museum, so there wasn't much I could do but go through it.  It probably would have been a heck of a lot better if I hadn't been so hungry, but it was a nice enough museum.  It looks like it hasn't changed since the 60s though, so it will be cool to see what they do when they remodel it!
After I got done there (I rushed through a lot), I headed to the science museum,  It was rainy and I was hungry and crabby.  I passed a group of school children who all stared and pointed at me, and the crabby part of me glared at all of them.  I think they were scared (as they probably should have been, it was already 2:30 and I hadn't eaten since 8:30).  I got to the museum, followed the signs for the restaurant, and got a delicious bowl of ramen.  Besides some old ladies drinking tea, I was the only one in there.  I think I ate my ramen in 5 minutes or less, and it was fantastic.

 I headed up to the museum portion, redeemed my free ticket, and quickly realized that there wasn't a darn thing in English.  Not only that, but the museum was very clearly for children.  I got a lot of weird looks (more than normal), I think because I was the only person there who wasn't either a kid or with a kid.  I spent about a half an hour wandering and then decided to give up and get out of there.  My feet were hurting and going home sounded good.  When I got out, it was pouring rain.  According to a map of the park that I had picked up, if I followed a short path and then crossed a bridge, I would be able to get back to the station I needed to get home.  The path brought me here:  It's hard to tell from this angle, but there are some big steps that are leading down a hill, with a bridge and a keep over there on the right, which are a part of the old palace:

 The steps were vicious.

Each step was at least 2-3 feet high, and I felt like I needed to sit down in order to get down each step.  I'm sure I was quite the sight.  It was raining, too, so I was trying to do all of this with an umbrella.

 Finally I made it down and headed through this gate:

 One last view of the horrible steps:

 Here's the gate I was going through:

 And finally, I was free!  I headed home, and spent the rest of the night with my feet up, mostly in a hot bath.  Mike had to work late, so he didn't get home until 8:30.  I may or may not have napped while I was waiting for him!

The next day we had planned to go to Odaiba Island, but rain forced us to do otherwise.  Instead, we headed to Ginza, where we went to the ADMT: Advertising Museum of Tokyo.

 It was really cool, and had some pretty good explanations in english.  Plus, it was free!

 Here's a suntory whisky ad, where they are cheers-ing to make the shapes of bottles!

 Here were some really cute Tokyo Metro ads:

 Here's a cool ad for the roomba that they put in subways:  Cherry blossoms on the top, and then petals on the ground, with the roomba picking them up.

 After we got done there, we headed to the Sony Showroom.  They had a Spider-Man theme going, which was pretty cool.

 Here's us with spidey behind us:

 Some of the spidey web stuff that they used in the movies:

 You were supposed to use this little village as a thing to take pictures of with the cameras that were on display:

Mike, trying out some binoculars:

 We found Jimmy Fallon and Carly Rae Jespen! I don't care what anyone says, I love that song.

 Then we got outside, and there was a DJ and some girls celebrating Budweiser's new look...

 Mike got his picture taken with them, and got a budweiser fan and a thing that looked like a budweiser can and turned out to be handwipes...strange.

 We stopped at a Nissan showroom that ended up being TINY compared to the one in Yokohama:

 There were two cars! That's it!  We went up these stairs, thinking there was more, and then found out that no, there was just a kids play area...

 So, we left.  I had wanted to try the Ginza Lion Beer Hall, and we found it without too much trouble, finally! It's a strange combination of Japan and Germany, and had some pretty good food and beer.  We ordered a pretzel though, and got this tiny little thing, with no salt and no dipping sauce.  Not quite the authentic German Pretzel but at least they tried:

Ginza was really cool, and is where all of the high-end shops are.  We stopped at a UNI QLO and I found a nice linen scarf while Mike found a batman shirt.  Very successful, I'd say.  
After a few more stops and a few more drinks, we headed home.  

Today, on Sunday, we headed back to Ueno to go to the Tokyo National Museum.  It's the biggest Museum in Tokyo, but when we got there, we found out that only 2 of the 6 buildings were open, due to reconstruction.  Lame, but we decided to check it out anyways.
Here are the fountains in Ueno Park on the way into the Museum:

 Mike, with the Museum mascots:

 The museum buildings were really pretty:

 Here's Mike, pondering what it all means:

 I thought the tile design in one of the rooms was really cool.  It was on the walls!

 Samurai swords! Some of them actually had records of who had been killed with them...which I found creepy:

 Here are different warriors corresponding to different Chinese years...so Dragon, Ox, Rat, Chicken...etc.

 This buddha was carved out of wood:

 Some pottery:

 The flash accidentally went off here, but I think it's kind of cool looking.

 Here it is without the flash.

 Some tapestries:

 Here's a letter...from one priest to another.  It's hard to see in the picture, but it's a huge scroll, probably 5 feet tall.  Quite the way to write a letter, huh?

 Some warrior masks:

 Mike, standing behind some warrior armor:

 More warrior armor:

Pretty old kimonos:

 Screens:

 This is a mask used in the theater, carved out of wood:

 And some more kimonos!

After we were done, we had a late lunch and headed home.  We stopped at the grocery store to pick up some dinner, and now we're just working on plans for the next couple of weekends.  It's all very exciting!  Tomorrow I'm planning on staying in and working on laundry, since almost everything is closed on Mondays.  Should be a good chance to let my sore feet recover though!

Thanks for reading and I hope you all are having a great weekend!