Tokyo Part 3

So finally I've gotten round to telling you the very last things I wanted to write about Tokyo! 

There won't be so many pictures, because we ended up spending a lot of time over the last 3 days in museums and galleries. I haven't really been going to look at exhibitions in Kyoto, and I realised with this trip that I'd actually really missed it. So one of my resolutions for this next term is to make the most of the fact that Kyoto has a lot of art and craft stuff going on.

That resolution actually includes making sure that I get back to Tokyo to go to the Studio Ghibli museum again. (For those that don't know, Studio Ghibli is an animation studio that makes deep, beautiful films, and is internationally acclaimed).

I could write an essay on how much I loved it, but that would contain spoilers about what it's like in there, and I really recommend going without knowing, because it was fun to properly explore it. I think it was probably designed that way.

In any case, it's in a lovely area, inside the local park. Walking in the sunshine along a tree-lined path, it felt like entering the world of Ghibli before you even make it to the site.

When you get through the gate, there's no doubt that you're in the right place, with this Totoro ticket booth. 

I bought two art books of the museum in the shop, and the first page of one is Miyazaki's mission statement of how he wanted the museum to be. One of his plans was that it would not be a dusty display of past works, but something much more interactive and engaging, and I have to say I think they did it. You don't come away knowing more about the technical details of a particular film you liked, but you do come away with a lasting sense of the world that the people at Ghibli work with, and in. 

I also came away very very happy that I got a picture with a robot from Laputa, because I always loved them.

The next day was full of robots, actually. We went to the artificial island Odaiba, where there's the Museum of Emerging Sciences (the Miraikan). There are super interesting exhibits about a wide range of new technologies in the pipeline, a floor on space exploration, and a chance to see Honda's robot ASIMO live.

 On the way back, we went via the giant Gundam Warrior (the inspiration for Pacific Rim). There's a light display, and the robot moves its head around. Having just seen ASIMO run, dance, and kick a football, it was less impressive than it might have been...

(In fairness it would be terrifying if a statue that big suddenly started dancing)

The next day we headed over to the Museum of Contemporary Photography. The exhibitions were both good, but the best thing I came away with was actually from the shop - they had the book 'Moomin Valley Midwinter' in Japanese. The Moomins are hugely popular in Japan right now, and actually when I travelled by Finnair last month they were selling special Moomin merchandise that you can only buy on the Helsinki/Japan flights. I've always been vaguely terrified of the stories, so not only did I want to see what they were actually about, I thought reading a children's book would be just about right for my level of Japanese (it was!). In the end it was also a very thought-provoking book, like all the best kids' things are. The only problem is that now I really want to buy Moomin products, and in Japan temptation is everywhere...

So that was Tokyo. Stay tuned next time for pictures from the trip I did last week to Okayama and Hiroshima!

Tokyo Part 1

I'm back from a 5 day trip to Tokyo and to celebrate I came down with a cold... Actually I think it's just one of those end of term things, but I'm glad it did hold off while we were enjoying our adventure~

We went by overnight bus, which actually felt a lot like being in a plane, only it deposited us right at Tokyo station, not at an airport another 2 hours away by train... I would definitely recommend the bus if you're on a budget (though if you're not, why would you even consider anything other than the Shinkansen?!) We arrived bright and very early, left our bags at the Ueno station, near our hostel, and went exploring!

A beautiful tree in Ueno park.

Ueno is famous for its zoo, so a lot of stuff in the area (vending machines, flower displays) is panda themed, including this panda bun that I just had to buy. Each one had its own expression, but my favourite was this mildly disappointed and disgruntled one.

We wound up in the gardens of the Imperial Palace, which are very quiet and full of nature, but are also surrounded on every side by tall office blocks.

Oh, and this awesome moat.

On our wanderings we found an area called Jimbocho which is famous for second hand book stores ( Tokyo has lots is specialised districts, Jimbocho is right nice to the area for big skiing and winter sport department stores...). This shop extended right out of the building and down an alley to the side.

After a quick journey to check into our hostel, we headed straight out to the other side of the city despite our painful feet (at this point, 3ish, we had been walking near constantly since we arrived in Tokyo at 8am). We walked through Harajuku, which I loved, and headed to watch the crossing at Shibuya from the Starbucks that looks out across it. It was kind of late by that time, so we didn't quite get to see it in its full rush hour glory, but it was still relaxing just watching the ebb and flow of people, and, it being Tokyo, they were all pretty interesting people.

That's it for part 1 ~ in a few days I'll tell you all about Nikko, the day trip we did to where Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first shogun of the Edo period (I.e. when I say shogun, it's him and his family you're thinking about) has his tomb.

~