Day 4: Totally Awesome

Today was a fantastic day. A great way to finish Toyko (for now) as tomorrow we leave for our homestay in Chigasaki. This blog post is a long one, sorry.

It began with a lovely sleep in (8:55am leaving time) which lead on to a trip to the Edo-Tokyo museum, which is a fascinating look at Feudal Japan and the founding of Tokyo (which was then known as Edo - Gateway to the Sea) through to the way the opening of the country changed the area and the impact of the war. It was amazing to see the models and pictures of Feudal Japan, and be able to see how Western culture changed Tokyo, which was rebuilding after a series of severe fires (something they were vulnerable to due to paper and wooden buildings.) The fact that Tokyo was so effectively napalm bombed by the US during World War II is why Tokyo is such a modern city today, rather than the traditional Feudal buildings we typically think of when we imagine western culture.

Feudal Japan Lord's House

Shogun Gate at the Lord's House

One of the bedrooms dissected

And the backyard

Painting of Edo and all that was going on at the time

A diagram of the main entrance to Edo (very busy place)

Me inside a palanquin

Some Samurai swords

A wood worker's house

The original Mitsui Office and Trading House!

A portable Shinto Shrine

Some Kabuki costumes

A replica of the World War II Peace Treaty (Canada signed in the wrong spot!)

One of Tokyo's most proud moments - the Olympics!

During our tour around the museum there was a live music display of traditional Japanese drums, which were tunable like Timpani. I managed to take a couple of videos of the performance as well.

The tunable drums

A snippet of the drum performance

Japanese Chappa - a small cymbal instrument. A very entertaining performance

After leaving the museum we had a little bit of free time exploring markets at the Sensoji Temple. It was an amazing little snippet of traditional Japan with the Shinto Temple and surrounds in traditional architecture. It was also incredibly busy. We were interviewed by some young Japanese schoolgirls as part of their school project, which was hilarious. I was a little surprised by how small the shrine was, it certainly isn't anything nearly as grand as Christian churches, but at the same time it was incredibly beautiful.

Lantern gate to the markets

Me outside the tower near the Temple

Smoking purification area outside the temple

The main shrine

A pair of Buddha near the Temple - the figure on the right is said to bring mercy; the one of the left, wisdom.

The busy marketplace

Some swords on sale at the markets

This shop also sold shurikens

Our next stop was lunch, followed by the Mitsui Memorial Museum. Lunch was uneventful, but the Mitsui Memorial Museum was beautiful, full of scroll artworks from the 13th and 14th century, as well as pottery glazed in a number of different colours. All of the artworks were gorgeous, but what I found most amazing was how advanced the artistic techniques were for the time, when compared to European art. These scrolls demonstrated a detailed understanding of landscapes, the way mountains disappear into the horizon and how the create depth of field, yet at this same time, European art was still pre-renaissance and little to no understanding of perspective or depth of field.

We then went to Shinjuku and did a little shopping, which meant I finally got hold of an adaptor for my laptop (I have the power). The shop was enormous, spanning eight floors of technology equipment, it was like a massive JB Hi Fi. Took me forever to find adaptors too. But I have succeeded in my mission, which is all that matters really.

For dinner, when went to restaurant that had never been used by MEF before. There was a lot to eat, five courses of food, including chicken skewers (chicken gizzard actually, which was unfortunately too fatty for me to eat), fried chicken and chips, steamed soy beans and Sukiyaki cooked on the table in front of you and finally, lime sorbet. The highlight of the night was the dancing, which was performed by staff at the restaurant and then taught to us. The whole restaurant was up dancing around, having an absolute ball. Our group were dressed in Happi again and Clare was awarded the "hottest dancer" prize and had to dance on stage in front of everyone. It was an absolute blast!

Our group and the dancers, celebrating a great night out

One of the dancers showing her skills

When all of the fun was over, we reluctantly headed back to our hotel to pack up our things so that we can leave for Chigasaki in the morning. The first week is already nearly over and I can hardly believe it. There is still so much more to do and I cannot wait.