Day 9 in Tokyo: A friend of mine from high school came to visit me this morning. It was so nice to see her after so many years and catch up. She and her family were living in the States but her husband got transferred to Tokyo. Lucky for me I got a chance to see her.
Following a quick lunch in our room, we made our way to the Edo Tokyo Museum. Our initial plan was to go to the Fukagawa Edo Museum but when I checked on its website to make sure I knew how to get there, I found out it was closed for renovation since last July and will reopen mid-July. Unfortunately for us, we will not get to visit it this time around.
The Edo Tokyo Museum is at Ryogokyu station on the Oedo line or the Sobu line. From where we were, it was one shot from our station and the museum was right next door to the Oedo line station.
Admission is JPY600 for adults and I thought it was well worth it. The outside of the museum looks strange but the space inside of the museum is wonderful. Large volume coupled with dim lighting and large scale models made for a serene and beautiful setting. I loved it. The kids enjoyed all the interactive portions of the museum. Our girls had fun playing the traditional instruments used in kabuki, riding on an old fashioned bicycle and rickshaw, making a call on a really old telephone etc…
(Warning: There is a section on World War II and the bombing raids over Tokyo which prompted my 6 year old to ask a lot of questions about the war.)
The museum has a lot of interesting and beautiful exhibits. I would recommend it. You can see art and science museums in many places but you won’t find a museum on Tokyo anywhere else.
After spending nearly 2 hours, we took a short snack break and walked a couple of minutes to the Yasuda Garden. It’s very small but has a nice little pond with koi, turtles and ducks. It also has quite a few stone bridges and a vermillion wooden bridge spanning the pond. It’s not a must see at all but if you are looking for a quiet place for a break outdoors, why not, it’s free and nearby.
On our way to the Yasuda Garden, we came upon a group of junior high students with their teacher shaking down trees with long sticks and gathering little red fruit that fell onto the tarp placed below. It looked like a lot of fun and we were also curious about the fruit. They called it ‘yama momo’ which translates to mountain peach. The fruit is red with little bumps. The students offered some of the fruit for us to taste. It tastes very fragrant and the ones we had were just slightly sour. My 5 year old loved them.
http://www.tokyoessentials.com/edo-tokyo%20museum.html
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