Another outing from last summer - Edo Tokyo Tatemono-en in Musashi Koganei. We met up with some friends for some culture and history. The museum is located a bit far from central Tokyo, an hour, with train switches and a bus ride from the train station to the park where the museum stands. The long ride was made tolerable for the kids when some nice middle schoolers got on the train. The girls loved the attention they received from the Japanese tweens. (I liked it too…anything to pass the time.)
Koganei Koen is large, quiet and beautiful. It is not meticulously kept, in fact it could use a lot more upkeep but it was nice to stroll under the trees and enjoy the space and greenery. The museum was interesting from the start. The kids all had sketches of their face done by volunteers.
Many, if not all of the structures had been moved to the museum. Some gorgeous homes! The kids’ favorite was an old streetcar. My older daughter totally got into it. She liked swinging on the handles. I have to stop her from doing it on the subways so she was so excited to see an empty streetcar with handles dangling. I really liked the recreated street scene and the large bathhouse. The bathhouse and the stationery store were inspirations for the Japanese anime Spirited Away by Hayao Miyazaki. I am glad we went but it isn’t a must see if you are in Tokyo for only a limited time.
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3032.html
I must say that the first image there is dam sexy. Very formal and full of function.
ReplyDeleteDo you have any more pictures or info on the houses?
I do have more pics but I have not figured out how to post pics within the comment section. I'll work on it some more and if I still can't figure it out, I'll post the pics in a separate post. The Open Air Museum is a great place to walk around and you can go inside the buildings to boot!
ReplyDelete