Ueno Zoo

Ueno Zoo doesn’t get very high marks for a zoo but we decide to visit anyway. From Roppongi it’s a direct shot on the Hibiya line to Ueno. The day of our visit was a very hot day. The walk to Ueno from the station was pleasant due to shade from large trees that lined the path in the Ueno Park.

Panda is Ueno’s biggest attraction and we saw the panda. Personally, the most interesting animals at Ueno were the snow monkeys. They were numerous, loud, active and crazy. We had lunch at the cafeteria and it was great! Air conditioned, clean with lots of nice high chairs, kid plates and spoons and forks, kid friendly bathrooms – could not have asked for a better rest stop.

After lunch we take the monorail across the zoo – a very short ride, break for shaved ice by the lake/large pond and then we see the hippo. The hippo my nephew was clamoring to see from the start. The hippo he had to see immediately even if it meant going all the way across the zoo from where we entered. We managed to stave off his need to see the hippo asap but naturally by the time we reach the hippo, it is totally anti-climatic for everyone.

The walk back to the station was a mini-disaster due to exiting the zoo from a different entry point. The walk from the zoo to the station was ridiculous. I think we were given bad directions and it took like an hour when it should have taken us 15minutes tops! Adults included, we were all hot, tired and cranky. Was the zoo worth it?? Not sure…I hear Tama Zoo is a great one to visit.


http://www.tokyo-zoo.net/english/ueno/main.html

Meiji Jingu Shrine

Harajuku Station

One of my fondest memories of growing up in Japan was our visits to Meiji Jingu Shrine at Yoyogi (closest JR station is Harajuku for the main entrance to the shrine). We would visit the gardens when the irises bloomed in June. We would also walk alongside thousands of Japanese on New Year’s Eve, close to midnight or New Years to make our wishes at the shrine. Many colorful booths would line Omotesando during the New Years festivities selling delicious Japanese snacks and food. It’s a beautiful tradition.

As far as I can tell, not much has changed since my childhood at Meiji Jingu, except for the numerous new subways and stations that have sprouted around Harajuku. It seems more complicated to get around in some ways but I take the tried and true ‘old’ way via Yamanote line and get off at Harajuku station. The morning of our visit was full of nonstop action at Meiji Jingu. We see a Japanese wedding, in fact a couple of weddings, at the shrine. The brides, befitting a wedding at a shrine are dressed in traditional white kimonos, walking slowly behind the priests from the shrine. Lucky us!

We also see tea sweets being made near the shrine. The girls enjoy throwing money into the large wooden offering box and wishing for who knows what…actually I think I know, a pet hamster.

My husband and I make another visit to Meiji Jingu, this time without the kids. We wanted to have a quiet time viewing the irises (shobu) which were still in bloom in the gardens (there is a small admission fee). We reach Meiji Jingu this time on foot from Shibuya via Aoyama to Omotesando. It is actually a very pleasant walk, a nostalgic one for me.

Unlike Asakusa Kannon Temple and its surroundings which is usually bustling with activity (see my post on Asakusa under June 2010) there is a sense of calm entering Meiji Jingu. Usually the only noise you hear are the cries of the crows and the gravel underneath your shoes.


http://www.meijijingu.or.jp/english/

Museums - Fune-no-kagakukan, National Maritime Museum, Science Museum, National Arts Center

(See posts on other museums Miraikan, Edo Tokyo Museum, Edo Tatemonoen – July 2010 and Fire Museum, National Museum of Nature and Science – June 2010)

We visited quite a few museums on our last couple of trips to Tokyo. You will note the conspicuous absence of art museums. Our girls don’t last too long in art museums. They do much better in interactive environments.



One of my husband’s favorite museum was Fune-no-kagakukan or the National Maritime Museum in Odaiba (you could make a day out of visiting both Miraikan- National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, also in Odaiba and a 5 – 10 minute away– depends on who is doing the walking…) The ride on the Yurikamome line from Shiodome is scenic. The views of the Rainbow Bride, Tokyo Bay and the futuristic buildings are not bad. The girls enjoyed the glass doors at the station and the view from the back/front of the train. It is an unmanned monorail.

The Maritime Museum has extensive exhibits on ships, shipbuilding etc. In fact the museum looks like a ship – you can’t miss it. There were quite a few interactive exhibits. If you were really interested in ships, this is the place to go. There is a Chinese restaurant in the museum with a nice view. In retrospect we should have eaten there. Instead we went to lunch at a mall nearby, though we had to take the train. The food was not good ; it was a bad idea. However, the girls were entertained by about 200 or so Japanese middle school students who came in for lunch after their field trip to Fuji TV.

http://www.funenokagakukan.or.jp/index_e.html


We usually travel to Japan during its rainy season. This means we are on the look out for indoor activities. One of our discoveries was the Science Museum situated in Kitanomaru Park near the Imperial Palace.

The first museum we encounter from the subway station is the National Museum of Contemporary Art. My husband decides why not go in since it is there and on our way to the Science Museum. I wasn’t too keen about the idea, mainly because I wanted to make sure we had time at the Science Museum.

This was not a kid-friendly choice! All the guards, mostly women, on the floors were so uptight. At one point, one of the women asked me to hold Stella’s hand for the duration of our visit. I refused! We made a quick exit from the museum, the kids found it boring and frankly we did too. We have seen better collections elsewhere.

We walked further in the rain to the Science Museum which was about to close in 10-15 min and Karim talks his way into letting us in for free. In contrast to the other museum, people were very kind and friendly. One of the women took pity on our girls and showed us the jumping/TV exhibit (very fun!) and the big bubble exhibit. The girls were able to stand inside a huge bubble! Had a lot of fun in 10 minutes!

We liked our short visit so much we went back to it. It is very kid friendly and there are many fun, interactive displays. However, if you had to choose between the Science Museum and Miraikan in Odaiba, Miraikan wins hands down. No contest!

http://www.jsf.or.jp/eng/

The National Arts Center is near Tokyo Midtown, smack in Roppongi, known for its night life. What a find since it is a stone throw away from where we were staying. It is the fifth national arts institute (probably a recipient of all the public works stimulus projects by the Japanese government). It is an amazing building consisting of glass and concrete. The concrete is smooth and we detected no cracks. The Japanese are masters when it comes to concrete.

The Arts Center does not have a permanent collection but shows rotating works of art. The building itself is interesting and provides a wonderful space for rest and contemplation. There is a restaurant and café in the museum. You don’t have to pay an admission fee to enter the museum, only for special exhibits. Until September, a collection of art from the Musee d’Orsay is being shown.

http://www.nact.jp/english/index.html

Edo Tokyo Tatemono-en (Open Air Architectural Museum) – It’s Like a Movie Set!

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

Takaosan – Nature Within Tokyo

Last summer, we opted for nature versus man made attraction within Tokyo. I had read about Takaosan, a sacred mountain within the city limits. It offered hiking trails, monkey park, temple, botanical garden, views and most importantly, a cable car (you can hike up the mountain, but who are we kidding…with two soft suburban kids in tow, adults included, cable car was the way to go.)

We decide, even thought it is already 11am, to go to Takaosan. We headed to Shinjuku and had lunch above Keio Dept at a tonkatsu place, which was just mediocre (mediocre food in Japan puts me in a foul mood because I expect everything I eat in Tokyo to be fantastic). We took the Keio line to Takaosan guchi, a 50min ride on the semi express. It wasn’t bad because it is direct and once you get to the station it is a 3min walk to the cable car. Unfortunately for us, it started to rain and we were unprepared.

Undaunted and because it took us over an hour to get there, we forge ahead. The cable car ride was steep in more than one way. It cost ¥900 per adult for a RT but the ride was fun. It is the steepest cable car in all of Japan. At the top of the mountain, the rain came down steadily so we bought some cheapo umbrellas, ate some snack and trekked ahead. We saw lots of people but it wasn’t crowded…the rain and it was later in the day. By the time we got up the mountain, it was 2pm. We stopped by the monkey park and the girls were somewhat entertained by the snow monkeys and their babies. The monkeys were not roaming freely but were behind a glass space. (I don’t know if they roam freely on nice days or not but on the website it clearly states monkeys roaming freely.) After the monkeys, the whining started. The girls were tired, were wet and did not want to walk. We were not turning back so we coaxed them up to the Jinja, the shrine.

The place is beautiful and I would love to come back on a cloudy day without rain. You feel high up with lots of trees around you. Serene. We did see some nice scenery, lanterns and shrines and then we headed back down the mountain. If you are looking for something a little different, I would recommend this outing.

http://www.takaotozan.co.jp/takaotozan_eng1/index2.htm

Birth of Impressionism at the De Young, Yank Sing and Ghiradelli

Two days back in SF, I dragged my jet lagged family to the De Young Museum to see paintings rarely seen outside of the Musee d’Orsay. (Last time we were in Paris with the kids, we did not step inside a single museum…thought this would be a good chance for the girls to appreciate some art closer to home.)

I was excited about this exhibit and had made ticket reservations to see it (and the second exhibition from the Musee d’Orsay in the fall) before we left for Japan. I wasn’t really thinking clearly about jet lag. As it was, I wish I had reserved a later time than I did…oh well. (We all had our ‘breakfast’ in the car.)

Overall, I am glad we went to the De Young but I am reminded again why I actually don’t enjoy going to major exhibitions. It is always too crowded! It is not an enjoyable experience. Everyone decides they want to see the ‘show’ and have to see it within a certain time frame. My other pet peeve of major shows…the audio tours - people with huge headphones totally unaware of people around them, hogging up space in front of art works for really long periods.

Anyhow, we head to Yank Sing for lunch. We couldn’t persuade the girls to eat at the museum café. It isn’t hardship, though, eating dim sum – yes what parents suffer for their kids! We decide after our rather large lunch to walk it off at Ghiradelli. It was an absolutely gorgeous day in San Francisco, clear, sunny and 72F. It is good to be back.

http://orsay.famsf.org/
May 22, 2010 - September 6, 2010

Aren’t You Lucky Kids? Your Dad Doesn’t Tell You “The Bug Will Give Up”

On our last evening in Shimoda, we took the hotel shuttle to have dinner near the train station. The shuttle was full. A family, consisting of a girl about 9 or 10 years and a crying boy of perhaps 6 or 7 years, was the last to get on. The mother with the boy on her lap sat on the jump seat next to me. I was curious to know why the boy was crying and I suspected it had to do with something black stuck on his palm, on the middle finger. I asked the mother and she showed me her boy’s hand and biting the finger was a kuwagata or a stag beetle. Ouch!!! The beetle has strong mandibles and it was really digging into his finger…thus the continuous sobbing of the boy. He had stuck his hand into a hole (presumably to catch the beetle) and got bit instead.



I remarked it must hurt very much, thinking to myself, shouldn’t you try to take the darn thing off??? To this the father who sat in a seat in front replied in Japanese “Akiramerusa..” – it will give up. Right…when the boy’s finger is severed!

My husband seemed to be enjoying this whole spectacle and he was beside himself telling the girls “See how lucky you are? I wouldn’t tell you to take the pain and wait for the beetle to give up.” Of course not, the girls seemed to be thinking...we wouldn't stand for it! We're American! We would report you to the social services.

This story illustrates the Japanese attitude of “gaman” – stoic patience, perseverance, endurance. I suppose the father was trying to teach his son to be strong but really hard to watch a beetle with large mandibles hanging onto a little boy’s finger. After a little while, the father must have felt a little sorry or embarrassed for himself or his son (I couldn’t tell which) and somehow managed to take the bug off the finger. Thank goodness. Our girls were totally mesmerized by the whole crisis.