With the Grutto Pass in hand and a limited amount of time, museums are going to dominate every day of sightseeing in Tokyo. The only really question is which day’s post to title “Museum Mania” since it really applies to a week’s worth of walking around. Looking over the map, I picked Ueno for the first full day because it had the highest concentration of sites, pretty much all located within a park.
I didn’t have much time in the morning before I needed to head out the door. In order to save time, I hopped on the subway, dutifully purchasing a Pasmo card (which will save me a couple yen per trip) and heading to Kyu-iwasaki-tei just as it opened at 9am.
Kyu-iwasaki-tei is referred to as a garden, but it is basically just a 100 year old mansion that one of the early leaders of Mitsubishi built for himself. It was interesting to see the Frankenstein architecture stitching together a 19th century English country estate with a traditional Japanese home.
The next stop was the Shitamachi Museum, which happened to open just at 9:30. A small museum dedicated to documenting the life of the common people in the Shitamachi region in the early 20th century, there were a few reconstructions of houses and shops tucked away in the gallery.
I wouldn’t have made a special trip to either of these if they weren’t included for free in the pass, but I was happy to briefly tour them. Nearly 10am, the sun was already high in the sky and it felt pretty warm. I briefly stopped at a Buddhist temple on an island in the middle of the lake at Ueno Park and continued on to the zoo because I figured I might as well take a look at the panda. Since the panda was on the clear other side of the zoo, which was also divided into two parks connected by monorail/footbridge, I took a wide loop to enjoy most of the rest of the wildlife.
The zoo was enjoyable at first, but by the time I got to the other section, I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of people and the difficulty in seeing any of the animals–Asiatic lions were on holiday, the tiger, the polar bear, etc were all no where to be seen. I had to queue for half an hour to get a glimpse of one of the pandas.
Exiting the zoo, I took a left turn to the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum and was also surprised to see a 40 minute line to enter. The special exhibit was all about Gustav Klimt and it cost a cool 1500 yen even with my discount pass. There was no permanent exhibit to see (for free) and it didn’t seem worth stressing myself out for that. There were a couple other top notch museums in the park that my pass would only give me a 100 yen discount off the 600-1000 yen entry ticket. I couldn’t believe how many people were around given it was the middle of a school/work day. I wanted to get away from the crowds, so decided to exit the park to hit some sites to the north.
On my way out of the park, I passed the Music Hall of the former Tokyo Music School and popped in for a quick minute. The galleries were of no interest, but it was cool to watch a guy tuning the organ in the main hall. There were a couple universities north of the park. One of which had a gallery included in the Grutto pass. I figured it was worth paying the small admission fee because I hadn’t scratched my itch for art at the University Art Museum.
There was a food truck at the entrance with a long line. The line was much shorter by the time I exited the museum and I decided to grab a lunch of (Indian) curry, rice, and naan.
In the afternoon, I walked over to a Calligraphy Museum, passed through Tokyo’s largest cemetery (a popular place for viewing cherry blossoms, though that season has long since passed), and finally the Asakura Museum of Sculpture, which was more interesting for its architecture than the sculptures. It was the home and workshop of a bronze sculptor and a very interesting house with a rooftop garden (including a full grown tree) and a couple sculptures perched on the roof like gargoyles. I’d call it one of the highlights for the day.
That pretty much finished the planned itinerary of museums for the day, but the Tokyo-go-go-go continued. I was around the corner from Yanaka Ginza, which is an old fashioned neighborhood with lots of interesting shops. I didn’t spend much time there, passing through a couple streets fairly quickly, before reaching the apex of my day’s walk and turning around to work my way back. I saw a Shinto shrine on the map (Nezu Jinja) and decided to give it a visit. On the way, I realized there was another freebie museum, so I took a quick detour to hit Mori Ogai Memorial Museum (dedicated to some author I’ve never heard of). The building was far more interesting that the displays. Nezu Jinjia, reportedly one of Japan’s oldest shrines, was very beautiful in the late afternoon sunlight.
I continued walking back south, swinging around the periphery of Tokyo University and popping by the Origami Museum (which is normally free). There wasn’t much by way of galleries and displays, as it is more of a place to buy paper or sign up for lessons.
At this point, it feels like I am just rushing through a list of X, Y, and Z, but I’m still not done yet. Inspired by the Lonely Planet, I went to 3331 Arts Chiyoda, an exhibition space. I didn’t actually see anything inside because I didn’t want to pay for the one exhibition on the first floor and it seemed most of the other galleries had closed up for the day.
I was about 2-3 kilometers from the hostel, and I made a point of walking through Akihabara on the way back. Akihabara is the otoku center of Tokyo with huge department stores selling all the manga/anime peripheral products one could imagine. There is also fierce competition of “maid cafes” where, I guess, patrons can ogle their scantily clad servers while eating ice cream. For the first time all day, I finally noticed tons of tourists wandering around. I’m not sure why people make a point of visiting the area, as if it was some cultural mecca.
I made it all the way back to the hostel and plopped down for a minute to rest a bit before immediately getting back up to get some food in me. I decided to double down on curry, looking up a Japanese curry place in the vicinity. It was good and filling, but nonetheless, eating triggered cravings for sweets and I caved in to temptation.
The evening was short and quiet, and I had another full day ahead of me, so I went to bed early.
| Pasmo (incl. 500 deposit) | 1000 |
| University Art Museum | 230 |
| Kemeer Curry | 750 |
| Cider (Japanese 7-up) | 84 |
| Hinoya Curry | 840 |
| Snacks | 135 |
| Total: | 3039 JPY (194.5 RMB) (USD 28.11) |
Running Total: 34087.5 RMB (USD 4927)
Daily Average: 315.6 RMB (USD 45.62)
For the record, I visited 8 places covered by Grutto Pass. Seven of which were free admission, one discounted (430-200=230). I saved 3300 yen on admission prices. Without the pass, I might have still visited the Asakura Sculpture Museum (500), but otherwise, I doubt I would have paid for any of the other places.