There were several museum in Ueno Park that I wanted to visit, but would have only saved 100 yen here or there on their admission ticket prices with my Grutto Pass. However, somewhere along the line (back in Nara, actually) I became aware of a thing called “International Museum Day,” and having dutifully checked the websites of Tokyo National Museum, The National Museum of Western Art (which I learned about from the Kawasaki exhibit), and the National Museum of Nature and Science to confirm that all three were honoring the holiday by offering free admission. For good measure, I added the Ueno Royal Museum to the list. Unfortunately, the Klimt exhibit was only offering a discount equivalent to the Grutto Pass for Museum Day, so it was a no go.
With the earliest museum opening at 9:30, I had plenty of time in the morning to putz around and walk the twenty something minutes up to the general area. I passed by the Western Art Museum to start at the Science Museum, and was surprised to see the line of people waiting to get in despite there still being nearly an hour until it opened. I figured I was going to have to put up with huge crowds throughout the day, but I saw that as an ominous sign.
I walked straight in to the Science Museum, and while I was disoriented about where to go–there are two separate buildings, one specializing in Japan, the other not–I popped straight into a cinematic experience in a 360-degree theater. I’m not exaggerating about the 360 degrees. The theater was a sphere with the audience standing on a narrow platform between two sets of doors. I worked my way through every hall of the science museum at a brisk pace to soak it all in. Highlights include the old telescopes, clocks, and other historic scientific instruments in one hall, the nearly complete fossil of a triceratops, and the cloud chamber where one can background radiation in real time. (Incidentally, I had just listened to a RadioLab episode about cosmic rays and they were talking about a cloud chamber, so it was cool to see one in person). I took regular breaks to sit down for a few minutes and preserve my standing energy because milling about museums is far more tiring than walking long distances.
I headed over to the Museum of Western Art, where one had to queue to get an entrance tickeet. I got my ticket, then decided that I should grab a spot of lunch first, so I wandered over to the train/subway station area to find a cheap bowl of noodles. I had cold soba with a sesame sauce. It was nice and not too filling. While I was in the area, I also found a Big Camera store to finally track down the 500MB IIJ Mobile recharge card to keep my data service valid until the end of my trip. I was starting to debate whether to just go Wi-Fi only for the last 10 or so days, but figured it would be helpful.
Going back into Ueno Park, I stopped by the Ueno Royal Museum first to find that the current exhibit had free admission anyways, so I could have gone there on my last visit to the area. The exhibit was mostly massive monochrome ink paintings of European cities. It was pretty nice, and I had a long sit in one of the nicely air conditioned rooms.
I headed back to the Museum of Western Art and after dutifully snapping a couple pictures of the famous Rodin sculptures in the front garden, i.e. the Thinker and the Gates of Hell, headed straight in. The permanent exhibit occupied less than half of the floor space, but it was an impressive collection. As I should have already stated, the founder of Kawasaki started collecting western art to help Japan “modernize” its art scene during the Meiji restoration and this Museum is the by-product of his efforts. There was an entire room just of Monet, maybe 20 paintings, and the other rooms contained a veritable who’s who of the western cannon.
The museum was fairly crowded, which helped me move a bit slower and soak in the high culture, but I had one more museum to hit and it was the main one. The Tokyo National Museum is the museum if you are just going to do one. The Museum consists four separate buildings and a garden. The main building focuses on Japan, but I hit the Asian building first, which covers all non-Japanese Asian countries. Obviously, there was a lot of Chinese stuff, but it stretched as far as India and Egypt in its inclusiveness. The museum galleries were various historical artifacts, mostly selected for their aesthetic value. I was slightly disappointed, especially in the Japan building, to find that the overarching emphasis of the museum mission was to present the artifacts as art rather than historical record. One can glean a lot of history from the National Museums of China and Korea, but I learned nothing from Japan. A third building, which mainly housed a special exhibit, had a permanent exhibit on archaeology, which had a few notes on history, but neither told a story nor painted a picture of Japan’s historical development.
The middle of Ueno Park had a festival going on with two lines of white tents selling all kinds of drinks and snacks. Before entering the National Museum, I took a stroll through but didn’t nosh on anything. I was impressed by how many people were sitting around eating skewers and chugging alcohol. There were booths selling craft beer and dozens of kinds of sake. I was planning to drink that day, but didn’t want to get trashed before going into the museum. On the way out of the museum, I still gave the pop-up market a wide berth. It was still high afternoon, but I was ready to go back to the hostel. I decided to save myself some effort and hopped on the subway back.
I chilled until dinner time, where I walked up to Akihabara to find a Saizeriya’s, which is a Japanese chain of cheap Italian restaurants. I used to love going to it in Shenzhen and it was a treat I had been looking forward to since I stepped on the shore at Fukuoka. There was a location in Nara, teasing me every day as I passed it by. I ordered a ton of food (margherita pizza, grilled asparagus, pasta, a cast iron plate with chicken, corn, and potatoes, a piece of flatbread) and a half-liter carafe of red wine. Unfortunately, I allowed myself to get caught up on my mobile phone, mindlessly nibbling away the feast. I realized I had finished everything without really experiencing any of it and I was disappointed in myself. So I ordered a plate of chicken wings to eat while finishing the wine, but it was a minor consolation prize.
Back in the hostel, it was quiet again. There were parties of people on Wednesday and Thursday night, but as soon as I start drinking again and on Friday/Saturday, not a soul to be seen. I was finally starting to see some fellow backpackers at odd intervals, stopping to chat for five minutes as one of us was on the way in or out, but still the anti-social atmosphere of the hostel continued. I hung out in the cafe, furtively drinking a bit more and hoping for something to happen, but ultimately gave up and went up to bed.
| Apple danish | 84 |
| Cold soba | 420 |
| SIM recharge | 1500 |
| Beverage — Salty Lichi | 118 |
| Saizeriya | 2413 |
| Alcohol | 275 |
| Total: | 4810 JPY (307.8 RMB) (USD 44.6) |
Running Total: 34799.8 RMB (USD 5041.8)
Daily Average: 313.5 RMB (USD 45.42)
There is a question as to whether I should count the free admission from Museum Day as part of my Grutto savings. The three museums normally cost 1920 yen. Grutto would have given me 100 yen off each (300 yen total). Either way, I definitely would have visited the Tokyo National Museum and the Museum of Western Art, and was happy to both save an additional 900 yen by planning out my museum visits strategically and being also able to visit the science museum, which is actually worth a visit.