I’m not sure if it is universal, but museums in China and Japan are typically closed on Mondays (barring some national holiday that shifts the “rest day”). So, for my last day in Tokyo, I had to exercise a little creativity. The first order of business was to go to the Sumo stadium by 7:30 am when the ticket sales began. After a quick walk there in the bright sunlight, I was blinded by the sheer number of people already lined up, wrapped around the building and stretching out into the horizon. People must have shown up at 6 or even earlier to get on line. What the hell?! It wasn’t encouraging that at least three quarters of the line was composed of obvious tourists. While sumo wrestling would be interesting to experience, the idea of an entire stadium of gaijin is a bit off putting. On to plan B.
There were a few places covered by the Grutto Pass that are open on Mondays. The only problem is that they are a little far flung. Doing quick back of the envelope math, I decided to would be worthwhile to invest in a 1-day transit pass covering Tokyo Metro, Toei, and JR lines. I headed over to Tsujiki Market to kill a little. This is the famous market that people go to at 3am for a chance to watch tuna auctions. I had no interest in that, but had been thinking about getting there by 7 one day to find the fruit auctions. I was a bit late for either, and wondered about, kicking myself for having already eaten a breakfast when the market was essentially set up as a tourist trap selling expensive meals. It was overrun with foreigners as well.
Since the nearby Hama-Rikyu Gardens didn’t open until 9am, I had plenty of time to kill and located one more Aeon Bank ATM to confirm that my card does not work. I didn’t have any cash on me, but a couple money changers I passed advertised terrible rates.
The Tokyo bay adjacent gardens were nice and I covered them with a quick loop before heading over to the nearest station which provided direct access to the Mirakan (Museum of Emerging Technology). However, when I tried to swipe myself into the elevated train, I discovered that my pass didn’t work. I forgot that apart from two major subway operators, there are a handful of private rail lines in Tokyo. It’s a mess to have so many independent companies operating public transport. One “station” on the map is often several mutually unconnected stations of the same name. It would have been an extra 300 something yen to go a couple stops on that line. Completely ridiculous.
I decided to mix up the itinerary and head out to the Tokyo Sea Life Park, which is only accessible by JR line and almost as far out of town as Disney Land. The aquarium had several smallish hammerhead sharks, and apart from a couple of school groups was much quieter than the typical tourist favorites. To reach the Miraikan without shelling out more cash for transportation, I was able to get on a Toei operated bus outside the neareast JR station.
I was expecting the Miraikan to be super crowded, but it wasn’t. I got there just in time to watch the Asimo presentation. Asimo is the Honda-built robot. I think we are already on the 8th generation or so because I can remember news footage from however long ago. Asimo was crazy, as were the other handful of robots on display at the museum, including the baby seal one. The museum had displays explaining high tech material science, quantum computing, a module from the International Space Station, and lots of other fascinating interactive stuff. The “future medicine” exhibited included a hands-on laparoscopic surgery simulation.
As I was making good time, I knew of one more museum open on Monday. It was actually near the gardens I went to first. On the subway, I wasn’t paying attention and missed my stop. However, instead of going back, I kept on to Ginza so I could walk through that neighborhood on the way to the museum. I popped into a Family Mart just around the corner from the museum for a little snack.
The Panasonic Shiodome Museum of Art is in an office building, and it felt weird to walk around in my shorts and sandals while various business people were going about their business. The exhibit was completely dedicated to some 19th century French painter whose name has already escaped me. It was a loan from his museum in Paris, but it seems they didn’t send over the good stuff. Most of the paintings looked unfinished and a fair number of them were preliminary sketches or other practice runs for a later piece.
I was pretty tired by this point, and took the subway back to the hostel to rest up a bit. I still had the unlimited subway pass, so I figured I should try to go to some more places at night. Of course, I also wanted to avoid the height of the evening rush hour, so I killed a bit of time at the hostel. I did grab a drink, and joined a group of backpackers who were pregaming for a concert. Around 7, I took off to go to Ikebukuro, which is pretty far to the northwest of town, and I’m still not sure what exactly is so special about it, other than being mentioned by name in Duolingo. I wondered around the streets to the west of the train station looking at the dining options, eventually grabbing a rice bowl. The restaurant’s namesake dish was quite tasty, offering three kinds of meat. I was bored and didn’t feel like spending tons of time on the subway just to make the pass worthwhile. So, I took a direct train to Akihabara, walked around a bit and headed back to the hostel on foot. Even when free, it is still better to walk then go one stop on public transport. Of course, that gave me the opportunity to pick up another snack on the way. I think my eating is getting out of control.
There were people in the cafe at the hostel, but it was really quite quiet. Apart from one person at the bar, everyone else was playing on their phone or computer. I watched a couple of Youtube videos, then went to bed.
| Breakfast (bread) | 267 |
| Metro Pass | 1590 |
| Ice cream | 140 |
| FM Mapo tofu & milk tea | 526 |
| Drink | 116 |
| Chikara Meshi (rice bowl) | 680 |
| Beer and chicken wings | 600 |
| Total: | 3919 JPY (250.8 RMB) (USD 36.31) |
Running Total: 35264.3 RMB (USD 5106)
Daily Average: 312 RMB (USD 45.19)
Despite being “not a museum day,” I still saved 2620 yen in free admission to the four sites. Without the pass, I probably still would have sprung for the Miraikan. I think it might have cost about the same amount in transportation to go without the pass. Considering the average fare is about 200 yen, it takes a lot of running around town to make it worthwhile.