Day 27 Japan - Tokyo National Museum, Akihibara and a library themed hostel

18 September
Day 27 Japan

So apparently there's a storm coming.

I spent a bit of time this morning figuring out what I'm doing with the next couple of days in Tokyo.  I'm wondering if I have a day or two too much here but I guess we'll see.  It's big city syndrome again.  A lot of the things people recommend to do I'm not really interested in or can't do as much as they think is necessary.

Food is always a big thing on sample itineraries on the Internet.  Do this for breakfast, this for lunch, this for a snack and this for dinner.  I don't know how people eat so much!  I only rarely eat lunch and breakfast is usually something pretty small.

Anyway today's plan was pretty simple.
1. Tokyo National Museum
2. Ueno Park
3. Akihibara
4. Odaiba if I feel like it

It's a public holiday today so I'm hoping that doesn't mean everything will be packed.

I ended up doing the first couple of things out of order since the Museum is actually in the park.

The park is pretty huge and has a heap of shit in it.  There's a zoo, a few shrines, some museums and art galleries and no doubt a bunch of other stuff I didn't see.

It's god damn hot here!  33 degrees Celsius and a bit humid today.  I miss the north of Japan!

Wandered around for a while trying to stay out of the sun and playing a bit of Ingress and I ran into a festival in the middle of the park near the museum.  The "Japan Traditional Culture Festa".  Pretty small compared to the one in Sapporo a few days ago but there were plenty of people there.  I guess the cultural component of it was a dude dressed as a ninja where you could pay to throw shuriken (ninja stars) and a few arts and crafts tents.  But it was mostly a food festival.  Heaps of tents selling basically the same things as the Sapporo festival.  I wasn't hungry and didn't eat anything but I did get a pretty nice brown ale from a local brewery that I forget the name of.  I needed that beer.  It was thirst quenching.

Conveniently the museum was in sight of the festival so once I finished my beer I headed down there.  Also conveniently entry was free today because of the public holiday!  Inconveniently that meant there were more people in the museum but it wasn't too bad.

Great museum.  I really enjoyed it.  It mostly focused on Japanese and central Asian exhibits (China, Korea, India) and they had some really good collections.  There was some beautiful Japanese artwork (calligraphy, screens, paintings) and some really good samurai stuff (swords, armour).  There was also some really excellent sculptures and carvings from India and China.

I would thoroughly recommend this museum if anyone is ever in Tokyo.  They seemed to have tailored their collection to the things that I seem to enjoy the most.

The buildings and the grounds themselves are also really excellent.  The buildings are beautiful both inside and out.  The building housing the Central Asian exhibits particularly I really enjoyed the internal design of.  A lot of levels, glass and low lighting and it looked really modern and fantastic.

I spent a lot longer here than I thought I would I found it so interesting.  Afterwards I walked around the park a little bit then walked down to the Akihibara area about 15 or 20 minutes away.  Akihibara is known as the electronics district but it's also the place where you see a lot of the nerd stuff in Tokyo.  Has a lot of the manga / anime stuff, maid cafes, video arcades and some porn stuff.  It's a really interesting area to wander around.

There was a 7 floor sex shop that I had a look through.  It was getting a lot of business from both tourists and locals.  And the manga / anime buildings were absolutely thriving.

It was kind of weird walking around and seeing these cute Japanese girls dressed in the maid outfits trying to get people into the cafes.  I looked at going into a couple but there were huge queues so I decided not to bother.  I might try again in a couple of days but I'm not sure I'm entirely comfortable with the whole thing.  Seems a bit demeaning.  I dunno ... I'll give it a go and see what it's like.

I also shamed myself today and got American fast food for a late lunch / early dinner.  I've never seen a Carl's Junior burger joint before today but I've seen the adverts on YouTube.  You know the type ... chick with really big tits and really small clothes sells burgers with sexual innuendo.  So I walked past this place and decided to try it.  I really regret my decision.  The burger was fine but even hours later I still have this taste of grease in my mouth that won't go away.  I can't believe I ate this rubbish instead of any kind of Japanese food which would have been superior.  Ah well - live and learn.

I'd been on my feet for about 10 hours by now so I decided it was time to go check into my accommodation for tonight.  Picked up my bag from the previous hostel and headed out to the BOOK AND BED hostel in Toshima.  This place is themed on a library.  Basically there are a bunch of bookshelves built in front of the capsules.  It's intended to feel like you're sleeping in a library.

It's a pretty cool gimmick and the place really has a nice atmosphere.  It's definitely not a party hostel.  It's quiet and the common room is full of couches.  There is nice low key music playing and while there's some light chatter people are mostly being quiet and just enjoying the ambience.  It's quite nice but it's quite expensive for what it is.  There are better hostels in better locations with better facilities for a much better price all over Tokyo.  In fact - this is the first hostel I've been in that did not supply soap and shampoo in the bathrooms.  But it is nice and relaxing after a day on my feet.

So that's it for today.  I'm now up to date on my blog posts.

I'm going to sit here and drink a couple of beers and make some more progress on Crime and Punishment in my library themed hostel.  Good night.