On our second day in Tokyo, Kevin took the day to browse CD and manga shops, while Rowan and I ventured to Ueno Park in the north end of the city, to visit the National Museum of Nature and Science and the Tokyo National Museum.
The National Museum of Nature and Science is incredible. It has a vast collection of dinosaur skeletons and fossils, many of which you can walk completely around so you get great views from all angles. The museum also has a large collection of land and water animal and plant specimens, anthropological models and skull specimens of humans through history, and lots of models of large ocean dwelling creatures including a whale and a whale shark.
Rowan and I loved spending time in each of the amazing rooms, reading all the displays and admiring all the models and specimens. Before we realized it, we’d been roaming around the museum for two hours and we’d only visited about a third of it! Plus, it was time for lunch. So, we walked about 15 minutes to find Guruatsu Vegetarian, a nearby vegan bakery and café, where we had gorgeous salads and scones.
Afterward, we walked back to Ueno Park, this time over to the Tokyo National Museum. There are three buildings to visit: one dedicated to Japanese Archaeology, an Asian Gallery, and a Japanese Gallery. We chose to start with the Japanese Gallery, which has two large floors filled with everything from decorative kimonos to woodblock prints by Hiroshige and other masters to samurai armour and swords to pottery and metalwork.
We loved strolling slowly through the rooms and stopping to look at the exquisite artwork and artifacts. Rowan’s favourites were the samurai armour. Mine were the woodblock prints. We spent about 90 minutes in the Gallery and tired ourselves out.
We headed back to the hotel, met Kevin in the lobby for some shaved ice, and then rested for a bit before going out again for dinner at a neighbourhood ramen place and meeting L, L, and T to visit Shibuya crossing at night. It was a lot of fun to see the intersection all lit up and being part of the large crowds moving across the roads en masse and loving it. We walked around the Shibuya area for a half hour or so before heading back to our hotel, exhausted once again and ready for bed.
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