So, the plan for today was to visit three museums:
1) Emerging technology (robots and the best t-shirt selection ever!)
2) Sumida Hokasai (wood cut art)
3) Edo Tokyo Museum (Tokyo history)
The first issue was that we woke up at 9.15am. Breakfast ends at 10am so it was a bit of a scramble to get up and by the time we had decimated the buffet it made for a late start to our busy day. We tried the egg chef today. I can report that he makes a mean cheese omelette and the pork dumplings went very well with it!
The first museum was off the known map and across the Rainbow bridge on the Monorail again. Today we realised that without a day pass, the individual trip on the Monorail is really expensive. It is driverless though so you can sit right at the front… worth every penny! This time Mila didn’t give in to the cute Japanese toddler that cried because there wasn’t space at the front and held her place.
Asimo was well worth the trip. I didn’t know he could hop! They did a full demonstration of what he can do, including walking sideways and singing a song whilst signing in Japanese. I assume he got that right but obviously we couldn’t check! The explanation was all bilingual in English – which is weird as most of the tourists we have seen are Chinese. Everything assumes that all foreigners can speak and read English.
We were disappointed not to be able to do a robot tour- small sit-on robots powered by gyroscopes to travel in the direction your body leans. They are hands free and only take up the same floor space as a person standing. It seemed a little pointless to pay for the Japanese tour and the English one required a 4 hour wait. Now we will have to come back!
The rest of the exhibits were interesting and more intellectually challenging than our science museums. More questions than answers and much more advanced (although comprehensible) science. You didn’t feel that it was just for kids and stopped just short of GCSE. I really liked the display that showed synthetic photosynthesis and we had to stop and look at the polymer they have developed that conducts electricity- turning all primary school teachers that tell students that plastic is an insulator into liars!!
A slightly weird lunch of hot dogs was consumed (Mila had curry sauce on hers?!) and then we moved on: back down the Monorail, onto the underground and round to Sumida. I had made a fuss about seeing the wave so the rest of the family humoured me and we went to the Sumida Hokasai museum. The permanent exhibition is very small but very interactive. The children were free anyway, but the current special exhibition featured an artist who specialises in taking wood cut prints from Hokasai and putting cats in them. Odd even for Japan but very entertaining and we all found that it made us look at the originals more closely. Both kids enjoyed trying the single line drawing, the kimono design and other drawing techniques. Even Keith said it had been interesting… that makes two art galleries that he has quite liked!
Outside the museum was a children’s park with actual children in it. We released ours to go and play on the bike powered roundabout while Keith took photos and I collapsed on a bench. By this time it was gone 5pm and our feet were starting to complain. We have done 48km of walking in the last 4 days and boy can we feel it!
We bought yet more water and succumbed to the begging for crisps for the train back. In all honestly we need all the salt we can get.
A little rest in the hotel was followed by another expedition into Tokyo’s red light district. We couldn’t bring ourselves to spend the money on the Robot show in spite of all of the flashing lights and shouting waitresses so we just went back for nice safe ramen instead! I have warned the family that we are doing karaoke at some point so they need to prepare themselves!
Tomorrow is our first trip overland and out of Tokyo so our next job was to pack the suitcases and the rucksacks, getting the delicate balance right between weight and spare underwear! Large suitcases are not welcomed on trains so they have to be sent ahead. The next time we see ours will be Monday in Kanazawa so we need to make sure we have what we need for the weekend. Only a smidgen stressful and when you are travelling with a gadget freak: the rucksacks are bound to be heavy.
When we felt mostly organised we had pudding: cake from the bottom floor of a fancy department store. Think Selfridges and then take food very seriously and add a zero to the price of everything. The peach bun was my favourite, with pink coloured dough layered on top. We would have used icing but Japanese people don’t seem to have as much of a sweet tooth as we do. Faces stuffed and air conditioning on max it was bed time again.
The next part of our adventure awaits…