Well I've finally got some time to write a post about my trip so far. I went to the Tokyo Advertising Museum today, as well as wandering around Ginza a bit more and none of it took as long as I planned for, so I've got an extra hour or so of free time.
The first touristy thing that we did was the Edo-Tokyo Museum, which exhibits the Edo period as well as the city. Lots and lots of models of the city as a whole, industries of the city and the imperial palace ranging between 1:25 and 1:60 in scale. The detail in the models was amazing, down to raked gravel pathways around the interior wall of the palace and little shrines and lamps in the gardens. I then made the mistake of going into the museum's shop and discovered their book section..grrr... and then another little shop at the exit to the museum, where they had those cups that change their design when their temperature changes, so I got two of the green tea cups and some other things.
Next day, Peta and I went to the Meiji-Jingu which was truly magnificent. Although it's not all that old - built in 1920, reconstructed in 1958 after WWII - they really went all out on the traditional Japanese feel. And because the setting is so beautiful, there seem to be a lot of weddings there (3 while we were there) so you get to see all the kimonos and traditional dress. Which is a stark contrast to the goths you get to see near the entrance to the shrine's grounds, just outside Harajuku station! Then on to Hanazono-Jinja, more to see the flea market than the shrine (but that was pretty too), which took us a while to find, tucked away as it was. We ended up getting there as the flea market was closing, but Peta managed to get an antique mirror as a gift, and I got a kabuki mask for only 9000JPY!!!
Next up was a night (very late night, we started at 12!) on the town in Roppongi. We were hassled into going into a bar called salsa copacabana which wasn't actually too bad if you didn't take offence at their very liberal definition of "salsa". Our first drink was free, and then they were only 500JPY (about $5.00) after that, though on our sixth drink we met some crazy Brazilians (one a muso, the other two were football players) who dragged us to another bar. We left not long after that though, and were amazed to find it was light outside - looking at the time we discovered it was nearly 6am. So we toddled home to bed, after taking some more random photos (the results of these will be put on my facebook at the end of my trip...they have a sequence... oooooo how mysterious!)
Consequently, the next day we didn't achieve much besides sleeping, but then that evening we went out to Ginza, to see it all lit up with the pretty neons. Also found a patisserie there that makes my favourite cakes ever in the whole wide world (again, photos on fb) and macarrons.
Next day, back to Ginza - for the shopping this time. Turns out we couldn't find what we were after, namely boots for Peta and a kimono for Amelia, but it was nice to feel like I was in Paris, even if there was an abnormally high number of Japanese people there! O_o
Then Peta went home, and dad and I had dinner at the French brasserie near the hotel... very salty steak frites and an orangina - with a kir as the aperitif.
Then today, I went to the advertising museum as I mentioned... was quite interesting, if somewhat bias. Chronicles the history of advertising in Japan from the 1600s to now. I also collected as many leaflets and flyers as I could because the bastards would let me take photos in there, which is a pity, because there were some awesome designs that aren't in the flyers. That only took me 2 hours, so I toddled back to Ginza and wandered around there some more (including the Apple Mac and Sony buildings). Stumbled on a stall selling old map reproductions from japan and europe, and bought a couple (damn shops selling things!) What I loved though, was the world map in latin that I bought, reproduction of a 1597 map... in latin... I'm in Japan... they didn't even meet westerners until the next century!!!! lmao
Anyway, tonight I'm of to dinner with some other people then over the next few days I'm hoping to go to Hakone, check out Shibuya-Ku (including the statue of the faithful dog that continued going to Shibuya station to wait for his master's return everyday for 11 years AFTER his master had died), go nuts in Hacknet Art & Design bookshop and look at Rikugi-En (a literary garden where the landscaping invokes scenes from famous Chinese and Japanese literature). Then home on Sunday night!
I probably won't update this again until I'm back in Sydney, so until then, tschus!
xx elle
