Tokyo National Museum

Our day started with using this machine loaned by the hotel.  Can you guess what it does?

A friend from the RV days commented that Jerry and Anna Lee could always find a museum to visit.  Well, here in Tokyo, across from Ueno Park, there are more museums than we have time for.  They range from history to science and nature to art.  We spent the day at the Tokyo National Museum.

The complex includes three exhibit buildings, a café and a Japanese garden with several tea houses.  It is the oldest and largest museum in the country, dating back to 1872.   We did our best to cover most of the area.

Before entering the museum and group of volunteers explained a brief history of Japan and what the many exhibit halls contained.  Through their talk and the actual exhibits, one theme was emphasized: the strong influence of both China and Korea dates back 13,000 years.

We started in the Japanese Garden with its tea houses, stone steps and bridges.    

The Asian Gallery has items through 3000 years of history

The second floor has a room of Samurai armor and other artifacts.  The Samurai influence lasted for centuries.    

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We had a delicious and inexpensive lunch in the museum café.  This equals good restaurant fare.

Anna Lee has always complained about sawdust in the garage so Jerry found a use for it.  This statue of Buddah is made of a slurry of sawdust and lacquer poured into a mold.  Might give it a try.

 There was a vast collection of tomb sculptures and burial urns.  

The emperor traditionally was carried in this palanquin

A local band was performing (no hat for donations) in front of the museum as we left.  One performer combed his hair to look like Elvis.  Another danced in a pair of unique shoes.

In the evening we wandered around and came across this shrine behind our hotel. Quite a sight at night.