Day 3: Tokyo National Museum (Tokyo)

Tuesday 11 April 2017

Continues from Day 2: Yomiuri Land (Tokyo)

After a nice day yesterday another low made its way over Japan and it was pouring  all day.

It was also very cold- under 10 degrees. A few days later the temperatures in Tokyo exceeded 30 degrees. Changing seasons indeed.


My next AirBnB was located closer to the middle of Tokyo and my host very kindly let me check in whenever I wanted- she even said 9am was fine.



This worked out perfectly for me as it meant I wouldn't have to search for a place to store my luggage, so I took her up on her offer and we arranged to meet near a train station at around 09:30am.






My extremely friendly host walked me to her apartment from the station and provided me with a snack, some tea and explained how to use everything.

Next she asked me what I was planning to do today.

Even after visiting Tokyo so many times I hadn't yet visited any of the many different Museums and decided today was a time to tour the Tokyo National Museum.











This museum holds Japan's biggest collection of art and archaeological artefacts at over 110,000 items.

Within this set there are nearly one hundred items that have been designated national treasures.

My host was very knowledgeable about Tokyo and told me exactly what train to get, where to change and what exit I needed in order to get to the museum.

The Tokyo National Museum is located in Ueno Park, which meant that it maybe wasn't the best choice after all as it's at the back of the grounds and I got quite wet walking through the park in the rain.









Along the way I could see that the overnight rain had stripped most of the cherry blossoms off the trees in the park.



Upon arriving at the entrance I realised that most of the rest of Tokyo had the same idea about what to do today so I had to wait in line for about 25 minutes.

Once I had my ticket though I was able to enter and freely move around the museum buildings without encountering too many crowds.

There are two ticket types available, the permanent collection or the special temporary exhibits. I just went with the permanent collection and then proceeded to slowly spend the rest of the day walking around the museum.



The first part started with the early archaeological Jomon period in Japan and then progressively moved to more recent history as I made my way through the buildings.

Something to be aware of if you plan to spend the whole day here is that there isn't really any place inside the museum or nearby to have a decent meal for lunch. So I'd recommend planning for that. I had to make do with some little snack things that were for sale at a small cafeteria.

It was possible to photograph many of the exhibits, although there were also some that banned photos.



There's a nice Japanese style garden at the back of the main buildings but it was unfortunately closed due to the inclement weather.

At around 3pm I left the museum and made my way back to Ueno Station. By this time I hadn't had much to eat all day so I was absolutely starving.

After wandering around Ueno station for a bit, looking at the food options, I decided upon Katsudon Teishoku- Fried pork set meal.

It was a lot of food and filled me up!

After this late lunch/dinner I returned to my AirBnB and spent the rest of the night watching TV with and talking to my Airbnb host!

Walked: 18,944 steps 16km

Clear skies are forecast for tomorrow and I spent the day relaxing in Tetsugakudo park, studying Japanese and then meeting my Japanese teacher for drinks at night!

Continue reading: Day 4: Tetsugakudo Park (Tokyo)