So I missed blogging yesterday, reason being is that it was a non-stop day!
So I left the hostel around 9:30. Got back at 6, then left around 8 to go for some drinks at Shinjuku and got back around 12!
Now, you may be asking, what did you do for all that time you were out?
Well! I shall tell!
First off I walked to Ueno Zoo And had a good walk around there. I got to see giant Pandas for the first time ever! Boy are they lazy. Both looked like they'd been thrown. Just sprawled across their wood frame,both with no interest in the rest of the world
The rest of thesis I wasn't so keen on, although there was a big variety of animals (JapaneseSun Bears, grizzly bears, Polar bears, pythons, Lemurs and many, many more)all of them seemed to be repeatedly pacing. Their environments were too small for them. And the Bears were on their own. So although it has lots of animals, it felt immoral to Payton see many of them going stir crazy.
I didn't go through the whole zoo, I left because I didn't want to see the rhinos pacing as well
So! I walked to Tokyo National History Museum which was quite close. There's 4 buildings to the museum, each covering something else. I only managed 2! The first one was Asia History. One floor talked a bit about Buddha and the history of it. How it eventually made its way to Japan. They had a collection of Buddha statues which showed how each country interpreted it and how it changed. Mainly face shape. You can see that after a long time the statues of Buddha started showing him slightly bigger, then a little more and a little more but it was cool learning some history about China and Korea
Then next building was Japan History. It covered statues, clothes, armour, samurai, food and other parts. The building was huge so it took me quite a bit of walking! I didn't have the audio headsets.that translates the info (mostly in Japanese) so I could only read the captions but I could still get the idea. They also covered Japanese artwork, and how the western world didn't accept paintings on sliding doors (they had several there and the art was amazing so detailed) as"art" so the Japanese started trying to add western style of art into theirs so they would be recognised. You can see how the at work changes. From parchment and ink to canvas and frames. The armour was interesting too so it showed you how different parts developed their armour (same in clothes) differently. In clothes, the North had thicker, more covering tunics and boots, where was south added more details and geisha style.
After spending quite some time there, I went to the Tokyo National Nature and Science Museum. The coolest part was the 3D show. You go into a dome room and stand on a platform that goes onesie to the other with space either side. Then shows these bits about dinosaurs and evolution of space. But it was so 3D you felt you should move out the way of the dinosaur and that you were moving. Just awesome. The rest of the museum had parts about the Japanese invention of the microscope and how the western world learnt from it. But the favourite floor was living things in Japan. So animals,sea life, plankton, microorganisms and seaweed. It only featured what was native to Japan so it was interesting to see.
Later on me and my 2 roomies went to Shinjuku! Crazy place full of brightly light shop and restaurant signs. Not many bars, I think that stuff is in Shivuya but I can go there when I'm back in Tokyo!
Overall, very educational day! SO MUCH WALKING.