Tokyo - Edo Museum, Ueno, Shopping

OK, so my blog has turned into a recap. I'm finishing up my Japan trip AFTER I'm home. Finding free internet in Tokyo was pretty much impossible. At 1050 yen (over $10) per day, paying for internet in my room was pretty much out of the question.

So our first day in Tokyo was spent at museums. The Edo Museum is all about the beginning of Tokyo. We had a tour guide for the museum. Tokyo's original name was Edo. It was entirely planned city. The Shogunate created Edo as a place where the families of the lords of the prefects came to live. This ensured their loyalty to the Shogun. Each lord had an elaborate castle built where there family resided. A fire destroyed all of Edo, and the elaborate castles. The famous Tsukiji fist market was created at this time, as well as the famed department stores. After the fall of the Shogunate, the emperor Mejii moved the capital to Edo and renamed it Tokyo.

You can check out the museum online at: http://www.edo-tokyo-museum.or.jp/english/index.html

As you can tell, I was totally enthralled by the history. I learned lots of amazing things about Tokyo and about Japan in general. The Edo Museum was right next to is Ryogoku Kokugikan, an arena used mainly for Sumo tournaments. I found out after our trip, there is also a museum about Sumo there, but we didn't stop to see that. That is why there were pictures of famous Sumo wrestlers in the train station.

The next museum was in Ueno park. Ueno is large city park. It has a zoo, a european style park, and several museums. There were several groups of street performers. We went to the Tokyo National Museum. The current special exhibit was about buddhism and representations of Buddha. They had activites for visitors and we were able to make some post cards of fans and kimono using stamps. We had a snack at small outdoor cafe before we left the park. There was also a museum of European art, which included several Rodan sculptures in the courtyard. It was all very beautiful. Oh yeah, except for the monkey picking his nose sign.....

Across the street from Ueno station was the Ameyayokocho, a huge shopping district.I spent way too much money on tea there (they took credit cards!!) Here is a picture of our very helpful tea shop owner. You could find most anything in Ameyayokocho. One place popular with some of our group was a store selling used kimono and yukata. There were not only merchandise, there were also all type of food shops, including fresh fish. We picked up a fresh pineapple-on-a-stick snack.

Janet announced we could take an optional trip to Tokyo Disney if we wanted. Mom, Aunt Angie and I decided to go. We will probably never be in Japan again, so we should do everything we can!

I have to give some credit to my Mom and Aunt Angie for some of the photos. Thanks for letting me use your pictures!