"It is said that green tea is ubiquitous in Japan. But did you know that besides being something of a national driink, it is also good for you? Green tea contains antioxidants twice as powerful as those in red wine; these help reduce high blood pressure, lower blood sugar, and fight cancer. A heightened immun system and lower cholesterol are other benefits attributed to this beverage." - Fodor
The morning of day 6 was quite average which consisted of waking up at 8am, getting dressed and ultimately heading down to the Family Mart to purchase our typical breakfast snacks. An egg sandwich, a green tea and some awesome Japanese chips. Normally we do not eat before getting breakfast but for some reason upon arriving in Japan our eating habits changed. We like to have our pre breakfast meal which then we have our breakfast which is then followed by lunch and another snack. It sounds like a lot of food and let me tell you it is. I guess the only reason why we eat so much is because our bodies is burning up twice as many calories considering we are walking all day in the blistering heat and sweating like a donkey. Regardless, I do not believe that eating double has made us fatter as a matter of fact I think we actually lost weight. Heat and walking is definitely not a good combination. After consuming our snacks we headed down to the metro station to purchase our tickets to make our way to Ueno station. I am not sure if I mentioned this already but there are two options when taking the metro transit you can either purchase a one way ticket which is about 160 yen or pay 700 yen I believe for an all day pass. If you are contemplating on travelling all day and using the transit system to do your travelling I would highly recommend purchasing the all day pass. Not only do you save a lot of money but you defintiely save on convienence time.
From Shinjuku Station, the travel time to Ueno is approximately 15 minutes. Ueno is a big tourist area with many things to do. The area is popular for its many temples and shrines, its enormous park as well as its many museums and sight seeing locations. Although we really wanted to see the temples and shrines we decided that it would be better to go see and experience a Japanese museum. Choosing which museum to go see was difficult only because each one had its special traits and unique attributes which differientiated it from the rest. After countless debates and discussions we decided to go to the National Science Museum. Upon arriving to the ticket booth, we were presented with two prices. One which was 600 yen gave us general admission the main attraction and the second price was an admission fee which was 1600 yen that gave us entry to the main attraction and to the mammal exhibit. We felt that buy paying the more expensive admission fee we would get a better bang for our buck. Little did we know!! We paid 3200 yen for the both of us and then headed our way to the exhibit. The first part of the exhibit was the mammal attraction. This part of the building displayed many types of acquatic animals, fossils of large whales, and various types of sea creatures. We were impressed by the display, however the only downside of it was that the entire exhibit was in Japanese. We had no idea what the signs were saying on top of that we had no clue as to what the description said about the artifacts. This made the exhibition quite sour, needless to say we had a good time seeing all the cool things this part of the exhibit had to offer.The best part was witnessing the skeletal remains of a 300 foot giant blue whale attatched to the ceiling. As soon as we took in what we could from this part of the exhibit we headed to the main attraction. Now, the main attraction was more fascinating only because there were english signs on top of that the articfacts displayed included various objects from different areas and times. For example, we got to see dinosaur remains, technology from the past as well as prehistoric artifacts. We spent an additional hour here soaking up as much as we could and afterwards we headed our way out.
Highlights of National Science Museum
1. Skeletal remains of a 300 foot blue whale
2. Interactive science area which educates you on electricity, chemical compounds, and weight distribution
3. Display on dinosaur fossils, extinct and endangered animals,
4. Display on Japanese technology and innovation
5. Display on astrologic findings
6.Lifesize display of a Japanese warplane included with the blueprints and designs
Negative aspects of National Science Museum
1. If you are not a Japanese local, you will find it difficult to read the signs. There are very few signs and descriptions that are translated in english
2. Quite expensive only because the Canadian dollar is still doing worse than the US dollar
3. Very full during the weekends with lots of kids
By the time we headed out of the National Science Museum it was already 2:30pm. We walked around Ueno to see what else the area had to offer which was a lot, too much in fact to take it all in one day. Ultimately, we decided to go into another museum the National Museum of Tokyo. This museum is defintely one you should come see whenever you are in Japan.
Where to begin? well first off I can say that the National Museum of Tokyo is one huge exhibit. In total there are five buildings which houses all the artifacts, from pottery, samurai swords, prehistoric armour, art, scripts, the lists goes on and on but the amount is vast. Unfortunately during our visit we were only able to see four out of the five building only because the 1968 Toyokan building was shut down due to renovations. However, the buildinig destined to open during 2012. So hint hint, 2012 if you are planning to see the museum sometime in the future.
To summarize what we saw I will list them in point form simply because it is simpler to read.
1. Chinese art: Calligraphy pieces from the 1400's, pottery, Paintings, weapons, make up boxes, and various trinkets
2. Indian art
3. Egyptian peices including a live preserved mummy, no pictures only the real deal (really fascinating)
4. Japanese art: Swords, weapons, paintings, kimonos, pottery, books, can't remember what else
5. Korean artifacts: bells, scripts, paintings, weapons, cannons, model figurines, and porcelan pottery
This is pretty much the jist of it but there is definitely a lot more. What I can say is that if you were to see any museums in Tokyo the National Museum of Tokyo is the one to see. The descriptions are in english and there is something for everyone, if paintings are not your thing, than you can check out the weaponary. Avoid the National science museum, I mean dont avoid it but if I were you I would try to spend the money elsewhere.
National Science Museum 6/10
National Museum of Tokyo 8.5/10
After exploring Ueno and the various museums we decided to go back to Asakusa. By the time we arrived, the vendors were beginning to close up shop. Regardless, we took one last look at the souvenirs shops and for all you special people who are special to us we wont mention any names but you will receive something special from this cool place. = )
We decided to check out the Roppongi area as well after Asakusa. We didn't want to let the day go to waste. We heard a lot about Roppongi, that it was a very nice area with lots of high fashion stores. This did not dissapoint. We were already coming into the area late so a lot of stores were either closing or about to close. We saw a lot of bars as well. One thing about this area as well, is that it is very Westernized. All the bars looked like "English Pubs" (one was actually called that). We also saw a lot of people of different ethnicities and we noticed that many restaurants were a mix of Japanese and Italian. We actually walked down a road in the Roppongi area and decided on an Italian restaurant. Despite all the amazing food we've been eating, we were still missing our favourite foods that we usually eat back home. The food was really good by the way :)
Then we went back to the hotel after dinner. End of day 6.
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