The Edo Tokyo Museum

 To continue the third day in Tokyo.

After wandering around Jinboucho for most of the day, we decided that we needed to be inside for a while.

I was getting very hot and needed to spend time in the air conditioning.

We found the station and the right line to take us to the museum.

The few times I've used the trains or subway near where I live, I've always been impressed by how clean and quiet they are. I thought that Tokyo would be different. It's a massive city with a large population and a lot of tourists, and a lot of people use the train and subway system every day.

The stations and platforms that we used were clean and well kept. Some of the older stations were showing signs of use, but were not dirty or covered in graffiti. A lot of places were having construction done!

Nice, clean platform.

The ride to the museum wasn't very long, just enough time to cool down.

We followed the signs to get to the museum; it was next door to the station, which really helped!

Hannah was starting to look tired!

Even though the building was next to the station, we had to walk around it to get to the entrance.

We arrived at about 3:30, so we only had time to see the special exhibition. If I ever visit Tokyo again, I would like to spend a day at this museum to see the permanent exhibition.

We hadn't eaten since breakfast; neither of us had any appetite. We stopped at the restaurant, but there wasn't much choice. We shared a scone together.

A little snack

The special exhibition was about the development of Western architecture in Meiji Japan (1868 to 1912).

Western architecture was first copied by Japanese builders until an American architect came and started to teach Japanese students about Western architecture.

We were allowed to take photos of some of the pictures, unfortunaltly I don't remember what photos I took. But a lot of the pictures were of proposals for different buildings.

Lovely chandelier.

There was furniture from noble houses. Some very beautiful pieces.

Once we finished there, it was time to head back to the hotel.

On the way back to the station, we found this interesting building that had a sumo ring in it.

The sumo ring

Outside the building with the sumo ring

We decided to get a taxi back to the hotel; it was quicker and cooler than getting the subway.

I saw this car on the way back to the hotel.

Interesting car.

We picked up dinner from the convenience store, then went back to the hotel to recover.

As much as I enjoyed the day, it was very tiring. I think, for me, going to Tokyo would be better in the cooler seasons! The only reason we went at this time was to see the musical!

The last day we spent the morning at Tokyo Skytree, then got the train to the airport.

But that will be tomorrow's post!

Third Day In Tokyo

 As much as I enjoyed this day, it was the hardest day there!

The heat was relentless. The heat in Tokyo felt different to the heat here. I looked at the forecasted temperatures for the day; the high was to be 35℃. It gets that hot and hotter here; it isn't easy, but I can manage to be outside for about half an hour without feeling sick. In Tokyo, however, the heat felt different. I felt that the heat wasn't just coming from the sun, but from the buildings and the pavement. When we were in crowds, I felt the heat coming off people, but that might have been my imagination!

The third day we wanted to visit Jinbucho, the booktown of Tokyo. There are about 150 bookstores, from stores selling new books to second-hand stores and even some with antique books. A book lover's paradise. Of course, most of the books were Japanese, but some stores had a good choice of English books.

We decided to walk to McDonald's for breakfast. 

The walk there was really nice, on a quiet side street. Maybe it was the time of day or just the fact that it was so different to the crowds from the day before, but I enjoyed that little walk.

The McDonald's was at the bottom of a large building, maybe an office block. The area around it was so nice, a lot of green!

A temple that we passed by

It was hard to believe that this was Tokyo until we came to a bridge that crossed over the train tracks!

Lots of green even with the massive buildings

Three different train tracks, two where the red trains are passing and one on the top right.

By the time we got to McDonald's, it was already hot! It was nice to step inside and cool down for a bit.

Breakfast.

After that, we made our way to Jinbucho.

We had to get on a bus and then walk a little bit. Even though it was still early, the heat was very intense by that time. I knew that I was going to struggle with the heat, but I didn't realise how much it was going to affect me! 

The first bookstore we stopped into was a new bookstore with lots of English books. I spent time looking but decided not to buy anything. The store had a cafe, so we sat in there for a while with cool drinks. That helped a lot. I think I was more worried about getting really sick and ending up in the hospital!

Walking along the street of Jinbucho was amazing, so many bookshops, so many places to explore!

Just a few of the stores we stopped in.

I could have spent a lot longer there, but the heat was really getting to me. Also, I was feeling very self-conscious about how much I was sweating from my face. Plus, I didn't want to handle the older books as my hands were sweaty and I don't think that's good for the books!

I found one book that I bought, Mrs Beatons Cookbook. I read somewhere that this cookbook made English cuisine bad because it says to boil all vegetables. The first book was published in the mid 1800s, as a guide to running a household, not just a cookbook. The copy I got was published in the early 1950s. I thought that it was just a rumour about boiling the vegetables, but it's true; the vegetable section says that boiling vegetables in water with salt is how they should be cooked!

Hannah managed to get a few books for her studies. She got one that costs 7,000yen new, but she got it for 4,000yen, not bad! She picked up a few other books as well. Like me, she could have bought a lot more!

By the time we had walked the length of the street, we were both rather too hot to continue. There were a few other places we could have visited, but we were both very tired and needed to be inside for a while.

Hannah had noticed a poster for a museum that wasn't too far away, so we decided to go there.

The poster that Hannah saw.

We had to get a train to get there.

I'll have to write about the museum tomorrow!

The Cat Cafe

 After watching the musical and going to the British Shop, we had a few hours before going back to the hotel. 

The first idea was to visit a museum, but the ones that looked interesting were a bit too far to get to, we wouldn't have enough time to enjoy the exhibits. I really don't like rushing round museums.

Hannah had a look on the map and saw that nearer to the hotel was a cat cafe.

We jumped on the subway and got off at the station near the cat cafe. As always, Hannah said it was just a short walk to the cafe; it's always just a short walk or just down the road with Hannah!

The walk was through a lovely old shopping street!

I have no idea what Spider-Man has to do with the Kobe Beef!

We found the cat cafe very easily.

This was my first time to visit a cat cafe, I was surprised at how careful the owner and staff were concerning the cats. 

As we entered we were given hot towels to wipes our hands, our bags were placed on a rack near the door and we had to change from our shoes to slippers.

There was a long list of rules, most I didn't catch, but the one I did understandwas not to pick up the cats. I know from my cats that being picked up can cause stress in a cat and I guess being picked up constantly by strangers must be very stressful. 

The cafe was small, maybe space for 10 customers, we sat on some bean bags. The cats were napping around the place. 

We bought some treats to give to the cats, that woke them up and got them to come over to us. One rule was that you have to give the treats with your left hand and stroke the cats with your right hand. There's oil on the treats and they didn't want to transfere the oil to the cats. 

The cats were very well taken care of. The owner would call their name and the cats would respond, my cats ignore me when I call them.

Lots of lovely cats.

We spent an hour in the cat cafe. It was a nice way to relax, I know that most of the day was relaxing but dealing with the trains, crowds and heat was a bit stressful. I'm glad that we were only visiting Tokyo, I honestly couldn't imagine living there!

We stopped at a supermarket to get dinner, we got some nice sushi.

Sushi for dinner.

We went to bed early, we were both exhausted.

The next day was a trip to Jinbucho, the booktown.

That's tomorrows post!