Entrance to the museum

Sean left early on Saturday morning for two weeks work with the outdoor English immersion camp and I headed to the Tokyo National Museum for the first time. It was a good day for poking around exhibits as the weather was stormy, windy and pouring rain. It also happened to be "student cultural exchange" day so by showing my ICU ID I got in for free and was able to take part in some special tours and tea ceremonies offered for all foreign students.

Unsurprisingly, Japan has a very efficient, safe and organized way to store your umbrellas when not in use

There were plenty of interesting exhibits on Japanese history, art, archeology and architecture. My favorite were the descriptions of how clothing and Japanese calligraphy has changed. The museum complex is a huge part of Ueno Park and consists of several other galleries and gardens. The Tokyo National Museum opened in 1872 and has the longest history among all museums in Japan. Their collection comprises around 116,000 items including 87 National Treasures and 634 Cultural Properties. According to their guidebook, it is the best collection of cultural properties in Japan in terms of both quality and number. The regular exhibition galleries exhibit about 3,000 of these works at any given time.

My amazing bento lunch - a work of art in itself

Other highlights of the day included an afternoon in one of the oldest preserved tea houses in the country (more on that later), a delicious Bento lunch, browsing in the fantastic gift shop and meeting the museum mascots. I had lunch on the museum grounds and enjoyed one of the most beautiful, detailed and delicious Bento boxes I've ever had in my life. I was impressed with the quality, presentation and taste of the foods included such as the tempura, sushi, miso soup and pickles. I had a lot of fun in the gift shop where I picked out a few small posters for above my desk at home as well as an assortment of postcards. If you get one in the mail from me in the next few months, chances are I got it at the museum. Before I left, I made a point to meet the predictably adorable and fuzzy museum mascots who seemed to be drawing more of a crowd than the actual exhibitions themselves. The brown one is called "Tohaku-kun" and is modeled after "Dancing People Haniwa" which is a Terracotta tomb figure from Japanese history and on display in the museum. The female mascot is "Yurinoki-chan" who is modeled after a leaf from the tulip tree in front of the main museum building.

Museum mascots

They drew an impressive crowd

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