Tokyo Trip 2 : Day 8 & 9

 Tokyo trip 2

Sat 02.November - Sun.17.November.2019

DAY 8 Sunday, 10. November

The plan for to today was very simple: go to the natural history museum and see the real stuffed up Hachiko. And that's what we did.

On our way to our destination, we walked past the National Museum of Western Art, which is easy, as the two museums are practically right next to each other. Naturally, the art museum had many statues placed outside, most notably the replicas of Auguste Rodin's The Thinker and The Gates of Hell sculptures. Those two  were pretty cool to see in real life and not just pictures. I'm sure the art museum would have been a great place to visit too, but alas, we only planned to see the nature one.

At the National Museum of Nature and Science, as the correct name of the museum reads, they had these automated ticket booths, which made it very easy to buy our entrance tickets. After we got in, I immediately noticed some Gachapon machines, all of them were accordingly themed after the museum exhibits, so no random anime stuff here. I bought four capsules in total and got lucky as I got exactly the ones I wanted; a Hachiko stamp, a miniature Dilophosaurus skull and a Spinosaurus skeleton (the fourth one was a Brachiosaurus skull I got while I was spinning the machine in hopes of getting the Dilophosaurus). Next to the Gachapons was the museum gift shop, we took a quick look around before heading in to see the actual exhibits.

First things first, we came to see Hachiko, so that the exhibit we looked for first. Hachiko is located in the Japan Gallery, north section of the second floor as part of the Japanese People and Nature exhibit. There it was, sharing the glass cabinet with two other dogs. The big fluffy one was named Jiro, but the third and smallest of the dogs was not named at all. Or there was a small sign in Japanese, but there was no English translation for it, so I'm guessing it's only supposed to represent a generic Japanese dog or something like that. I'm curious though about the medal looking thing that the dog has around its neck. 

Hachiko and Jiro both had a plaque with their respective history printed on them, but nothing for the third dog. I'm familiar with Hachiko's story, of course, but as I was reading about Jiro, it seemed familiar somehow. Years and years ago, I've seen the movie Eight Below (2006), which is the very sanitized version of the true story that inspired the movie. I don't remember much of the film, but considering it's Disney, I assume all the dogs survive at the end, unlike in real life where only two survived. While I was looking for info on Eight Below, I also found out there is a Japanese movie of Jiro's story: Nankyoku Monogatari (1983), I haven't seen it, but I'd imagine it might be a more accurate version of the real story.

And while on the topic of movies, Hachiko also has two movies made of him! The one I've seen is Hachi: A Dog's Tale (2009) and then there is also an older Japanese movie I haven't seen called Hachikô Monogatari (1987). I would be really interested to see both Japanese movies about the dogs, but I don't know how easy it will be to find them. I have to look into it.

I was a little surprised that both of Hachiko's ears are standing up. I mean, the famous statue at Shibuya Station has one of his ears flopping down, and you can also see that in many of the photographs of Hachi. I would have assumed that would have been a detail they would have kept for accuracy. But I don't know anything about taxidermy or even the reason for why Hachiko's ear was droopy, so maybe I shouldn't say anything.

So this was the museum of nature and science, but we totally skipped the scientific parts of the museum and just saw the nature exhibits. Of course, the dinosaurs are a must to see. This museum's T.Rex skeleton was a bit odd, because it is posed in a sitting position rather than standing up.

Before leaving the museum, we went back to the shop. Mom had spotted this Hachiko themed tin box filled with chocolates she wanted to buy. I ended up not buying anything, party because there would have been too many things to buy! They had many nice dinosaur models and very cute plushies I was tempted to buy. I told myself, I was happy with the Gachapons I got earlier, I don't need anything else. Besides, this was a museum shop, so the prices were a little bit higher than what I was willing to pay anyway.

After the museum, we planned to wander down the Ueno Park all the way down to Okachimachi. We almost managed to walk a straight line, only to be constantly sidetracked by the interesting sights we spotted on the way. The Ueno Park is huge, and would deserve a whole day on its own for exploration, we only saw a tiny part of it.

First we saw this huge fountain and right next to it was this group of Rockabilly Dancers, we watched for a while. Further along, we came across these living statues surrounded by easels. It looked like it was free for anyone to sit down and start drawing, but I'm not sure. It looked like fun! Not far from the living statues were this huge cardboard box fort, many of them. I was starting to wonder is this a regular thing in here, or did we just happen to be there on a special weekend or something.

We saw a General Grant monument as well as the entrance with all the mini Tori gates to the Hanazono Inari-Jinja Shrine (yes, I totally googled these names afterwards). As we were walking, we noticed these lanterns alongside the main path, that had all unique pictures on them. They really looked like those traditional old wood paintings, I'm sure they would have looked really pretty if they had been lit.

I was playing Pokemon Go as we walked, we stopped next to the Keisei Ueno station when I noticed a special event was about to start in the game, a Cobalion raid. There we dozens of people gathered around to play, unlike in Finland, where you are lucky to even find one other person to join. Cobalion went down quite easily with these many people. I, unfortunately, wasn't able to capture it, because f*ck those Premier balls.

After I finished playing the game, we went by the supermarket to get some food and then started walking back to our hotel. Maybe this was normal, because it was the weekend, but the streets of Okachimachi were packed with people. Like really rush hour amounts of people, never seen anything like it on any of those days we've been to Okachimachi before. We gave up on the idea of walking the whole way back to the hotel and took a train to Akihabara, from where we walked the rest of the way.

DAY 9 Monday, 11. November

Normally, we could see the top of Skytree from our window, but today was a bit drizzly so the tower had disappeared behind some clouds.

Some days earlier, my mom was reading the Japan Times online, and came across this ad for a Star Wars exhibition. We looked into it more and decided to go see it!

I couldn't help but to notice the posters for the upcoming SW game Jedi: Fallen Order that had appeared overnight all over the Akihabara station. It took about a half hour by train to get to theTennôzu Isle Station in Higashishinagawa where the exhibition was located. From what we saw while walking towards the showroom, this isle had a very industrial vibe to it, mostly just office buildings everywhere. Good thing the gallery had many banners placed out front, so there was no way to miss it!

After we paid the entrance fee, we were handed a wristband and a earpiece. We were given the English version automatically. The way the earpiece worked was that when you were standing in a specific spot in the exhibition hall, a short narration was turned on. Sometimes it was a bit wonky, if you happened to stand close to two narration spots. Just by turning your head could lead to a new voice-over before the previous even finished talking. 

There was no line to the ticket counter, but we didn't get to go to the exhibition hall right away. They waited until there was a bigger group of people, about 10 -15 of us, before we were directed into a cargo elevator that took us down into a dark room. There was an intro to the exhibition projected to the wall and also a quick guide to the earpiece and wristband.

Star Wars: Identities the Exhibition

The exhibition was all about the costumes, concept art, puppets and models they used in the Prequel and Original movie trilogies. The sequel trilogy wasn't finished yet at this point, so it makes sense they were left out. I'd say it was very balanced with the older and newer stuff on display. If I'd have to guess, I would say maybe the was a little more about the Original trilogy placed out, but I didn't keep count. My disappointment was immeasurable when I realized there was absolutely zero Darth Maul memorabilia on display. So boo for that. (Not really)

What about the wristband? Well, the exhibition was interactive in a way. "Choose your own story" type of thing.  There were 10 question stations placed around and you "saved" your answers by placing the wristband in the hexagon shape in the panel.  You got to pick the name, gender, race, background, job, Master and eventually, if you want to go Light side or Dark side. Sometimes the questions were really easy, but a few times they were a bit longer. 

We walked from room to room, answering the questions and (obviously) looking at all the cool stuff. My favorites would probably be all the various concept arts (Yoda used to be a freaking gnome! XD ) If I had to pick another random favorite, I'd choose the big eyes, all that remains of the giant Jabba the Hutt puppet.

In the final room, we placed our wristband in a panel that would read all the information saved on it and then create you an image of your character that was projected on the wall. There was an option to give your email address and they would send the picture there too.

After returning the wristband and earpiece, there really was no other option but to exit through the gift shop. I may or may not have bought a set of postcards, keychain, stickers, a badge (blind bag) and the exhibition catalogue. I would have bought the Darth Maul version of the Identities the Exhibition poster, but they were sold out. Goddammit. Maybe better that way, those posters were huge and I doubt it would have fit in my luggage anyway. So I got the postcard set and stickers as a consolation prize. The metal badge I got in the blind bag had a picture of C-3PO. There was a Maul badge as well, but with my luck, of course I didn't get it.

After finishing up at the gallery we headed for a quick visit to Ginza to see the Shin Godzilla statue. I was expecting it to be bigger, and it was a little disappointing that it was placed up high on a pedestal, so you couldn't take any up close pictures of the statue. I guess it was done to protect the statue from any idiots who would attempt to climb it. I like the Pigeon who was casually sitting on the tip of Godzilla's tail.

From the Godzilla square we walked to the Hakuhinkan Toy Park, which is a huge toy store.  Compared to the Yamashiroya toy store, this one was less crammed and loud, which was nice. It was definitely more like a western toy shop, but I've heard that Ginza has a more western vibe overall, so I shouldn't be surprised. On the basement floor, they had Barbie dolls along their Japanese brands. I don't remember Kiddy Land or Yamashiroya even having Barbies in their selection at all. And the dolls were not those cheap ones you find in everyday markets. Hakuhinkan sold those expensive collector's label dolls that cost like 70€ and more. I saved my money for later and didn't buy anything from Hakuhinkan.

We bought something to eat from a 7/11 convenience store and then decided to head back to the hotel. It wasn't that late yet, after a brief rest at the hotel, we went to Akihabara. Where we visited the huge Yodobashi Camera store. I sort of speed ran through the place just to get a sense what kind of stuff they had on each floor. I ended up only buying two capsules from their huge wall of Gachapon machines. 

Mom stayed in Yodobashi, while I went to Mandarake on another Doujinshi buying spree. I also found a Sonic the Hedgehog Nendoroid and a Yakuza's Kazuma Kiryuu Figma figure I was so close to buying. They were a bit pricey though, so I told myself that I should think it over. So I left them at the store, but still planning to buy them the next time I came over, if they were still there. I went back to Yodobashi to meet my mom. After exiting Yodobashi we came across by accident this tiny shop called Satellite that sold some Star Wars stuff. I bought a Darth Maul acrylic keychain!

Back at the hotel, I found some sports channel that had some compilation of horse gallop racing. That's what I watched for the rest of the evening. We don't have these kind of races in Finland so we were planning to go see and actual race for real, here in Tokyo. But there was another place we had planned to go see first....

to be continued....