Japanese stuff. Lots of Japanese stuff...

Tokyo National Museum

Tōkyō 東京. I couldn't believe I was in Tōkyō again. Well, actually I could. After nine days traveling from Kakunodate 角館 to Mito 水戸 via Towada-ko 十和田湖, Sendai 仙台 and Aizu-Wakamatsu 会津若松, I was back in the Japanese capital to close the circle that had begun eleven days before. This time I was staying a short walk from Ueno Station 上野駅. I've been to Ueno on a number of occasions in years past, but this would be the first time for me to sleep in this part of Tōkyō (I usually stow my bags in Ikebukuro 池袋 or Shinjuku新宿 whenever I'm in town, though at my daughter's suggestion the two of us based ourselves in Akihabara 秋葉原 during our extensive visit to Japan three years ago). 

The NOHGA HOTEL UENO TOKYO (no, I didn't accidentally hit the Caps Lock key) ノーガホテル上野東京 is a boutique hotel with a suitably minimalist design, hosting a clientele almost exclusively foreign, and a largely white and middle-aged (like me) one at that, with a sprinkling of families thrown in. Breakfast in the first floor restaurant was a buffet on the upscale side with a main dish ordered at the table. For that first morning I opted for the suitably stylish French toast:

The outdoor lounge on the second floor. A nice spot to enjoy a coffee while pondering what to do that day:

I've been to Tōkyō so often over the years (including the decade I actually resided there) that there are no more "must-see" places to visit nor activities to cross off on a travel bucket list. But that doesn't mean there aren't any old favorites to see again. One such place is the Tokyo National Museum 東京国立博物館, to which I hadn't been in quite some time. As the museum didn't open until 10:30 I took a stroll around Ueno Park 上野公園, the city's central park. A statue of Prince Komatsu Akihito 小松宮彰仁親王, the first president of the Japanese Red Cross Society: 

Kiyomizu Kannon-dō Temple 寛永寺清水観音堂:

The Saigō Takamori Statue 西郷像, a well-known landmark in Ueno Park honoring the samurai 西郷隆盛 who played a key role in the Meiji Restoration 明治維新, only to turn against the new government in an ultimately doomed uprising. Except that according to a book I'm currently reading this may not be the legendary figure after all, but rather one of his brothers who served as the model. Apparently during the time the statue is supposedly depicting Saigō, he had a beard and was rather on the obese side (a far cry from the heroic character based on him and played by Ken Watanabe 渡辺謙 in the historical travesty The Last Samurai). Historical revisionism?:

Ueno Park is famous for its cherry blossoms (and the crowds they attract, as I can attest from first-hand experience), but in early October the trees are bare (much like the plum and cherry trees in Mito's Kairaku-en 偕楽園 when I had visited the previous day):

Masaoka Shiki 正岡子規 was a major literary figure during the Meiji era 明治時代. He was also an avid baseball player who enjoyed playing the game in Ueno Park in the late 1880s:

Ueno Park is home to Tōkyō's highest concentration of museums, such as the National Museum of Nature and Science 国立科学博物館: 

But the museum I had come to experience (again) was the National Museum, home to the world's largest collection of Japanese art. There are four galleries in the complex, but I chose to focus on the Honkan 本館, aka the Japanese Gallery, covering the expanse of Japanese history from the Jōmon Period 縄文時代 (14,000-300 BCE) to the Edo era 江戸時代 (1603-1868), and occasionally beyond, in a building that dates back to 1938:

Warning: I took a lot of photographs while inside the Honkan, only some of which I'm sharing here (you can always scroll down to the part of this post that covers what I did after the museum). Because it would take time to write a description of each object shared below, I took the easier route and have included photos of the labels for almost all of them. Let us begin with these religious figures:

The following is an example of maki-e 蒔絵 or Japanese lacquer decorations:

Samurai stuff:

Examples of Japanese ceramics. Korean potters forcibly brought over to Japan during the Imjin War 文禄・慶長の役 played a major role in the development of this art form:

Noh 能 masks:

A map of the Mishima Post Station 三島宿, one of the 53 stops along the Tōkaidō 東海道, the main route linking Edo 江戸 (Tōkyō) with the Imperial capital of Kyōto 京都:

At one point I stepped out into the museum garden, which is only open during certain times of the year. It had been drizzling the previous evening when I arrived in Ueno from Mito. On this day the sky was gorgeously clear:

Back inside:

The section of the museum where I took the most photos was the one that covered the ancient arts (11,000 BCE to the 7th century CE):: 

I also took a particular interest in the next gallery, which focused on the arrival of Buddhism to Japan in the 6th-8th centuries:

A tiny Zaō Gongen 蔵王権現 (10th-12th centuries) from Mount Ōmine 大峰山, a sacred peak I hiked in 2007: 

One of the more modern items in the museum's collection:

A scene of Korea from when the country was under a brutal Japanese occupation:

I enjoyed the religious paintings and folding screens:

More ceramics...:

...and more weaponry:

If you've made this far in the post you have my respect. I spent around 2½ hours in the Honkan before returning to the real world. The building to my right as I stepped outside was the Hyōkeikan 表慶館. It appeared to be closed which was fine as I hadn't intended on going inside. But as I took a photo of the exterior (the building was completed in 1908). some very important-looking persons emerged from the front door. The man in white (below right) was telling someone near me not to snap any pictures, so I assumed that I was also under that guidance and quickly moved on: 

Some items of interest (at least to me) on the museum grounds:

For lunch I went to the museum's onsite restaurant called THE RESTAURANT, where I had the beef curry set:

Including lunch I was at the Tokyo National Museum for more than three hours. Other than the Honkan, I didn't visit any of the other galleries, though I did go in the Gallery of Hōryū-ji Treasures 法隆寺宝物館 (exhibiting masks, scrolls and Buddhist figures from Hōryū-ji Temple 法隆寺 in Nara Prefecture 奈良県, to which I've been a couple of times) during a visit in the 1990s. Back in Ueno Park I passed this statue of Hideyo Noguchi 野口英世. A childhood injury suffered when he was two years old set off a chain of events that eventually led him into the field of medicine, where he became a noted bacteriologist. His portrait graced the ¥1000 note from 2004 to 2024, though they are still in circulation:

Ameyokochō アメ横町 is a long-standing open-air market located between Ueno and Okachimachi 御徒町駅 Stations. It started as a black market in 1946 but is now a busy tourist site. I went there a couple of times in the past century. It was always bustling, but back then the vast majority of visitors were Japanese. Oh, how times have changed:

There are shops selling fruits and vegetables, seafood, street food, dried goods and spices. But it isn't only food - there are also stalls peddling cosmetics, shoes and fashion. Speaking of the latter, other than American servicemen, who buys these kinds of jackets?:

Feeling nostalgic, I traveled from Ueno to Ikebukuro 池袋駅 on the Yamanote Line 山手線, then changed to a Tōbu Tōjō Line 東武東上線 local train. My purpose was to visit the first place where I lived after my less-than-triumphant arrival in Tōkyō in the winter of 1989 (not counting the first six days where I stayed in a budget minshuku 民宿 near Tamachi Station 田町駅). Kotani House was a "gaijin house", a shared guesthouse meant as a short- or medium-term lodging option for foreigners. This one was located in Toshima Ward 豊島区, a short walk from Shimo-Itabashi Station 下板橋駅. During the four months I stayed there I shared a six-tatami mat room with a rotating cast of varying nationalities, including two women - Keiko-san, the owner, didn't care as long as she had a paying resident. I moved out that June when she announced she was selling the property (this was during Japan's asset price bubble バブル景気), and I heard the house was going to be demolished to make way for a parking lot. There is in fact a small car park occupying the corner but the building next door looked very familiar. It certainly appeared ancient enough and the number of windows indicated multiple rooms inside. Confirmation would lie with the white door on the side - if it opens directly onto a staircase going up to the second floor then it would be the former Kotani House. However I wasn't about to try the door myself uninvited, so I'll probably never know for certain:

Ikefukurō いけふくろう is a famous stone owl statue inside Ikebukuro Station that's been around since the late 80s/early 90s. It's so well-known as an iconic meeting spot that I'd never heard of it until now though I must've walked by it countless times in the past. I had to scout out the location because I would be meeting old friends there this day and the next:

Having seen the first place where I lived in Tōkyō, and with time to kill before my aforementioned appointment at the owl, I ventured over to check out the last place where I lived in the capital, a roughly ten-minute stroll from the east side of Ikebukuro Station. Having been completed in 2012, Tokyo Skytree 東京スカイツリー certainly wasn't off in the distance at the time I departed in the late summer of 1999:

My apartment was on the second floor, but as memories begin to fade I struggle to recall which one it was:

For the duration of my time in Japan on this visit I was able to avoid the siren song of Taiwanese milk teas, despite the presence of Gong cha in several locations. I've unfortunately made up for lost time since returning to Guangzhou 广州:

The east side of Ikebukuro Station, anchored by the Seibu Department Store 西武池袋本店. The Tōbu Department Store 東武百貨店 occupies the west side, while Lumine ルミネ is located near the south and west sides:

That evening at Ikefukuro I met up with Jun, whom I've known for the past 37 years since we got to talking one evening while waiting in the taxi queue in front of Ikebukuro Station. I usually try to get together with him when I'm in Tōkyō, though the last time was around three years ago when Amber came along. We went to an izakaya 居酒屋 on the west side of the station, which became the setting for an evening of good food, good drinks, good conversation and good times, a reminder of happier days of a time gone by: 

But as we grow older, we tend to look back only on the good old days while overlooking or downplaying the negative things that also happened (and there were many, most of them self-inflicted), resulting in a pathetic wallowing in an idealized past. Life in Tōkyō wasn't easy when I was living there, and it was largely through the friendships I made that I was able to survive and move on. 

Do I regret ever leaving? Hell, yeah, I do. But that mourning is tempered by the knowledge that I would eventually emerge from some lean times in Taiwan as the patriarch of a small but wonderful family. Those years in Tōkyō were both the best and worst times of my life. The best in that I had some incredible experiences and met some truly special people (two of whom sadly died too soon, leaving me to ask that eternal question of why am I the one who survived), but also the worst in that I was largely at fault for a failed marriage that left me broke and broken. A big part of myself was left behind when I departed the city and the country, but being able to seize the many opportunities to return, even if only for short periods of time, has helped me soldier on. As long as I'm capable of doing so (financially, geographically and physically), I will continue to visit Japan and its capital city. 

I realize the above paragraph reads as the closing chapter in this series of blog posts on my visit to 日本, but there's still one more to come, so please have a look. I promise it won't involve any further museum visits.

These musicians aren't Japanese (they're Korean and Taiwanese) but the sentiments are there: