Today was another drizzly grey day, so we decided to go see the National Museum of Ethnology, or "Minpaku" as the Japanese refer to it. The museum is situated within the vast Banpaku-koen, a park at the site of the 1970 World Expo. It's actually fairly close to our apartment as well, so it was a perfect outing.
The park is home to the gigantic "Tower of the Sun." Pretty wacky looking, and it seems to have big spotlights for eyes, so I'm sure at night it's even crazier. The park itself was quite pleasant, especially with all the autumn foliage. The day we decided to visit there was some sort of fair going on, where people could purchase big boxes of food items--we saw many people taking home large crates of frozen crab. (Frozen crab being to the Banpaku-koen what creampuffs are to the Wisconsin State Fair.) There were lots of barkers trying to drum up business for whatever it was that they were selling. Of course, having no real immediate need for a Sam's Club size box of frozen crab legs, we moved on.
Archer spotted a fun bike ride, and he and Joe paid to ride for 30 minutes on bikes of various shape and size. One was a panda bear, one was a hot dog. There was even a dinosaur and a cat bus. The "rules" of the ride were simple and wonderful: pay, enter the ring, ride until you've been there for 30 minutes, then leave. No one watching the clock for you. No adults telling children to switch to a different bike and let someone else have that one. From the sidelines, Malcolm and I watched the glorious scramble that occurred each time a child got off a bike. Suddenly it was like musical chairs, everyone else abandoning their bikes and jockeying for the ones they had their eyes on. It seemed like good fun.
The museum was pretty neat: it had artifacts from around the world displayed quite nicely. Some exhibits were interactive, like the gamelon you could play and the Indian bus you could climb in (Archer's favorite). They had an impressive collection of musical instruments from around the world as well.
Afterwards we went to Toys R Us for the second time this week. A Toys R Us is madness in the States, but it's even better here! Lots of toys are out on display for the kids to try, leading to even more hysterical children throwing tantrums when their parents won't buy them whatever it is they want. We came back because Archer has been talking non-stop about this Anpanman drum set. Malcolm accompanied him on the keyboard.
Malcolm has taken to "snuggling" with any soft object he finds.
Today was another drizzly grey day, so we decided to go see the National Museum of Ethnology, or "Minpaku" as the Japanese refer to it. The museum is situated within the vast Banpaku-koen, a park at the site of the 1970 World Expo. It's actually fairly close to our apartment as well, so it was a perfect outing.
The park is home to the gigantic "Tower of the Sun." Pretty wacky looking, and it seems to have big spotlights for eyes, so I'm sure at night it's even crazier. The park itself was quite pleasant, especially with all the autumn foliage. The day we decided to visit there was some sort of fair going on, where people could purchase big boxes of food items--we saw many people taking home large crates of frozen crab. (Frozen crab being to the Banpaku-koen what creampuffs are to the Wisconsin State Fair.) There were lots of barkers trying to drum up business for whatever it was that they were selling. Of course, having no real immediate need for a Sam's Club size box of frozen crab legs, we moved on.
Archer spotted a fun bike ride, and he and Joe paid to ride for 30 minutes on bikes of various shape and size. One was a panda bear, one was a hot dog. There was even a dinosaur and a cat bus. The "rules" of the ride were simple and wonderful: pay, enter the ring, ride until you've been there for 30 minutes, then leave. No one watching the clock for you. No adults telling children to switch to a different bike and let someone else have that one. From the sidelines, Malcolm and I watched the glorious scramble that occurred each time a child got off a bike. Suddenly it was like musical chairs, everyone else abandoning their bikes and jockeying for the ones they had their eyes on. It seemed like good fun.
The museum was pretty neat: it had artifacts from around the world displayed quite nicely. Some exhibits were interactive, like the gamelon you could play and the Indian bus you could climb in (Archer's favorite). They had an impressive collection of musical instruments from around the world as well.
Afterwards we went to Toys R Us for the second time this week. A Toys R Us is madness in the States, but it's even better here! Lots of toys are out on display for the kids to try, leading to even more hysterical children throwing tantrums when their parents won't buy them whatever it is they want. We came back because Archer has been talking non-stop about this Anpanman drum set. Malcolm accompanied him on the keyboard.
Malcolm has taken to "snuggling" with any soft object he finds.
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