Rolling down the river

I had a friend to hang out with yesterday, whoo hoo! My classmate from the Japanese classes I took in Melbourne is travelling around Japan between her uni studies and has a few days to spend in Tokyo. We started off our adventure by heading to the Tokyo National Museum in Ueno Park. It is a big museum with multiple galleries.

When we arrived there was an enormous queue snaking around the front of the main gallery and wrapping around most of the adjoining building. We thought this was the queue to get in the main gallery so we checked out the smaller treasury gallery and the eastern antiquities first. After we ate some early lunch, the line was still enormous so I asked one of the guards what the dealio was and he told us the crazy, long line was for a special exhibition of mural painting from the Nara period that were being shown for the first time outside the village since they were discovered in 1983. It was pretty awesome to see so many people lining up to see a piece of their local history. Not sure we would get the same patience and queueing in Australia.....

There is a lot to take in at this museum and you spend all day here but some of my favourite parts were these:

Amazing furisode: kimono robes with long hanging sleeves.

These ladies were enjoying checking them out too. Maybe getting some ideas for their next season kimonos?

 Beautiful paintings.

 I loved the screen and sliding door artwork.

This piece depicted a bear sacrifice. As you do.

Went a little crazy in the museum shop, the postcard prints were only $1 or so each. I may have come home with 10 or 12....

Next we caught the train to Asakusa and boarded the water bus just behind the station on the Sumida river. If you are looking for the water bus terminals, look for the golden turd building and it is on the river bank opposite.

The golden turd is supposed to represent a flame for the burning heart of Ashai beer and is part of the brewery buildings. The building to the left of it is supposed to represent a beer with foam on top.

There are a few different options for the river cruises. We went for the shortest and the cheapest, 790 yen for 35 minutes. Takes you from Asakusa to Hama-rikyu gardens. The garden entry is an additional 300 yen and is obligatory as the landing area is inside the gardens.

The boat was filled with kindly, old grey nomads. They were all wearing the same uniform of long sleeved floral blouse, bucket hat and many were wearing quilted vests or coats despite it being a balmy 27 degrees. The two cute old birds in front of us enquired after our health after they noticed we were in short sleeves and then proceeded to pass us lollies and chocolate as we cruised along.

It was a relaxing way to get around after tiring out our feet in the museum. Wasn't a whole lot to see other than about 12 different coloured undersides of bridges. The company was nice though and the gardens at the end were worth a look too.

While we were wandering about an old fella tapped us on the shoulder and pointed out a couple getting engagement photos done in their amazing traditional outfits. He was so enthusiastic and excited, we didn't want to tell him we had spotted them earlier so we stood and watched for a bit longer until my stomach grumbling indicated it was time to find food.

Walking out the main entrance past the 300 year old pine we made our past the closed Tsukiji markets and onto the Ginza department store basements for some serious snacking time. Once we had hit up the french bakery we took our tasty delights to the closest park. (Eating in public here is not the done thing.) After tearing through the hundred layers of plastic wrap we scoffed down our food and soaked up the sun with the many other people enjoying the rays. A good day had by all.