Forgot to mention yesterday that we also went to the Tobacco & Salt Museum, which is located between Shibuya Station (take the Hachiko exit) and Yoyogi Park. Combined with the NHK Studios in Yoyogi Park and a prowl around the streets of Shibuya this makes for a very interesting, and cheap afternoon out in Tokyo.

Admission is only 100 yen for adults and 50 yen for kids (although thinking about that, taking kids to a tobacco museum does sound kind of sick unless they are someone elses). You start your tour on the fourth floor which is an exhibition space for touring works - currently there is an extensive range of Japanese prints depicting scenes from the Tokkaido Road (North Sea Coast). Interestingly, one can compare works by various artists treating the same themes.

The third floor houses the Japanese Salt and Foreign Salt display. Probably the most boring part of the whole museum - but you can look at the kaleidoscopic salt crystals. And use the buttons which light up sections of the displays to create your own light show.

On the second floor there is a display of an old tobacco merchant and, what I found the most interesting, a collection of cigarette packets through the history of the industry in Japan. It is quite fascinating to see how the designs have changed over the years. The highlight for me were the 1920's packets.

Image showing a 19th century pipe and tobacco set.

On the mezzanine floor there is a wide range of pipes. One wonders if some of these were actually used to smoke tobacco or not.

The museum itself is non-smoking (???) but there is a smoking area on the first floor - complete with vending machine.