Parasites, Politicians, Typhoons and Earthquakes
Yesterday was Marine Day, a public holiday in Japan to celebrate the ocean and it was also Chooch’s birthday. We were planning to head up to the north of Ibaraki, famous for paper like tofu (yuba) and some spectacular scenery. That was curtailed when news of Man-yu - Japan’s fourth typhoon of the year - broke. That typhoon killed 3 as it rolled its wild way north. It passed out to sea at the Chiba Peninsula so apart from some reasonably heavy rain it didn’t really effect us. I have been here 8 years or so and haven’t experienced a typhoon yet. Fingers crossed.
So instead of heading north into the mountains, we decided to head down to Tokyo to celebrate. JR has a great deal where one can get a return ticket from Tsukuba for 2000 yen that includes a pass on the JR lines in Tokyo and we took advantage of that. Tickets are on sale at the bus station at Tsukuba Center and are well worth it.
Once we got into Tokyo our first stop was Meguro where we headed off in search of the worlds only parasite museum. It is quite a small museum, with a fairly gross collection, but it is free and well worth checking out. In Japanese it is called Kiseichuu Hakubutsukan, and if you go to the police box outside Meguro Station and ask the cops in there “Kiseichuu Hakubutsukan wa doko desuka?” they will give you printed instruction on how to get there. Highlights of the museum, if one can call them that, include an 8.8 metre long tapeworm and a picture of what must be the largest penis in the world. There is a blogpost here with more details.
After that we had lunch and met up with SoulSmithing’s Pierre who was up from Wakayama on katana business for a couple of days. We haven’t seen him since we arrived back in Japan last year, so it was nice to catch up. We went to the Tokyo Metropolitan Offices in Shibuya. One can ride up in an elevator to an observation area on the 46th floor. Again this is free, and the view from there is quite amazing. Although it was cloudy yesterday we could see the base of Mt. Fuji. Compared with other towers one can visit in Tokyo, such as Tokyo Tower and Roppongi Hills, the view is much more circuit board like - the other two reveal a fair amount more greenspace.
Then we headed to Shinagawa where Pierre’s partner was to take the bullet train back to Osaka. While on the train we noticed that the on board notice board was flashing bulletins showing that a number of train lines had stopped service due to an earthquake. Being on the train we didn’t notice any shaking, and it wasn’t till we got back home last night and watched the news that we heard about the earthquake in Niigata. We spent a few hours in the Virgin Cafe in Shinagawa. It is located across the elevated walkway to the left of the Shinagawa Station Konan Exit. I was quite surprised when I walked in as it reeked of cigarette smoke.
All in all a pretty fine day for us, although our thoughts are with those who have been affected by the earthquake.
No Comments, Comment or Ping