Shitamachi Museum

Jay Dee's post on Ueno Zoo's Thai Pavillion and Japanese Architecture and the subsequent comments made there resulted in me thinking of one place that not many tourists seems to know or head to when they are at Ueno park's vicinity.

A glimpse of the shitamachi (low city) can be found at the Shitamachi Museum located at Ueno Park. A nostalgic visit to how old Tokyo looks like. I wanted to visit the museum again last year and had planned to take my friend who was tagging along with us; but she seemed a tad uninterested in museums and the like; so I scrapped the plan.

An old-fashioned penny candy store. Raimie was pretending to be the store owner and showing that everything on sale is good. ^^

Copper smith work place

Rub, rub, rub. Imagine doing your washing up at the communal well. Thank goodness for indoor plumbing and washing machine!

The boys trying out some traditional games.

A peek into a home. The black & white TV - a status symbol of the time.

If you are visiting Japan and Tokyo specifically, why not make a stop at this small museum. It has interactive display and friendly multi-lingual guides (or was it just bilingual?) Well, they do have English speaking volunteer guide there can provide oodles of fun for a short visit not to mention a chance to see how Oshin  lived when she was younger.

Happy Birthday Dear Son

It's Raimie's birthday today. He is of course pretty excited today.

The day started early at midnight when he reminded us it's Dec 2 already! Then, first thing we did in the morning was to present him with a birthday card. We took him to Desa Waterpark and maybe out for a nice dinner afterwards. A quiet celebration, with just the three of us.

Initially we wanted to celebrate his birthday in Japan and had planned for our 2010 trip to be in December but of course, as you know it, that didn't happen. We already went to Japan in September. Now, just a little over two months since our trip to Japan, my dear son has already started making plans for his next trip next year. To him, our trips to Japan is as normal as a trip back to our hometown. Well, he starts visiting Japan every year since he was three after all.

Actually, browsing through our photo albums, we can see how much he has grown just by looking at our Japan albums. I sure love looking at all his photos. :-)

Photos are of each of our visits in different year/season to Japan. He sure has grown, hasn' t he?

Happy birthday Son. May all your wishes come true.

The Shitamachi Museum In Ueno

A trip down memory lane with this post, sparked by my previous post and a photo tag. Dedicated specially to EastCoastLife.

I will definitely have a post (or two!) about Shitamachi Museum on our trip in September, but 5 months seems such a long time to wait, so let me indulge you all with some photos we took at the museum in 2006. More info on the museum can be found here.

First off,  how to get to the museum. The museum building is rather nondescript so you might miss it even if you walked right in front of the building.

The fast food restaurant is a McDonald's. The Police Station is a small, one man police box or "koban" at one of the entrance to Ueno Park. Getting there is pretty easy.

Now, I'll just let these photos do the talking. Enjoy!

I'm enjoying putting up these photos and looking at Raimie when he was just 4 years old. My, how time flies.

The Shitamachi Museum is not a big museum and you probably spent about half an hour browsing the two floors of the museum, unless of course you are like us and can't resist checking out every single display and having a blast taking photos.

Entrance fee for adults is a mere 300yen. All the exhibits have both Japanese and English info printout and there's even volunteer guides to guide you around the museum. If you are planning to spend a day in Ueno - why not make a stop at Shitamachi Museum too?

Photo Tag And I'm Playing For A Change!

I got tagged by A Z Haida, of Look Again blog which I had been following for a few years now.

Like her, I don't normally do tags but I couldn't resist this one from her. Not when she put it this way :

"I hereby challenge (ehcheh) these 8 to do this tag...
5) Lina (bet it's going to be Japan-related photo)."

I do admit that we have more photos of us in Japan than any other places in Malaysia. My 8th folder is of our photos in Japan during Summer 2006. Almost 4 years ago.

The tag requires me to:

1) Go to your photo files…Select the 8th photo folder.

2) Select the 8th photo in that folder.

3) Post that photo along with the story behind it.

4) Then challenge 8 blogging friends to do the same!

So, here goes! Yosh!

The Story: 

This photo of Raimie was taken in summer 2006. It was Raimie's second trip to Japan and we were there for a week, for the sole purpose of going to Ultraman Festival (Ulfes) in Ikebukuro. Because of that, we just stayed in Tokyo and one of the places we went to, apart from Ulfes was the Shitamachi Museum in Ueno.

Being in the museum was like being transported to the era of Oshin, a woman who lived in the Meiji period. The Japanese drama Oshin was aired on TV in Malaysia when I was in primary school and everyone I know stay glued to the TV screen watching this drama of a strong woman who persevered during hard and tough times. Oshin serves as a symbolic figure for perseverance, showing that a person should never give up - even in the most difficult times.

Anyway, back to Shitamachi Museum. Shitamachi which meant low city; is the name for the low-lying parts of Tokyo. This museum is dedicated to looking at the lives led by millions of  men and women over the years in the area spanning from the early Meiji to late Taisho-eras (1868-1923). The museum has interactive displays which meant you can touch and play with all the exhibits.

An elderly guy who volunteered at the museum taught Raimie how to play the Japanese toys that were on display and before we left the museum he gave Raimie a little koma spinning tops made out of old magazine pages and toothpicks.

Here in the photo, Raimie was happily poking around in the blacksmith's home.

For our trip in Sep 2010, I plan to bring my friend to this museum. Even if you don't care much of the history of lives of Japanese of yesteryears, being in this museum makes good photo op.

I'm passing the baton to 8 others:

1. Cindy of Blank Thoughts. She's expecting her first baby soon. She made Osaka her home but she is back in Malaysia for the time being.
2. Kozue of Oh Tazawako, Where Art Thou? Hardworking to promote Tazawako and its surrounding area, I completely understand if Kozue can't play this tag. :D
3. Shida of shidafzan. A friend of mine since college, we used to be roommates too. She just started blogging  with blogspot, after years of using fotopages. She's one of few people left who still call me by a boy's name.
4. Nick of Anything goes. He blogs because he can!
5. Su of I Lookup As I Walk. A Malaysian, she is currently raising her family in Japan and giving support to her hubby who is pursuing his studies there.
6. Evan's Mom of A Little Boy's Blog.  A proud mom of two sons in Bogor, Indonesia.
7. Yatie of Sawanila. She just gave birth to a beautiful baby.
8. Bengbeng of My Longkang. See great photos and read about his life, Benghui's and the people around him in Sibu.

No pressure though. Have fun!

p.s. It might take me sometime to inform all those listed that they've been tagged.