Jen and Arron's Tokyo Adventure!: A Rainy Day.

Sunday morning we woke up early enough and Joanne made us a Sunday feast breakfast: tofu scramble, toast, hash browns, fruit, coffee and juice. We were trying to decide what to do with our day when the heavens opened up. The rain that came down was torrential. There was lightening and crazy loud thunder—the lights even dimmed a couple of times! Needless to say, we thought perhaps something indoors would be best. A movie was almost the activity, but really, we can do that at home. Following Koki’s advice we set out to Ueno Park, which is host to several of Tokyo’s museums including the National Museum our final destination. It was great. The “special” exhibition was The Path of Buddha, which traced the spread of Buddhism through its statuary from India through China into Korea and finally Japan. Upstairs in the Japanese galleries we saw ancient pottery, very old paintings on silk, calligraphy, samurai weaponry, woodblock prints, kimonos and all things Japanese. It was especially interesting as Koki was able to answer our questions (most of the signage was Japanese only, save for the titles). Joanne was telling us that she visited the museum in June and many of the cases contained items that she didn’t see. They change the exhibits often, and she pointed out that many of the pieces were summer themed—she thinks when she was there it was mostly spring.

From the museum we went through Ueno Park and stumbled on some taiko drummers performing in front of an amazing temple. A vast field of lotus flowers surrounded the whole area—it was quite a sight. We met up with Karen and her mom and ended the evening with a dinner at the Bamboo Garden. Another great day in Japan.