Location, location, location!
After my mis-step in October, visiting “Anata No Warehouse of Smoke & Stench”, I chose well for this month’s bit of sightseeing: “Edo-Tokyo Open-Air Architectural Museum” (http://www.tatemonoen.jp/english/)
It’s a bit out of the way, 15 minutes walk from Hana-Koganei station (Seibu-Shinjuku line, 20 mins from Takadanobaba on the Yamanote line), but worth a visit. If you walk from the station, turn right out of the ticket gates and you’ll see a map on the station wall. There is a route shown that you can roughly follow (I say “roughly” because I have zero sense of direction and cannot be 100% sure I walked that exact path). There is a udon place along the way, which served me perfectly for an early lunch. Think it might have been one of those places that are semi-famous, judging by the thank-you cards on the wall.
The anago ten-don with soba was excellent!
The museum itself is within Koganei Park. It’s basically a collection of houses from Tokyo’s history. Only 400 yen to enter and there are guide pamphlets in English.
You can go in some of the houses but you must remove your shoes. So don’t wear a pair that take ages to unlace etc., like I did…
This house/building really gave me a 4-D experience. The smell of smoke (good smoke this time) and the chap tending the kettle made for a very satisfying ambience.
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I spoke about three short sentences of Japanese to this chap and another Japanese man asked how long I’d been here.
“16 years.”
“And you can speak that much Japanese.”
<sarcasm?!>
“If I’d lived in England 16 years, I wouldn’t be able to speak that much English.”
conscientiously!>
I moved on and checked out the bath-house. There was a group of scouts visiting the park and one lad figured he’d get in.
The pictures on the tiling were pretty impressive, especially the naginata-wielding samurai.
One picture was a bit saucy though. I had to politely cough as I pretended not to look. I am British after all.
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I believe this was an old-time izakaya (drinking hole). Made me want to watch “Tokyo Story” again.
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Seeing all the old school buildings and goods was fascinating for me so I imagine this would be nostalgia heaven for elderly Japanese folk.
If you enjoy the Miyazaki Hayao films, then I’d recommend a visit. You can almost picture Satsuki & Mei sitting on a porch.
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And to finish off, let me just give a shout-out to Japanese toilets. Yay! Clean, fully functional and will even let you play the sound of rushing water to drown out any parps and plops you might make. Nihon no o-te-arai, I salute you!
See you in December!
