Well, when in Rome, I mean Tokyo, the thing to do is check out some of the local museum fare.  This would be the only time we’d really do this, so we wanted to do it right.  I’m certainly glad we did.

The Tokyo National Museum is on the north end of Ueno Park, just past the fountain and open plaza there.  Admission to the museum grounds is ¥600, and will be some of the best money you will spend in Japan.

If time had permitted (and our pain threshold) we’d have seen the rest of the buildings, but for now, we had to be content with only the main exhibit hall, or honkan (本館).

One bright spot was that photography was allowed inside the museum! I was shocked and happily surprised by this.  There was a sign near the gate saying “photography not allowed” but this turned out to be only for specific pieces in the museum.  After we noticed several other tourists happily photo-ing away it dawned on us to do the same.

The featured exhibit was a history of Buddhism through China and India into Japan, filled with ancient statues and other artifacts.  The remainder of the building housed various other artifacts from Japanese history, pottery, clothing, scrolls, paintings, statues, armor and swords, you name it.  I was pleasantly surprised that it was not a huge building to get through, either, despite the amount of treasures housed within.

We left satisfied that we’d seen some of the treasures of Japanese history, and if nothing else happened that day that’d be fine.  But wait, we’ve got a few more places to go see…. back to the station for us!

Related posts:

1. Museum Piece