Tokyo Parks and Museums

 Whether East or West, contemporary global citizens appreciate the quintessence of anthropologic museums and recreational parks & zoos with natural beauty.

On the second and third day in Japan, I visited a few science and art museums, and royal parks in Tokyo. In the early morning of the second day, I took the trains across Tokyo city center, running through the Pacific Ocean coast. After about fifty minutes of riding, I arrived at the Tokyo Science and Innovation Museum. That is the ten-floor modern-designed building, but the science exhibitions are only located on the second and fifth floors.

Inside the halls, there are environmental science, health science, physics experiments, planet, and education sessions. A lady robot can have short conversations with people if you speak Japanese, designed as a senior companion. A robot at the center of the hall greets the audience; the other two robot dolls and two robot dogs also cheer the audience. The exhibitions are limited but educational, making us reimagine the future of modern society.

Tokyo transportation tickets are a bit confusing, as their subways were run by different companies; even though I bought a 72-hour subway pass, I still need to pay for bus tickets and certain subways. It cost me 1000 plus yen for transportation only without counting museum ticket costs.

After that I headed to Ueno Park in the city center; inside the park, there were a few museums I planned to visit. However, that was Monday, and they were closed, so I decided to come back the next day.

Ueno Park is located on a hill with fountains, plants, sculptures, and a few museums & zoos, I think it is one of the most popular parks in Tokyo. In the late afternoon, I took the train to head back to the hotel. After exiting the subway, I observed that the street was named after the Asian female Buddha Guan Yin. Lots of tourists walked around in this culture-enriched street nearby, reflecting Japanese fashion and tradition.

On the morning of the third day, I visited the Science Museum of Tokyo located in the city center. There are industry revolution sessions, bicycle automobile design sessions, nature science sessions, and some science experiments sessions. Like many other science museums across the globe, local students come here for their science study. I liked the ten-minute 3-D movie which took us to the tropic forest with dinosaurs and other creatures with fantastic visual effects.

The Tokyo National Art Museum was temporarily closed. So I went to the Tokyo Western Art Museum, walking through the different sections of the painting, most of them are oil paintings that the museum bought from Western nations. There are some sculptures, photographs, and a very limited collection of other types of art.

Besides human creation, let’s embrace nature. I also visited the zoo in the Ueno park and saw elephants, monkeys, and bears playing around. It is a chilly windy day, do they feel cold? I also visited the Royal Garden in the city center; there are nice landscaping design, and the lake with ducks swimming around, I didn’t see any swans there; but the scale of the garden is compatible with the city park in London. Even though it is the winter season, there are some roses and other flowers with colorful themes inside the park.

Whether East or West, contemporary global citizens appreciate the quintessence of anthropologic museums and recreational parks with natural beauty. We learn from history and reinvent human society continually.

Posted in: Global Perspective