Goodbye Tokyo…

So tonight is the last night of our holidays and we leave tomorrow. We’ve had a brilliant time, certainly there have been some downs, that’s inevitable but overall there have definitely been more ups.

Maybe the downs are more linked to frustrations around language and knowing how to do things right initially but getting the hang of things eventually has come with a real sense of accomplishment. Travel does broaden your mind for certain.We had another great sleep in the hotel and another great shower. We decided not to pack a ridiculous amount in today as we need to be able to get through the journey home, so energy levels need conserving. Stopping via Moscow this time will be less challenging as there is a much shorter stopover. We went to the Edo-Tokyo Museum after breakfast. The museum focuses on life in Tokyo during the Edo period (1603-1868) and life in Tokyo after this period.  They had goodwill ambassadors there and luckily the language they were offering today was English. So we decided to sign up for this personalised service as it was really good the other day, added to that it’s free.So our ambassador was Hayshimi, he was really pleasant but I had the sneaking suspicion that he was new to this game as he was very nervous,despite our best efforts to put him at ease.

He was interested to know where we had already visited and was genuinely happy to know that we had been to Matsomoto. He said he had run a business from there for 10 years and really liked the city.

In the museum there is a reconstruction of a bridge from Edo times. Hayshimi explained that the posts were actually good luck charms that people would touch on their way on and off the bridge.

He explained about how society was organised in the Edo period, with the Shogun being the most important. In the model village he pointed to a large area of houses and said that this was a harem, with 3, 000 women. The Shoguns would marry someone from Kyoto and then they would try to get as many women pregnant to strengthen the dynasty.We had wondered why the warriors had fake beards. We were told that it was to make them look fierce but in reality they would look to me almost like something from Monty Python.

Hsyshimi asked Pete to try to lift these up, which he did. They weighed 25kg each. These would have been used for collecting and transporting ‘night soil’, so literally Pete was carrying other people’s shit.It was funny as after Pete had done it, a Japanese lady coaxed her husband to have a go. He really struggled but what was even funnier is that directly after this a young slip of a thing came over and lifted it up as if it was absolutely nothing.We had been wondering what the bits of paper, like bolts of lightning were and were told they again are lucky charms.Fires regularly broke out in the city and firefighters would carry one of these so that people knew who they were. Again Hsyshimi roped Pete in!I really liked some of the prints in the museum. Hsyshimi explained that the printing process was very involved and up to or more than 16 blocks could be used. The techniques were alien to Westerners so during the 19th century many artists such as Van Gogh became very interested.Inevitably there was a section about the famous Edo painter Hokusai.Where all his paintings feature Mount Fuji. There was a Kabuki stage with mannequins.
Kabuki is a very old form or dance-drama. In 2005, the Kabuki theatre was proclaimed by UNESCO as an intangible heritage possessing outstanding universal value. Yesterday Pete and I had watched something on TV about it, the programme looked like their equivalent of This Morning. We gleaned that the actors kept the tradition in the family, Hayshimi confirmed this. Watching it, it looks decidedly odd, but then so does a lot from the UK if you dissect it. Anyway they had the same tradition as Shakespeare’s time where only boys could play women but Hayshimi says it’s changed now. There were games being played in one area, I think they were linked to geisha. One was balancing a piece of paper on top of our noses. Pete was much better but I think it’s not about skill his nose is bigger. I wasn’t so good! Hayshimi let us do the Tokyo bit by ourselves, which was better as otherwise the poor man would have had to cope with us for another hour. There was one display showing what school dinners have and do look like. I wish ours looked this good. There was also a part about the war including the declaration of surrender. It’s interesting to hear about the atrocities that happened to ‘the other side’. The USA pretty much annihilated Japan during the war. It makes you realise the futility of war as the people who get hurt have more in common with us Pthan we have with the leaders of our own country. After this we headed off to the Sumida Street Jazz festival. We found out about it from the Time Out site, a free festival in it’s 10th year, with bands etc playing in different sites around Sumida, but mainly in Kinshi Park.The first band we saw were a girl band. I was a bit crestfallen as we had, had to navigate two subway lines to get to this. The ‘girls’ were out of tune, even not understanding what they were singing about I could tell they were off key.

Maybe I was a bit lacking in appreciation as the audience, made up of entirely middle aged Japanese men seemed to be really lapping it up. It’s hard to pinpoint whether it was their musical talents or their itsy bitsy dresses and frilly knickers, which they showed quite a lot of by bending over a lot. A tough question to answer!Heading closer to the park we saw a Japanese steel band and they were utterly joyous. Getting a bit closer still to the park we saw this band, who were really excellent musicians.We had a picnic at the park of injera pockets and Japanese Swiss roll. Walking round the park there was a lot of activities going on, including a belly dancing troupe. The band on the main stage were great and I had a little jig, African/Japanese fusion.It was a superb end to our holidays!
And then our final meal of ramen!