Shitamachi (lit. the under road) is a super fun 2-storey museum. The first storey shows what Japan was like in the past during the Edo period. It’s super rustic, old-school, and looks like it belongs on a movie set. Absolutely loved the exhibits.
The second storey, however, is the more fun part. Photos were only allowed in certain sections of the second storey, but I took whatever I could. Some of the exhibits showed life during the second world war for the local Japanese people. In the history that I learnt, Japan was portrayed as the bad guy, the instigator of war, who finally met her end and was defeated. But what do the Japanese learn? And many of the civilians also suffered during the wartime, when many of the resources had to be redirected to supporting Japan in the war.
On the same level, there are these old school games that honestly, you could spend hours playing. I think a reason the Japanese are so intelligent and brilliant is because of the games they play. All except for one or two of the games they had in the museum were puzzles, if not they involved using some part of your brain for intense concentration. It was super fun, though incredibly frustrating when you can’t figure out the solutions.
Whilst playing at one of the games and trying to figure it out, there was a local who was playing the game next to mine, and we struck up a conversation. And I asked, I wonder who would be able to solve these games. And she replied, people of the past. Thank you, lady.
Ueno Zoo: I absolutely hate this place. I never thought i’d ever be so sad going to somewhere filled with animals. The animals there are so sad and depressed. I almost cried, thought I was weird, until Marin told me her friends who went there actually cried. I wasn’t there for more than an hour. Couldn’t stand it. Only saw half the zoo and had to leave.
Increasingly, zoos and places of captivity are making me more and more uncomfortable. I suppose places of gaze where the subjects of gaze are not in their positions or conditions willingly or voluntarily. It sounds a bit strange, cos well, animals can’t really volunteer for anything, but..yeah.
Decided to walk down and explore Ameyokocho, which is one of the ‘must-visit’ places on many travel sites. It was quite exciting, though probably more exciting for people who shop. But I went around eating, so it was all right.
I had some dumpling thing at a Chinese stall, which the stall guy claimed was xiao long bao, but totes wasn't. But oh well.
Then I walked around a bit more and decided to try Gindaco takoyaki cos I haven’t had takoyaki yet. And it was really good!! I was quite impressed. My expectations weren’t high, because I was like, how good can takoyaki be? I mean… All the same lah right? WRONG. It was really different. Like the ones in Singapore are all quite soggy and gross, but the Gindaco ones were fresh and super crispy, and retained heat quite well. And it was delicious. Worth it.
And I have no more pictures cos I conveniently forgot to take my camera out the rest of the night. I realised I tend to do that when I’m with people, and when it’s night time. I met Marin for dinner. She’s the acquaintance I mentioned I met from church. We went around searching for somewhere to go to, and just couldn’t find anywhere good. Eventually we settled for this random izakaya called Wataminchi, but the food was surprisingly not too bad and not overly expensive either. My only gripe was that indoor smoking was allowed, and it got a little uncomfortable when people started smoking later into the night.
I don’t quite remember in detail what exactly we talked about (given that this happened more than 6 months ago), but I just remember, we really hit it off, and she’s super easy to talk to. I guess it really helped that her English was fluent, and she had a Western education. She’s really sweet and very creative and edgy, and really passionate about the things she’s doing, which is really great. It was a joy to have gotten to know her. Sadly, as mentioned, I don’t have a photo with her.
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