The looooong weekend

Saturday was the fall equinox, so it was a national holiday. I didn't really notice any sort of fanfare involved, the only sign that fall has come is that there is a special "seasonal" beer I can buy. FYI, it's like 2% stronger than normal Japanese beer, which is like twice as strong as American beer. So..ummm...beware the seasonal beer.

Anyways, we got into some karaoke on friday night. I don't want to post too much about it, to protect the people involoved. Lets just say you pay a single cover for all night karaoke and all the drinks you want. No beer though, just hard liquor. You do the math... drunken antics...

The next day I hit up some museums. 6 of them to be exact. It was a grand marathon of me, in all-nighter zombie state, taking the shortest possible path to get around. It was a huge sucess.

1st up (because it openned at 9am as opposed to 10am) was the Institute for Nature Study. Basically a ton of local flora growing wild. More for the amateur botanist I think. Nothing was tended like a garden, but it was nice to feel like I was in nature.




I got my 2nd wind after a short nap, and headed to the Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum. This was the residence of Prince Asaka. The thing about it, it's all Art Deco style. Very cool, very sugoi. No photos though...

I got my 3rd wind after a short nap, and headed to the Matsuoka Museum of Art. That was my last nap, because this next museum woke up my mind. It was beautiful. An L shaped building, in the L space was a beautiful Japanese garden. In the building, 5 rooms. Egypt art, Budha art, modern sculpture, Japanese screens, Japanese paintings. Each room was the perfect size.




Not too far away was the Ebisu shopping mall, with the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography. But what's this? In the shopping mall? Do my eyes decieve me? They don't! It's the Yebisu Beer Museum!!!!





Funky little place. Some cool multimedia stuff, old advertising posters, free entrance. At the end is a tasting room. 400yen gets you a sample of 4 great brews. I felt wierd drinking by myself, but fuck it... this is research!

The Ebisu shopping mall is nice. Very open air kinda feel. Live jazz music. 39th floor restaraunts with a (free) view of Tokyo. Good stuff. The photo museum was... interesting. They have a serious exhibit, costs like 2000 yen to get in, then the had the one that my pass got me into. It was a little exhibit about computer imaging. It was special, but then again, I didn't have to pay.

Last museum of the day was the Meguro Museum of Art. Photos, calligraphy, pottery, it had a very interesting feel to it. Kinda like maybe all the stuff was made at retirement homes in craft class. Not that that's bad or anything.





4pm-ish and I needed sleep. I went home. I hate to brag, but I have almost perfected the Japanese skill of sleeping on the train. I can totally sleep without falling over in a seat, and am able to wake up almost right before my stop. Mad skillz people, mad skillz.

I'll write about the rest of the weekend later...