Japanese History Museum

We happened to be in Chiba prefecture for other reasons, and the group we were with decided to swing by the Natural History Museum and Institute. It’s a museum megaplex, with six galleries covering everything from 3000BC to modern times (post WWII).

The Japanese are really good at making things into megaplexes. On our way there, we stopped at a “truck stop” for lunch. Boy, was I not excited about that. Here’s the thing – when you travel and spend time in other countries, you just can not bring your own bias with you. They don’t work out. The “truck stop”? A man-made island in the middle of Tokyo Bay. It’s a 6-story rest stop with restaurants, shops, and a big deck on the top.

We got a wiener wrapped in bacon, on a stick. Oh, I love street food. And bacon. And bacon wrapped street food. Jon is either concentrating really hard on growing his beard, or he’s staring me down and wondering why I’m taking so many photos.

Another thing I love? Things for little kids. That little guys gets to sit on the turtle? eff that. Take my picture on the turtle!

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The museum was way more interesting than I expected. Here are some highlights:

One of the galleries talked about how their writing forms began (kanji, katakana, hiragana, romanjii) and how they evolved over the years. There were some placards in English, so I don’t know the whole story about any of this, but it seems that hiragana started out as the women’s language and katakana was the men’s. Kanji derives straight from Chinese and romanji obviously comes from the West.

Later, they walk through the printing presses and some early graphic design / typography. I love it!

Another gallery was focused on spirituality; shinto, buddism, and life in between.

“What’s in your head sir?” “oh, well, let me show you!”

Jon thought I was a creepazoid for wanting my picture next to the paleolithic skeleton. I’m SO TALLLLLLL.

Would it really even be a museum without a Godzilla (I mean, Gojira) replica? No. I didn’t think so.

Stay tuned for something sweet: it’s off to the strawberry farm!