Japan Revisited - Edo Tokyo Outdoor Museum

When Hayao Miyazaki was looking for inspiration for his animated film "Spirited Away" one of his favorite spots was a place called the Edo Tokyo Outdoor Architectural Museum. (It's a mouthful so I will just call it Edo Outdoor Museum from now on.) This museum is a marvel, a branch of the fabulous Edo Tokyo Museum in Ryogoku which I visited the last time we are here.  The outdoor museum is located just a half-hours train ride from Tokyo Station in Koganei Park and features some 18 structures relocated from all over Japan representing periods of design from ancient times to modern ones.  

With the way it is set up in the park, one can walk from one place to the next in two hours or spend longer looking around.  Miyazaki himself used a particular area of the museum for inspiration of the theme park and bathhouse for Japanese spirits in "Spirited Away."  You can see the bathhouse in the image above, with the street leading up to it featuring businesses set up just as they would in an actual working town at the turn of the century.  

All the houses are open to the public to walk through and some have furnishings to give them the feel of a "lived in" look.  It is very close to a living history museum but without people in costume.   You have to take your shoes off inside many of these places but its fascinating to see western style influences in Japanese homes.   

One of the more modern houses, but it had a nice open floor plan and feel.

This was a lovely house with two separate stories and an open floor plan

                                      

This is a beautiful fireplace inside one of the houses, this one was built by German immigrants.

A western style house

Even in a western styled house, there are touches of Japanese design like this room with tatami mat floors

There are some beautiful Japanese style houses as well which stick to traditional lines and building materials.   These are always my favorites.  One walks inside to tatami mat floors, paper screens and wooden shelves.  There is a simplicity and beauty to this plan.  The building below was once a home for the first finance minister of Japan, and he was assassinated inside.  Like all the buildings, it was relocated from its original spot, and the effort taken to reconstruct the house and the adjacent garden is incredible.  

The whole museum is a testament to Japanese ingenuity, and with the cherry blossoms in bloom, coupled with the park like setting, it made for a beautiful morning trip.  

A more traditional Japanese-Style mansion

Garden behind the mansion

Cherry Blossoms just starting to bud

Thatched roof style farmhouse

If the buildings are a treasure to explore, it is the people who work at this museum that are a jewel.  One of the first people we met was a little man who walked right up to us and asked us where we were from.  He engaged us, talked about our own state, about our last trip and told us a great deal of information about the houses.  He spoke some fractured English, but he was so engaging and friendly that it was just a pleasure to talk to him.

We ran into him again in one of the thatched style farmhouses.  He invited us to sit around the hearth, with a fire over a bubbling pot of some kind of soup.  With the smoke, it was a little hard to sit there, but we talked for a little while with him before we were driven out.  It was nice of them to offer us a place, I only wish the smoke wasn't as strong.  Fires like this are kept in houses to drive away insects and to keep the thatch strong since the soot acts like a bonding agent.  

This wonderful man sat and talked with us for quite a while

There are dozens of smaller structures ranging from a police box to tombs to lanterns.  One of the more interesting pieces was an old cablecar.  This was the precursor to the Tokyo Subway system, and it sits at a sort of station as if waiting for patrons to climb aboard for a ride.

Police box (This place had a tiny area for sleeping inside it too)

Tokyo Cablecar

I found this image on the net of Miyazaki at the museum, with a picture of a character from his novie

The most famous area of the Tokyo Outdoor Museum, and perhaps the most iconic is the main "business" street leading up to the bathhouse.  It is here Hayao Miyazaki came for inspiration in "Spirited Away."  The street itself is simple, with shops set up on either side in the way they would be in any small town or even in Tokyo at the turn of the century.  There is the general store, jewelry store, stationary store, an umbrella maker, an inn, a soy shop, a warehouse (with an udon shop in it) a flower shop, and at the back center is the bathhouse itself.  

Street from Spirited Away  (Image copyright Studio Ghibli)

Back alley section of houses

Walking down the street, you could close your eyes and feel like you are in a working town far more than the rest of the museum.  The shops are set up with "wares" like pots, pans, bonito (a fish used for miso soup) and other things.  Our first stop was by the Jewelry store.  This building featured a star on the top I mistook for the Jewish Star of David, but we were informed this star is actually something from Japanese religion.  I've never heard of it before but I will trust in what they told us.  

Shrapnel marks

Jewelry Store.  Note the star above, this is not a star of David, but something the Japanese have had for ages.  This store had damage from bomb shrapnel that hit it in World War II.

Just beyond the jewelry Store were a few other businesses like the hardware and general goods store.  Here the simple sundries of daily life in Japan were on display like they should be.  You could go into stores now and some of the things sold wouldn't have changed much in 100 years.   

General Goods store

Inside the General Goods store.  Note the bonito in the back, the squid displays.  Not real of course but this is how it would be stocked.

Hardware store

Inside the hardware store

Inside the Umbrella Shop

One place of unique note on the street was the Stationary Store which stood between the warehouse and the flower shop.  Most of these businesses were set up with the main mercantile on street level and then the family would live on the upper floors with storage on the top.  

Flower Shop (Right)  Stationary Shop (left)  

I mention the stationary store in particular because it had a few interesting features.  One it had a basement that you could just barely see, and the owners would keep supplies like ink down there where they could be cool.  The second interesting feature, other than the many brushes, was the bank of boxlike storage bins.   Each of these bins could hold hundreds of brushes, but the bins themselves were inspiration for Miyazaki as well.  He used a similar design for bins in his bathhouse in spirited away.  

Inside the Stationary Store.  Note these boxlike shelves.  This was another inspiration in Spirited Away.

Detail from "Spirited Away" you can see the boxes on the right  (Image copyright Studio Ghibli)

It is interesting to explore these places and recall scenes from the movie.  That the director considers this place a wonderful location for inspiration is well known in Japan.   There were other neat buildings as well like the Tavern and the Inn.  These would be staples in any town or on roads leading from place to place.   A spot where weary travelers could rest and unwind.

Inside the Tavern.

A Highway Inn.

Inside the Highway Inn

If there is a heart to the Edo Tokyo Museum, or any town at the turn of the century, it is the bathhouse.  The building is built like a temple, with a sweeping arched doorway, vaulted ceilings like you would see in actual Buddhist temples and quiet gardens nestled on either side's changing area.  The Japanese love bathing, it is a time when the quandaries of life melt away in hot water bliss and the social classes disappear.  I believe there is a Japanese saying that everyone is equals when they are naked in the bath.

This is a lovely bathhouse, and there used to be many of these all over the place, even in Tokyo up until recently.  You can still find some here or there, but the public bath is more rare now.  The structure at the museum occupies its spot at the end of the street as a focal point because in any town it would be.  Walk inside and you are greeted by a lovely tile fresco of a man and woman at rest beneath a tree.

The Bathhouse

Tile detail on the inside of the bathhouse

Beyond the wooden changing areas, with their garden vantage points, one walks into the actual bathing area with the deep basins where water would bubble around.  Framing this at the back are beautiful paintings of bays on the women's side and mount Fuji on the mens.  The low areas between are for actual washing and getting clean, the bath is only for relaxing in Japan.  

Women's side of bathhouse, with a beautiful painting.

One of the fun details I enjoyed were the tile artwork.  Both the men's and women's side had little tile frescos that depicted Japanese fables.  The women's side were my favorite as I recognized them and they were vibrantly delightful depictions.  

The first was of the tale of "The Tongue Cut Sparrow" which is a combination of the western myth of Pandora's box and something out of Aesops Fables.  The scene shows a family of friendly sparrows all dressed up like people bidding a farmer goodbye as he carries his box of treasures back home to his wife.  The depiction of animals in human garb is just charming and the colors and details are beautiful.  I especially liked the little one just beside him with the hair ribbon in her feathers.  

Tile Display on women's side.  The Japanese Fable of "The Tongue Cut Sparrow."

Detail of the Tongue Cut Sparrow

Next to the "Tongue Cut Sparrow" was a tile fresco depicting a fable I believe is called "The Monkey and the Persimmons."  As one can guess, it depicts both a monkey and a persimmon tree, but there are two more unusual characters in the scene.  First is a fellow with a head that looks like a wooden bowl and second is what looks like a crab on top of a man's body.   They are both wrestling the monkey to the ground, tying him up (for stealing the fruit I think.)  

Women's Bathroom Side tile display.  Japanese Fable "The Monkey and the Persimmons."

I was just taken aback with the humor of seeing the crab with its many feet and claws sitting on top of a human body.  It looks like a person wore the crab as a hat, but this is actually an anthropomorphized ideal just like the sparrows were.   The same with the bowl shaped fellow which I think is a mortar used for making sweet rice cakes.  

Crab Samurai?

Apparently this is an anthropomorphic pestle for making moochi (rice cakes)

The men's side had other tile stories I didn't know, but the real treat was seeing the mural of mount Fuji.  I could imagine people settled down after a long day of work, letting their worries drift away in the warm water.  I noted to my parents one of our journeys would take us to a place where we had to use a bath like this.   That is a story for another day however.  We left the bathhouse and wandered through the main museum building, taking in pictures of the park in spring along with wonderful laquerware that was on display.   

Men's Side Mural of Mount Fuji.

Beautiful Laquerware

We walked back through the park and found a lovely spot to eat inside the warehouse building on the bathhouse street.  This tiny place is nestled on the second story, with a prepay box where you put in some yen and present a ticket to the owner.  In return you get a bowl of piping hot udon noodles with fresh vegetables.

After a lot of walking and exploring, this was the perfect place to sit down and relax a bit and talk about all we'd seen.  

Delicious Udon Soup served in the shop on top of the warehouse building.

Taking a trip through the Edo Tokyo Outdoor Museum is like stepping back in time.  One can close their eyes and picture people going about their everyday lives in the spaces and places surrounding the structures.   At the same time, one can imagine Hayao Miyazaki's fantastic creatures coming to life here when things are dark and quiet.   We can see them working in the kitchens, buying groceries or enjoying a bath.  

The museum is an escape from the ordinary, well worth a visit for adults and children alike.  Like anything in Japan or travel in general, go early so you have the park to yourself.  

Address: 3-7-1 Sakuracho, Koganei, Tokyo 184-0005, Japan

Hours:  9:30AM–4:30PM

Museum Prices:  400 Yen

Museum website

Museum Tripadvisor

The Museum's Main Entrance, it is made to look like a palace used in the Heian Era.

Next time:   Exploring Maranouchi.  

Japan Revisited - Tokyo Station and the Tokyo Metropolitan Marunouchi Hotel

Tokyo at night is a city of light.  It glows, pulses with electric energy that spreads out over the land, sea and sky.  It draws you in, like a moth, flitting around its glow, yearning to touch it.    The last time I was in Japan, I longed to see the lights of nighttime Tokyo but never had the chance.  This time, I made sure we would be in a place where I could bask in them.   Choosing a hotel was easy in that regard, any high rise hotel will have a view of night time Tokyo different from the rest.

Our accommodations were in the splendid Tokyo Metropolitaan Marunoichi Hotel, located as a part of the Tokyo Station complex.  Tokyo Station is massive, five sub levels deep and with sprawling complexes of shops, malls, underground passageways like a warren beneath the streets of the city.  This isn't counting the levels above ground with the beautiful brick main building standing proud with its impressive domes.   The best part about being close to it though is that one can reach anywhere in Tokyo on the Yamanote Loop line.   It's easy to get lost in a dozen ways though, and we did at first.

We emerged from the subway and into the throngs of people getting off work.  Tokyo Station is best avoided at rush hour, but we made our way out to the front of the building since I knew the approximate location of our Hotel.  We passed little bars and food stalls that rest in the shadows of the bullet train tracks to reach our destination, a tall gleaming tower of silver steel.  To the eye it looks like any other business tower, but the TMMH (as I will call our hotel) is located on the 25th floor and above.

Stepping from the elevator, away from the throngs in the street below, we emerged into a quiet and airy atrium with polished floors and a neat little train set in the center of the room.  The whole space was gorgeous, quietly civilized by comparison to the hubbub of travelers cascading out from the station below.

Model trains running

As we checked in I looked over the model.  As you can see it features a few Tokyo Landmarks like Tokyo Station, Tokyo Tower, Rainbow Bridge and Tokyo Skytree.  Little Shinkansen (bullet train) models made rounds, buckled together like tiny snakes weaving along the tracks.  Below these were smaller commuter train models, but the whole set was pretty well detailed.  It was lit up for the night, and I could see little shops and businesses next to taller skyscrapers.  Our own hotel was included among these which was a nice touch.  

Up in the room, I found the serenity continued into a nice little space with a bed and huge picture windows that looked out over Ginza.  From my vantage point I could see around towards the real Skytree, Tokyo Tower and the innumerable other towers, apartment buildings and other structures that spread before me as a sea of lights.

View towards Skytree

Looking down I was rewarded with a view of Tokyo station itself, with the bullet train platforms spread out like keys on a piano.  I could see trains come and go even as I stood looking out at them.  Tokyo is sometimes described as a city that never sleeps.  It is also a city of light.  Even late at night, the city pulses with electricity, a dynamo of humanity that hums at all hours of the day.   There is something about it that allures any traveler, but Japan transforms with the setting of the sun.  Things change, become dark and mysterious.  The glow of lights casts down from buildings and illuminates the night sky.  It is a quality words cannot express, a beauty no picture can contain.  

In simple words, Tokyo is the most beautiful night city I have ever visited.  

Tokyo Station at night from above.  The station itself is on the right, the bullet train platforms spread out in the middle.

I could sit on my bed looking out at the winking lights.  I remarked in my journal at the time about the warmth I saw.  The Japanese have a sort of light very unique to other cities one can visit.  There are tones of blue, gold and winking red that offset the colder halogen hues gleaming from the business towers.  It is a feast for the eyes, and with the trains coming and going I likened it to watching the synapses of the human brain in a constant firing with information flowing down the spine.  

We went down into the station itself for dinner.  One of the other great parts of being close to Tokyo Station is there are uncountable numbers of small restaurants in the many underground shopping spaces.   We enjoyed a meal of fresh vegetables with Chinese style Noodles and a delicious chicken broth.  After a long flight, it was the perfect way to unwind and enjoy even in a busy, tightly packed place like we found.

 This stock is the real deal, concentrated chicken goodness that is a cure for the common jetlag.  

After dinner my parents and I retired to the Hotel to sleep, but I woke early that morning and decided to walk around Tokyo Station.  It was four in the morning, and the whole of the place was empty.  It is a strange, otherworldly feeling to step into this space with no one around.  Just hours before, throngs of people packed to tightly into the halls one can lose sight of what is in front of them.  

Ghost Station

Walking here in the early hours was like walking through an episode of the Twilight Zone, where I was the only person alive, secluded and alone.  I made my way to the main station area and stood in the center of the space beneath one of the domes.  Standing in the center, I did a full circle with my camera and then looked up into the egg-yellow ceiling above me.  From my vantage point I could see the eagles spread with their wings, the little emblems of Chinese Zodiac and other flourishes.  

One of Tokyo Station's Domes

360 of a Dome

Normally this dome is crowded with people passing through the turnstiles on the way to work.  I had it all to myself for that brief moment before I returned to the hotel.   On the way back I stopped again at the model and admired the tiny touches.  Looking down at it was like a microcosm of the real Tokyo beyond my hotel room.  A space of light, shadows and intrigue.  I'd only just arrived and there was so much to explore.   The day was just about to break and we were going out to our first adventure at the Edo Tokyo Outdoor Architectural Museum.

Closer look at the Hotel's Model Trains running

A look at the model with the lights at night

Next time:   The Edo Tokyo Outdoor Museum.