Tokyo, Japan: Happily, another late morning and full sunshine for once. Sounds lovely, but it was over 90 degrees today - so a perfect day to visit air conditioned museums. Dave worked out. I blogged. Then we went to the executive lounge for a little food before heading out on our adventures. NOTE: The finger sandwiches are wrapped around the outside in cling wrap.
We took a taxi to the Tokyo National Museum, which collects examples of ancient arts, metal work, ceramics, needlework, etc. throughout Japan. The collection did not seem large to us (after visiting other comparable museums), but it was well displayed. Dave was admitted free due to his advanced age (70), but I had to pay 1000 Yen ($6.83) because I won't be aged until next month. I will post a few photos below of things I found interesting, with a brief description - found on the item's informational signs.
Visitors to the museum are greeted by larger-than-life statues of two Guardian Gods. They once stood at a Buddhist temple near Kyoto until they were destroyed by a typhoon in 1934. Restored, they now reside in the national museum.
Buddhism was introduced to Japan in the early 800s - teaching tales of powerful gods known as the Wisdom Kings. This statue represents their leader, Fudo. His wrathful expression shows his determination to destroy evil.
The National Museum has a great collection of Japanese masks used in theater and Noh plays. Each mask, mostly from the Edo (18th century) period represented a different character, animal, emotion, or god.
This wooden sculpture was exhibited at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. It depicts a very bummed-out monkey after trying to catch an eagle - the only evidence being a handful of feathers under the monkey's hand.
The sign claims this cooking pot is from the mid-Jomon period (3000-2000 BC) and the ornate decorations are one of the greatest mysteries of Japanese archeology. No idea.
It was a great afternoon in the museum. They also had a fun block-print process stamp situation where you could make a postcard by completing a circuit of stamps. DT made one for Lucile. He is the least crafty person I know, yet his rendition was perfect! We made a visit to the gift shop - and it was quite nice.
But as long as we were in Ueno Park, we also toured through the National Museum of Nature and Science. Not going to lie - this probably is a very nice museum, but it seems very dated in how the exhibits are displayed, and where the National Museum had informational signs in several languages (one was English), the signs in the Nature Museum were only in Japanese. It's okay; it's in Japan.
The science museum has a lot of taxidermy and lots of skeletons, but I can't tell you the identity of even one of the species. It was getting on towards 5p, and I was getting cranky, so we took a taxi back to our hotel, spiffed-up and headed back to the stadium for Night 5 of the World Championships. I'm not going to go on and on about what was happening on the track (nor the field). You can read the result from the link below.
It was a quick night - though the events did not end until nearly 10:45p. On the field, we watched the men's javelin qualifications, men's triple-jump qualifications, heats of the men and women's 200m, and women and men's 400m hurdle semis. Tonight's finals were women's pole vault, men's long jump, women's steeplechase and the men's 1500m.
Gold: Katie Moon. Silver: Sandy Morris. Bronze: Tina Sutej (Slovenia).
Okay, so the women's pole vault did not include a world record, but the lead changed a few times, making it a very fun competition. Katie Moon and Sandy Morris are America's best vaulters and continue to win international competitions and Olympic medals. I pretty-much knew ONE of them would win tonight.
Absolutely no one in our seating area (a very knowledgeable group of track nerds) would have predicted Nader to win the 1500m final, but he shot down the homestretch like he was being chased by a rabid cheetah. Wow, what a finish! My pick-to-win was Josh Kerr of England... but something happened that caused him to lose his step. I have yet to see the footage, but maybe he stepped on the rail lining the inside of the track? So sad. Kerr hobbled down the home stretch to finish in last place.
And then it was back to the bus and dinner with my favorite soccer star:
(And, actually, Lionel Messi is not my favorite soccer star. My favorite is Jude Bellingham of Real Madrid, but the Brit's face was not on the bag of American Lay's Potato Chips I bought in Japan.) (And the Lay's Potato Chips were made in Thailand.)
Pedometer: 9,620 steps. I had the tracker in my purse today as I didn't have a pocket. Not sure how accurate the reading is, but it's still pretty good for someone who walked around museums all day.
Until my next update, I remain, your educated correspondent.
Links:
World Athletics Championships | Tokyo 2025
Meet Schedule
How to watch from the US
World Championships Results
Tokyo Weather