• Cultural tourism
• Mon. Feb, 28 2005

In order to recover from the previous day (by avoiding walking too much throughout the city), I thought it could be useful to go to とうきょう東京 National Museum (at うえのこうえん上野公園) and feeding my mind as my feet could be smoothly sollicitated.
So, after the two subway stations separating my hotel and the うえのこうえん上野公園 (every healthy -and lazy- ways were used to cope with my blisters), I went to the National Museum entrance (seeing with satisfaction that the crowd rushing into on Sunday wasn't there anymore). For the next hours, I discovered the secrets and history of the Japanese (and in a wider scope, Asian) art. Everything was there: from the pottery made by the Ainu tribes to the giant buddhas erected in なら奈良 or かまくら鎌倉. In a single word, really interesting. Regarding to the fare, this place is definitely worth a try (if we are a little bit interested in Japanese culture; for しぶや渋谷 addict, I think it is not necessary...).
However, this visit had a problem (apart from being almost only written in Japanese): it ended at 4pm. So, after a quick reflexion on a bench (and a couple of pictures), sipping my "おちゃお茶", official beverage of my trip, I decided to reach the しんじゅく新宿 JR station for exchanging my JR Railpass and hanging around for omiyage and gloves. Coming back to しんじゅく新宿 JR station was harder than I thought: it took plenty of time to reach the JR travel office and that, for nothing... It was simply overcrowded and, despite I had nothing urgent neither interesting to do, I just didn't feel the mood to wait in a such a small piece with so many people. So, it began being time for shopping. Independently from the list of goods I had to buy, I went straight to the 6th floor (actually the 5th, for a French guy like me) of MyCity mall, for HMV and a thirst of Japanese music. Or almost. After 4 hours listening to plenty of CDs (I have one year of delay), I left the shop with only 4 CDs, from Europe... Chemical Brothers, Mondo Diao, The Strokes and Bloc Party. But either the J-Pop is not very good these days or my tastes have changed but I didn't find something I would fall in love with. A kind of shame, but I am also convinced that I'll be back to Sweden with lot and lot of CD and other DVD. Only at the cashier, I realised it was almost 9pm and time to come back to the hotel. Arrived at うえの上野, I followed all the crowd to the local "Garden supermarket" and buy some すし寿司 for dinner and finally be back to my room for a dinner, as an achieved salaryman...