The most overdue post evarrrr :( Sobrang busy kasi sa paggawa ng wala :) Anyway better late than super laterrrrr....
During my natsuyasumi/summer vacation (I know anong petsa na?!?!) Basuraman and I were looking for some nearby parks or museums where we can bike to. Read: tipid mode. Basuraman found the Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum, which is a 30-minute bike ride from our house and is situated inside the Koganei Park. It was my first time to visit an Open Air Museum. I had the chance to see one last year when we went to Hakone but it was raining so we had to cancel it. Anyhoo...
The Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum (江戸東京たてもの園 Edo Tōkyō Tatemono En, lit. "Edo Tokyo Buildings Garden") in Koganei Park, Tokyo, Japan, is a museum of historic Japanese buildings.
The park includes many buildings from the ordinary middle class Japanese experience to the homes of wealthy and powerful individuals such as former Prime Minister Takahashi Korekiyo, out in the open in a park.
The museum enables visitors to enter and explore a wide variety of buildings of different styles, periods, and purposes, from upper-class homes to pre-war shops, public baths (sentō), and Western-style buildings of the Meiji period, which would normally be inaccessible to tourists or other casual visitors, or which cannot be found in Tokyo. (Source here).
Photos courtesy of Basuraman ^_^
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| The entrance to the museum |
We reached the place at around 4 in the afternoon because of my katamaran este I thought the temperature would be cool at that time. Summer here is really H-O-T. At noontime it's like the SUN is just 3 steps away from you. You wouldn't want to go outside. Instant cremation itwu. Exaggeration at its best haha ^o^ We were kinda surprised that there weren't so many people considering it's a holiday. I guess the museum lacks some promotion.
Inside the museum restored buildings dating from the Edo Period to the early Showa Period can be found.
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| One of the shrines |
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| traditional residential entrance/gate of rich Japanese families |
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| Kunwari I was doing bar hopping ^_^ |
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| Farm House |
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| Rice Granary |
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| Western style house |
We were able to enter some of the buildings/shops and houses. Loved it. Though inside some of the houses there's this cryptic feeling that anytime some Japanese ghost will appear and grab me. Also there were areas in some houses where I had this difficulty in breathing as if the air is so thick. Meganon. Kunwari nasa isang horror tv series lang :P
The foot bath area of the bath house was open to the public for free. Unfortunately the bath house was near to closing when we arrived at the place.
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| Inside the bath house |
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| Coffee or tea? |
We found this old grocery store displaying merchandises being sold during that time. I wonder what's the taste of canned whale meat. Hmmm....
According to Mr. Wikipedia Spirited Away Director Hayao Miyazaki visited the Edo-Tokyo Open Air Museum for inspirations on the film.
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| A Calligraphy Shop. At first I thought it was Ollivander's Wand Shop ^_^ |
The several drawers on the left of the picture above resembles the containers of the herbs in the boiler room operated by the six-armed man Kamaji.
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| The train! Sakay na ^_^ Bawal 1-2-3 |
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| Mr. Hayao Miyazaki and No Face. Picture from Google.com |
Our visit to the museum was fun and interesting at the same time since we don't get to see open-air museums that often. Ijou desu ^_^
