Saturday the 27th Edo-Tokyo Museum

We had decided on Friday to hit museums on Saturday and one other day. As it was raining we headed out to the Edo-Tokyo Museum. Visiting this very large museum is a full day event. After arriving we picked up a Groot Pass, a book of tickets for most of the museums in the Tokyo area. Cindy and I headed for a coffee shop for morning fueling and Steven headed to the gift shop. After an excellent cup we met up with Steven and searched for lockers which we located with assistance from a guard. After depositing our extra stuff we headed to the entrance of the exhibition area on the 6th floor, I did say this was a very large museum.

In fact it is so large that it includes a full scale reproduction of the famous Nihonbashi bridge, down to the base of the pillars, a reproduction of a kabuki theater and partial full scale reproductions of other buildings.

The museum covers the history of the city from the founding of Edo at the beginning of the 17th century, with half of the exhibit space devoted to the period before the name was changed to Tokyo. After we completed the Edo section we had lunch and desert and headed back to look at the Tokyo side of the museum. From the Meiji Period to the reconstruction of the post war period many aspects of life in Tokyo are on display.

One feature of this museum is several large maps, each the size of a room, showing the city at a particular time in it's history. By the time we were ready to go it was dark and a full storm, had moved in. Luckily for us the subway station was right outside the museum so we did not have to deal with the heavy winds and rain for long.