The Universe And Art

Daddy was working on Saturday, so Ebi-kun and I went on a date to Roppongi to the Mori Arts centre.

We stopped off at the little German market first, there are only a few stalls but it wasn't overly crowded so we grabbed a couple of pretzels and brotwurst and of course Gluwein (for me) for lunch

Then we headed up to the museum. Luckily it wasn't busy, so we outdated our time and saunter around.

It was quite a strange mush mash of exhibits from Leonardo Da Vinci and Galileo to installations by teamLab

As you walk through it kind of takes you through the ages, although I feel they were grasping at straws with some on the items on display it was interesting and enough to keep the kids interested too.

I think the museums are catching on that social media can be free advertising for them. Although you can't photograph everything in the exhibit, there were quite a few pieces marked with a photo ok sign. And social media icons so you can hashtag each one.

Win-win as far as I'm concerned, we get to share what we are up to and they get free publicity.

This exhibit is on until Jan 9th
Www.mori.art.museum

Don't forget to check out the view, it really is stunning in the winter

Meeting old friends for the first time

I met Julie through out blogs many moons ago, she was starting out with Montessori and I think stumbled across my blog when looking for inspiration. We became bloggy friends, commenting on each other blog and so on and then when Facebook became a thing our friendship moved over there too.

When her son eldest son got sick, Ebi-kun saw the picture of him in the hospital bed and wanted to send him his robot that he had designed (I sewed) but robot had had a run in with a nose bleed so I explained it wasn't very hygienic! Ebi-kun decided to design a new robot, so we made him and sent him off and when Eli got better they sent us a fab parcel from Hungary!

It's funny how these little stories make such a big impression on out kids.

Anyway, Julie and her family are currently living in China and were planning a trip over to Tokyo so we arranged to meet up. It was great to finally meet her in real life! Although a bit weird too, just knowing someone online for so long then finally meeting them!

We went to an okonomiyaki place for lunch, where you cook the meal yourself at the table, the kids all loved the yakisoba!

Then we headed into Ueno park to the shitamachi museum. I have never been in this place before, if you are in Ueno with an hour to kill, go and check it out. It's only a couple of hundred yen to get in. It was also quite hands-on so the kids were having fun trying things out and trying to work out what everything was.

Then we had a bit of a walk around the park, Julie's family had plans to do Shibuya and Harajuku in the afternoon and we needed to get back, so we parted ways but not until the kids had a good run around the park. It took them a while to warm up but then of course they were best buds when it came to leave! Always the way.

It was fab to spend some time with Julie and I wonder about all the other bloggy friends I have met over the years, maybe I'll get to meet them too one day!

Fun in Harajuku

After the whole Kawaii Monster Cafe we really needed to experience the rest of weird and wonderful Harajuku, for me, this never gets old. 

We wandered the streets, absorbed the atmosphere, checked out the architecture, caught pokemon and basically just chilled for a couple of hours. The best way to enjoy Harajuku is to just wander the streets and see where you end up!

You never know what you might run into in Tokyo...

When we were on our way to the art gallery we came across a street with all these fancy scarecrow things... I have no idea what it was all about but the whole street was lined with them

Ronnie MacDonald as a mermaid?

And then there was the fun stuff that is there all the time, this was some kind of food factory from what i could gather...

And this was from a Ghibli film, I haven't seen this one but Ebi-kun went with daddy to the cinema to watch it and apparently it was great.

Always makes trip into the big city fun when you have no idea what you will come across!

Fun For Free - statue abuse!

I saw a post on somewhere like Buzzfeed a couple of weeks ago, basically with people doing stupid poses with statues. I showed it to Ebi-kun and he decided it would be fun to do. After our trip to the Star Wars exhibit, we popped into the TV studio lobby to see if there was anything interesting and so the fun begins....

Punch To The Chin

Hair grab!

Doremon getting handy with his mic

Punch to the stomach!

Kick in the head

We ran out of statues to abuse so it was time for a bit of a rest. Ebi-kun has recently gotten into Doremon. A lot of the stories are history based, I'm not sure how accurate they are but the kids love them!

We had a wander outside for more statues but could only find this heart! We will definitely be doing more of these, I can see Paris being a fun place to do it, as long as we don't get arrested! If you want to join the fun, follow me over on Instagram!

Adventures in Oji - paper museum

After our adventures in Nippori, we hopped back on the train to Oji, which is just a couple of stops away. It's the first time I have been there. We were starving and so wanted to grab some lunch. I have to admit, I always find looking for somewhere to eat always stresses me out somewhat. At the station there were the usual suspects, MacDonalds, Sukiya, chain coffee shops... Then we spotted Little Mermaid. Turned out to be a Dutch cafe, lovely sandwiches and pastries, totally hit the mark.

With our bellies filled we headed off to find the museum. Ebi-kun wanted to get on the tram but I had no idea where they went but then he spotted the monorail instead.

Of course, I had no idea where this was going either but figured it wouldn't be too long. The fella at the bottom made us sit down, when I asked where to buy a ticket, he told us it was free - even better. Well, I have to say, it would have been quicker to walk up the stairs! The monorail is about 50m long, the kids all thought it was fun though!

The Paper Museum is a 5 minute walk through the park, right next to the kids playground. When you get in, there is a ticket machine to your left, the instructions are in English too. We got there just in the nick of time to make out own postcards.

The first fella was trying to explain everything in very broken English, we had to tell him to use Japanese in the end. They must get a lot of tourists in Oji because everyone tried to use English on us, it was quite weird for me!

The process was fun and you get to choose an image to watermark your postcard with, Ebi-kun picked out Tokyo Sky Tree and I picked the panda.

The process only took 5-10 minutes and the staff were really friendly.

There isn't that much English as far as explanations go but there is a very detailed handout when you arrive. The second floor has a lot of hands on stuff and was quite interesting.

I spotted this in the display section and thought it would make a fun activity. You could use family members photos and make different wigs for them.

Of course, Ebi-kun wanted to have a play in the park before we left. Looks like a nice little park, lots of kids running around.

We had a lovely day and finished off after the park by buying new shoes for Ebi-kun, his old ones had a hole in them. He has yet to grow out of a pair of shoes, he just wears them out!