August 4th - Tokyo National Museum - History

It was our first sightseeing place in our long list of places we wanted to travel to, in Japan. We had just woken up from our hotel at about 6:30 in the morning and almost all of us were quite exhausted, we were suffering from jet lag for quite some time, still being to used to the American clock. Kush got everyone up, by pouring water on Zuhare and Mohir who were dead sleepy, and wanted to delay our first trip to the next day, but as sleepy as I was, I still really wanted to go and not delay our first sightseeing place in Japan. We all had gotten ready by about 8:00, and started heading downstairs to the lobby to have our breakfast, which would be served in the dining area. We had a good lunch and spent about 1 hr in the lunchroom, as we were talking for most of our eating time. We each spoke about how excited and what did we want to see in the first part of our trip to Japan, the Tokyo National Museum. That day is was 79 degrees Fahrenheit, but Mohir and Kush weren't that interested as always, none of them have ever even been slightly interested in museums as they only wanted to play the video games, that they had brought from the United States. Zuhare wanted to see what exactly was special about the place, and Chase was quite interested in the Buddhist artifacts and history that they had in the museum. As we took a taxi to go to our location, we talked about the museum and about how they were six buildings in the museum that each represented and showed different types of artifacts and artwork related to Japan. The Honkan building featured a variety of Japanese artwork from ancient times to the 19th century including antique Buddhist statues, painted sliding doors, scrolls, and maps in addition to cultural items such as masks, costume, armor and the weapons. To the left was the Hyokeikan building which was basically built as a representation of Western Style architecture during the Meiji period in Japanese history. The Toyokan building, which was to the right of the Honkan building featured galleries and displays of Asian Art and artifacts from China, Korea, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, India and Egypt. The other buildings house paintings that were donated and were preserved from Ancient Japan, some of those paintings were donated by private donors who had bought the ancient paintings from auctions and other places. Since we didn't really have that much time and were still suffering from Jet Lag we decided to only go check out the Honakan, Hyokeikan, and Toyokan buildings, as they were the better renown exhibits and had more items and artifacts in store. We first went to the Honkan building which was quite crowded and featured some of the many ancient paintings that Japan had, each one felt so unique and raw, completely reflecting the immersive and rich cultural history that Japan has. Even the likes of Mohir who didn't care much about paintings who he deemed boring, started to get awed by the sheer brilliance of the paintings. Then we moved on to the Hyokeikan building on the left, where we explored the impact the Western government had on the Japanese when the first contact was established between the societies during the Meiji Period. The architectural change that occurred in Japan after western contact was established was utterly fascinating to watch, as you could clearly tell that by the items shown the Japanese government had learned that they were much behind the Westerners and wanted to bring out real change. I and Zuhare who were history buffs were really fascinated by the cultural and governmental change that occurred in Japan after the first contact with the Westerners. Kush, Chase, and Mohir were far more interested in the Toyokan building because even though they appreciated the change Japan made, they were far more curious about the arts and crafts of other countries that were present in the museum. Once we completely finished exploring the Hyokeikanbuilding in the museum we wanted to go see the last exhibit of our day, the Toyokan building which featured arts and crafts of other countries such as India, China, Egypt, Korea and other Asian countries. The Exhibit was very beautifully decorated and the lighting in there was quite dark in comparison to the other buildings as the museum we supposed wanted to emphasize more on the awe and stunning visuals of the artifacts so that they could catch our attention a lot better. Guess they were right, cause overall that was the best building and experience we could have ever thought of having in our first exploration day in Japan. The artifacts and the history behind them were so fascinating, that I, to be honest, completely regretted not going to this exhibit in the morning. Almost everyone in our group absolutely loved every minute of our time that we spent marveling at these prehistoric works of pure gold. But once it 5 the museum closed and we were required to go back to the hotel, on the way back all of us were talking so ecstatically about the experience we just had during our day. For all I knew, this was the absolute perfect way to start off our long trip by exploring the history and culture that has built and sustained Japan for centuries.




Weather: 84