Sunday 15 July 2012

Osaka Day One

I didn't arrive in Kansai until after noon (and got off the Shinkansen and promptly got on the wrong local train and ended up in the opposite direction from where I wanted to be... necessitating a backtracking and meaning I arrived at the meeting point just as all the others finished lunch), but as soon as we all met up my advisor led us off to two museums one after the other - walking in the muggy heat and bright sun. We were all hot and sweaty in no time.

The first stop was a small and pretty basic local museum, but the second was a much larger municipal institution where one of the curators, a friend of my advisor's and a very keen and bright young guy, let us wander the exhibits before taking us on a very detailed tour of the storerooms and other "backyard" areas. Being given free rein to poke about the storerooms was pretty cool, bit how do you really excite a group of museum nerds? Show them the fumigation chamber! We all whipped out our cameras and started snapping away as if it were a star-studded red carpet!

(Speaking of stars, this grumpy roof ogre was my favourite artifact on display - wouldn't you like to have him guarding your home?!)

9 comments:

  1. "How do you really excite a group of museum nerds? Show them the fumigation chamber."

    I nominate that as a contender for funniest blog line of 2012. :D

    PS: Love that ogre! (You know about me and roofs ... )

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    1. Glad you enjoyed it! Hehehe! It was pretty funny in person too. The poor curator opened the door and we all whipped out our cameras and started snapping away. Easily the highlight of the day!

      And I specifically took a photo of the ogre on my phone so I could post it, as I thought you might appreciate it! There was a great display of at least a half a dozen different ogres, but this one was the most photogenic! : D

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    2. The ogre fan thanks you most profusely. That's a particularly lovely one. I mean ugly one. I mean ... oh ... you know what I mean! :)

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  2. Wait. Backtrack. You're in OSAKA? Why? Business trip? Coming back when?

    OK, so where's Day Two? Any Tōshō-gū shrines in Osaka? ;)

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    1. Yup, in Osaka for three days. My advisor was coming with his current students and a few others do I decided to tag along as my advisor is a bigwig in the museum world and knows people everywhere, resulting in free entry and special tours and seeing the inside of storerooms and fumigation chambers!

      I'll be back in Tokyo tonight.

      Yes, there are a few Toshogu in Osaka but it is too hot so I'm focusing on museums (and U would be far too jealous if I went Toshogu hunting without him!)

      Day two is up now, a little late as I was rather preoccupied (and exhausted!!) last night!

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    2. OK, so that very intriguing Tokyo Sky Tree image in a later post (what is it? a light?) was actually taken in Tokyo itself?

      Had we but world enough, and time
      This coyness, Lady, were no crime ...

      I'm teasing. You probably wrote these posts in a hurry on your phone? I'd really love to hear about the trip in more detail. Nudge nudge hint hint.

      PS: Welcome back to steaming hot Tokyo. :)

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    3. Yes, I did write these posts on my phone, not so much in haste, but in exhaustion! Tramping around by foot in the heat and humidity to museums, with our luggage on our backs was exhausting! Good, but exhausting!

      More details? As in the museums we visited? What we ate? Where we walked? The colour of the tanuki's plaid suit?

      PS - Gah! I stayed inside in the AC for most of the day today, venturing out in the evening but it was still oppressively humid - uggggh!

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  3. "More details? As in the museums we visited? What we ate? Where we walked? The colour of the tanuki's plaid suit?"

    Yes.

    (^0^)

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    1. Okay okay!

      I'll post about the museums separately... Soon! We had yaki tori and other chicken yummynesses at an izakaya with a very impressive umeshu menu on Saturday night in Kishiwada, I skipped lunch and went straight for kakigori for lunch on Sunday (kurumi and milk, which disappointingly turned out to be not walnut, as expected, but an overly sweet soy-based anko). Then Thai for dinner on Sunday, and scrambled eggs and fresh bread for breakfast Monday. (weren't you the one who complained about posts on meals on Facebook?!? :P ) The walking has been wiped from my brain as it was just too hot and sweaty.

      Oh, and the tanuki was in red plaid! : D

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