we were out of the apartment by 9:30 this morning. it was so impressive. but by the time we managed to get on the train at the station it was almost 11. the early start had been blown because of forgotten passports and grabbing a quick breakfast. oh well. during my fast walk back to the apartment to get the passports the rest of the family made a new friend.
s13 and he really hit it off.
eventually – once we said goodbye to our new friend and made sure we had everything we needed – it was time to get on the train to head to ghibli museum. this was one of the places the kids were super excited about. i’ve only seen one ghibli movie, spirited away, but they’ve seen almost all of them. we had to ride the train to the end of the line and then it was just a short 15 minute walk to the museum. or at least it would have been had i read the instructions i wrote down correctly. i swear i read north. and a few minutes into our journey we came across a quaint little mochi shop and i’d read that there was one on the way to the museum.
cherry mochi. yum.
20 min into our 15 minute walk i finally stopped to ask someone where the museum was? they couldn’t give me exact directions, but did manage to make it clear to me that the park was on the other south side of the train station. we got ourselves turned in the right direction and – with the smallest amount of grumbling – set off in the correct direction. funny enough, once we made it back to the station and out the other entrance there were signs pointing the way. that made a lot more sense. cameras aren’t allowed inside the museum so all the pictures are from the grounds of the museum.
the ghibli museum is amazing. i wish i’d seen a few more of the movies so i could get the full benefit of the exhibits, but no matter, it was well worth the having to get up early and the getting lost on the way. we had lunch at the museum. there were two options in the line we got in. hotdogs or curry and rice. both were pretty good. and catbus enjoyed a few beers.
once we were finished up at the museum it was time to get back on the train and head back a few stops so we could visit the meguro parasitological museum. this was high on my list of must sees. i’d read a review that described it as “amazing and a little bit terrible.” i’m not sure i agree with that assessment. i would go a bit heavier on the descriptives for terrible. it was gross. but i still took a few pictures.
not sure how necessary this sign is. while i was inside i couldn’t begin to imagine eating or drinking.
that’s one long tape worm.
we barely made the museum before closing time and when we were done there we had a bunch of hungry kids on our hands. i had a great place for dinner scheduled, but language difficulties and bad directions caused that to be put on hold for another day. instead we opted for taking a long train ride and eating a just okay japanese meal for dinner and then it was home to rest up for whatever big adventures tomorrow might bring.
and then came many things that aren’t unique to graduation. the welcome, a hymn, scripture reading and invocation, speeches by the valedictorians (there were two), the salutatorian, and the class president. next up was something that i think is pretty unique to their school – the presentation to parents. at this point in the program the seniors are asked to stand and come pick up a jasmine lei to present in gratitude to their parents. i saw this last year, it was emotional then, but also seemed like it might be a bit contrived. and when i told michael to prepare for it – days before graduation – that was his response. it would seem scripted and lack any true feeling.
he might have been wrong about that.
