Entries Tagged as 'Museums'

Edo-Tokyo Museum in Ryogoku, Tokyo

April 25th, 2013 · No Comments

edo-tokyo_museum_choya_newspaper_publishing_co_replica
The Choya Newspaper Publishing Co. Life-sized replica. Also, you can see in front, there were some old-timey bicycles that you could get on. A rickshaw and a dharma bicycle (with the big front wheel). I found this photo online of the old Choya Newspaper building.

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Miniature model of townspeople’s residential district in the Kan-ei Era.

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Replica of a bookstore that was in the woodblock printing area.

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Kabuki actor.

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Kabuki play.

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Kabuki actor.

While sitting and enjoying Asahi we planned our next moves. There was a place we wanted to go, but it didn’t open until 5 p.m. So, we had some time to kill. We decided to walk over to Ryogoku and go to the Edo-Tokyo Museum. A quick note about Ryogoku – This district is basically known as “Sumo City,” which we didn’t even realize until Chris told us later that night. Dallas grew up watching sumo in Hawaii and really wanted to watch a match, but it wasn’t the right season.

Anyway, Edo-Tokyo Museum. This is a museum of the history of Tokyo during the Edo Period (1603-1868). There were many life-sized replicas of buildings and even the Nihonbashi bridge. Actually, you walk over the bridge and it leads you into Edo, where there are also a bunch of miniature scale models of towns and buildings in from the Edo, Meiji and Showa periods. I think I liked the woodblock printing area the best. It demonstrated how artists had to use different wood blocks to apply color and texture over and over to a finally make a print. It was crazy detailled work. I would have gone mad!

I don’t know if I’d go out of my way for the Edo-Tokyo Museum, but we were in the area and it was a cool way to spend some extra time we had.

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Kelly, Jessica and Tessa Visit Chicago

July 30th, 2012 · 1 Comment

Over the weekend, Jessica, Tessa and Kelly came to Chicago for a visit. They arrived late Friday night. On Saturday after a bit of visiting over breakfast, we headed to the Shedd Aquarium.

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On the walk over to the aquarium from the parking garage, we passed by the Field Museum. I told Jess and Tessa about the dinosaur inside is named Sue. Tessa thought that her grandma Sue is probably older than the dinosaur named Sue!

Having flashbacks to when I went to the aquarium with Stephanie and the line just to get in the door was an hour long, I suggested we visit in the morning. I guess we didn’t get there early enough, because we had to wait the same amount of time. To pass the time we checked out the skyline and the boats on the lake and Tessa talked to her sisters on the phone.

By the time we got inside the aquarium it was about lunch time, so we went to the cafe and planned our day. Each of the girls told us what their top animals to see were and we made sure to go to those exhibits first. Their picks were:


Dolphins,


(Beluga) Whales,

and Penguins. Also, sharks, but I don’t have a photo.

We also saw:


Sea Lion,


Stingrays,


Leafy Seadragon,


Coral Reef,


Pufferfish,


and many other fish.

Jess and Tessa got to reach in and touch some real, live starfish and sea urchins.

Oh, and I can’t forget the jellyfish.

At the end of our trip to the Shedd, we hit up the store. Tessa picked out a couple gifts for her two sisters at home and Jess had a bit of spending money so she got some super fluffy and cute penguin slippers and a glass dolphin figurine. And then we were done. So tired!

That night we just took it easy. We had dinner and then played Wii. Kelly and I liked the classic Super Mario game, but Jess and Tessa sure didn’t! We also watched a lot of Summer Olympic swimming and gymnastic events. Jess and Tessa were really getting into it and “playing Olympics” during commercial. Tessa can actually do the splits and cartwheels, but Jess, not so much. Though, she did try, I will give her that.

In the morning Jess and Tessa and I ate a TON of blueberries, strawberries and raspberries and watched a little bit of Nickelodeon on Netflix while we tried to let Kelly sleep in. When she got up and we got motivated, we packed a picnic and headed to Haas Park, nearby our house.

All too soon, it was time for Kelly to drop Jessica back in Milwaukee and then make the drive back to Green Bay. Jess and Tessa hadn’t seen each other for quite some time but they fell right into it and it was so nice to see them having fun together. I had a great weekend, ladies! Thanks so much for coming to visit me!

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Space Shuttle Enterprise Makes Its Way to the Intrepid

June 11th, 2012 · No Comments

Last Wednesday work stopped for a few minutes while we all watched the Space Shuttle Enterprise floating up the Hudson River on a barge on its way to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum. We saw it pass by the Statue of Liberty and go on up the river to midtown.

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The Art Institute’s Modern Wing & The Gage

May 24th, 2011 · No Comments

Last week Jess and I attended a Gapers Block meet up in the Modern Wing of the Art Institute. I’d never been to the Modern Wing, though it’s been open for about 2 years now. We all met at the Modern Wing’s Caffe Moderno for drinks and mingling. Jess and I hadn’t seen each other for a while, so we caught up over our first beer – Metropolitan Brewing’s Krankshaft – and then mingled for the second beer. Mingling is always easier on your second beer. .. even then, I’m awkward! At 6:45 we got a special tour of the Hyperlinks: Architecture and Design exhibit. Pretty interesting. It was only after we were getting the tour that Jess realized she’d already seen it! Oh well. Oh, also? It was one of the very last free Thursdays.

After visiting the museum, Jess and I went to get dinner at The Gage just across the street. I’d only been to The Gage once and it was just for an hour-long cocktail reception, so I was excited to give it a try. We split Vindaloo Mussels with toast, long toast, and Chips (Fries) with Curry Gravy. Oh, and we also got Duck Fat Nuts for an appetizer. I don’t know exactly what this means. They just tasted like nuts. I liked the vindaloo mussels, but with the curry gravy, it was too much curry. We ended up getting ketchup for the fries.

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Butterfly Haven at the Nature Museum

August 3rd, 2008 · No Comments

On Friday Amanda, Stephanie, Jessica and my dad came down to Chicago and we did “take two” of going to the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum. Last time we tried to go it was a holiday and we just drove around forever looking for parking before driving home. I could kick myself because I found out that the Belmont bus, which is just blocks from my house, takes to you right to the front entrance of the museum. That’s how we finally, successfully got there.

The highlight of the trip to the museum was the butterfly haven. Jessica loves butterflies, so she loved this part of the museum. Right after we got in the butterfly haven there was a presentation for kids where they released some newly hatched(?) butterflies. I think Jess liked that too. I had only been to a butterfly house once before, 3 years ago at the Bronx Zoo. It was fun to go again. At the nature museum it seemed like there were more butterflies. Literally just flying everywhere and even landing on you.

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