Hi everyone! Today you’ll be getting a treat from the blog’s most interesting writer – Suaram. 😉 This time, I’ll be writing in style (like last time) and I’ll be writing about an interesting day! (unlike last time)
Here’s something to know before we depart on our amazing adventure – the three-story flat we are staying in has one more story but half the size of the living space we had last year in Singapore. That’s right – five rooms, a couch, and a fun-sized* kitchen for nine people (5 adventurers, 3 once-a-year package deal adventurers, and a special guest). Makes me miss our apartment in Kyoto.
Anyway, today we scrapped together a measly leftover breakfast and headed back to our good old friend the Tokyo public subway system! Today we rode a grand total of 17 stops and changed lines once. But it was worth it. Because we got off our final stop and found ourselves at the foot of Tokyo’s Samurai Ninja Museum!
This is more than a history tour (thank goodness). For the first two hours of the 2 1/2 hour excursion, we took part in a samurai/ninja experience with swords, blow guns, and ninja stars included!
After dressing in traditional samurai/ninja attire, we began practicing with wooden blades in order to execute a traditional samurai attack. Apparently, before and after they fight, the samurai bow. (Take notes, CreeperKitty) I hope you enjoy watching
Then we lined up to practice throwing ninja stars and shooting blow darts out of guns. There were a bunch of targets which everyone could aim at. We started off with a few practice rounds, before heading into a competitive round. Guess which adventurer turned out to be the best at throwing bladed weapons? (Hint: His name starts with ‘toaster’).
Yep – Toaster_ham took home the win and got a free ninja star of his very own! And in the blow dart competition, CreeperKitty and Toaster_ham both made it to the final round.
Now, the moment CreeperKitty has been waiting for – a chance to beat Dad with a sponge-wrapped stick in front of the other adventurers!
The fight lasted about thirty seconds before CreeperKitty struck Dad the required two times and won without Dad even getting a single point.
But hey, at least he got some exercise.
After the experience we headed over to the adult adventurers’ favorite part of the experience – the history tour! In the first room, we learned a lot about feudal Japan and saw a variety of samurai swords. All were real antiques except one which was a replica of a famous sword, and the oldest sword, a wooden one with engravings along the side of it, was over 700 years old.
After Japan was divided, with one side supporting the emperor and one defending the shogun (the leader of the samurai), the shogun chose to give his power back to the emperor and it became illegal for samurai to walk to streets with their weapons, eventually being replaced with more modern forms of defense. This happened around 1871.
Samurai armor carried a lot of symbolism. The antlers on the helmet symbolizes bravery and the masks with the horsehair mustaches were meant to intrigue us. We had a fun time trying to guess which of the four samurai armor was the most valuable in terms of detail in unity. Did you guess the third one, the green one? With its levels of detail, it would be eye-catching AND be able to protect the samurai wearing it.
Afterwards we left the Samurai and Ninja Museum, excited by all the fun times ahead. Except now we were hungry, and the line for the nearby noodle bar seemed just too long. So instead we walked over to a meat restaurant. Something I wasn’t expecting about the place was that you got to cook your own meat.
We took up three tables but it was probably fine since we were the only people there. The restaurant closed at 1 pm but the managers kept it open just long enough to feed us. The lunch sure was interesting, and the meat filled us up until we could no longer go on. One of our temporary Adventurers, Budz wanted to try octopus but they were unfortunately sold out. Must be a popular treat.
After lunch, we went back to the gift shop to look around. We ended up buying three ninja stars just like Toaster_ham’s and winning two more for posting about the place on social media. (Sorry for any advance damage at home to the walls, ceiling, floor, etc.)
After that, we headed down to an interesting neighborhood nearby. And by ‘interesting’, I mean that a few of the street performers were really, REALLY exceeding expectations.
The first performer was a puppeteer who barely moved his body while moving his puppet. The second performer was a juggler who… well, you’ll see.
But soon enough, we had to pull away. So we crossed through a small market to find…
*Surprise!* Temples again!
I have no idea why the temple is here or what it was for (sorry) but I do think it’s funny that we went from Cyberpunk to Ancient Japan in just a few minutes.
Over near one of the temple buildings, however, was a little place where you could go to get your fortune read. Slip 100 yen** into one of the slots, then shake a box hard enough so one of ninety wooden sticks comes out of a little hole in the top. Read the number engraved on the wood and open the drawer that corresponds to it. Grab one of the many slips of paper inside, and boom! You have your fortune.
If you got a bad fortune, you had to ‘tie it up’ on what looked like a clothesline in order to dispel the bad luck. That happened to two of the four adventurers who picked out a fortune. Not me, though! My fortune was good – it told me someone sick would recover, travling would be good… I don’t remember, because I think I left it at the temple area.
We headed down another market to satisfy Mom’s occasional travel keychain excursion. I had some difficulty buying it since the woman who I bought it from didn’t look like she worked at the store (really confusing). Oh, but here’s another family photo in front of an ancient Asian landmark.
We headed back home on the subway not long after that. And I should also mention the playground CreeperKitty, Toaster_ham, Rose, Budz, and I have been playing at since we arrived in Tokyo. This time our dear old mom stopped by the playground so she could get a photo (and probably also see what we were doing)
We settled down for a quiet night at home. JUST KIDDING! If you thought our adventures today were over yet, you’re WRONG! Because we decided to try a common Japanese (and worldwide) way to have fun – visiting a karaoke bar. First, however, we decided to take a look at some Tokyo illumination (holiday lights), before heading to karaoke.
At first the entrance to the bar seemed confusing, since we couldn’t seem to find the way to our prebooked karaoke room. But all we had to do was turn the corner, and we were there. Then we celebrated by eating Japanese/Western food and singing along to popular hits (in some time period, not necessarily this one).
The overall experience was tiring for our voices and our minds, but fun nontheless. However, I still think the definition of karaoke is ‘people butchering other people’s favorite songs’. We headed back home exhausted and happy, ready for a brand new day!
And I’m done again! Hooray!
P.S: I may not be the only kid who decides to write the blog. Maybe someone will on Friday? Anyway, keep a look out!
Suaram —> Out
*Not fun, though
**Around 66 cents
5 Adventures Together 