Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
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neighboring city of Kawasaki, 30 minutes by express train from Shinjuku, it features
around 20 traditional houses and other historic buildings, in a lovely setting along
wooded hillsides. Most buildings are heavy-beamed thatched houses (the oldest are 300
years old), but there are also warehouses, a samurai's residential gate, a water wheel, and
a Kabuki stage from a small fishing village, all originally from other parts of Honshu and
reconstructed here. An English-language pamphlet and numerous signs explain each of
the buildings, open to the public, so you can wander in and inspect the various rooms,
gaining insight into rural Japanese life in centuries past. Plan on spending a half-day here,
including round-trip transportation.
7-1-1 Masugata, Tama-ku, Kawasaki.
&
044/922-2181.
Admission ¥500 adults, ¥300 high-school and
college students and seniors, free for children. Tues-Sun 9:30am-5pm (to 4:30pm Nov-Feb). From Shin-
juku Station, take the express Odakyu Line 30 min. to Mukogaoka Yuen Station, from which it's a 15-min.
walk.
Panasonic Center
Of the many company showrooms around town, this
one, near Odaiba, is one of the best. Not only does it display Panasonic's newest prod-
ucts, from HD camcorders to the world's largest plasma TV, but it also addresses envi-
ronmental issues (from recycling to energy conservation) and how products are evolving
to assist Japan's elderly and people with disabilities. You can play the latest Nintendo
games, learn about self-cleaning air-conditioners, and see for yourself why tilted drums
in washing machines are easier to access. Although there's plenty to see for free, visitors
with kids or time on their hands might also want to take in RiSuPia, a hands-on science
and mathematics museum where you can play air hockey hitting only prime numbers;
learn about probability with the roll of a dice; “paint” a picture using only red, green, and
blue; and arrange pillows to complete an abstract puzzle. But coolest of all is the Eco &
Ud House, a house of the future designed for four people (parents, child, and grand-
mother) and incorporating all the latest smart and energy-efficient products, from top
shelves in the kitchen that can be pulled out and lowered, to a plasma TV that doubles
as a home system, monitoring everything from the house's energy consumption to the
child as she walks to school. One-hour free tours of the house (make reservations 1
month in advance) allow you to see or test the function of everything—you can even lie
down in the sleep-inducing bedroom if you wish.
2-5-18 Ariake, Koto-ku.
&
03/3599-2600.
Free admission to Panasonic Center; RiSuPia ¥500 adults,
¥300 high-school students, free for children. Tues-Sun 10am-6pm. Station: Kokusai-tenjijo, on the Rinkai
Line; or Ariake, on the Yurikamome Line (3 min. from either).
Shitamachi Museum (Shitamachi Fuzoku Shiryokan)
Shitamachi
means
“downtown” and refers to the area of Tokyo in which commoners used to live, mainly
around Ueno and Asakusa. Today there's very little left of old downtown Tokyo, and with
that in mind, the Shitamachi Museum seeks to preserve for future generations a way of
life that was virtually wiped out by the great earthquake of 1923 and World War II.
Shops are set up as they may have looked back then, including a merchant's shop and a
candy shop, as well as one of the shitamachi tenements common at the turn of the 20th
century. These tenements—long, narrow buildings with one roof over a series of dwelling
units separated by thin wooden walls—were the homes of the poorer people. The tene-
ments' narrow back alleyways served as communal living rooms. The museum also dis-
plays some personal effects of these residents, including utensils, toys, costumes, and
tools, most of which you can pick up and examine more closely. Individuals, many living
in shitamachi, donated all the museum's holdings. This museum is small and is recom-
mended only if you don't have time to see the better Edo-Tokyo Museum (see earlier).
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