Marvel: Age of Heroes Exhibit at the Mori Art Museum

Roppongi’s Mori Art Museum is constantly displaying beautiful exhibits of brilliant artwork. I’ve gone a few times, not for traditional or famous sets, but for a Sailor Moon Artwork exhibition and a Ghibli display to promote their newest collaborative feature, the Red Turtle.  The other week I’d gone for my third visit, following my very geeky trend, to see their Marvel Comics display.

I started my tour through the exhibit by joining the Guardians of the Galaxy, whose second film I would see that evening after leaving Mori Tower. It was a very Marvel-filled day.

#marrymeChrisPratt

In the first room of the exhibition hall, guests are greeted by a five meter tall statue of Iron Man against the scenic bird’s eye view of Tokyo. Beyond that, there was a brief timeline of the history of Marvel comics with some cool cover art from iconic editions.

Following this, most of the exhibition prohibited photography, as many museums do. There were costumes from recent Marvel blockbusters (I saw something Tom Hiddleston WORE! On his BODY!), concept art for the movies, and a lot of original art, covers and excerpts from comics old and new. But the best thing by far in the entire building was this picture from the Avengers 2 storyboard, when the heroes discover Hawkeye has been hiding a wife and kids from them for years.

Pretty much my reaction at that moment too.

There were lots of bright and colourful displays for viewers to interact with as well, and the set up was wonderfully cartoony and vivid.

LOOK MA IT’S THOR!

And last but not least, once again the Mori Art Museum’s affiliate cafe had themed food and decoration to match the exhibit. Although not quite as fun as the pink Sailor Moon burger, they had a very cool MIGHTY THOR BURGER which was easily the best thing on the menu.

Bright red bun, yummy pork, and a teeny tiny hammer smashing Nordic justice into the top.

Even after eating the hammer, we couldn’t figure out what it was made of. I guess… the fruits of the Gods…?

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A fun closing note for those in Japan: When we left to go see Guardians 2 at Toho Cinema, we learned that on the 1st and 14th of every month, movies are half price! It was a wonderful surprise!

Izu Saboten Park

The highlight of my recent trip to Izu was a visit to Izu Saboten Park. Part zoo, part cactus garden, and with a vague Japanese interpretation of a Mexican theme, I was enormously excited to see this option listed on tourists sites.

I was even more excited about this than my regular zoos or gardens, however. The very night before our trip, I saw a post on Facebook about this very zoo. Pure coincidence and luck that the post appeared right before I went to that exact part of Japan. The post informed me that Izu Shaboten Park is, in fact, home to a capybara onsen.

Let me repeat: A CAPYBARA ONSEN!

We could see capybara’s frolicking on their pool on a nice sunny day! And the absolute best part was that the onsen, and entire capybara enclosure, was open to the public!

The happiest Katherine

The hungriest capy

The most fabulous nose

Heaven

Getting up close and personal with the capybaras was amazing. I love interacting with animals, I have since I was a child, and anywhere that let’s me touch a critter gets extra points in my book.

Capybaras weren’t the only thing visitors could get close to. The zoo had a “bird paradise” enclosure that guests could walk through while birds of all shapes and sizes strutted about. A few intimidating ones blocked paths. One bird taking off hit my head with it’s wing.

Another classic staple of zoos in Japan that I’ve seen so far is the guinea pig petting zoo. I’m pleased to report that Izu Shaboten delivered.

A more unique feature was the gift shop, which included a pick-your-own cactus garden. Guests can choose from a selection of cacti and containers or pots, that the employees will arrange for you.

There were a few more animal attractions and some obscenely hot greenhouses filled with beautiful plants. Here are a couple more pictures of some of the sights- not as many as I could have taken, I now realize remorsefully, but my hands were busy petting critters.

I had a tremendous time at the zoo, it’s grounds were beautiful and all the animals seemed happy and healthy. I’d absolutely recommend it to anyone passing through the area!

Be careful- They can smell fear.

Golden Week Trip to Izu

The Golden Week holiday just passed last week. A lucky spring break for Japan, this week transitioning April to May has four national holidays in it. Many schools and workplaces will give the entire week off as a paid vacation, and many Japanese people use this time to travel abroad or go visit their hometowns, leaving Tokyo fairly barren.

Last year I spent most of the holiday in a quiet Tokyo, exploring various areas and events. This year, I did the same. I spent a very relaxing week relaxing home and catching up with friends. But giving up the entirety of the travel opportunity seemed like a waste, so a last minute trip was planned.

After searching google for easy trips from Tokyo, we booked an overnight trip to Izu. Izu is a city about two hours south by bullet train, and is esteemed for coastal views and onsen resorts. We went with no itinerary at all, booked a random hotel, and headed out from Tokyo to Atami station.

Atami was our bullet train stop, not our final destination, but we went out to look around briefly. It reminded me a whole lot of Niagara Falls- colourful but washed out buildings, fun and inviting but with an odd fake-ness about it, and also a waterfront.

From there we took the local train to Ito, where our hotel was booked. The train was really, really cool, and designed so that passengers could look out as the train drove along the coast.

Ito itself was a very cute and appealing area, filled with pedestrian walkways and little shops. Our hotel was beautiful, included an onsen, and even gave us an adorable, English, hand drawn map of the area around the station with various attractions highlighted.

I’ve since kept the map for decoration.

We used the map to find delicious ice cream that evening, and also were led to Nagisa Park, which unexpectedly turned out to be a sculpture park with gorgeous pieces.

As the sun set we went out to find dinner, but although the map showed us several promising options, because it was a holiday most of them were shut. In the end we found a very small noodle shop staffed by two old ladies and I ate a ridiculous amount of food.

It was SO GOOD

That evening we used google yet again to find things to do in the area, and we set out bright and early in the morning for an eventful day. First stop: a volcano!

Not an active one, though. Mount Omuro is a very round and very extinct volcano near the shore. It took a train ride and a chair lift to climb, and we were rewarded with a beautiful view at the top.

Can you see Mount Fuji?

I was also indulged and taken to a teddy bear themed cafe. This was a little bit out in the middle of nowhere by bus, but in a gloriously green, lush, and elegant area. Walking around the hilled streets to find the cafe (which was attached to a teddy bear museum) was very reminiscent of being in a Miyazaki film.

As Japan so often is

Now I’ve skipped over the majority of the day, which was spent at a very incredible zoo. But that’s going to have to be it’s own post. More on that adventure soon!

Wisteria at Kameido Tenjin Shrine

Happy Golden Week to all! You might remember that among my Golden Week holiday adventures last year, I went to check out a wisteria festival at a Tokyo shrine. Unfortunately, I had gone just slightly past prime time and most of the flowers were faded or missed completely.

This year I made sure to go back earlier in May to see the wisteria in full bloom. The festival was much, much busier this time around but the flowers were magnificent. So here are a bunch of pictures of pretty purple flowers!

Literal swarms of people on the beautiful sunny day.

Got my soft serve, of course! (Classic strawberry because melon was sold out)

Behind the scenes glimpse of yours truly