Trip - Japan - Day 11 - Tokyo National Museum

Good morning Blog,

I had a good cool night because it started to rain! I was so tired that I didn't want to snap any more pictures and showed our Airbnb because... It was a small department, made just for tourists - small toilet, minimum size for kitchen, no living room, narrow passage to rooms and a room big enough for a king-size bed to be shared...

Anyway, this morning was raining to make my Tokyo stay a bit gloomy.

What were we planning to do in Tokyo today? I guess shopping?

Looking out my morning window, watching the rain made me feel a bit down...

Like... I started to trigger the hidden feeling... Where is my loved one to warm my heart and travel to explore the world together... 

I know I should not daydream already...

Time to unpack and re-arrange my stuff... I guess I should not bring so much clothing as there are washing machines and dryers somewhere nearby. I guess travelling during the not cold weather condition will make my luggage light.

Anyway, we are supposed to explore the street in the afternoon but we could spend some time in the morning for something,

I know there is a National Museum nearby, while others were not keen as they wanted to return to Shibuya to get some stuff.

To my surprise, ZX wanted to join in!

Thanks, ZX for accompanying me for this museum visit. I was surprised she knows how to travel alone to get to us. 👍

We arrived at the National Museum! I thought we were early but the crowds told us, we made the right choice, if any later timing, might have more visitors!

National Museum of Nature and Science

Wooow, I know I won't be able to see a live blue whale and won't understand the scale of this creature. Now this creature was displayed in front of me, just made me feel so small and also want to connect with such an amazing creature.

Wefie with a pretty lady. I was flattered. She could have joined the younger guys but she wanted to go for a special one.

Hopefully, this place won't bore her. Personally, I can stay in there for hours.

The train was one of the most important transportation for the expansion of human technology!

So our tickets were treated as general university students.

Hmm... 🤔 Confusing entrance and direction.

フーコーの振り子 Foucault's pendulum

Ooo, I have not seen this kind of swing before. It is used to demonstrate the earth's rotation.

It seemed like there was a show which was about to start since we were here, why don't we explore it?

Inside this giant dome, I should not be taking videos or pictures. Anyway, what's playing inside the dome? It was about what was happening inside Earth or beneath the Earth's crust. Japanese though but there is a headset for translation, to explain to us the movement and amazing things which we don't see.

All comprise atoms.

All things are made of atoms.

From the biggest planets to the smallest macro, are made of atoms with three basic subatomic particles: proton, neutron and electron.

Everything in this first hall, is to showcase the beginning of the Universe and now.

From the first element to complex compounds...

All had these three subatomic particles!

From the start of how Earth formed and how it cooled down.

This T-Rex is an awe to be looked at.

I won't go into detail but these are some displays they have to showcase how our planet Earth had grown. All the collections of its past tell a great story of its journey.

Speaking of living things on Earth...

All life forms started from the ocean.

One of the most diverse, amazing and mysterious living things on our Earth.

How I wish I can remember the names of these creatures... Sadly, they are familiar to me and I know how they move, live and look like, but cannot remember their names... (I can still pass out with common names but not actual)

Here are some information which allowed us to understand what these hall displays are displaying.

Now we were moving into a land life form.

Life is so diverse that it managed to balance different adaptions towards changes.

Like this mangrove forests, can change their tidal level within a day. The life forms have already adjusted towards it.

Different plants have different strategies to continue themselves.

Something new caught my attention, like this one; I had never seen this before. You may think it is a tall cabbage-pagodas and it is called Rheum nobile. You can check this out and discover its amazing living strategy!

All life is based on one plan -  DNA

Oooo... I was amazed by the level of detail of a cell.

One bird species has a different branch with a different look and colour species.

Insects are one great example - the same species but a different kind.

Crabs and lobsters

oooo! A big sperm whale! I love you can see it inside.

Sea kelp is one of the fast-growing sea plants which is so long!

Under the sperm whale is another display.

One of the special display which I have never seen before - Archaebacteria Kingdom.

Archaeans are known as the oldest living organisms on Earth. You can say that they are bacteria but they just resemble bacteria. I guess I will have to learn more about them. I love that they have a 3D model of them like those below. I tried to snap most of them because they are just too awesome. I will just put their names here so I can do some research myself. Honestly... I can't even make sense of their names.

Ceratium hirundinella

Stylonychia mytilus

Dileptus sp.

Carchesium polypinum

Cryptomonas tetrapyrenoidosa

Gephyrocapsa oceanica

Pinnularia major

Rhoicosphenia abbreviata

Stephanodiscus suzukii

Distephanus speculum var. octonarius

Chattonella antiqua

Nammochloropsis oculata

Synura petersenii

Phew... there are so many of them... ZX got rather restless. I guessed I need to be selective.

OOPS! BLURRY PICTURE!

Chlamydomonas sp.

Micrssterias denticulata

Volvox aureus

Pediastrum duplex

Mesostigma viride

I guessed I will speed up to explore this place because I took too long and bored ZX so I went to one of the highlights.

Their dinosaurs skeletons. In Singapore, I don't get to see so many dinosaurs' bones. I don't know the actual spelling of their names but I definitely know most of the dinosaurs.

Parasaurolophus - The duck-billed dinosaur

Side view of Parasaurolophus

Pachycephalosaurus - The bony head

ooooo! My favourite Triceratops!

Legendary T-rex! The skull is just beautiful.

Coexisted with T-Rex, its three devil-like horns on its armoured head are truly amazing.

Other triceratops' heads

Euoplocephalus - Armoured or tank dino

Stegosaurus - I didn't know they had never met T-Rex before. But this one is one of the most popular dinosaurs among the kids. These plated backs and spiky tails are truly awesome sights.

One of the largest dinosaurs - Argentinosaurus

I guessed I won't explore some more... As ZX was dying already.

Took a picture with ZX with a thermal photography 

Visiting Tokyo National Museum was an awesome experience but I just don't have enough time to explore everything... So somehow a bit regretful but at least I got to explore most of it. I hope I can visit here again.

Jeff