Chasing Dinosaurs

Have you heard of the word Natsubate? It's a compound of the word for summer "natsu," and "bateru," meaning malaise. Natsubate is used to describe the condition of many people during the summer months: poor appetite, lack of sleep, and low energy. It is summer malaise. Our most obvious strategy has been to find fun things to do indoors during the hottest hours. Incidentally, E has been interested in dinosaurs. We actually have been reading the same book about dinosaurs every night for the past week. This gave me the idea of looking into a place where we could visit some "real" dinosaurs. That place turned out to be the National Museum of Nature and Science. 

One of the things I miss most about Chicago is Museum Campus, and the Field Museum was among my favorites. We had gone a couple of times with E, but she was still a bit young for most of the exhibits and in any case, she has no memory of it. I don't know what took me so long to visit the National Museum of Nature and Science in Ueno, Tokyo. Perhaps I was too busy mulling over what was lost that I failed to consider the new experiences that were available. 

Situated in the Ueno neighborhood and overshadowed by the Ueno Zoo, this museum doesn't get nearly as crowded as the zoo. Reservations are required, which is nice overall, as it guarantees your entry at a specific time while also limiting the number of visitors inside. The museum has two wings: the Japanese wing with the more Japan-specific exhibits and the more general and newer Global wing. The exhibits have loads of interactive features. I found them to be great for all ages, even M, who was particularly fixated by the Animals of the Earth exhibit. 

Before Covid-19, this Compass section used to be an interactive play space for young kids. Still nice for kids, but unfortunately not as interactive.  

There is an impressive collection of dinosaurs, which are scattered throughout the museum rather than concentrated in a single exhibit. 

There is both a restaurant and a cafe at the museum, but they are small so the lines can get quite long. Because I had read this beforehand, we decided to prepare some food and bring it with us. Of course, we then didn't have time to "prepare food" amidst the morning hustle and bustle. Conveniently, Ueno station, where the museum is located, has a lot of bento, snack, and takeaway options, so we were able to buy lunch there before arriving at the museum. 

The museum cafe. The menu looked pretty good, and the prices were reasonable. Just beware of the lines at peak lunch hour. 

Some of the food we bought at the station - tonkatsu sandwich, yakitori skewers - and, not pictured - onigiri, sandwiches, and yogurt.

The Evolution of Life exhibits were beautifully designed. While my kids appreciated the design and specific interactive components, like short videos, they will get more of it when they are a bit older. 

The Japan Wing is located an old classist building designed as Important Cultural Property by the Japanese government. It was built as the main building of the museum in 1931 until 2015, when the Global Wing opened. 

We saw a few exhibits on the geological history of the Japanese islands. There was also an exhibit on the evolution of the Japanese people, including a display of the taxidermied Hachiko, the Akita dog famous for waiting at Shibuya station for its owner, even after his owner's death. 

I had been worried that the exhibits would be too advanced for E and M, but we all had a great time. Although the kids didn't grasp the content in the same way as adults do, they were able to enjoy it in their own way, as kids do. We arrived around 9 am and left at 1:30 pm, because that was as long as their attention spans could handle. But there was still a lot left to see. It is a place they can grow into, and we are excited about returning. 

6 Ways to Fall off a Bicycle

    For the last year and a half, cycling has been my main mode of transportation. I ride a battery operated, electric assist bicycle with two child seats. My husband calls it the SUV of bicycles. I suppose it is, but the fact is, it is more effective and satisfying than any gas-fueled vehicle could be. You can read about it here and here. 

    However, like any manner of transportation, there is the risk of accidents. This is why we wear helmets, though luckily none of our mishaps have been serious. Let me take you through all the ways I have fallen off my bicycle...and other possible ways to fall. I have to point out that all of my accidents were the result of carelessness, and in the case of cycling after a snowstorm, a certain degree of recklessness. But I suppose many accidents are a result of those things. Perhaps my mistakes can be a useful guide of what not to do if you ever find yourself joining the legions of cyclists in the streets of Tokyo. 

1. Underestimating the height of a curb. 

    The flow of traffic among pedestrians, vehicles, and cyclists is fluid, though surprisingly not chaotic. I often weave on and off sidewalks, like when a car is blocking the bicycle path. Although there are many driveways and other parts of the sidewalk where the curb is lowered, the curb can still have a pretty high edge for a bicycle. My first fall was on such an edge. Even though I had ridden over and off many without incident, I got careless. My front tire couldn't clear the curb, and I lost my balance and fell. My husband has also fallen like this. In fact, this is one of the most common ways to fall. The best way to avoid this is to approach the curb as close to a 90 degree angle as possible and proceed slowly. 

2. Placing the kickstand on an uneven surface while your child climbs onto the seat herself. 

    This is obvious to most people. It might have been obvious to me if I had slowed down to notice. Japan is mountainous, and Tokyo is hilly. Bicycles here are equipped to handle the terrain with their electric assist and heavy duty kickstands. On this fateful afternoon, I had parked my bicycle on an uneven patch so that the bicycle was slightly slanting. This alone might have been ok, but my daughter also climbed onto her seat, putting additional weight on an already slanted side. 

    I didn't usually allow her to climb onto the seat by herself, but since this incident, we now have a hard rule against solo climbing. While this was not technically a fall, it was dangerous because the heavy bicycle fell on my daughter. Luckily, she only scraped her knee a bit, but it could have been worse. 

3. Failure to fully engage kickstand. 

    On Japanese bicycles, there is a spring lock that usually engages when the kickstand goes down. This secures the bicycle, even on a slope. Sometimes the lock doesn't engage by itself, so you have to do it manually. As with #2, this doesn't constitute a risk of falling off so much as getting hurt in general. 

    I once parked on the downward slope of a hill. Trusting that the lock would spring into place automatically, I hadn't bothered to double check. E walked in front of my parked bicycle to talk to someone parked in front of us. At this same moment, a pedestrian walked past and lightly touched my bicycle. Although the contact was light, on a downward slope it was enough to disengage the kickstand and make the bicycle fall forward. Since I was standing right there, I was able to catch most of its weight, and the damage was minimal. E, my loyal passenger, has suffered the most at the hands of my slow learning curve. 

4. Cycling after snow. 

    Tokyo snow appears a few times a winter, though it is not common. When it does fall, it is rarely enough to accumulate. For this reason, few city vehicles have snow tires. The city is also not equipped to handle snow accumulation. 

    This past winter, it snowed enough for a few inches to accumulate. The temperature then remained low in the following days. What would have been cleared in a northern city like Chicago stayed on the ground for days here, turning into ice. I naively set out on my bike two days after the snow, since most of it had cleared. Of course, I encountered a patch of road still frozen solid with a layer of translucent ice - so much so that you wouldn't see the ice unless you looked closely. Luckily, I was going at a snail's pace, so there were no injuries, just a shock to the nerves. My lesson here was don't test the Tokyo roads after snowfall. 

5. Slipping on tiled sidewalks. 

    Most parts of Tokyo are paved with cement, but some are tiled. For instance, the walkway bordering Yoyogi Park has a tiled section, which turned out to be really slippery when wet. I had been warned about slipping on wet manhole covers but had not considered wet sidewalks. 

    This took me off guard a few days ago. It had been raining heavily in the morning, and I had passed through with E in the backseat without a problem. In the afternoon, the rain stopped but the ground was still wet. As I was passing through, there were a few pigeons on the path. I turned my wheel just slightly to avoid them. As soon as I did that, I felt the tire slip from under me, and before I knew it, we were down. Again, we were not going fast. E was secured in her seat with her helmet on, and I just bruised my leg a bit. 

    When I examined this tiled pavement more closely, I noticed that it was as slippery as wet bath tiles. My confidence suffered more than anything. Before this, I had ridden in rain and on different roads. Moreover, plenty of cyclists ride in the rain and through this area without falling. But now that I have experienced falling, I ride with some fear. While the fear will subside in a few days, the lesson will remain: be aware of your riding surface! 

6. Maneuvering the bicycle with both kids on it. 

    One of the first mistakes I made after our mamachari purchase was trying to maneuver out of a parking space with both kids already on the bicycle. As commuter bicycles, mamacharis have heavy frames with a heavy battery to boot. Then there are the basket, the kids seats, and the kids themselves. It is difficult to overestimate the weight of a fully loaded mamachari. 

    I had loaded the kids first and then tried to back out of my space walking alongside the bicycle. I didn't make it very far. The weight makes it very difficult to maneuver the bicycle like this. It wobbled, I couldn't save it from falling sideways. Rookie mistake. Always load your kids after you have maneuvered out of a tight space. 

Conveyor Belt Sushi

    Last weekend, we had conveyor belt sushi, known as kaiten sushi. While the quality of kaiten sushi is generally lower than that of a traditional sushi bar, it is fun for kids and serves a broader array of non-sushi items, like noodles, fried chicken, and rice bowls among other things. 

    We went to a place called Kura Sushi in Harajuku (they have many locations, including ones outside Japan). The Harajuku location is known for its fun atmosphere and extensive dessert menu. The Harajuku area is known for its over the top dessert crepes, which you can order at Kura. They also have Blue Seal ice cream, an Okinawan brand that boasts distinctive flavors, like Okinawan Salt Cookies, Royal Milk Tea, and Brown Sugar Cane (Okinawa is famous for its brown sugar canes). I ordered the Okinawan Sweet Potato with its distinctive purple color. It's one of my favorite flavors, and the texture is nice and fluffly, almost like gelato. 

    Other dishes we enjoyed were onion rings (freshly fried) and grilled fish, but to be honest, the quality of the food is not the focal point here. Although you could undoubtedly find better sushi in Tokyo, this was nevertheless a good experience. Kura is one of those places where you have to embrace the entire environment. 

    We went with E's cousins, who range from age 5 to 13 and are here in Tokyo for the summer. 

    We ordered via iPad, which is typical of kaiten sushi these days. Since Covid-19 began, many restaurants place plastic models of food on their conveyor belts instead of the real thing. You order by iPad. Kura does a hybrid. There are two conveyor belts: a top one and a bottom one. The bottom one carries a variety of dishes. You can look and take whatever you like. Or you could order via iPad. The order then arrives on the top belt, zooming to your table at super speed. 

    After we ate, the empty plates went into a slot at the end of each table. The slot automatically counted and calculated our bill based on these plates. We let M do this, and she loved doing it. We received "points," for each plate that went in, and after a certain number of points, we got to play a game on the iPad. The game is really a lottery where you can win a small capsule toy. We won one toy after thirty something dishes, so don't get your hopes up. 

The booth seating gives you relative privacy - another reason this place was good for families. 

    

    Kura Sushi was a hit with my kids and their cousins. As with so many things, the adults are happy when the kids are happy (to a degree). It wasn't a bad way to spend a hot summer night. Gochisousamadeshita!