Jomon Pottery .....

I went to the Tokyo National Museum specifically to see the above piece of ancient pottery from the Jomon Period (loosely between 12,000 - 300BC) - it is considered to be the oldest type of pottery in Japan. Jomon is translated as 'rope patterned' referring to the ropes being imprinted into the wet clay before being fired The name Jōmon itself means “rope-patterned”. This refers to the impressions on the surface of the pottery which were created by pressing rope into the clay before it was heated or fired. This is an earthenware flame pot...(photo from internet).

However, after I located the Jomon period area, where other examples of Jomon pottery were, I couldn't see this earthenware Flame pot. So, after many diagrams on paper, sign language and then finding someone with limited English, I discovered that, yes, I was right, the Museum had this piece, but it was not on display at the moment. I felt so disappointed I almost cried, as that was the end of the story....

Beside the National Museum of Nature and Science there was this rocket launcher - I considered it to be very basic and pedestrian for such a destructive weapon, and wondered if this was salvaged from the desert or North Korean rubbish dump.

I jumped on the train again to the next station to see the Yanaka Ginza district which is more like it all used to be .... this was fun too. It reminded me of living in Newtown, Sydney before the yuppies moved in.

My dream shop

A fishmonger

Temples are everywhere