Posted by Went to the Tokugawa Shogun exhibition today, 3rd August.
Very nice!
I sometimes get disappointed visiting these `special exhibitions`. I feel like I don`t learn much from them. The biggest problem is that photos aren`t allowed. I like to take photos of things so I can see them later. I also like to read up on things and make a blog post etc. Also, there is usually no English info for these. I can communicate quite well in Japanese but my reading ability isn`t at the level of these little info cards. Even if it was at that level, I would have to walk around taking notes which is a bore. There were a couple of Japanese taking a lot of notes I noticed.
I hired a set of headphones (600yen) with Japanese commentary which was ok but I could only understand about half of what was said.
On the positive side, it was absolute eye candy. Fantastic to see into the life of these Tokugawa lords. The yoroi was impressive, if not a little flamboyant and some of them would have been completely useless on the battlefield. I`m glad they were only used to show their status as rulers of Japan. LOL The differences in each nihonto was also very impressive. You cannot see the subtle differences in them from a photo so that was very nice to see.
If you have a chance to visit this exhibition I totally recommend it.
Japanese History and Culture 