Secret Town Hidden in Tokyo Park

Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum:
A Secret Town Hidden in a Tokyo Park

It's hard to believe something like this is as unknown as it is!

Somewhere in the heart of Koganei park is buried a 200 year old neighborhood. What's more, hardly anyone here seems to know about it.

The Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural, or tatemonoen hereafter (the Japanese name), is a massive preservation model neighborhood surrounded by an even more massive recreational park in the western suburbs of Tokyo. It's further cleverly obscured by things like hedges and fields so effectively that among the numerous Tokyoites I know, barely a handful have ever even heard of it.

What is it?

In order to preserve Tokyo's cultural heritage, with particular awareness of the natural disasters that often threaten Japan's buildings, they have amassed a collection of historical homes, buildings, restorations and model structures dating all the way back to the Edo period.

One of the coolest things is that you can walk into and explore all these buildings.
The smells. The textures. The sound of old floorboards (and sod) under foot. It's a full-sensory trip back in time. We have one like this back in Dallas, but not this impressive. I first discovered it chaperoning my son's school field trip there years ago.

The buildings are exquisitely maintained and are also well furnished. Old dial phones, vintage furniture, working hand-pumps. For younger visitors it's like visiting another planet.

Old house with sod floor and working cooking pit

Seen here is an old thatched-roof house with a sod floor and a working cooking pit.
When my son's class visited, one of the volunteers, an elderly grandmother in period costume was tending the pit and telling stories to anyone who'd listen. The half of the class who understood Japanese were immediately gathered around the fire, mesmerized. But there are plenty of staff and volunteers who speak English, and other languages.

coffee house

For history buffs, every building is well-notated with bilingual plaques explaining whose home it was and why it's significant. Pictured above is one of the bigger homes with gorgeous interiors and a nice coffee shop with crepes and cakes.

Restored bathhouse

Go early and plan on making a day of it. Every time we go, we run out of time. In addition to the buildings, they have two museum halls where they hold periodic exhibitions like the current Ghibli exhibit that runs till the end of 2014. This alone is worth going for. For an additional fee you can see two sizable exhibits of Ghibli studio's architectural art and models. Ghibli, if the name doesn't ring a bell, is the studio that created Hayao Miyazaki's animated films like Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro. Google it. Thought the artwork, sketches, designs and animation cells are only notated in Japanese they're still stunning on their own. They show us just how much work went into these amazing films. And moreover, they have a number of large-scale models of some of the more popular Ghibli locations, like a 3 meter tall, highly detailed model of the Aburaya bathhouse from Spirited Away.

They also have late hours for one weekend in November where you can see the buildings lit up at night. We're planning on taking that in this year. 

town square

There's also a park (yes, a park in a park...in a park--Ooo, meta!) with stilts and old-time toys that most post-Nintendo kids have never seen before. Again, volunteers on hand to help.
"This is how your grandparents (or your mom and I...depending on when you were born)."
Just looking at these pictures, you can see why Hayao Miyazaki often visited here while he was working on Spirited Away.

My advice: bring a picnic/bento; walk around for a few hours (let the kids run wild), have lunch, then carry on. Running around someone else's house was as much a thrill for me as it is for my own son and his friends. 

Toddlers, teens, adults, seniors...this one's good for all ages. And it's reasonable; 400 yen for regular admission and all discounts for kids and seniors.

Warning: take public transportation if possible. While the tatemonoen itself is amazingly uncrowded, Koganei park where it resides is a very popular park and parking is very something you're not likely to find. There isn't much coin parking anywhere near, either. So bite the bullet and take the bus from either Musashi-Koganei station (chuo line) or Hana-Koganei station (Seibu Shinjuku line). 

The park is open from 9:30 to 4:30 (5:30 April to September), so get there as early as you can. Those seven hours will fly by. 

Their English site will tell you how to get there and anything else you might need to know.

They have special events listed here.
And this is a map of the park.

How something like this could be so unknown is just baffling.

English site

Calendar of Events

Map

Wikipedia notes

Japanese site

Popcorn War in Tokyo

It's the kind of weird boutiquery you'd expect from Japan, but this time it's coming from the States.
Not one but TWO gourmet popcorn shops in Tokyo, a ten minute walk from each other at that.
One is Garret's and the other is KuKuRuZa.

Garret's is better.
KuKuRuZa is faster.
This is because Garret's has cues of Space-Mountain-proportions that can take an hour or more, and KuKuRuZa has little-to-no cues.

The pride of Chicago, Garret's menu is pretty simple. They have three basic flavors. Cheese, butter, and caramel. Beyond that, you can get variations of the caramel with cashews, almonds, macadamia nuts, or pecans. You can also get what they call their Chicago mix: cheese and caramel. It's alot better than it sounds. I'm jonesing just thinking about it. #%&@! My mouth is watering! Yes, the Chicago Mix and all their other popcorn is really that good. The popcorn itself is stunningly crispy, and stays that way for several days. I'm not sure how they do it. I've never had popcorn even close to this good, every in my life. Just take my word for it, it's actually worth the wait. And go ahead and buy several different flavors. They'll keep alot longer than you'd think. We're nuts about it, and all of our friends, family and customers say the same.

Seattle's KuKuRuZa has twice as many flavors, but it's more popcorn rolled in powders so the flavors don't, sorry, pop like Garret's do. And the popcorn is a bit rubbery and tough; the texture is not quite as good as the best movie popcorn I've had. There were also too many un-popped kernels: eat carefully. What's more, the staff were markedly unenthusiastic, by Japanese standards. But it's not commensurately cheaper--the prices between KuKuRuZa and Garret's are about the same. My family thought they liked it at the time, but haven't given it a second thought since. One good thing about KuKuRuZa is their resealable bags.

Either brand makes for a great gift/omiyage. The bags and tins are pretty and decorative.

So I'd have to recommend Garret's well above KuKuRuZa, unless you're either in a big hurry to grab a flashy gift, or you're bored with Garret's flavors and want to try some of the more exotic flavors of KuKuRuZa like Jalapeno or Cinnamon Bun.

KuKuRuZa is alongside of Omotesando Hills, near Ben & Jerry's.
http://www.kukuruza.jp/

Garret's is across the street from Harajuku station near Shibuya. It's easy enough to find. Exit the station, cross the street, turn right, and go towards the intersection. It's next to Jangara Ramen, at the base of the foot bridge. Just look for a long line of people. They also have a place in Chiba, but I haven't been there, yet.
http://www.garrettpopcorn.com/japan-locations/

Now I'm wondering if Tokyo can support two gourmet popcorneries, or if war will break out. A battle for pop-ularity? I'd love to see them having at it with popcorn guns and carpet-popcorning. Troops commanded by their...kernels? (sorry, that was too corny). But I think Garret's would win it just on enthusiasm alone. Their staff seems to know they have a great product and they serve it with real pride.

Honorable mention: Tokyo Disneyland's Curry Popcorn.