Trip to Tottori - Part 3

This is the last post on our little trip to Tottori, I promise! Once again, lots of photos...

 

So, after a morning at the Warabekan Toy Museum followed by a yummy lunch, we headed to the Prefectural Museum. As we parked the car, K spotted this and wanted to explore...

 

 

This building, called Jinpukaku, was built in 1907 to house the then Crown Prince on a visit to Tottori. It was the first building in the area to be electrified. By Japanese standards it's an old building, and its European design makes it a rarity around here. I visited it before, years ago, but it was nice to have a wander around again.

 

It stands at the foot of the castle hill; looking out of the window here you can see pretty much all that remains of Tottori castle now...



Later we walked over to the museum. Downstairs they have the permanent exhibition, mainly showing natural history exhibits related to the area. T liked the display of stuffed animals (and I don't mean teddy bears) and K was impressed by the giant squid.

The second floor houses temporary exhibitions. At the moment, the main temporary exhibition is on fungus... First we saw various mushrooms and toadstools encased in perspex blocks, but the second room was much more fun. The boys loved playing with these beautifully-made foam fungi, even if 'playing with' mainly meant 'knocking over'...

Every time I glance at this picture I think there's a girl in a lacy dress standing in front of K. There isn't. It's a toadstool.

They also had one of those Put Your Hand In The Box And Identify What You Feel things, with pictures offering you a choice of 4 mushrooms for each box. I always feel a bit nervous putting my hand in those things, half-expecting some kind of trick, and was relieved to discover a dried specimen in the first box. Same again in the second, and the third, which contained dried tree ears, a common cooking ingredient. I think both feet may have left the floor though when I put my hand in the 4th box and found reconstituted dried tree ears, all wet and slimy. I got all 4 right though :-)

Now, what do you think K is doing here? Oh, it's nothing to do with fungus by the way.

Well, obviously, he's re-enacting this painting:

Yes, the second temporary exhibition was a collection of works of art and props to re-create them! T was rather taken by this odd-looking turtle...

...based on this (rather hard to see) scroll...

...which led to this!

By now it was time to be heading home, but not before a quick (OK, not very quick at all actually) stop at the one shop which might tempt people from out of town - Toys R Us. And of course we couldn't leave empty-handed. As well as a couple of little things for the little ones (and a bag of mini Toblerones for the big ones), we bought a cheap and cheerful play kitchen. By the time we got home that night it was 10 o'clock and the boys were fast asleep, but the next morning we set it up and it's been a popular choice with both of them ever since.