We Love Archaeology!

Saturday, March 29
Chris and I are big museum geeks, and for Saturday’s adventure, we checked out the relatively new 兵庫県立考古博物館 (Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Archaeology). The facilities, which include classrooms, a lecture hall, and a small research library, are beautiful and encourage active participation in learning. I had fun with the many costume displays, dressing up as a rural priestess, complete with headdress. The museum was filled with children, who could participate in a dig, make pencil rubbings of decorative roof carvings famous to Hyogo artisans, and play history-related board games. The small café sells Fugetsu-do cakes, but Chris and I passed on snacks and bought a pair of tea cups shaped like the haniwa figures we love so much.

For the ladies in Akashi.
(The "nazo" concerns an unusual bone found on the skeletons of Akashi peoples that puzzled archaeologists for years.)

A dramatic diorama. Poor elephant.

Chris, demonstrating what a carnivore he is.

Grouchy.

From the museum in Harima-cho, we headed east to Akashi, where we took in the park. The sakura were blooming only in some areas, but Chris had wanted to go primarily for the castle.

In the evening, we went to Okubo, where we met Dylan and Heather for long talks over Chinese food and Starbucks.

Sunday, March 30
Thanks to the bad weather, it was housecleaning day. For lunch I made grilled chicken, mashed potatoes, and garlic (clearly one of my favorite flavors) broccoli. We went out for dinner at Saizeriya.