Frozen Mammoth's Head exhibition Odaiba, Tokyo Japan

 

Trip to Shimbashi and Odaiba to see the Mammoth's Head
Up early as I had to leave the hostel by 9am Grrr. 

Went to Shimbashi station and wandered around for awhile. The food court at Shimbashi had lots of really cool food choices at reasonable prices. I only discovered it after I had breakfast at a Yoyoshiro? branch for 390 Yen. 

Tamon and Miyogo were going to meet me next to the big black steam engine in Shimbashi square and I still had time for a coffee. 

A black coffee in a nearby cafe was excellent but cost 500 Yen! Needless to say I was a bit surprised when I paid the bill.

We met and got a train to Odaiba. Shimbashi is a special stop allowing you to get the special Odaiba train which was recently built. It is fully automated, no driver, but I was a bit concerned by the fact that outside the window was a 360 degree tunnel of wire. If there was a power failure, we would be stuck in a sealed train, inside a metal cage, inside a concrete bridge. Not very easy to extricate people out of.

Because it was automatic everyone knew to get in and seated quickly as the doors were about to close. No matter whether you were half way in or out or running up the escalators, the train wasn't waiting. It always left on time.

The route to Odaiba cost 800 yen for an all day ticket (we could get off and on at any of the stations in the Odaiba area.) 

The route took us across a long bridge onto reclaimed land in the middle of Tokyo Harbour.

Our mission - to see the fabled Frozen Mammoth Head.

At the World Expo in Negoya the Mammoth's Head was a star attraction. 7 million people over several weeks lined up for at least 5 hours to view the head for 30 seconds! They paid a premium for the privilege. On temporary display in Tokyo for a few weeks the price was only 1500 Yen, less 100 yen discount as Miyogo had a discount flyer and we only queued for half an hour!

There were several sections to the mammoth display, explaining their disappearance and how mammoth tusks are now being used for hard ink stamps. (You could buy a piece of mammoth tusk from the souvenir shop for 2100 yen. But it was tiny and in the shape of a tooth.

The main cause of the extinction of mammoths is humans. We hunted them because that was a lot of meat that could sustain tribes for months. Ergo, Mammoths taste great! Mammoth steaks and other jokes about mammoths were exchanged.

The head was smaller than expected but that was probably due to the lack of ears or trunk. The rest of the mammoth skull and hair, apart from the eyes, remained very much in place.

It was great to see it! Within the exhibition there was a lifesize model, complete with the same type of hair. Unfortunately no filming was allowed.

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