Minpaku; National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka field trip

Friday I and two other CMU students went with a group of junior high school students to Minpaku, or National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka for a field trip. 

Large display in the Oceana section.

We were on our own each on a different bus and told to speak English with the students, but personally it was hard to just communicate in English with them so I cheated and spoke a mixture a lot.

After the bus ride where I was asked all sorts of questions about my favorite music, and whether I had a boyfriend or not, we made it to the museum. 

The grounds of Minpaku are gorgeous and show a great deal of detail, and was especially inviting for a museum.

Replica of early Australian rock paintings.

I went around the museum looking at the various world areas such as Oceana, Southeast Asia, Europe... as shown in the websites video.

Display of Native American foods.

After looking at and interacting with the many intricate, numerous, highly informative and interesting artifacts, displays and such we all had lunch in the park area together. 

One of my favorite displays. This one about Mexico's skull culture.

The park, just like the museum was huge. I just couldn't believe how large the museum was and how much it had packed inside.

 I would love to go back again and just spend as much time as I like wandering around and I love that they allowed photography in nearly every location inside.

Entrance to the European section.

This was from floor to the ceiling.

It was amazing to be able to have access to some of Japan's Anthropological side.

 In their record collection.

Display of Guitars near the Woodstock section.

The Woodstock area in the music area.

One of the many masks on display.

In the India Exhibit.

From the India exhibit.

In the park we played dodgeball, volleyball, soccer, jump-rope and frisbee while we walked around enjoying the beautiful fall weather and the changed colors on the trees.

In the India exhibit area.

From the India Exhibit.

In my group thethe volley ball was either lost in the river or in the top of a tree three times until a student climbed up the tree and got it out, and from the river area they had to wait for the ball to get on the other side to resume playing again.

But it was great fun and I was happy to get out and have fun doing something so free.  

Students finishing their field trip notes in the park.

I was also happy to see they had much more freedom on their school trip than the international students at my University had on our field trip in some ways (it was still fun but I wanted that freedom that the junior high school students had).

A view of the river area in the park.

A view from the top.

After we were done playing in the park we left to walk through the woods and then to a wooden tower structure where you could see for a long ways.

This one was NOT the large tower, this one is a baby in comparison.

This one was the big one.

An example of the gorgeous fall colors in Osaka.

After everyone had had a chance to climb up and get a view we returned to the bus area thanked the students and teachers for having us and then chose a bus to ride back with the students.

On the walk back to the bus area.