Meguro Parasitological Museum 目黒寄生虫館

Bicycle: 22.7 km

Route: Shinbashi - Meguro - Shinagawa - Shinbashi

Total riding time: 1:53 h 

Total ascent:  184 m 

Average speed: 12.1 km/h

Weather: Humid then rain, quite cold,  9 C

After the relatively mild temperatures the previous two days, the plan for today was to make a long ride out to Lake Sayama... same plan as back in October, which also failed and ended with rain... albeit less rain than today. 

Today it failed from the very beginning, as I was totally unable to get out of bed in the morning (jetlag!) and finally managed to get up only around noon... But well, with the weather not being so nice anyway, not a big problem. So I reconsidered my plan for today, and remembered a question from a traveller on the forum on japan-guide asking about her/his plan for Tokyo, which included among the several attractions to visit the Parasitological Museum. I had never heard about it, but it definitely sounded intriguing. It's a small (but well stocked with parasites) museum in Meguro.

I was surprised to see that it actually attracts quite a crowd. Many families with children, some adult couples and a few foreigners as well.

Among the many parasites, there was also an old acquaintance: Schistosoma mansoni... the parasite of my university thesis. 

There were preserved parasites...

... as well as wax models of parasites (those were quite huge. Maybe 1:100 or so) and are now actually historical artifacts:

And the most curious of all where these parasites in lace by a local lace-artist:

A flee in the left corner, a part of an 8 m long intestinal worm and a couple of parasites on the right, all in lace

The museum was also very well described in English. Not on the boards themselves, but there were QR codes on each of them, where one could read the translations of the often lively descriptions, e.g. this is what it had to say about the glorious history of parasitology in Japan.

After the museum, I went to an super-sento in Oimachi... but first did some shopping in around Oimachi station (new Japanese keyboard, which now IT will take weeks and weeks to install and some other items). Nothing to write home about. The one thing though is that in all shops (or at least all shops I looked) masks are sold out and even if there would be some, sale is restricted to one package per person. And this is because of Covid-19... the coronavirus currently terrorizing China ... and the world wide press & web. 

After my shopping I went into the onsen, and relaxed... but unfortunately when it was time to return home, rain had set in more seriously. Luckily I had my red rain cape... but still I got quite wet, as well as most of the things in my basket. But well... I have a washing machine, so that's what I did later in the evening.