Parasite Museum

Everyone’s favorite cryptocommunist was in Japan last week, so I played tour guide to various Tokyo spots. At the advice of Randall’s Lonely Planet guide, we made a stop at the Parasite Mueseum in Meguro.

The museum is, appropriately enough, chock full of parasites: preserved, modeled and photographed. Photos of the gory effects of parasitic infection on humans are also on display, including a fairly stunning photo of an elephantiasis victim.

One particularly disturbing, but simple, exhibit shows a preserved tapeworm, carefully folded to fit inside a small rectangular display case. Right next to the preserved specimen is a white cotton tape, over 30 feet long, which you can stretch out to experience, first hand, the terror of the tapeworm.

But, the coolest part of the museum has to be the gift “corner”. In the back of the 2nd floor, they have all the parasite-related gear you could want: t-shirts, pens, pins, etc. But, mysteriously, no one to sell them to you. You have to pick up a phone that sits on the counter and push a magic button. A few seconds later, a real live parasite researcher comes out of a side door, replete in white lab coat.

I’m guessing that jobs researching parasites are not exactly a dime a dozen, but I still felt badly that some hard-working scientist needed to stop cutting open some tick so she could sell me a t-shirt.

Photos of the museum’s founders (?) and a big ole mosquito model below:

Posted by pmk at January 25, 2005 6:28 PM | TrackBack