Mori Art Museum

I had read in the Japanese paper that there was an art exhibition of current Japanese artists at the Mori Art Museum. One of the reasons that I wanted to come to Japan was to experience the contemporary art scene. I was already familiar with a number of Japanese artists, but looking at the article, I noticed that none of them would be at this show. It made me a little excited to see new artists on display. I headed over there after going to the Apple Store.

The Mori Art Museum is in Roppongi Hills, which is a land development that was completed only a couple of years ago by some rich Japanese real estate developer name Mori. It is mostly stores and a mall. The center piece is a tall building, in which the Mori Art Museum resides on the 53rd floor. In fact, admission to the museum also includes admission to the observatory deck, which is on the 52nd floor. The art museum does not have any permanent collections of their own, but rather they just organize their own shows, and borrow all the works that they ever have on display. This could lead to a colossal failure, but they have done well with this museum model. It makes me think that I could open up an art museum, if I could just get to know enough art collectors with impressive art collections to borrow from.

There were several impressive pieces on display. Higashiona Yuichi made chandeliers out of circular fluorescent lights; Hara Shinichi sculpted marble (I guess there are a few artists still doing that, which amazed me) to look as soft as a dress; Enoki Chu made a cityscape model out of old drill bits of various sizes; Yoshimo Yoshio drew 365 self portraits in pencil for everyday in 1988; Sato Mashiko and Kiriyama Takashi made an arithmetic garden where you walk through gates that do simple arithmetic for you; Nanknishi Nonbuhiro had several photos on transparent films layered like a snake across the room; and Tsujikawa Koichiro had a stop motion music video with hundreds of toys on the screen at once all moving in a carnival.

It is good to see artists at work today.

Ginza Apple Store – October 19, 2007

My ipod died. This is a big deal to me for a couple of reasons. First, I use my ipod everyday to listen to music on the train, and walking around. Second, I just bought the stupid thing in July, right before I left New York. It has a one year warranty, so I knew that anything that was wrong with it would be taken care of. Also, I still have my old ipod with most of the same music on it, so I would still have an ipod to keep me company. The only music that I do not have a copy of is a series of about 15 cds of Bach’s holy cantatas, which I didn’t really listen to that much anyway, and a new cd by Argentine composer Osvaldo Golijov called ‘Oceanna,’ which I really like; in fact, he is probably my favorite living composer, so although the cd is waiting for me in America, I will probably buy another copy of it here.

I am also upset because for a short while, I was on the Apple bandwagon. I have long since jumped off when my first Mac laptop broke. I realized that there is nothing special about Apple computers, and that they have all the same problems as Windows machines; obviously that even holds for their stupid ipods. That said, I will still use my Mac, and will probably even buy another Mac when this one breaks. That is because I am chosing between two shitty products, Windows or Apple. I suppose that I believe that Apple is merely a bit better, but I cannot claim that it is a lot better.

In any case, the problem was that after I charged my ipod, the charge would not hold, and the battery would die. I took it in, and they said that if they could fix it, they would, and if not, they would simply give me another ipod. In either case, I will have to reload all of the music and movies onto the machine all over again, and that takes a few hours. Pain in the ass.

Yasakuni Shrine

From the Korakuen Garden, it was a short walk to the Yasakuni Shrine. This was the only thing that I picked for us to do today. It seemed like a nice historical spot because the Yasakuni Shrine is dedicated to all of the war heroes in Japanese history. This includes World War II heroes. It is always a very controversial event when some high ranking official visits this place, especially in the eyes of the Chinese and Koreans, who suffered at the hands of the Japanese during the 20th century. I wanted to come and see the place where so much controversy has brewed.

If I didn’t know better, I would not have been able to tell anything special about this particular shrine. One thing that stood out was that the minister of war from the Meiji era had a statue in front of the shrine. Other than that, there really wasn’t any sort of evidence that this was a shrine related to war and controversy.

Korakuen Garden

From the last garden, it was a short subway ride to the next one, Korakuen Garden. Ranking the two that we went to today, I think that this garden was one that appealed to me a bit more. It was a bit bigger, if not the same size, but there were some more interesting features. For one, there was an orange bridge that spanned over a small creek. There was also a small waterfall, and further back it seemed like there was a completely different garden, with its own pond and lily pads.

Although Paola selected the gardens for us to visit today, I have to admit that I had a pleasant time walking through them, and checking out nature. At one point, I thought to take out my book, and write a short poem. Paola made fun of me by composing and reciting her own poem on the spot. Here it is:

The leaves fall.
The birds quack.
Quack, quack.
Quack, quack.

She is probably a better poet than I am.

Rikugien Garden – October 17, 2007

Paola had said that she wanted to visit some parks today, and suggested that might get our spirits up. I allowed her to lead the way, and take us wherever she wanted. She decided to start at Rikugien Park because it was relatively close to our first subway stop in Tokyo.

We paid a small fee to get in, and then we get access to a big park. It is unusual for me to think of paying to go to a park. Where I come from, parks are typically free. However, we pay higher taxes in America (in Japan, they only take about 11 percent of our paycheck), and those taxes go to paying for the upkeep of the park. I suppose that it all balances out in the end.

Tokyo National Museum – October 16, 2007

It was a rainy day today, so we thought that it would be best if we did something that involved staying inside. We haven’t been to any museums in Japan yet, so we figured that today would be a good day to start. So we decided to go to Ueno Park, where there are more than a few museums, including the science museum, the modern art museum, and the Tokyo National Museum, which is the one we chose to explore.

Our minds were preoccupied with things going on at work, so we knew that whatever we did today would not get our full attention. So although we went to the museum and looked at their permanent collection, we didn’t involve ourselves too much with it. In fact, after walking around the five or so buildings that they have, we were already tired and rather unimpressed with what we had seen. There was neat stuff, to be sure, but a lot of it was in the same vein of things that we had already seen in other museums in America (especially in New York). Therefore, there was nothing that really struck out at us, and made us say, “Wow.”

Afterwards we walked around the park for a bit, and I was able to stare at the sculpture of ‘The Gates of Hell’ by Rodin. I really am impressed by that sculpture.

New Videos

A new video is up of the Tsuruse Festival. Go to my video site:

www.george.tsouris.net/videos.htm