08.08.2009 Hara Museum, National Museum of Western Art, Pokemon challenge...

Today I began my travels alone. RuZhao gave me a really good Japanese tour book and we printed maps off the internet of the places I wanted to go. The JR is actually very easy to take in Tokyo. I remember in Osaka, the JR made me worry a lot. (due to confusion) But the JR in Tokyo has both chinese and english and distinct colour coding of trains. Now I just head out in the morning, take the bus to the JR station and then take the JR to wherever all by myself!

I met a spanish man on the JR today. He is actually part of an orchestra for this really big show. (or so he claims). The show was a ballet of some sort with a flamenco dancer (I heard flamingo, but I think he meant flamenco). Apparently they had invited all of Japan's top soloists and instrumentalists around the world to play together for this show. I figured I had nothing really set in stone for my plans so I asked if I could go watch, but he said the tickets were probably sold out. It was hard enough for him to get one for his wife. However, there was a free rehearsal today that I could check out and it would be the exact same as the opening show tomorrow. It was at 3pm. I wrote it down, but I ended up not going. If I did I don't think I would be able to return home in time for dinner. Not only that, but I think the Theatre was rather far. Anyway his name was "Huang". At least that's what I heard. It's not very spanish to me. (he's holding an instrument in the picture but you can't see it)

1.front door 2. interior

My first stop was Hara Museum of Contemporary Art. The place is in the middle of a neighbourhood so it's a bit of a strange location. But they apparently get some really good exhibitions here and their gift shop is super cool. They had a bookbinding workshop that day but I forgot so I just paid my entrance fare and went exploring the space. When I finished I stopped to ask what the sign-up table on the side was for and they told me their workshop was full : ( . It was most definately not full when I arrived in the morning!!

1. this is a paper cut out! 2. Room zero? I forget.

There was this door, labelled Yoshitomo Nara My drawing room, but I didn't dare to open it because I thought it was a trick or a wrong label. But there's another piece at the gallery that required you to open the door yourself as well so I figured the same applied here. At an art gallery, closed doors usually mean do not open. But I'm glad I did! because look what I found!!

Tokyo Bunka Kaikan theatre by Maekawa Kunio 1961

Then I went to the National Museum of Metropolitan Art, Tokyo. The building is by Le Corbusier and there was an exhibit on him as well. The interior is really nice! I'll show you later..

two strips of blue on the escalator. I thought my eyes were "flowers"

Orchestra truck. pretty neat huh

On my way home I found a heap of little kids lining up for this pokemon thing. I also saw a bunch of them running around in Pikachu hats. So I asked around and apparently theres this pokemon-JR thing going on for the weekend. There is a specific Pokemon stamp at every station minus the goal stations. To "win" you need to get 6 pokemon stamps and then you can get a goal stamp and bunch of other stuff. I guess it is like catching pokemon. When you get your goal stamp you can go on to catch even more pokemon by filling in this book which helps you catalog all the pokemon stamps at all the JR stations... if you can get them all! So basically I saw a lot of kids dragging their parents from station to station wearing pikachu hats and holding onto the catalog. There were lineups at every station!

1. Parents waiting in line with their kids to get a stamp. The kids are so little they are still short (and therefore you can't see them in the line) 2. Poster at the station that tells you the direction you should go to find the Pokemon stamp

3. Goal station 4. Girl putting together your goal "prize"

The new Tokyo FGS

Today, I got a little confused (and lost) the first time I returned to the temple, but I figured my way through via process of elimination. Plus, it was daytime so I could recognize the red coloured building. The second time, however, I was dropped off at a different stop so I ended up walking in the wrong direction home and was lost for half an hour at night. (It also took half an hour to find a phone) By the time I found a phone at a 711 I was a corner away from home.

Oh, and by the way. I did the Pokemon challenge too... =D





Mosquito bite count: 5