ART! 29/7

29/7

Capsule bed is the japanese word for coffin sauna. 

This morning I woke up in my capsule bed, mega sweaty and needing some air that had not been circulated through my body several times over. My neck is a bit sore, by legs hurt from walking so much and my feet are killing me. Such is life for the backpacker. Hopefully all the walking, eating japanese food and climbing soooo many steps will mean that my ass will be amazing by the time we get to London. 

Today is date yourself wednesday, so L and I decided that we would go to Ueno together and then split up for  while so we could do our own thing. I think its really important for our friendship to make sure that we do things apart, otherwise we will end up with nothing to talk about and an underlying level of resentment. While Lauren went off to the Zoo, I decided to hit the Art museums. 

I was fairly certain that in Japan, the second biggest economy in the world, would have an art collection was amazing. I was really looking forward to seeing some of the rich cultural history of Japan through its art, and also seeing how that translates in to their modern and contemporary collections. I started off at the Tokyo museum of Modern art which contained several exhibits of Japanese calligraphy. Everything was in Japanese so i didn't get any particular cultural insight into the practice of Calligraphy, I was however struck by several things. Some of the larger pieces had such a momentum to them, you couldn't help but imagine the calligrapher standing and using their entire body (and mind) to produce such a work. There were also smaller pieces that felt like intimate scrawlings, where the artist had felt an overwhelming desire to expel a movement that was shared between themselves and the paper. 

Next I moved on to the National Museum where I found collections ranging from early Buddhist sculpture through to military uniform, ceramics, ritual objects, costume and block prints. It was really great to be able to read about the objects and also to see things that were very very old. 

The Tokyo museum of Western art was next on my list and strangely L and I ran in to each other on the way in. We walked along together for a while but ended up splitting up. I was pretty impressed with the collection they had, ranging from 17th C through to late Modernity. It was really nice to see some of the impressionist pieces, especially considering the influence that traditional Japanese Aesthetics had on the movement. I was completely dumbstruck when i entered into the Monet room. For me, this trip is a way of extending knowledge of the world, through experience but also through art. I have dedicated the past 5 years to furthering my knowledge of art and its not easy to do when the closest you get to most of the work is through a computer or a book. It was a full circle moment when I could physically see the works in front of me. Some favourites were Renoir's In the Woods, Monet's On the Boat and also the Water lillies. The collection of 20th century works was also great, i was particually struck by Albert Gleizes Harvest Threshing and always feel humbled around works by Picasso, Miro and Ernst. 

Capsule of death

Aleks: this is for you!

Japanese military uniform (built for guns in the 16th c)

view from the Tokyo National Museum

After Ueno we went to Rappongi "the clubbing district" which was full of crazy clubs like Hang-over (you'll be hang over in morning). It is also the home of the Mori Art Museum which we didn't go to cos we are running out of Yen. We did take photo's with the giant spider out the front which is called maman (french for mum).  It also had a pretty spectacular view of the city. 

View from Rappongi hills (like Beverly Hills but in Tokyo)