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Just to be clear, there are currently 2 Picasso exhibits showing in Tokyo. One in the Roppongi Midtown Suntory Museum of Art, entitled, "Picasso: Portrait of Soul". The second one, entitled, "Picasso: From the collection of the Musee National Picasso, Paris". Both run from October 4th to December 14th. We saw the second one at the National Art Centre (NAC).
The one at the NAC costs 1500 yen per person (adult). I believe that the the one at the Suntory Museum costs 1300 yen per adult. Just to for fun, the curators of the two Museums (I'm not sure if it's jointly managed), decided to have the two shows run parallel. Both galleries are in the Roppongi area and are about a 7-9 minute walk from the Hibiya line Roppongi station.
When we decided we were going to go see the Picasso exhibit on the national holiday honouring sports and fitness in Japan (no kidding, they have something akin to a phys. ed day here!), we hadn't realized that there were two separate and distinct exhibits on the great artists. We arrived at Roppongi station via the Hibiya metro line and started following signs to the Picasso exhibit. I was somewhat confused because I had read in the magazines that the exhibit (that we thought were going to see) was at the NAC. We had never been to the NAC before, but I had passed by signs pointing the way to the NAC several times. Upon seeing signs to get to "the Picasso exhibit at the Tokyo Midtown", I was slightly confused, but thought that there must have been some underground tunnel route that I was unaware of. Not an unreasonable assumption because Tokyo has far too many underground routes for me to track... However, these signs were actually pointing to the first of the exhibits that we ended up not having sufficient time to see that day.
Luckily for us, I decided that I knew best and decided to ignore the signs pointing us to the Tokyo Midtown's Picasso exhibit. We found the NAC with almost no incident. Almost because I nearly got run over by a taxi as the road turning left from the main street actually has no pedestrian sidewalk for the first bit. So if you're really unlucky, a taxi will round a corner far to fast to see you at first, and will only swerve at the last possible minute to heighten the impending drama.
Once there, the outside of the building is impressive. It's not a rectangular shaped building and it has a large garden out front which is uncharacteristic of most Japanese buildings. Access to the regular exhibits is actually free, so you might actually end up inside following the "free" signs, only to have to come outside again to buy tickets for the special exhibit. We saw it happen to a couple of people in front of us.
Once inside the building, their is an atrium-like atmosphere given off from the floor to ceiling windows. A number of snack places exist on the left (see photo above) and the galleries start on the first floor and continue upstairs. You have to pay attention carefully to the signs lest you walk into the wrong exhibit (i.e. one that isn't free and one that you haven't paid for). Or you can do what we did and blindly followed the crowd. Since it was a national holiday, there was actually a lot of people there to see the Picasso exhibit that day.
From the maps that they give you at the front (after they check your bags and pass a metal wand over all your clothes), it looked as if the exhibit was took up about 6 rooms, one of those was a large corner room. The ceilings were high, giving the effect of space. However, for most of the art (painting and sculptures), it seemed as if there was too many in too tight a space. Call me a Picasso art snob, but when I was in Spain at the Picasso museum there, there was an entire museum and several floors and a basement devoted to Picasso's works and his life. I think the souvenir shop was bigger than the exhibit in Tokyo. Anyways, while it was nice for the pieces from Paris to come to Tokyo for my viewing pleasure, it seemed to be a lot of Picasso for a couple hours, especially when the exhibit hall is so cramped.
We had originally planned to see the 2nd exhibit as well, but after the trials of the first exhibit, we decided to call it a day. We were excited to see one of the Bay at Cannes paintings up on the wall. We stopped there for a while and looked at the original. We have a print up on our wall at home. It's from the same series, but I don't believe it's the exact original as the original was hanging up in the Picasso museum in Spain. But it was nice to know that we owned a copy of art worthy of show.
After the NAC, we made a half-hearted attempt to get to the Midtown's exhibit. But when we smelled all the food from all the restaurants serving lunch, we decided to do lunch instead. Above is the scene after my vodka and grenadine showed up. As you can see, we succumbed to the omiyage store which was strategically positioned at the exit of the exhibit.
It was worth the 1500 yen but I would like to go again during the week when it there are less crowds and I can enjoy each painting/sculpture more. I imagine the exhibit is just as popular during the weekends.
I just found out that the Mori Towers observation floor in Roppongi is hosting the travelling display of Sky Aquarium II --- meaning more aquariums of exotic fish in the sky. Normally, it costs only 1400 yen to get up to the 56th floor (or so?), but with the addition of the aquariums, it's now a mere 2000 yen. I'm beginning to think the Yokohama Landmark tower trip was worth the 1000 yen we paid. The Mori towers exhibit is on until Sept 28, 2008, but you should verify first if you're going to go.
It's been a busy week and these summer sniffles aren't helping. From the end of July until this weekend, there are some big fireworks on display in and around town. I went on Thursday night to the one near Gaienmae and Aoyama icchome eki. It's in the triangle between Harajuku, Shibuya and Ropponggi ekis.
There were tonnes of women in the summer yukata and some men in the jinbe. I loved the little kids in their outfits too. One of my Japanese friends told me that I could not possibly go to a Hanabi festival without wearing a yukata. So I did. Wow. It's hard to breath in those things. Maybe because I put it on myself and was totally worried about the whole piece coming apart, it may have been done overly tight. Something about pulling too tightly on the obi (think large cumberband). More on Yukata in another post.
The fireworks was pretty crowded. We were slightly to the south and away from the main action streets, so it wasn't so bad until we headed back to Shibuya eki after the fireworks. We were lucky in that we dined near the area and walked up and down the streets looking for possibly good vantage points and just by chance happened to see a small bunch of people on a rooftop terrace. Okay --- roof being the roof of the 2nd floor of a larger office building so not an extremely high roof, but still it was an elevated view. When we went to check it out, it seems that it was not a private party at all, and that there were small groups of people up there. The nice part about it was the room to maneuver with my camera. There were tall hedges for privacy from the streets below, so we all had to stand with our backs to the wall of the giant office tower behind us. But the worse part about being there and trying to take photos was that there was a lady, who wore her long hair up high on the top of her head, Pebble Flintstone style, so some of my shots were obstructed by a large blob of hair. How rude is that? Why would you go to a fireworks display and wearing your hair up high knowing that everyone was going to look up? That completely goes against everything I'd learned in Japanese culture classes about the people here going out of their way to ensure that they aren't disturbing you.
Despite the Pebbles-wannabe being on the roof, I did manage to capture some awesome pics. I have posted a few of my faves.
I've seen photos. I've taken photos from a distance. I've seen my friends' photos. Yet somehow, I've never had a desire to go there directly and take photos. Today, I finally was there at the base of Tokyo Tower and finally I took some photos up close. We didn't go up, but to stand at the foot of the icon ... that was enough for me. There are taller buildings in Tokyo that also afford some panoramic views. I've already been up the CN Tower in my hometown of Toronto a number of times throughout my life, so I didn't feel the need to add the Tokyo Tower, which is shorter and affords many of the same sky high views as other high buildings in Tokyo, to the list of went-up-that.
But I don't mind adding the tower to the list of have-a-pic-of-that.
Today, is Umi no Hi day, which can be translated as "beach day", the day that most public beaches in Japan open for the summer. It's a national holiday and hence a day off for my husband. We went into Ropponggi for some brunch at Suji's (which also has a branch in Seoul, Korea) and then walked towards the tower.
I didn't get an exact map to Suji's. I only remembered when I had read about it about 2.5 months ago, that is was south of Ropponggi sation, walking on the left side of the building that has the Citibank. Like other, not-to-scale maps to restaurants and landmarks, this map deceptively showed the eatery to be closer to the station than it actually was. We were about to turn back when I literally almost tripped over the signboard just outside the restaurant. Suji's serves western brunch style food and is priced as if it caters to the foreign crowd; in Eastern Ontario, you would never find 2 eggs, toast, homefries and bacon with coffee for 2200 per person. But this is definitely not Eastern Ontario. And it does open at 9 am for brunch on weekends and holidays, which is about 2.5 hours earlier than most other places. Nice enough place. Very spacious. Food was even good enough for a return visit when we get that craving for a western breakfast at 9 am in the morning on a weekend. But not fantastic enough to go running back in any big hurry. At least, not for my tastes. My husband (who is also a picky eater) loved the pancakes, but you get 3 large fluffy pancakes, so it was a lot to finish.
To burn off some of the brunch (I had the Mexican and my husband had the blueberry pancakes), we decided to walk up to the Tokyo Tower to get some close up shots.
This was one of my favourites. Although, since it was overcast, I can't say that I loved any of the photos I snapped today, but this one was interesting enough to make do, given the constraints of the day. It was rather hot outside, so we called it a day and ventured off the opposite way. We came home by Hamamatsucho station, about 1.2 km from Tokyo Tower.
Ever Since arriving in Tokyo last year, one of the biggest inconveniences I am finding, is that shops don't actually open until 11 am. That's right, most reputable places of business do not open their shop doors until just before the lunch hour. Most gyms don't open until 9 or 10 am. Although, there is one in downtown Tokyo that is open at 7 am I believe - The Club at Yebisu Garden. But this convenience will cost you. Bigtime. Think - "an arm and a leg". The sign-up administration fee alone may shock you into next week; it may be wise to have a de-fib device at hand just in case. Most mornings in the Ropponggi/Hiroo area (an area of Tokyo brimming with Expats), you see gaijin stay-at-moms/dads in track suits just waiting for their sports club of choice to open by sitting at a Starbucks or other Starbucks-like cafe.
I find this somewhat amusing. By "this", I mean the situation where for all their work ethic and international reputation for working long hours, one of the simplest Western expectations for a good morning working, cannot be fulfilled by early rising Japanese. However, "this" may also be construed as the situation whereby gym-goers, supposed health nuts, are sitting around having coffee while they lay waiting for their morning routine trot on the tread mill.
Other than gyms, most shopping cannot be completed before 11 am either. You have to wait for the department stores and many smaller businesses to open at 11 am or rush back home after a long day at the office to make it before their doors close at 8 pm. The exception to this would be the konbini's and other strategically located businesses near train stations. There are other exceptions but not nearly enough.
Just one of my many idle observations...
