Places I can't take pictures in.

On days when I don't run around town heading to all kinds of museums I can take photographs in, it's hard for me to write these entries. I just purchased a back pack to lighten up the load on my shoulders and that has also contributed to the total lack of picture taking I have been up to. I'm too afraid to put the camera in the front pouch and none of the clothing I own (so far) has pockets. Tomorrow is supposed to be the start of massive sale time, all through next week, so I hope to pick up some overalls. That should make things better.

On June 1st I headed to the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography. You aren't allowed to take pictures in that museum, but I really enjoyed the works on display. I had to pay a bit extra to see the current exhibition. It was worth it. I think that it is very important while I am in Japan for me to be exposed to Japanese artists. So many of these Japanese museums are focused on Western artwork. Especially the museums that cater to the western audience. I saw the work of Seiichi Furuya in the special exhibition at the museum, which was something I had never been exposed to. His photographic works were very stunning. They mainly surrounded his wife and his memories regarding her life before she passed away. You can see some of the pieces from the exhibition here. I don't want to steal them.
On the main exhibit floor was "The Samurai & I". This exhibit started with early photographic works in Japan and discussed the history of photography in Japan, mainly portraiture. It was really interesting to see some of the very early photography of real samurai. I was really moved by the concept of what occurs to an individual when they understand that their place in society may be at risk, that their lives may be at risk so they reach out to a foreign technology to preserve themselves. The photographs were pieces of these people's lives, although now we only sometimes know who they actually were.


That museum happens to be in the Ebisu beer plaza area. So I headed to the Yebisu Beer Museum.

The history of the beer is pretty remarkable. It started when foreigners essentially started making beer in Japan. These guys in particular imported absolutely everything from Germany so they could call their beer a German style beer. It was a super luxury for everyone to buy beer. But then in World War II all the beer makers were taken over and they could only make all the same crappy beer. In the 50s Yebisu came back and slowly helped Japan drink beer that wasn't a luxury item. That was the only thing I found interesting about this museum. Obviously I did not get a drink there.

I keep hopping between museums. It gets a little mundane to write about 'cause there really isn't anything remarkable about them... when I get home. When I'm there I'm really into it, but you know, you leave and you have some time to think about it and it's not as cool. I got lost and spent about three hours trying to find the Parasite Museum. This poor doctor was treating all these really poor people in post-war Japan. He became really good and finding and identifying different kind of parasites. His office discovered four new to the world parasites just in their patients. They are most know for the 8 meter long intestinal worm they also uncovered. Horrifying. The website says that this is a fantastic place to not be afraid of parasites but to learn about them, but I can't say I've ever been so terrified at a museum in my life. You can learn more about it at the website here I didn't bother to look at the website before I left, just tried to use my guidebook. Needless to say, looking at the building before you go definitely helps you find it.

One thing in particular I was really excited to see was the Aleksandr Rochenko and Varvara Stepanova exhibit at the Teien Art Museum which happened to be down the street from the Parasite Museum and easily identifiable.

It sounded like a really cool thing. The museum was this Prince's house who had some complicated lineage and lived there with his wife. They had this art deco architect design the place, and it really shows. More information can be found on their website here.
The exhibition of this work was a partnership with Russia to bring these works to Japan for the first time. I was expecting (not knowing much about their work) many posters and graphic design work. The show encompassed all of the duo as artists and more. It was fascinating in that way. I didn't know they did lots of abstract painting, abstract photography and designs for plays, but they did. It wasn't as interesting to me from what I was anticipating seeing. The Japanese in there really ate it up though. There was a line of older people coming out of the gift shop into the hall. They all really wanted the book from the exhibit, which I wouldn't have dreamed of purchasing. I am really interested in the way the Japanese have taken Western culture and purchased it as a commodity. The reappropriate it as they see fit. They take it home and put it on their coffee tables. I guess we do the same thing with European culture for lack of our own American culture. I think this might be my theme for the year, but we'll see how things work out.

The gardens were beautiful. I hung out there for awhile 'cause it seemed to be the thing to do. There was a Japanese garden with it's obligatory pond and koi.

There was another section that was the Western section.

I hung out in these gardens for awhile before I headed back to the ranch. A suitable day, I'd say.

Ka-zooooo!

I decided to go to the Tama Zoo yesterday (because once again, it's admission was included in my Grutt pass!). It's a hike, about a two hour or so commute if you have a tendency to think that the Express train is more express than the Semi Special Express train (which I have now learned not to be true). There's some transferring involved and getting a bit lost within those two hours, but somehow I made it to the zoo train.

It's a train just for the zoo! Can you believe it?

I couldn't. But I enjoyed all the signs even if they were a little sun damaged.
The park is huge. They took over this giant piece of land and left many of the trees and stuff on it. It's really beautiful, even the entrance!

The inside of the zoo is HUGE. It's really hilly. There is also quite a bit of walking to get from place to place. I got a good exercise in.
I won't bore you with all the photos of animals I took, but here are some highlights!

Quail!

Hungry hungry giraffes!

Lazy kangaroos!

Snow leopard, upside down!

A tree of red panda!

Attack Yak!

The Human interaction with Peacock special exhibit

Majestic Tiger.

An Actual pack of Wolves

Pile of Snakes in a Tree.

This zoo has two really special things that make it amazing. The Tama Zoo has an extremely fantastic Insectarium. Their collection of insects is amazing. They also have an entire mega-room where you can hang out with butterflies and plants, much like the one at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Chicago.

Huge!



The rest of the facility was dedicated to other kinds of insects most of which were really scary. And extremely difficult to photograph.


The absolute best part of the entire zoo was the Lion Bus. The Lion Bus travels through the Lion Park, which is this giant hole in the ground where the lions hang out.

To make things interesting, the park officials put a bunch of pieces of meat on the side of the bus. For many waiting hungry lioness

Many of the lions were just stretched out. They are actually really cats, you know.

They also go meow-wow.

It was a fun bus-ride, the only one I've taken so far. I enjoy seeing lions in their semi-natural habitat, but as with most zoos, some of them were pretty mangy. I felt really bad for one of the elephants who was just stuck out in the sun all day with really no water and a whole bunch of giant chains that were a little too reminiscent of circus side shows to me. He didn't seem to mind too much, but then again, my elephant is a little rusty.

a beautiful day!

I don't quite know why but every time I sit down to write these entries, I open my window and I hear this very faint marching band music. It's really strange and it has been happening every day now.. I thought it might have been the Laos festival (or something?) in Yoyogi Park. But then I couldn't find anything. Although I also haven't really found Yoyogi Park. Somewhere out there a marching band is practicing and I know it.

I finally went to Tokyo Sea Life Park yesterday! I love aquariums. This one did not disappoint and fortunately there were not 40,000 people visiting the animals (like the Shedd is constantly full) so I was able to enjoy myself.

There was a couple school groups of really small children there, but I was able to distance myself from them (man were they loud!) Seeing how the animals kinda would've lived in their kinda natural habitats is a lot of fun. I do feel bad for them sometimes when their areas aren't clean and (in this case) they are essentially food for the other fish and there is no way for them to get away. This Sea Life Park was not a nasty horrifying aquarium. Needless to say that I now have an entire folder of pictures of fish, which I will not bore you with, but instead here's the Park's most notable exhibit, their school of Tuna.

They had alot of smaller tuna but four really massive (must've been 400lb-ers) tuna. You can see in that picture their size versus the poor guy in charge of cleaning their tank. I'd actually be afraid of them, they are almost entirely muscle (as I was just eating the other day... nom nom nom).

There was also an outdoor penguin exhibit, which I thought was really cool. I mean, these guys are just chilling out, outside with their own private pool. There were at least fifteen penguins too. The children loved them.


Suction-guys under a starfish attached to the glass.

Obligatory cuttlefish. There were two cuttlefish in the tank, evidently male and female, because after I snapped this photo they decided to mate. I have some really dark pictures of them mouth to mouth exchanging their fishy-fluids. I don't know how often you all see cuttlefish mating, but I was a little confused at first.
After that I wandered over through the beautiful outdoor section into their freshwater pond. There were frogs.

Sneaky frogs.
As I was leaving the park I ran into this bird. He was trying to be sneaky too, but it wasn't working.

I have a bunch of pictures of him sneaking around. The park around the Sea Life park is noted for it's bird watching goodness, but this was the only bird I saw in my whole wandering around the park.

I did get to sit on the sea shore across form Disneyland. I accidentally got off at the Disneyland stop because nothing had signs on it. I thought for about two seconds that maybe this means that I should go to Tokyo Disneyland. No. No it doesn't. Not with the ticket price of 4500Y. Maybe someday. Maaaaybe.
The tide must've been high because of the weird rain the previous day but now it had just left all kind of weirdo beach debris and some dead fish. I have a bunch of pictures of dead fish because I was really shocked at how big they were. They were not your tiny dead fish, they were really large. I thought someone was fishing and had just gotten bored with them and left them, but no, it was definitely from the tides. Poor fish. I won't... amuse you... with pictures.

There was also a small field of poppies for people like me who take really close up pictures of flowers. After that I figured I should probably leave and head back to the ranch but I flipped through my Grutt pass book and noticed that one train stop away there was the Yumenoshima Tropical Greenhouse Dome. Given that I have easily already gotten 2000Y worth of my Grutt pass book and admission to this Greenhouse was essentially free, I decided to go check it out.

It was really beautiful inside, with your usual assortment of tropical plants. They had highlighted the different plants they had that were fruit producing, like pineapple and mango, although most of them did not have any fruit at the time.

These pineapples were working on it.

There was an entire room of Pitcher Plants. I don't think I've been happier in a greenhouse. Pitcher plants are my favorite, hands down, of all carnivorous plants and really just any bog plants. I do much prefer bog plants to most others. I'm not really a tree or a palm person. The door at the entrance was broken but I pried it open anyways to enjoy this entire room of carnivorous plants. The colors found in these guys are just so lovely. I also enjoyed the way they hung them in fairly tiny planters from the ceiling. I'm sure my roommate would freak out, but it really would be a fantastic insect kill in the summer.

Here they are outside. So cool!
There was even an herb garden. I was so happy to smell the calming oils from the Lavender plants.

There was also a huge area of thyme so I stole some for thyme-y potato breakfast this morning. Yum.
As if this place could get any better...

THEY HAD CHICKENS! Just chilling out!


and they were silky chickens at that! Oh, so cute.
I tried to get closer to them, but the rooster was like "WHAT."
So I think they might've had chicks. D'aww chickens so cute.

I headed back to the train and happened upon a REAL supermarket! I bought a large variety of mushrooms because they were on sale and a variety of other food because I need food. I headed back to my dorm and decided to empty out my mail box. It was stuffed FULL of menus. I decided to make collages out of them. I'll post them in the future when I finish all of them. I think I might make them into some kind of print. They really fuse this weird concept of cultural appropriation that I find really fascinating about being a foreigner in Japan. I took all these really bizarre Italian food menus and cut out the pizzas. What does it mean to patch together these sort of cultural re-appropriations? I don't quite know, but I find these things really visually and texturally interesting. It's sort of my own boro, of the modern day. Taking what is cheap and readily available to me and making some kind of patch work with it. I'll just have to reapply that in fabric in this screen printing class and see what it comes out like. I'm into these weird visceral reds and yellows these days. I think it was Barb that got me hooked with her crazy awesome photography of my hands.

Last night, as some of you who also read my livejournal or check my facebook status are aware, was another ridiculous party thrown by the very rude person who lives next door to me. I am still very angry about this party because it did not consist of people who live in this section at all. And I'm sure other people who actually live in this section were very angry about this, as the girl next door to me must've been because she was blasting r&b until she must've fallen asleep or something. I wrote another letter to Sakura H-dawg that they will hopefully respond to, although I guess when it comes down to it, I don't really care either way. This place is a bit too much of a craphole, but in a fairly nice area. After the washing machine fiasco of prior and the complete inability of the holding company to do anything about this noise issue (it seems I'm not the only one complaining), I'm certain that if I end up here in Tokyo again, I'll ...try to figure out a better situation?
Stuck between a rock and a hard place.

In the mean time though, tonight is a Tokyo Decadance party at Trunp Room. I don't have an outfit prepared at all, but I'll figure something out before then, hopefully.

yesterday's art

I wasn't expecting to be heading to any art museums but this Grutt pass has really made them accessible to me. Yesterday I went to Ueno to see what there is to see.

In Tokyo, Salaryman and Elementary school kid both text message on the train!
My first stop was the National Museum of Western Art.

I really wanted to see what Japan would have and how Japan would present western art. Well, I was a little let down, I'd have to say, although the collection was small, it was also poorly put up. There were holes in the wall everywhere. Really poorly patched up and shoddily painted. I felt like they could use a lesson from the master house painter My Mom.

Theodore Meets in the Wood the Spectre of His Ancestor Guido Cavalcanti
Oh snap! That horse looks crazy. After passing through this museum I became very aware of how fantastic the Art Institute's collection is, even if it's horribly expensive to get in. You really get a bargain though, because here I would have paid 500Y to see this small museum, but in Chicago, I'd be paying $20 for 15 times as much, and even better pieces. It was an interesting contrast. The goal of this museum was to have Western pieces on view for Japanese artists to be inspired by. The final room, as a tour guide for small children let me and everyone else in the room know, had a Pollock. I'm not one to care for Pollock, but that seemed to be the museum's pride, was this one Pollock. I found this painting by a Japanese artist in more of a western style to be much more interesting.


After that I headed to the National Museum of Nature and Science. I am totally jaded by the Field Museum, but this museum wasn't a tremendous let down. It had a really interesting section on Japanese history, although it was all in Japanese, so I had no idea what was going on.

They had these wax models of Japanese history that were just amazing. Their detail was fantastic. I could've stared at these things for hours and continuously noticed new detail. It was really cool. They also talked about domesticating animals.

Chicken wall!!! Yeaaaaah!!
There was another section devoted to global history. I was really impressed by the layout of these sections. It was really neat.

The museum was FULL OF CHILDREN. They were very loud and it made things... less fun.

But sometimes amazingly awesome. I caught these kids posing for a photo, too bad the lighting was terrible. After that I headed to the Former Tokyo Music School. It wasn't anything to write home about, but it was an important cultural property, and for that it was interesting.

There was also a giant flowering bonsai exhibition in the park.

This cat was trying to tell me to turn around because of this.

This guy wasn't very good at being a circus guy, but he was really trying. He did some diablo tricks and just seemed to be enjoying himself. I watched him for about an hour. He wanted me to stay there because then he wasn't just some freak, he could draw a crowd. It was fun. He did some stupid dice crap and did some awesome chair stuff.
I headed to Ikebukuro after this juggling man to appreciate some cats because I was starting to get mighty lonely.

The top floor of the Ikebukuro Tokyu Hands has a room where you can go hang out with cats. It was fun. I hung out with the laziest, biggest cats I've ever seen.

Lazy mega-cat.

I won't subject y'all to too much of these because there were probably 20 cats in that room. And they were all really miserable.

Ikebukuro at night. I enjoy this anime called DURARARA!! which takes place in Ikebukuro. I enjoyed walking around the same places they walk through in the anime and imagining one of the main characters, Shizuo, lifting vending machines to send them crashing down onto people. I did get a little lost, but it was fun none the less.
My eyelids are droopy today again. I'm still really sick and it's hard for me to get over this cold. I think I'm going to head to Yoyogi park to see what all the ruckus is about (there's someone with a megaphone that I can hear all the way over here). I'd say, I'm maybe four or five blocks away from the park, and there must be something really awesome going on, hopefully with awesome food and awesome sauce. After that I'm off to the Sea Park! Today will be fun!