Sunday, April 14
After our beautiful, sunny day yesterday, Sunday was mostly overcast, but not cold, still in the 60’s. We had previously purchased tickets today to visit the Yayoi Kusama Museum, so we were very excited. Our tickets were timed for 11:00 AM (museum opening time), so were in no rush. The Google Maps phone app said it would take just under an hour to walk there (northern part of Shinjuku City), so we elected to do that. This was a very interesting walk, and we passed an interesting office building called the “cocoon.” We then proceeded out of the main Shinjuku shopping area (passing through what looked to be an area for erotic clubs!) into a residential area. Sometimes the Google Maps route recommendations can be interesting. This route took us into narrow one lane streets and then actually had us walk through a short alley between houses that was only about four feet wide! The houses/small apartment buildings all seem very nice and well kept.
We arrived at the museum too early at 10:25 AM. A nice woman who worked there apologized for not being able to let us in early — there was some sort of private workshop in progress. So we wandered around the neighborhood aimlessly for a while. Apparently, we discovered that there will be some sort of local election in this area. A van was roaming the neighborhood with a large bullhorn blasting some woman’s voice — what was this? Well, she was a candidate canvassing for votes! At one point, we even saw her jump out of the van to shake a young girl’s hand! This was kind of amusing for us to witness! Anyway, we made our way back to the museum at about 10:55 AM and found a line of people waiting to get in. Just then they opened the doors to let people in, so we went in.
The museum is small and has one room on each floor, four floors total. The first floor is the reception. The second floor has Yayoi Kusama’s paintings from her early days in New York City (1958 - 1960), which are amazing. There are four Infinity Net paintings, which were really special to see. There was also a green colored painting that was very beautiful. One another wall, there are photos and newspaper articles from those early days plus gallery reviews (all positive), and other memorabilia. This was the permanent collection. Then we viewed an installation called “Ladder to Heaven,” which featured a ladder with mirrors on either end with changing colored lights in a darkened room.
On the next floor were several large and very colorful paintings that represent Kusama’s recent work. This art in this room changes, and the art to be displayed is selected by Kusama herself. Finally, the top floor was an open-air gallery with a giant pumpkin sculpture with polka dots.
We worked our way up, and then we revisited the second and third floors. You could stare at this art forever. Yayoi Kusama is still alive (about ninety years old at this point), and her paintings are the highest priced paintings for any female artist. We got the sense, though, that she is not as well appreciated in her home country as she is overseas. We weren’t sure what to expect here and were a little disappointed that the museum wasn’t larger, but we loved what we saw. We bought a book for the current exhibition and a small pumpkin ceramic piece as souvenirs.
Our next activity today was to visit the Tokyo National Museum. This was not anywhere near us, so we rode the subway to a stop in Taito City in the north. The subway was very nice and not crowded on a Sunday.
Exiting the station, we still had a distance to walk to reach the museum. Roy made a calculation error and we ended up walking in the wrong direction for a few blocks — oops! Then we retraced our steps and stopped at a Starbucks to get a bite to eat. We each had a hot ham and cheese sandwich. Then we needed to work our way through a very crowded open-air market that went on for several blocks — kind of interesting if it weren’t so crowded! At the end of the market was the entrance to the park, which is called the Ueno Park. The museum is in the northern part of this park. The park is also very crowded (it is Sunday after all) and had really large and numerous trash and recycling receptacles!
In the museum, we elected to view the permanent collection of Japanese art, which dates from Japan's early history to modern kimonos. It was interesting. The earliest pieces are clay figures used for funerals that are actually amusing looking. Later we bought a pin in the gift shop, which is an image of these figures. We don’t stay too long as it was getting late. We exited the museum and hailed a taxi to take us back to Shinjuku. We wanted to return to Isetan department store for a tax refund (passport needed). The cab ride cost about $30, roughly the amount of the refund — oh well. We then walked back to the hotel on very busy sidewalks. By the way, the cabs are expensive (and are mostly old Toyota Coronas), but the subway is very cheap — less than two dollars. Driving and car ownership must be discouraged and/or very expensive. Japan also has little to no oil production and must import — a good reason not to have a “car focused" economy. This seems odd since they make such outstanding cars!
In general, our impression of Tokyo is of a very quiet city. We haven’t witnessed any traffic jams, certainly no honking car horns, and many of the cars are electric, which are very quiet. As we walked in Shinjuku we marveled at the lack of litter, then were confused by the lack of any trash receptacles. There are signs painted on the sidewalks prohibiting smoking, and no one seems to walk and eat food at the same time either. What they do have are sidewalk vending machines everywhere. You can buy hot (heated cans no less) or cold beverages or cigarettes. We later learned that a special access card is needed to buy cigarettes to limit access.
This evening, we had a glass of wine at the free reception, but enjoyed dinner in the hotel’s “Japanese” restaurant. The food and service were excellent. We both elected a multi course meal with wagyu beef (filet for Rob, sirloin for Roy) along with a bottle of red wine. The meal cost about $500 — yikes! We asked the server if there was any wine production in Japan, and she offered us a taste of a Japanese cabernet and merlot blend. It was well made, but the fruit was not fully ripened. It was called Grand Polaire. Then it was time for bed.
We arrived at the museum too early at 10:25 AM. A nice woman who worked there apologized for not being able to let us in early — there was some sort of private workshop in progress. So we wandered around the neighborhood aimlessly for a while. Apparently, we discovered that there will be some sort of local election in this area. A van was roaming the neighborhood with a large bullhorn blasting some woman’s voice — what was this? Well, she was a candidate canvassing for votes! At one point, we even saw her jump out of the van to shake a young girl’s hand! This was kind of amusing for us to witness! Anyway, we made our way back to the museum at about 10:55 AM and found a line of people waiting to get in. Just then they opened the doors to let people in, so we went in.
The museum is small and has one room on each floor, four floors total. The first floor is the reception. The second floor has Yayoi Kusama’s paintings from her early days in New York City (1958 - 1960), which are amazing. There are four Infinity Net paintings, which were really special to see. There was also a green colored painting that was very beautiful. One another wall, there are photos and newspaper articles from those early days plus gallery reviews (all positive), and other memorabilia. This was the permanent collection. Then we viewed an installation called “Ladder to Heaven,” which featured a ladder with mirrors on either end with changing colored lights in a darkened room.
On the next floor were several large and very colorful paintings that represent Kusama’s recent work. This art in this room changes, and the art to be displayed is selected by Kusama herself. Finally, the top floor was an open-air gallery with a giant pumpkin sculpture with polka dots.
We worked our way up, and then we revisited the second and third floors. You could stare at this art forever. Yayoi Kusama is still alive (about ninety years old at this point), and her paintings are the highest priced paintings for any female artist. We got the sense, though, that she is not as well appreciated in her home country as she is overseas. We weren’t sure what to expect here and were a little disappointed that the museum wasn’t larger, but we loved what we saw. We bought a book for the current exhibition and a small pumpkin ceramic piece as souvenirs.
Our next activity today was to visit the Tokyo National Museum. This was not anywhere near us, so we rode the subway to a stop in Taito City in the north. The subway was very nice and not crowded on a Sunday.
Exiting the station, we still had a distance to walk to reach the museum. Roy made a calculation error and we ended up walking in the wrong direction for a few blocks — oops! Then we retraced our steps and stopped at a Starbucks to get a bite to eat. We each had a hot ham and cheese sandwich. Then we needed to work our way through a very crowded open-air market that went on for several blocks — kind of interesting if it weren’t so crowded! At the end of the market was the entrance to the park, which is called the Ueno Park. The museum is in the northern part of this park. The park is also very crowded (it is Sunday after all) and had really large and numerous trash and recycling receptacles!
In the museum, we elected to view the permanent collection of Japanese art, which dates from Japan's early history to modern kimonos. It was interesting. The earliest pieces are clay figures used for funerals that are actually amusing looking. Later we bought a pin in the gift shop, which is an image of these figures. We don’t stay too long as it was getting late. We exited the museum and hailed a taxi to take us back to Shinjuku. We wanted to return to Isetan department store for a tax refund (passport needed). The cab ride cost about $30, roughly the amount of the refund — oh well. We then walked back to the hotel on very busy sidewalks. By the way, the cabs are expensive (and are mostly old Toyota Coronas), but the subway is very cheap — less than two dollars. Driving and car ownership must be discouraged and/or very expensive. Japan also has little to no oil production and must import — a good reason not to have a “car focused" economy. This seems odd since they make such outstanding cars!
In general, our impression of Tokyo is of a very quiet city. We haven’t witnessed any traffic jams, certainly no honking car horns, and many of the cars are electric, which are very quiet. As we walked in Shinjuku we marveled at the lack of litter, then were confused by the lack of any trash receptacles. There are signs painted on the sidewalks prohibiting smoking, and no one seems to walk and eat food at the same time either. What they do have are sidewalk vending machines everywhere. You can buy hot (heated cans no less) or cold beverages or cigarettes. We later learned that a special access card is needed to buy cigarettes to limit access.
This evening, we had a glass of wine at the free reception, but enjoyed dinner in the hotel’s “Japanese” restaurant. The food and service were excellent. We both elected a multi course meal with wagyu beef (filet for Rob, sirloin for Roy) along with a bottle of red wine. The meal cost about $500 — yikes! We asked the server if there was any wine production in Japan, and she offered us a taste of a Japanese cabernet and merlot blend. It was well made, but the fruit was not fully ripened. It was called Grand Polaire. Then it was time for bed.
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