The Universe And Art

Daddy was working on Saturday, so Ebi-kun and I went on a date to Roppongi to the Mori Arts centre.

We stopped off at the little German market first, there are only a few stalls but it wasn't overly crowded so we grabbed a couple of pretzels and brotwurst and of course Gluwein (for me) for lunch

Then we headed up to the museum. Luckily it wasn't busy, so we outdated our time and saunter around.

It was quite a strange mush mash of exhibits from Leonardo Da Vinci and Galileo to installations by teamLab

As you walk through it kind of takes you through the ages, although I feel they were grasping at straws with some on the items on display it was interesting and enough to keep the kids interested too.

I think the museums are catching on that social media can be free advertising for them. Although you can't photograph everything in the exhibit, there were quite a few pieces marked with a photo ok sign. And social media icons so you can hashtag each one.

Win-win as far as I'm concerned, we get to share what we are up to and they get free publicity.

This exhibit is on until Jan 9th
Www.mori.art.museum

Don't forget to check out the view, it really is stunning in the winter

Get Specific When Talking With The Universe.

As you may know, I am a big fan of Denise Duffield Thomas and her Lucky Bitch Bootcamp. One of the things she teaches is to ask the universe for what you want. We have become master parking spot manifestors and we usually get the table we want at the restaurant too, except the big U had a lesson for this time.

We were at the Sun Cafe, on the 52nd floor so we wanted to sit by the window so we could take in the view, we asked the big U for a window seat, we were taken to our table and... yes we were right next to the window, the one that over-looks the lobby!

We did have a lovely lunch but it was a good reminder to use both that we need to be very SPECIFIC in what we ask for. 

If you think this is all nonsense, try it, next time you are trying to get a parking spot or a specific seat at a cafe or even a seat on the train, ask the big U... and remember to say thank you afterwards.

PS - I am an affiliate for Lucky Bitch, if you are thinking of joining, give me a shout, I am happy to give you a straight up answer to any questions, it's not for everyone so be sure to make the right decision.

Takashi Murakami - The 500 Arhats

Once a month my husband has to work on a Saturday so Ebi-kun and I have an arty mommy and boy date. This time we ventured down to Roppongi for possibly the weirdest exhibit I have taken him to so far!

We went to see Takashi Murakami's 500 Arhats and we both loved it!

When you first arrive you are greeted by this rather strange Murakami, he chants and his eyes roll, it is kind of mesmerising because its so weird...

The 500 Arhat is actually a 100 metre long piece of art, split into 4 panels, probably because they couldn't get it up all in one go! But there was a lot of his other work there too. Skulls featured a lot! I love this, very rock 'n' roll!

And there were various depictions of his character Mr Dob. There is some child like charm to some of his work, with a serious pinch of manga/anime and then the traditional old style Japanese painting thrown into the mix too.

I was surprised that it wasn't busier (but happy about that too) maybe the weather had something to do with that, it was grim outside. Looking up close at the artwork shows an insane amount of detail, layers upon layers of screen printing. 

It was hard to choose a favourite really, but I do have a soft spot for this, actually a section of the main piece but it reminds me of the stag in Princess Mononoke...

There were also several sculptures on display, Ebi-kun asked on of the museum staff, apparently they are molded out of some kind of plastic then covered with goal leaf. Some of them were the height of the room so getting on for 4 meters!

Murakami also designed the smiley flower, Ebi-kun made an acute observation when we were in the museum shop, they had several versions of the flower on sale - He said "Who says artists are poor, they can't be when they can charge so much for a cushion!"

The cushions were expensive, the one this size was ¥640,000 which is roughly $56,000 yep! Even the small, sofa sized cushions were about 1/10th of that.

It led to an interesting discussion about how much it costs to produce art and whether people would be buying the cushion just to sit on or would it be an investment with a hope it would be worth more money in the future.

Of course, no trip to the museum is complete without goofing off in the museum shop! Pretty cool, that dude of mine!

If you want to catch the exhibit, it runs until March 7th and it's on at The Mori Arts Centre at Roppongi Hills

If you can't make it, this video gives you a wee taste...

Simple Forms at The Mori Museum

After Star Wars we popped into the Simple Forms exhibit as we had already paid. Ebi-kun and I were not very impressed with most of it. Maybe we were just missing the point, but how you can put a pile of stones from the beach in a case and declare it art is beyond me. Kudos to those who can pull it off and make money out of it!

There were a couple of interesting installations, this one had a spinning silver hoop with a light projected on it, making rainbow on the wall. Nice but not overly clever.

This one was though. There were vents in the floor which shot blasts of air up and carried the sheet up and down, strangely relaxing. I can't seem to get the video to load, but if you pop over to my instagram page you can watch it there CLICK HERE (and follow me whilst you're at it! ;)

We didn't stay long as Ebi-kun declared he was starving, if you go to the Star Wars exhibit, then pop in here too but it won't be the end of the world if you miss it!

In a galaxy far, far away....

Well in a city about and hour and a half away....

There was a Star Wars exhibition and a certain little boy wanted to check it out. So did his dad but it didn't look like he was going to be able to make it before the exhibit closed so we went on an adventure by ourselves.

When we got to Roppongi station there was a guy selling tickets, brilliant I thought, no queuing to get in when we get there! 

How wrong I was!

We got to the right place then had to queue for about an hour just to get to the ticket station, but you already have tickets Jo!

I know, but we are in Japan and life is not that simple. You can't actually use the pre-purchased ticket, no, no, no that would be far too simple. You have to exchange your ticket for another ticket (pokes oneself in the eye with a light sabre!)

Then, because one can not queue enough, we had to queue for the lift, why not take the stairs Jo? Because it's on the 52nd floor! Eventually we made it in...

I also stupidly thought it wouldn't be too busy because it had been open for a few weeks at this point, yet again I was proved wrong and a lot of shuffling from one thing to another went on.

All those peeps in the background are waiting to get their photo with Darth Vader, we weren't daft and just used a different 'unofficial' angle!

"There is no escape from the queuing. Don't make me destroy you."

There was an interesting collection of concept ideas and art and some amazing models of the various transportation used (I wasn't able to sneak photos of those!)

We found the best way to see everything was to shuffle around the perimetre of each gallery then shuffle around the exhibits in the centre. Ebi-kun came out with a corker. There were exhibits showing the costumes and Anakin's outfit was on one of those dolls that they use in shop windows.

"Look, it's Makakin Skywalker"

Oh how I laughed, good to see he has inherited my amazing sense of humour hahaaha

We finally shuffled our way to what I thought was the exit but we got directed to stand in yet another queue and this was to get into the shop...half an hour later...

Ebi-kun had his heart on buying Daddy something for Fathers Day, obviously I can't share what yet and so then we had to queue to pay! I had seriously had enough of this queuing lark by the time we had finished.

All in all, it was interesting and we both enjoyed it, the queuing side, not so  much! Anyone who loves Star Wars will enjoy it I think.

I was a bit disappointed because the original write up I had seen about the exhibit appeared to have a lot more stuff going on, I'm not sure whether we missed it somehow (we didn't pay the extra ¥500 each to go to the Sky Deck to battle with Darth) or whether that was included with the opening somehow. Of course I don't remember where I read the initial article to check!

If you want to go, there is more info HERE

Andy Warhol - 15 Minutes Eternal

Monday was the last day of school break and since we had everything ready I thought we should do something fun. I checked the listings for things on in Tokyo then remembered that most museums are closed on a Monday - bugger! BUT, then I spotted the Andy Warhol Exhibition on at the Mori Art Museum in Roppongi - perfect!

The only drawback is the trip there, it takes about an hour and a half and we have to get on a commuter train (which means getting badly squashed). I don't know how people can do that day in and day out - truly awful experience! Ebi-kun wasn't impressed either.

We spotted the Ebisu god as we changed trains, obviously we had to take a photo! Such tourists! 

We made it to the museum just before it opened. I was a bit confused with the tickets, they had set up a special Andy Warhol Cafe, which I thought would be fun to go to but it is in the observation deck and you need an extra ticket to go to the observation deck. Anyway, it turned out that the section where the cafe is, you don't need to pay extra for - just in case you decide to go and are confused too! You also get to see the views without the extra charge!

The Mori building is 54 floors and the gallery is on the 52nd, that is quite a long way up!

You are not allowed to take photos inside the exhibition so you'll have to use your imagination a bit. It was really well done, thoughtfully laid out and the English explanations were great - obviously not done by google translate! I can't say I am a big Warhol fan but I do appreciate the influence he had in modern art culture and it was really interesting to learn more about him and his thinking.

The exhibition is mixed media, so not only his art and sculptures they have a room with video footage that he took and another where they re-created the silver studio where he worked. There were interviews on video and they had The Velvet Underground playing (he was their producer) Ebi-kun was not a fan of their music, he said that it sounds like someone being murdered!

I made Ebi-kun a quiz sheet to take round with him, I will do a separate post on that but it definitely helps to make the exhibitions more meaning full when he has to figure out the answers.

Once we were done, it was lunch time so we eventually figured out where the cafe was and that we didn't need to pay extra to go in! The floor was artificial grass which was fun and there was copies of his artwork on all the tables. They also have an installation of his rain machine set up.

The menu is very limited, we decide to get the lunch set and share it. It was a burger, (cold) fries, signature Campbells soup and a drink…

And we decided to sit at the floor-to-ceiling glass windows, an amazing vista, the skyscrapers in the distance are Shinjuku, we could see Mount Fuji too but only just. It is such a big city, it goes on for miles and miles!

I must admit, the thought of what we would do if there was an earthquake crossed my mind more than once!

For dessert we tried the Warhol Parfait. I have no idea why but Ebi-kun is going through a phase of 'The Fonz' thumbs at the moment!

I think a close up of the parfait in all it's glory is needed! It was very sweet, and a good job we decided to share or I think we would have both been sick! It did get us to wondering what kind of special food would we have in out imaginary artists cafe - I feel a project coming on there!

After lunch we decided to explore the area a bit, we found a map which had all the different outdoor art sculptures on it, so we went on a hunt to find them all. We missed 2, I think and decided we had had enough and headed home - before the trains got too busy.

Great day out, highly recommend the art show, perfect way to finish the holidays!

**edited** We made a great time capsule inspired by this day out, check it out HERE