Day 23 in Japan



This delayed blogging has been an interesting exercise. I haven't given you as much detail as if I'd done it at the time -- for example, I forgot to mention the shiny black and grey buses with smoked windows that rolled ominously through the streets of Kyoto, loudspeakers blaring right-wing nationalist exhortations, or so I deduce from the rising suns and romantic images of Yukio Mishima that adorned their rear ends. But It's been fun seeing what comes to mind from the two or three words jotted down about each day.

We're now in the last few days, and we were definitely in wind-down mode. Around about today )that is, 30 days ago) I realised that I wasn't going to get to visit Studio Ghibli. I hadn't thought of it until we were already in Japan, and the instructions on the web site for booking a visit were very straightforward except for people who can't speak or read a word of Japanese. Several times in Kyoto, Hiroshima and Kawaguchiko I'd gone into a Lawson's convenience store as directed and pressed the first of the series of necessary buttons, but then been defeated by my illiteracy and inability even to ask for help adequately. So even though I was constantly reminded of Hayao Miyazaki's work while in Japan -- we nearly went to his new film in Hiroshima, but the man who was helping us with cinema programs discouraged us ('I Have seen it. It is for little kids,' he said with a twist of the lips); everywhere there were mountains covered with green foliage straight from one of his backdrops; everywhere there were little -- and big -- plush Totoros; at one of the many museums we visited there was an exhibition (which we didn't go to) -- and even though his motto, 'Let's get lost together', often gave me sustenance during my time working in children's literature, the visit was not to be. Penny was relieved, because she completely doesn't get that she might find Miyazaki's work fabulous if she'd only give it a chance. But it left me with a lingering heartache.

But there was plenty of other stuff to see and do. We took the train into town and went, among other places, to the MOT -- the Museum of Contemporary Art -- a striking building which was a lot of fun on the inside. One installation featured a movie being screened on one wall of young people partying on, while in the middle of the room there was a listening booth with a disco ball spinning above it. Obediently, I stepped into the booth and put on the ear phones, which were playing some mildly techno-ish mood music. As I was listening a young man and woman came into the room accompanied by a toddler. I didn't realise it, but what they saw on entering the room differed from what I had seen because there was an overweight Western man of mature years in shorts and T-shirt watching the screen and listening to the music. Clearly they thought this was part of the point of the installation, because when I opened the door of the booth and resumed my role of gallery visitor, the man laughed so hard with the shock he nearly fell over. For just a brief moment, I had been incorporated into a work of art.






We went to Shinjuku to do some shopping, including in Kinokuniya Books, which is vast beyond imagining, with what seemed like a whole floor of English language books.

More museums tomorrow ... I bet you can't wait.

Posted: Tue - October 7, 2008 at 06:30 PM           |

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