Tokyo–March 25, 2016

I decided to do the museum thing again today in the Roppongi district. As I exited the subway, I saw an exhibit called Street Museum:

Sleep in spring A spring night An unidentified lifeform II A.D. 2098

My first stop was 21 21 Design Sight. It looked interesting, but not sufficiently for me to go in.

spiral column sculpture curved walkway near 21 21 design curved sidewalk 21 21 design

National Art Center

This was definitely the winner of the day. They had several exhibits. The first one I went to was an exhibit of the work of Issaye Miyaki. No photography was allowed. He is a very creative fashion designer, but if I went around wearing that stuff on the street, they’d put me away. Some of it was very clever, though; they showed a machine that was used to do his pleated designs, and there were several exhibits where you could manipulate smaller versions of the designs. They looked liked just squares of material, buit as you lifted them, the whole outfit would take shape.

The first two pictures are the exterior and interior of the art center; the last one shows a large version of one of Miyake’s designs.

national art center exterior interior national art center giant miyaki issae costume

Hakujitsukai Art Exhibition

The Hakujitsukai Art Exhibition has been showing the best painting and sculpture in Japan since 1924. I am normally not a fan of flat, 2-D art. However. This exhibit was spectacular. Photography was allowed, and here are some of the things I liked, plus a few closeups so you can see the brush work.

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After leaving the exhibit, I wandered around a bit and found some artwork on a freeway underpass:

underpass zipper artwork underpass artwork underpass artwork underpass artwork

Aoyama Cemetery

One of my friends always visits cemeteries when she travels, so these pictures are for her. The rest of you might find them interesting as well.

cemetery cemetery cemetery cemetery cemetery cemetery cu cemetery cemetery cemetery cemetery cemetery cemetery cemetery cemetery cemetery cemetery cemetery

None of the markers had dates on them (at least not that I could read), so I went by how weathered the stone looked. There was, however this marker, which I am guessing was a family plot.

family plot

There’s also a section for foreigners.

foreign cemetery foreign cemetery

Cherry Blossoms

Saw some more today.

cherry blossoms cherry blossoms cherry blossoms

Miscellanea

The National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies was holding its graduation ceremonies today, so I got a picture. Congratulations to them.

graduation National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies

No particular theme here; this is just “the rest of the pictures.”

building beef restaurant sign sios storefront wooden buckets