Tokyo x Three

As if I haven’t gone enough times, I went to Tokyo again this past week. But this time I only went for one day – took the overnight bus on Tuesday night, got there Wednesday morning, did a billion things, took the bus again on Wednesday night, got back Thursday morning and totally crashed out. I didn’t take too many pictures this time but actually did some interesting things…. monologue follows:

i arrived at 6:30am and killed time by walking around ginza and near tokyo station until about 9:30am. then i went to the bridgestone museum of art to see their exhibition. (website) it was really nice – very good pieces of work. but my favorite painting was on loan from a private collection so there were no prints of it anywhere. not even in the exhibition catalogue. :( it was a self portrait by andre derain. and there was a sculpture by picasso of a jester that was so realistic looking (yet still abstract) that i thought if i looked at it long enough it would jump off the pedestal. if you go on their website you can see the sculpture: click collection > view works by artist > artists p – r > picasso > and it’s the first one listed. :-)

and in tokyo station i saw the most expensive bottle of barbancourt rum. heheheh.. i couldn’t afford it so i just took a picture of it instead.

after that i walked to a small gallery near tokyo station ‘span art gallery’. (website) i took a look at their latest exhibition and bought a few books and postcards from their shop.

then it was on to kabuki-za for a single act. (website) the website has nice info on it – history, story lines, etc. kabuki shows usually have 4 acts – each 70 minutes long with 20 minute intermissions in between. i saw just a single act – but the place was well over 50% full for the seats where people were watching the whole show. i met a nice woman in the line to buy tickets and she saved me a seat right in the middle of the front row! of course, we were far up in the balcony but it was the best possible seat for those tickets. very nice.. it was a strange combination of boring and amazing. there were parts that i was almost falling asleep during but then there were parts where i had goosebumps and was really moved.

after kabuki i went over to shibuya to another gallery ‘le deco’. (website) it took me a little while to figure out where it was – the station was confusing so i ended up exiting on the wrong side and then walking all the way around to the right side through the streets. i eventually found it though. the exhibition was great and i even got to meet the artist and his wife!

after that i went to the 109 building and people watched – it was almost like being in the states! (website) the 109 building is 8 floors of tiny clothing and accessories stores geared mostly towards japanese girls (with a few shops having men’s things). they play loud music and it’s crammed full of people! almost like miami – i had a headache by the time i left. but i found a few really cute shirts.

i had planned to go to harajuku after that, but i was running out of time already so i had to skip it. i went directly to shinjuku and found the little haitian restaurant i wanted to go to – ‘haiti cafe’. (map) my roommate had seen it over winter vacation when she was wandering around tokyo so i had to go. it was NOT haitian food. but it was good anyways. the ambiance was lovely – real haitian music, paintings, sculptures, carvings, etc., but those were the only haitian things in the place. the drinks were made with haitian rum, but too weak. the food was curry , which does not exist in haiti!! there were no plantains, no fresh bread, no creole sauce, no beans in the rice; it was really strange. anyways, the coffee DID seem to be haitian but it was much too weak. it had the right flavor but was thin like american coffee…

anyways, then of course i wandered around shinjuku going into a bunch of shops and buildings. also heard some really great jazz being played on the street. it was fun wandering around feeling like i was actually in a city again.

after the stores started closing i still had about an hour and a half before my bus came so i found a corner to read my book in. then the bus finally arrived (a little early) and i climbed on and promptly fell asleep. what a day! even after i got home in the morning i was still tired so i went to sleep again and rested up some more….