After a night of revelry in Tokyo, all 53 of us Japanese teachers and two tour guides (Naoko and Takako, from memory?) caught the train to Roppongi, the wealthy district of Tokyo and home to a FREAKING MASSIVE SPIDER SCULPTURE!
Looking at these photos always creeps me out. Ugh...so not a fan of spiders, but you have to admire the detail that went into this sculpture. From memory, it was a gift from a foreign artist to commemorate the opening of this newly refurbished bit of Roppongi?
That's Mori Tower in the background, a fifty plus storey building with an observation deck and contemporary museum. They had an exhibition showcasing Kamen Rider and Astroboy memorabilia but that wasn't the free exhibition that they had on so we didn't end up going to that.
The other exhibit was still really really cool though like stop-motion films and hands on things like a moving and clicking a mouse cursor which had a mind of it's own and was chronically unpredictable and playing mini table tennis (in which players play on a small wooden table, manoevering a marble back and forth with their hands).
There was also an electronically connected mathematical maze which required visitors to use their mathematical skills to puzzle out how to get from their designated number to 72, the number written on the exit archway.
Each person wore a special electronic tag with their number written on it. They then have to walk through various arches with mathematical operations written on them like (x2, /5, +29, -15 etc.). If they've miscalculated, the exit arch will buzz and visitors can either try again or choose an easier number tag. There was also a computer which would help you cheat by showing you the correct path for your number by simply scanning your numbered tag into the system.
Liam was utterly rapt with this maze. Lol, it was really cute seeing him so frustrated when he couldn't work out the right order but he got there in the end, よく頑張ったね。
The observation deck also gave us a spectacular view of Tokyo's cityscape...
...in all its sprawling concrete glory...
The new year is a time for well wishes and dreams and the Japanese fully embrace that. On the observation deck level, guests are invited to write their wishes down on a card before attaching it onto a rope housing many other similar cards.
It makes for a rather pretty display. The picture on the right is that of the rat, you know, 2008 being the zodiac year of the rat and all?
My card is the pink one on the right. (Yeh, the one that's tied on dodgily).
What I forgot to take a picture of was the Japanese monopoly set that you could buy for roughly $60 AUD. You could buy utilities like Tokyo Tower and Mayfair became somewhere in the Roppongi Hills, lol.
4 comments:
The Mori Art Museum was definitely a highlight for me as well XD I think we walked into a pretty impressive exhibition that day, I regret not buying that overpriced catelogue/book now lol
I was looking through my journal for the name/artist of that maths thing... but it seems like my frustration and embarassment over walking through the +3 and -4 gates countless times had caused me to run away from the scene without jotting down the names... lol
Found it online!!
Sato Masahiko + Kiriyama Takashi, Arithmetik Garden 2007
Good googling skills! I loved that particular piece!
Lol, I remember how you wrote all the names on your hand in red ink. We were all highly doubtful whether or not you'd be able to decipher which artist went with which work by the time your hand was practically covered in red ink.
I'm with you on regretting not buying the exhibition book...it would have been worth it.
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