An Englishman in Tokyo

The day after, Tiffany had to go to work (I got a day off from going to Graduation Day on the Sunday the weekend before), and so I got a chance to do what I liked and explore the surrounding area a little bit. I went down to Tokyo to check out the Museum of Contempoary Art (having had a taste of culture I had been deprived of for quite sometime, I just had to get a bit more!)

The building, as is normally expected of a modern art gallery, was an interesting construction, looking more like the triangular formed girders you sometimes find supporting bridges. Entering the buiding was like entering a peaceful haven away from the busy metropolis. The white walls and noiseless spaces of the art gallery were a pleasant surprise for me, considering Japan is so in love with blips, beeps, noises and sounds.

The Cherry Blossom was starting to bloom down in Tokyo, and I happened to catch a bird making a rather noisy song and dance about the event! Mind you, it looks like quite a Japanese-y picture don't you think?

The impressive and quirky bridge-esque-looking art museum.

Whilst it might be more difficult to say 'Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo', it certainly looks more difficult to write it in Japanese!

At first, I thought they were doing a few renovations to the place....and then it just turned out it was a work of art! That's modern art for you!

There was some great stuff on display, with a focus on contempoary Japanese artists. They had a pop-art exhibition in which the Warhol 'Marilyn Monroe' set of lithographs were on display, aswell as the Lichtenstien 'Kiss'.

There was also a rather stranger temporary exhibition about building bridges or pathways in various places - I couldn't quite see what the aim or intention of the project was, but it required a lot of areas within the museum (and outside of the museum!) to have large planks of wood erected around the place. (All a bit wierd - but hey that's contempoary for you!) There wasn't that much English description for the pieces of art so it didn't help me deciphering the meaning!

Upon leaving Tokyo at about 6.30pm - I was hitting rush hour. The trains were really busy - to the point where you couldn't move at all in the carriages - we were all squashed in together. This was definately something I don't envy having to deal with, and something the Saitama JETs frequently have to deal with!

A trip to a country isn't complete without a customary 'let's find the Apple store' activity! The one in Ginza looks pretty impressive, and has a cool spinning apple sign on the top of the building!

Afterwards, having dealt with the incredibly packed trains, backing Saitama we had an Indian curry with a few other Saitama ALTs (nice and friendly bunch of people I must say!), went to a really nice authentic looking british style pub, and then did a bit of Karaoke at the end! Always a good way to end a day!