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Published: June 10th 2007
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After all the walking in Kamakura yesterday, reason dictated taking a more relaxed pace today in preparation for the business week. Reinforcing this approach, last night in my hotel room, I managed to hit my unprotected left foot toes against one of of the metal legs of the desk there, so my usual fast walking pace was just not possible due to the injury’s intense pain. In any case, I decided not to cancel my plans for the day on this account.
I had agreed to take my German colleagues on a shopping tour of Tokyo in the afternoon hours, so I used part of the morning to visit one of my wife Elizabeth’s favorite places in Setagaya-ku: Gotoh Museum. Gotoh Keita, an ex-chairman of Tokyu Corporation and a big fan of the arts, founded this small museum in 1960. When we lived in Tokyo, we enjoyed the museum’s periodic exhibits of Asian art and also the very Japanese grounds behind the mail building. One can say that walking through the grounds there gives you a similar experience to what you get from some of the settings found in Kyoto or Nikko.
On this particular day, Gotoh had
Gotoh's Garden Sculptures
One grouping of many within Gotoh's grounds an exhibit on ancient Japanese calligraphy. The Museum’s large exhibit room had a reasonable attendance in spite of a constant light rain that forced the use of rain gear. The only potential drawback of visiting this small museum is that typically, all of the signage and information about the exhibits are only in Japanese Language, so you might think that unless one knows in advance something about the subject, it is difficult for a foreign visitor to appreciate the exhibits fully. My family and I always believed that art in itself, is fundamentally universal and aesthetics can be understood and appreciated even without a common verbal or written language. So was my experience with this particular exhibit: The old works, executed with black ink over several materials conveyed that quintessential message of sheer beauty and elegance.
After I spent some time at the exhibit, I decided to dedicate some time on the grounds, as it was our tradition during my family’s Tokyo years. The rain was making the experience a bit uncomfortable, but the peacefulness and introspection inspired by the surroundings was enough to offset the small inconvenience. Several large blue and white umbrellas were conveniently available at the
back door so that you could have some protection from the rain during your visit. As a photographer, I am used to be the only one visiting places when the weather is not quite perfect for anybody else. I thought that on a day like today, I was going to be the only one going through the grounds. I was mistaken! During the time of my visit, I saw at least two Japanese couples enjoying the grounds under the rain.
I had roughly calculated the necessary time to get to the Omotesando area to meet my colleagues. Perhaps due to the inspiring surroundings at Gotoh and my injury’s forced slower pace, I did not give myself adequate lead time and by the time my train arrived at Omotesando Station, I was actually running behind. I also discovered that my instructions to Andreas and Volkmar had been inaccurate; I told them to meet me at exit 2, but Omotesando has two groups of exits, A and B followed by a numeral. The intended exit was A2, which exits the underground station right on Omotesando Avenue. I arrived at exit A2 about 12 minutes late, but they were not there. I
was afraid that Volkmar and Andreas had gone to one of the other exits, so I spent the next 30 minutes going back and forth between the various potential places where they may have gone (including the World Bazar shop that most foreign visitors and expatriates in Tokyo seem to like). Finally, realizing that my chances of finding them so far beyond our agreed meeting time were very slim, I decided to visit the areas that I had mentioned to Andreas with the hope of perhaps running into them.
I walked along the length of Omotesando Dori and crossed the pedestrian bridge in the direction of JR Harajuku Station and Meiji Jingumae. As I approached the landing point, I saw the large crowd of young Japanese expressing their “uniqueness” in the most colorful ways possible. I had seen this area and the young people there many times before, but I had never spent any time photographing them. So, I joined the crowd, along with many other “ordinary” people who were there because of the exact same reason. In any other country, this unique display of individualism would be more ordinary. The fact that Japanese have one of the purest
and least diluted national cultures on Earth makes this bunch extraordinary. The main attraction during my stay in this area was a performer with multi-colored hair, great showmanship (especially shaking his head a lot and inspiring many young girls to do the same), but not demonstrating a particularly well-developed singing voice.
I left the Harajuku Station area and entered the Meiji Jingumae grounds towards the main temple. A wedding was taking place there. Several professional photographers were setting up their equipment to get ready for formal pictures. Since I had spent a lot of time during a previous visit capturing weddings in this same temple, I was not too interested on spending time capturing them this time. Instead, I headed for the Meiji Treasures Museum, an area within Meiji Jingumae that I had never visited before.
I made my way between the main temple and the museum very slowly due to increased pain on my injured left foot. When I got to the museum complex, I paid the 500-yen entrance fee and climbed the stairs on the right wing of the building to access the main exhibit area. This museum contains many daily-life objects used by Emperor Meiji
Performer & Fans
"Maria" is the stage name of this male performer. He seemed quite popular signing autographs among his fans... and his wife, Empress Shoken and some of their immediate relatives. Also displayed are the portraits of every Japanese Emperor since the beginning of the Japanese Empire (124 Emperors in all). The entrance fee to the museum also allowed me entry into the museum's annex, which is situated among the group of shops within the complex - in between the main temple structures and the gate in the area of Harajuku JR station. The Museum Annex was exhibiting several clothing articles owned by Emperor Meiji, Empress Shoken, and their family. In spite of my sore foot, I enjoyed this short tour within Tokyo.
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