I had hoped this evening to be happily BUI (Blogging while Under the Influence) as the last planned stop of the day was a beer museum tour followed by a tasting. Yum. But alas, it was not to be. When I got to the Yebisu Beer Museum just after 4 PM the sky was dark with clouds and it was just starting to spit rain, foreshadowing what was to come. I was met inside the door by museum staff who informed me that the museum was now closed. I was surprised as I had expected it to be open until 7 PM and this must have shown on my face. The staff person added that they had closed because a tidal wave was coming. I thought that I had misheard but she repeated the same thing and added that the gift shop was still open. Inside there were calm (lucky) people still enjoying a leisurely beer. What to do? A tidal wave seemed unlikely so I carried on. After verifying that I could not get into the beer garden (I was willing to forgo the tour) I did what any proper tourist should and went to the gift shop and bought a T-shirt.
Outside again the weather had gotten worse. The clouds were darker, the wind had picked up and it was raining more heavily. I wondered if she had meant typhoon instead of tidal wave? All of the merchants in stalls were packing up and I decided to call it a day and head back to the hotel. I had not brought a rain coat but had a folding umbrella in my pack. I doubted that it was strong enough for the wind and resigned myself to a long wet walk back to the station. At the street corner in front of the Garden I crossed with a bunch of other people who headed en masse for a building entrance just across the street. I wondered what they knew that I didn’t and followed the herd in to see. What I found was a covered mall nicely air conditioned with people movers that led in the general direction of the station that I wanted to go to so I hopped onto belt. The mall did lead all of the way to the station so I was completely dry when I got to the train. I took the Hibiya line back all of the way to my hotel stop Minami-Senju. The train was not full so I had a seat and read the whole way back which was nice.
It was not raining much when I got off but it was very dark and the streets were deserted, not at all what I was used to. I did see a few bikes and yes, people do ride bikes while holding umbrellas. With the gusty wind their courses were somewhat erratic. I stopped at at grocery store and picked up something for dinner and a beer (Yebisu of course) and got back to the hotel just as the rain started in earnest. A wet umbrella takes up a lot of space in a 6′x9′ room.
I had not been following the news much so I had a look on the ‘net to see what was going on and indeed typhoon Jelawat was coming to Tokyo. Wind speeds of up 126km/hr had been reported, flights and trains were cancelled and shopping areas had been closed. It seemed pretty serious, very different from how the day had started.
The morning had been sunny with few clouds, humid and had felt like the hottest day so far. The plan was to start in Yoyogi Park and see what was going on there as it was supposed to be pretty interesting on a Sunday. After that I planned to visit the Meiji Shrine which was right beside the park. Finally a visit to Yebisu Garden Place to see the Tokyo Metro Museum of Photography, tour of the Yebisu Beer Museum, finish with a beer tasting session and wobble home to write about it all.
Yoyogi Park is one of the largest parks in Tokyo and is sometimes home to some interesting live music. The routes chosen by my train app did not seems very straightforward so I planned my own route which initially worked well. The trains were again nice and cool and not at all crowded. I took the Hibiya line, transferred to the Chioda line and got off at the Yoyogi-Koen station. From there it was a short walk to the park. Once in the park the only music that I found was a lonely bagpiper practising. He seemed to be trying to play Amazing Grace. I sympathized a bit as I had also once tried to learn the bagpipes to supplement the other instruments that I was playing in a Celtic band. Bagpipes are difficult to play well and very loud. Practicing inside would require hearing protection so you find a nice open space outside, swallow your pride and inflict your learning on everyone in the surrounding area.
Yoyogi park itself was very nice. There are many paths and lots of greenery and birds. I heard many new songs but most prominent was some cousin of the crow with a lower and more throaty voice. There is an off-leash dog area which is pretty rare around here with separate fenced in areas for different sizes of dogs. I walked past flower gardens and fountains and eventually came to a bridge over a busy road. On the other side was a plaza besides a sports complex with many food stalls and a large flea market. I wasn’t yet hungry so I looked around and then walked back toward the shrine.
Although the Meiji Shrine is right beside the park I could not find a way in from the park. I walked a lot and finally got directions and found that there is only one point of access and I was about 4.5 km away. It was either a long walk or back to the station for more trains. I wasn’t sure that I had enough time so I skipped ahead to the next part of my plan for the day, Ebisu Garden Place.
I had to transfer at Shibuya on the way so I got off to look around for a bit. The area was even busier than Shinjuku had been the day before. I walked around for a while mostly to people watch and then continued on to Ebisu station.
Shibuya Street Crossing
From the station it was about a 10 minute walk to Yebisu Garden Place. The streets were almost deserted which felt a bit odd. YG Place is a nice open cobble stone plaza with buildings around it and a long escalator with an arched glass roof down to another level. I oriented myself with the help of a large colourful map and walked to the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography. I purchased tickets to all 3 exhibits and started on the 3rd floor.
“The Eye of the Machine, Camera and Lens” exhibit is divided into areas each of which uses photographs to illustrate a different facet of what the camera is capable of doing. The effects of aperture, exposure, depth of field, choice of lens, format etc. are illustrated using many photographs from the earliest age of photography to the present. This sounds a bit dry but it was not. The photographs are all well worth looking at on their own and the way that they are grouped in this exhibit nicely contrasted the art with the techniques used and also worked well with the underlying theme of the exhibit which is to examine photography as it developed into an art form. There were also displays of various cameras from different periods.
The exhibit on the 2nd floor featured the works of Kurigami Kazumia and is titled “portrait of a moment” and was in 3 parts. The first series of black and white photographs had been taken with a toy camera. They are very high contrast and extremely grainy giving almost a graphic art poster feel. They looked like photos from an earlier age when film, equipment and techniques were not as advanced. I have gotten similar results by using graphic arts films and processes instead.
The second series were large chromogenic prints which I really liked.
The third series were black and white prints mostly from Hokkaido with some from Nova Scotia and Furano. This was a cold series that depict a harsh rural environment.
The last exhibit was in the basement and was retrospective on the works of Masayoshi Sukita titled “Sound & Vision”. Sukita is best known for his photos of rock musicians especially during the 1970s. I really liked one tall gallery that had large rolls of paper about 5′ wide with a number of prints on them that hung down the wall and rolled out onto the floor.
Leaving the museum I noticed that the sky was heavily overcast and that it felt like rain. I took a few photos on the way to the Beer Museum but as I have already related I did not get a chance to see the Museum or more importantly to taste the beer.
Back at the hotel I watched the street for a while mostly for the novelty of seeing it without people. I had my windows open which was very fresh but the wind was increasing some rain was coming in so I closed them. I could hear and feel the wind pulling at the windows during the night and there was heavy rain but it didn’t feel much different that a Vancouver storm. I watched the sun rise in the morning in an almost totally clear sky. The roads were dry and there was not any of the aftermath from a serious storm that I am used to from Vancouver. No trees down, no broken branches and leaves on the street. In fact it looked like nothing had happened at all. The street was full of people as per usual. I guess the typhoon was not as powerful as anticipated. It was certainly better than a tidal wave.