Blog - Roppongi afternoon of music and art

Roppongi afternoon of music and art

This afternoon (Saturday), after a bit of shopping in Shinjuku, we headed down to Roppongi... not a frequent destination for me.

The first plan was to go see a free live show by the fascinations, who I hadn't have the chance to see in a little while. They played outdoors at the Roppongi Hills Arena, a round space of which the stage is a sort of semi-island. They began the set with a song that I heard them play before, but I think that most of the rest was from their upcoming album "quiet dance"! A nice surprise was a cover of MJ's "Rock With You" which rocked but was heavily arranged into their jazzy style. As soon as they played the first notes of "fascinated groove", I predicted that it was the last song and that it would include members call, and I was right. :) I think it's always been the closing song every time I've seen them. We went to say hi to the very friendly Watanabe-san and Miura-san before leaving.

Then we went to check out the Roppongi Crossing exhibition at the Mori Art Museum. Works of all kinds by over 30 artists are exhibited. Here are some of our highlights:

- a huge futuristic city made of metal scraps by Enoki Chū. It's possible to climb to the center to have a close look.
- super precise hand-drawn copies of old newspaper by Yoshimura Yoshio. Must be seen to be believed! I bought a copy of an old page from the Japan Times, sold at the shop for the cheap price of the newspaper back in the day: ¥90(+tax).
- two video-controlling drum kits by d.v.d., which anyone can play as they do in their live shows.
- giant prints of photos by Uchiyama Hideaki, who takes dark shots of strange places which all look out-of-this-world. His photos have been used as cover artwork for Ishino Takkyū's "Title" albums.

One of the most crowded corners was the one by funny artist Tanaka Iichirō, who had all kinds of hilarious installations, from sashimi stamped with ink on a sheet the way fishermen do to keep proof of their catches, to video showing pigeons running around and pausing on the face of one with fake Japanese cast names as if it was an action movie. Hahaha! Also very funny was a photo book showing the artist in places where he found a broken wall or other stuff, him in a pose like if he'd be breaking it himself. Must see!

Last but not least was visual artist Ukawa Naohiro, recently featured on Pingmag, a space inspired by a hurricane in which powerful fans blow real money around! There's lots and lots of cash there, from all countries, and visitors are even allowed inside for just 2 minutes. That's only a few times a day though, and only 21 people each time (7 groups of 3). We were lucky to be there about at the right time, we reserved our places at 18:30 for the 19:00 slot. We wore rubber boots and white allover hooded outfits, so that money can't be stolen. I sure had fun grasping handsful of cash and throwing it around! Talk about a unique chance. :)

"Roppongi Crossing 2007: Future Beats in Japanese Contemporary Art" Exhibition
Venue: Mori Art Museum
Schedule: until January 14, 2008
Open from 10:00 until 22:00, except Tuesdays until 17:00 (until 22:00 on December 25 and January 1st)
Address: Roppongi Hills Mori Tower (53F), 6-10-1 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-6150
Phone: 03-5777-8600

Last, we checked out the city view on the 52th floor of Roppongi Hills where I took these photos of Tokyo Tower. I could have got some better angles using my GorillaPod tripod, but I had to forget it today..! These are best viewed large.