www.haramuseum.or.jp
Art may be great, but ya gotta eat, too
BY YORIKO KAWAMURA, CHIHIRO OKA AND LOUIS TEMPLADO
STAFF WRITERS
2008/10/31
The high-tech Lotteria by the Miraikan (LOUIS TEMPLADO)
There's more to enjoy in most museums than the artwork on display. For some, chatting with a companion about the masterpieces they've just seen, or quietly leafing through a newly bought catalog over a cup of coffee can be an aesthetic experience in itself.
Tokyo has its fair share of museums, and in many there's a place set aside exactly for such pleasures: the museum cafe.
Looking for some tranquility? Then head over to the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, located in an upscale residential neighborhood in Shinagawa Ward.
Currently the museum is showing "Tomoko Yoneda: An End Is a Beginning," a photo exhibition which runs through Nov. 30. It's impressive, but so is the museum itself.
A rare example of Modernist architecture from the 1930s, the Hara museum is endowed with an inviting private garden that might make it hard to concentrate on the art.
Newly added folding glass doors lead to an open terrace facing the garden, where the museum's cozy Cafe d'Art awaits customers who want to relax after or in the middle of the art tour.
The highlight on the menu is the "Image Cake" (735 yen), a confection inspired by the art or the artist on exhibit (with approval, of course) that the museum prepares for every show.
Yoneda's photographs show eyeglasses and other artifacts once owned by noted 20-century intellectuals such as Sigmund Freud and Bertolt Brecht. Thus the Image Cake this time is a black sesame mousse with almond jelly. It is topped with a black circle drawn in sesame cream and shaped like half a pair of glasses. If you go with a date make sure to order two so you get the full spectacle.
* * *
Hara Museum of Contemporary Art is a 15-minute walk from JR Shinagawa Station.
Cafe d'Art is open 11 a.m.-5 p.m. (until 8 p.m. Wednesdays except national holidays) when the museum is open. The museum cafe and shop are limited to those who come to see the exhibition. Call 03-5423-1609.
Four places to chow down
If you want to be spoiled for choice, cafe-wise, then head to the National Art Center, Tokyo in the Roppongi area. Japan's largest and newest art palace, this design by the late Kisho Kurokawa is an immense cocoon or hive of glass and in it are no less than four eateries.
Together they form a mirror of the post-Bubble social landscape: For the chattering masses on the ground floor of the huge atrium there's the counter-service Cafe Coquille; On a circular dais above that is mid-range Salon de The Rond; and high above them both is the posh Brasserie Paul Bocuse Le Musee. Below decks, somewhere near the boiler room, one imagines, is Cafeteria Carre. This being Japan, they're all actually run by the same firm, so you pays your money and makes your choice. A cake and waiter service for under 1,000 yen make Rond a good compromise.
Here, too, you could easily forget you've come for the art. Spending the better part of an afternoon watching the goings-on in this hive, while the autumn sun slants in, is an essential Tokyo experience.
* * *
National Art Center, Tokyo is located near Nogizaka subway station.
Brasserie Paul Bocuse Le Musee (03-5770-8161) is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. (until 10 p.m. Fridays). Salon de The Rond (03-5770-8162), Cafe Coquille (03-5770-8164) and Cafeteria Carre (03-5770-8163) are open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
(until 8 p.m. Fridays). Eateries are closed Tuesdays.
Museum of the future
Not quite interested in art? Then why not visit a science museum instead? Located in the Odaiba district, a large artificial island in Tokyo Bay, the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (otherwise known as the Miraikan, "Future Museum"), introduces cutting-edge science and technology from Japan's space development to the microscopic secrets of life.
Next to the museum building is an eatery befitting the futuristic theme. Don't be deceived by the trendy, bright orange seating just beyond the museum's sliding glass doors: It's really one of Lotteria's 600 fast-food outlets in Japan.
The look is a brainchild of designer Lee Myeong Hee, who defines this particular fast-food joint as an "entranceway to a science communication space." The total design was supervised by Takashi Ikegami, a noted complex systems researcher at the University of Tokyo.
The eatery is filled with surprises. The grid patterns on the tables, for example, depict cellular automata in Conway's Game of Life, while the dim lights on the wall represent the synchronized flashing of fireflies--a natural phenomenon.
Never mind if you have no idea what a complex system or cellular automata are. The shop is interesting and enjoyable in its own right. And if you want to know a bit more about what you are seeing, there are books on shelves hollowed out in the wall.
Oops. About the menu. One of the shop's recommendations is the "Zeppin (exquisite) Cheese Burger" (360 yen). For an afternoon snack, try the new chocolate, banana or green tea muffins.
* * *
National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (Miraikan) is near Telecom Center Station on the Yurikamome Line.
Lotteria is open 9 a.m.-7 p.m. Closed Tuesdays. Call 03-3599-2131.(IHT/Asahi: October 31,2008)
沒有留言:
張貼留言