Tokyo 2012 - Day 4

I woke up later than expected and set off rather late. Seeing it was almost 12pm when I reached Roppongi, I decided to have brunch at Midtown. Came across this bagel place called Junoesque Bagel Cafe and they had a lunch set at ¥800 that came with a bagel, fries and soup. I picked the Pumpkin & Earl Grey bagel and clam chowder soup.

 

Didn't really taste the pumpkin or earl grey in the bagel, but there was a nice light fragrance to the taste and it wasn't overly heavy as bagels usually were (or maybe because I was hungry). They gave a rather generous dollop of thick cream cheese which I now regret not spreading everything. And the fries. They were one of the best fries I've eaten. They were the shoestring kind and so crisp and full of flavor. That was rather unexpected. A rather enjoyable meal except for the matcha cafe latte that I ordered separately. Matcha and coffee don't really seem to mix well. I shall stick to simply matcha latte next time.

After the brunch, I proceeded to my intended location, the National Art Center, Tokyo (yes, I'm not going Roppongi to shop...those shops are just way above my limits).

There were a few exhibitions going on, 2 paying ones and 1 free one. I decided to go for the Hiroji Noda exhibition (¥1,000) as recommended by the information staff. It was a good choice and a few of his artworks gained my fancy, even though they were contemporary in style. The exhibition included more than a hundred pieces of his works and they were mainly a very different acrylic on canvas series, some involving mixed media creations. No photo-taking allowed though. When I have time, I will do a separate post on it. That took me almost 2 hours, and after that, I took a quick walk around the free calligraphy exhibition by their artists' association before rushing off to meet V. It was huge! I nearly got lost finding my way around. I'm not well-versed in calligraphy even though I used to do some of it in primary school, but it was interesting seeing some of them; there were really colorful ones that they looked like water colour paintings and the subjects painted were rather different from the traditional ones we're used to.

The rest of the day saw me shopping again (at Shibuya) where I bought quite a few t-shirts. There was a nice tee shop (Arton) that lets you pick from a whole range of designs and once you pick your design and tee, they will print the t-shirt there and then. I think it's a great concept so you don't waste the t-shirts. But it's a bit pricey though at ¥2,500 for 1 piece, so I only bought one. You get discounts though when you buy more. I went to Uniqlo (again) and bought a wool coat on discount at ¥5990 (about S$100), which I think was quite worthed it, considering it stated it was 100% wool. Also bought 2 t-shirts there. Shucks, think I'm buying too many t-shirts already. But the Uniqlo t-shirts were just ¥990 each and had Snoopy characters and Winnie the Pooh, not that I was a huge fan of the latter, but my nephew is.

Dinner was at Watami which was super cheap! Ok, we didn't order much and shared our stuff, but the bill came up to only ¥1,200 which works out to be only ¥600 per person. My afternoon tea at Tully's with just a tea and donut was already that amount.

Tokyo 2012 - Day 3

It snowed again! Only a little in the morning but still pretty.  Took a quick bite at Cafe Veloce. Matcha latte and a random bun, that turned out to be filled with rock melon cream! The sweet surprises one gets when you can't read Japanese.

Off to Edo-Tokyo Museum in the Ryogoku region, the sumo district.

But I didn't really have time to explore sumo land, only the museum which I took about  2.5 hours. It was a tour of the history and culture of Edo (Tokyo). The entrance fee was ¥600 for adults for the permanent exhibit.  There were English write ups for the exhibits, so it was still understandable.

 

By the time I came out it was already 3.15pm and I went off to Harajuku to meet V for shopping! And shop I did.

My first stop was Gap directly opposite the exit. I had been wanting to get a black pair of jeans but they didn't have that many choices. However, I was persuaded to try their Ultra Skinny which I could amazingly wear! I had never really had success with skinny jeans as they were always too narrow and I could never get it up all the way comfortably. But this was so stretchy that it easily fitted, even when I was wearing tights! So obviously, I had to buy it. My 1st, and probably the only pair of skinny jeans I'll ever get.

My next purchase was inevitably, agnès b bags. I bought two in fact. Hmm...should I even consider going back to the shop at Odakyu since I spotted some stuff there before? Anyway, that wasn't all as I bought some tops from Zara and also accessories and socks while passing by some shops. Did managed to shop for some souvenirs for the dept though. Did a lot of damage today in my terms - more than ¥40K yen. *gulp*

Dinner was at a ramen place that V brought me. It was pretty good, except that the egg was fully cooked. And I enjoyed the music very much - The Beatles. Haha, this was of course better than the cup noodles and convenience store oden we had for the past two nights.

Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition

Event: Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition (100th Anniversary, 1912-2012) (link)
Venue: Marina Bay Sands ArtScience Museum
Showing: 29 October 2011 - 29 April 2012

I first got interested in Titanic because (you've guessed it) the movie with Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. But what really struck me deep was not the love story, but the tragedy of the whole event, which could have been prevented to a certain extent and the lives lost. How something of such technical "perfection" could fall as such. The under-used life boats, the poor lookout, etc. And all these were even more apparent and brought me back to what I had "researched" before when I visited the exhibition.

As no photography was allowed, I won't have photos to show you, so hopefully I can describe my experience as best I can. The exhibition was bigger (and better) than I expected and I think I took almost 2 hours covering it, leaving the museum near closing time at about 10pm, with no dinner (I was exploring the Dali exhibition before this). Definitely worthed visiting. Tickets are at $24, and if you're local, you get 15%. OCBC card holders get 20% off.

At the entrance, you'll be given a "boarding pass" which has been printed with the name of a real passenger on the Titanic. You're supposed to check the name against the list of survivors (and casualties) at the Memorial Gallery later. Here's mine (front & back), Mrs. William R Bucknell.

Upon entering, you're greeted with the image of the bow of the ship where the commissioned photographer will take a picture of you (which you can place orders for later), as if you're really boarding the ship.

The exhibition starts off with an introduction to the conception and construction of the colossal ship. One can't help but be amazed by the engineering feat. And as you continued, you are shown the re-created staterooms, dining luxuries, cabins and the various types of dinnerware, toiletries, amenities, etc. with comparisons between the first, second and third class passengers' utilities. I loved the music they were playing, but my Track ID failed to identify what the pieces were. The disparities between the classes were wide, but generally, the third class passengers experienced much better lodging and amenities than as they would have experienced on other ships. And of course, there's the famous Grand Staircase, where you can again, have your photo taken.

Following that, one would be led into the Boiler Room, where you would know the work that goes on in the bowers of the ship. You would also find out how the watertight chambers worked, but sadly failed to keep the waters out eventually, as more than half the chambers were filled with water due to the collision. As the shipbuilder, Thomas Andrews, said in despair, it was impossible for Titanic to survive.

Then came one of the most beautiful part of the ship for me, the promenade deck. The illusion of a 100-feet deck was created with facing mirrors. And stepping out from the boiler room zone, you are immediately greeted with a beautiful star-filled night sky. As you leaned over the railing, the play of lights simulated waves. It was almost real, beautiful and peaceful. I could have stayed there for ages just basking in the gentle breeze (yes, that was included too) and quietude of that moment. But it made it all the more tragic of what was to come on that fateful night.

With reluctance, I left the solace of the promenade and came face-to-face with the iceberg. A big block of freshwater ice loomed in the next room for us to get a feel of the freezing conditions in the North Atlantic of that night. It was really very cold and imagine that saltwater ice is even colder! Most of the passengers who died didn't really die of drowning, but of the cold. And the pain of it was that the earlier launches of the lifeboats were not filled! If more could have gotten into the boats, there would have been more survivors. And also, it was noted that there weren't actually sufficient boats available. Even worse, the lookout didn't have binoculars (he misplaced it), by which was the reason the warning came too late. It was sadly a combination of the various factors that turned this into a tragedy that could have been avoided.
One of the unfortunate events too was that a portion of the passengers were actually transfers from other intended passages due to coal strikes happening throughout the UK. Many of the other ships couldn't sail. Titanic managed to consolidate the coal resources that were available from these ships for her passage across the Atlantic. Unlucky, you might say, for these people.

The most touching part would probably be the accounts or stories of the people who died, including the personal effects of those who perished. As one reached the Memorial Gallery, we are faced with the list of those we were saved and lost (here's where your boarding pass comes in). By this time, probably with the help of the music and having soaked up the whole ambience and story, I was already feeling sad once again for Titanic and its passengers. This particular line quoted struck me as I held back my tears. One passenger, Ida Straus, when asked to board a lifeboat (the priority was given to women and children), said "I will not be separated from my husband. As we have lived, so we will die: together". It just tore through my heart...one can only sigh. And there were many of these personal accounts that would set your heart aggrieved.
However, I did read an interesting account of a supposed passenger, Howard Irwin. He was supposed to take the ship, but was kidnapped and eventually escaped from his captors. His friend, Henry Sutehall, Jr., nonetheless brought his possessions on board thinking it was one of Howard's habits of arriving at the last minute. You can say that Howard's kidnap was a blessing in disguise. Henry sadly died on the fatal voyage. Both of them were musicians and the recovery of Howard's possessions revealed an old score of "Love's Old Sweet Song" by JL Molloy (I think it was from Howard's possessions).

As the exhibition came to a close, the setting was as if we were underwater, with glass floor under our feet and artifacts sunken in the sand (ocean floor) to simulate depths of where Titanic sank. There was also a small section on Singapore's response and reports on the event.

So there, a journey through the depths of the Titanic. And oh yah, "I" survived.

Dali: The Mind of A Genius exhibition

It is to my vague memory that I somehow didn't visit the Dali Universe in London (near the London Eye) way back in 2006. So with the exhibit drawing to a close, I "rushed" to visit the Dali exhibition at MBS on its last 2nd day.
I don't know how I should describe his works. His genre is surrealism, and I guess his most famous creation would be his melting clock series.

 

Anyway, as a prep, here are the symbols and their meanings that Dali used in his pieces. 

Drawers - secrets
Ant - death and sexual desire
Crutch - death and resurrection
Grasshopper - fear and anxiety
Butterflies - soul
Egg - life, love and hope
Snail - human head
silhouettes - spirit and apparitions

Hard outside, soft inside - lobster, egg, bread, melted watch.

I didn't take that many notes at the exhibition but just some things that stood out. If you noticed, the faces of most of the sculptures don't really have distinct features.

 

There was one pretty creepy one (to me) of Alice (of Wonderland) though. But to Dali, Alice was the ideal representation of surrealism.

There were also a few angel sculptures and this one's pretty unique in its way, called Vision of an Angel where the thumb in bricks was supposed to represent God I think. A tower maybe?

Of the exhibits, I kind of liked this one called Man with Butterfly. I don't know why I liked it, but maybe because of how "balanced" it was; how it can stand like that on its own and maybe a sense of symmetry. It was almost life-like to me.

Another aspect of his works was that they could contain double meanings in their symbolism.

Besides sculptures, Dali does paintings and drawings as well, but those weren't  really my cup of tea. But 1 particular form (furniture) that stood out for me was this particular display mounted on the wall/ceiling (probably the way they were mounted & arranged had some influence on me).

Personally, I think I very much preferred Charles Rennie Mackintosh's works (interior design & furniture). He's one of my favourite designers especially after my experience with his creations in Glasgow.

It was an interesting exhibit nonetheless.

Hong Kong 2011 (2) - Day 2 Highlights

As one of my objectives of visiting Hong Kong was to visit at least 1 museum, we went to the Hong Kong Museum of History. Interestingly it started off like a natural science history journey and neolithic revolution first. Who would have thought since I only think of Hong Kong from the Chinese history perspective. Admission is HKD10 (less than S$2) and HKD5 each for my parents.
This is the museum main entrance:

And some exhibits:

After the museum, it was already quite late, around 2 plus and we were hungry. However, the 2 places around we thought of going to were closed for lunch already by the time we reached around 3pm. In the end, we settled for Fook Yuen at Houston Centre for afternoon dimsum, which was so-so, and staff weren't as friendly.

Oh, and I saw the nice bag from Giallo, which you would now know that I went back to buy eventually (yup, didn't buy it straightaway). I was holding out in search of a lightweight black bag I would like and willing to pay for (which I didn't). I wouldn't say I specially went back to buy, but we wanted to try Lei Garden (see later post) which was one of the restaurants that was already closed when we reached this day, so had 顺便 bought the bag.

After that, we decided to try to explore Uniqlo and H&M. We never managed to reach the latter, as we got side-tracked first to Sogo TST, which we didn't find anything (no sale going on), and then nearly "lost" our way, because we didn't know which part of Canton Street Uniqlo was. It was actually in Harbour City itself, and we thought we could see it from outside. But, as a result, we unwittingly wandered to the outlet mall, where we found some shoes at Mirabell, my father 1 pair of Merrell, and me 2 pairs from Stonefly (which I think we can't find in Singapore) :P. That's 3 pairs of shoes for me already within 2 days! And all three cost us a total of HKD 2,236.

Anyway, there were some Halloween decorations along Canton Road that were pretty cute.

Well, we finally found Uniqlo. My mum wanted to buy one of those lightweight down jackets they had and well, I got a long-sleeve tee and a white blouse (JPlus). Bought some stuff there (I got a white shirt and long-sleeve tee) and by the time it was already almost 9pm, so we settled for Crystal Jade Xiao Long Bao. We heard that Crystal Jade in HK was good, and it was not bad. We tried to order some of what we don't normally see on our menus here.

 

So that ended our Day 2. Thankfully we could just take the shuttle bus back to the hotel after a long day of walking.