TOKYO >> Three things I liked best during a 10-day jaunt to Japan earlier this month:
>> teamLab Museum, tomorrow’s art gallery today, is an immersive, interactive computer-generated art installation, staged in darkness, where the viewers help change the astounding, moving images on the ceiling, the walls, the floors and consequently, your body. You become part of this hip, tech-era digital artistry in the Palette Town development in Odaiba, steps away from a giant Ferris wheel. The formal name is Mori Building Digital Art Museum: Epson teamLab Borderless, too complicated to utter. The social media savvy know this gem simply as teamLab Museum. What an imaginative accomplishment.
>> Koedo Osatsuan’s Osatsu Chips are monsters — crunchy chips at least 2 inches wide and 10 inches tall. They are a must-try, must-buy nibble in the atmospheric village of Kawagoe (also called Little Edo, and known for its sweet-potato crops). Such a divine and delish find.
>> A modest, compact, but revealing Shitamachi Museum, five minutes from the train station in Ueno, depicts life from the Meiji era (1868-1912) to the Taisho era (1912-26), when lower-class commoners lived in row houses, made copper kettles, shopped at a mom-and-pop candy store and bathed in public furo houses. Exhibit zones depict homes and work spaces created from actual recycled lumber and stone on the first floor; cultural items, including toys and games, are on the second floor.
For specifics, read on …
DIGITAL DELIGHT
teamLab Museum is the world’s first digital museum, created by an arts collective, ensconced in a three-story space of 107,000 square feet. It uses 520 computers and 470 projectors to dazzle the eye and stimulate the imagination. With five viewing areas and connecting corridors, there’s a lot to see and explore.
My favorite was the field of sunflowers dancing in the winds, with petals often forming golden rainfall. Too, there are flowing rivers that won’t soak you, flowers that won’t agitate your allergies, forests that might inspire you, fishes you can’t catch, falling kanji words on walls that, if touched, reflect the characters: gold dust or butterflies will burst when the right kanji hits your awaiting hands. Kids can turn their artwork into animated attractions on the walls, so all the images are flashed in real time. Incredible.
Some areas have mirrored floors, so watch what you wear; parents should hang onto young children, as they could easily get lost in the crowded darkness. Corridors feature animation galore, like hopping rabbits.
Details: The Mori Building Digital Art Museum: Epson teamLab Borderless, at Palette Town, Odaiba, 1-3-8 Aomi, Koto-ku, Tokyo; open 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays; 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sundays; hours vary Dec. 13-Jan. 4; tickets are 3,200 yen ($29); border less.teamlab.art
CHIP, CHIP HOORAY
A tiny kitchen pumps out the gargantuan Osatsu sweet potato chips, and while you won’t easily locate the shop, you’ll know you’re there when you encounter the long lines (expect a 45- to 60-minute wait) and eventual happy faces of satisfied visitors. An order of these incredibly razor-thin, crispy gems is 500 yen ($5) for about a dozen huge, eye-appealing and photogenic chips, set in a plastic cup containing a buttery sauce (not really needed) and bagged in see-through plastic. If you can’t finish the bundle in a day, the chips remain crisp for two or three more days.
Details: Koedo Osatsuan, Kawagoe 350-0063, Saitama Prefecture, a 50-minute subway ride from Shinjuku station
TINY TREASURE
Secure an English-speaking guide to walk and talk you through the quaint Shitamachi (literally, “low city”) Museum displays. You may touch objects and enter re-creations of the bygone living quarters and shopping displays, and play with the universal and familiar toys on the upper level.
Details: At 2-1 Ueno Koen, Taito-ku, Tokyo 110-007; open 9:30 a.m- 4:30 p.m. daily except Tuesdays (closed Dec. 29-Jan. 1); tickets are 300 yen ($3); www.taitocity.net/zaidan/shitamachi.
AND DON’T MISS…
Shopaholics should visit Daiso (coming to Hawaii in December), Can Do, Loft, Tokyu Hands, Don Quijote and the smaller dollar stores throughout the city … and the train stations and department stores host rows of eateries with everything from ramen to tonkatsu, plus boxed candy and senbei for omiyage.
And that’s “Show Biz.” …
Wayne Harada is a veteran entertainment columnist. Reach him at 266-0926 or wayneharada@gmail.com.
