Aomori Museum of Art and ELM Mall

Sunday, October 10

Hayao Miyazaki Advert

It’s a pity I live in a country where I cannot read the official language, because if I could, I would have saved my family time and money (¥2400 entrance for two adults, not to mention petro fuel and over ¥2000 in road tolls). Having been to the Ghibri Museum in Tokyo, I WAS initially excited when I picked up the advert for Hayao Miyazaki’s limited-run exhibition at Aomori Museum of Art. I thought they would have a more diverse, kid-friendly, collection borrowed from the museum – sculptures, cell art, etc. While the hundreds of sketches were impressive, after a few minutes, I found myself bored looking into a sea of drawings that blended together. Unlike the robot exhibit, my toddler son paid little attention to the exhibit. Perhaps the most exciting aspect for him was posing with the Tottoro floor image. Museum visitors can draw an image onto stickers and place them on a wall of a special room.

Posing with the Ponyo backdrop

Decorated elevators, Tottoro

Decorated elevators, Spirited Away

Decorated elevators, Kiki's Delivery Service

Stickers drawn by me

Jumping to ensure proper placement

Starbucks in Aomori Prefecture

After the museum, we decided to take a side trip to the ELM Mall in Goshogowara City. To our surprise, Starbucks, I think the only one in Aomori prefecture, existed there. My husband patiently waited in line almost 30 minutes to purchase his coffees and desserts. Before heading back home, the line was considerably shorter, and he purchased more coffee for the road.

ELM Mall in Goshogawara City

ELM Shops, 1st floor

ELM Shops, 2nd floor

Towada Art Center

Sunday, August 15: Towada City Museum of Art

Relatively new, the Towada Art Center opened in 2008 and merges Japanese and international modern, contemporary, and pop art. Both the outside and the inside of the museum aesthetically please the eye.

Excerpt from Towada City Tourist Guidebook

Museum has English handout (yeah!)

Museum entrance fees costs ¥500 for the permanent collection and ¥600 for the special exhibit. When viewed on the same day, there is a ¥200 discount. If you are short on money and unsure about who is featured for the special exhibit, purchase a ticket for the permanent exhibit. As with many Japanese museums, purchase tickets from a vending machine located next to the information desk. After purchasing your ticket, make sure to ask for parking validation, otherwise you will have to pay for parking.

Upon approaching the museum, one cannot help but catch a glimpse of the massive horse on Kanchogai-dori. Created by South Korean installation artist Jeong Hwa Choi, this horse adorned with colorful flowers conspicuously welcomes visitors to Towada Art Center.

Nonoru Tsubaki’s (Japanese) mutant red ant, aTTA, protects the west side of the museum.

At 4m tall, Ron Mueck’s (Australian) Standing Woman disconcerts visitors. Her wrinkled pallid flesh, gaping smoky pupils, and bulging azure veins, mesmerize guests because of its disturbing authentic human resemblance. No picture allowed because it was inside the museum. However, if you’ve never heard of him, definitely Google for images of his jarring sculptures.

Do-Ho Suh’s (another South Korean artist) installation also caught my attention. Appearing like a gigantic jelly-fish chandelier, these almost transparent shapes slowly change hues in a continuum from red, to orange, and translucent.

Upon further speculation, one will notice that over ten thousand piggy-backing figures form the finished work. This picture was taken through the window from the outside. (I really need to get a polarizing filter.)

Across the street, exists a permanent outdoor installation by Yayoi Kusama (Japanese) titled, Love Forever, Singing in Towada. As noted on the Towada Art Center webpage, subjects of multiplying polka dots hails from her childhood hallucinatory experiences during her stay in New York during the 60s.

Ghost by Inges Idee (Compromised of four German artists – Hans Hemmert, Axel Lieber, Thomas A. Schmidt, and Georg Zeyit)

Towada Art Center Hours: 09:00 – 17:00

Closed: Mondays (Tuesdays if Monday is a holiday)

Phone: 0176-20-1127; Website: http://www.city.towada.lg.jp/artstowada/eng/index.html

Towada City Art Center getting there from Misawa AFB

http://traveling-tengco.blogspot.com/2010/08/towada-city-aomori-prefecture-maps.html

Follow driving directions numbers 1 - 12 from my Aug 2010 blog: Towada City Directions and Maps.

Follow the signs and make a right on to Kanchogai-dori (Horse Street).

Turn right at the street corner of the museum. Proceed forward two blocks to a parking lot on the left. This is FREE museum parking. When you purchase your ticket at Towada Art Center, make sure to ask for parking validation, otherwise you will have to pay for parking.

Aomori Museum of Art

Saturday, August 14

One of the many reason I love my husband is because of our common interest in art. He knows that I have a strange attraction to the macabre and he aroused my curiosity to magazines such as Juxtapoz and Hi-Fructose. Anyway, we were at an aquarium and he picked up a flyer for a limited-run exhibition on robots (another favorite Japanese icon of mine). Needless to say, I excitedly agreed to venture to Aomori City with kids in tow to see the exhibit.

There are two costs for the museum, the permanent collection (¥500) and the temporary exhibit (¥1,100). If both are viewed on the same day, there is a ¥200 discount, which is what we did.

Unfortunately, the museum prohibits the photography of any kind (even without flash) inside the museum L.

I would have relished the opportunity to take capture some of the images … a wooden and leather chair shaped in the form of a robot on one knee, old television and stereos reused to form a robot, the original humanoid corpse of Astro Boy, to name a few. Robots in the exhibit included both pre-war and post-war images. Original animated work, magna, and countless action figures of Gundam, Transformers, Tetsujin, Ultraman, Astro Boy and others fill the over five exhibition rooms.

Another exhibition that appealed to me was by Yoshitomo Nara, from Hirosaki City, is a prefectural native. Most of his work centers on children with eyes filled with sorrow. The museum manages over 150 pieces of paintings, drawings, and two installations.

The museum also commissioned Yoshitomo Nara to build two things, one of which is Aomori-ken, an 8.5m tall white dog outside the museum. Onlookers can see the statue from Exhibition Space F the inside the museum or from outside the museum. Outside viewing is not accessible for those in wheelchairs or with strollers because of the lack of elevators. To get to Aomori-ken dog, one would walk up one flight of stairs, walk across the building, then down two flights of stairs.

From October 9, 2009 through January 10, 2010, Studio Ghibli will appear as the museum’s next featured exhibit. If you are a fan of Hayao Miyazaki’s animated movies (Totoro, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Princess Mononoke, and Spirited Away) and do not get a chance to go to Tokyo’s Ghibli Museum, I suggest that you take the time to see this exhibition.

Aomori Museum of Art Hours: 09:30 – 17:00

Closed: Every 2^nd and 4^th Monday, December 27-31

Phone: 017-783-3000; Website: http://www.aomori-museum.jp/en/

First of all, I’d like to say, be weary of the directions provided by the museum’s web site because they are COMPLETELY not to scale. If you are already in the city center, it appears you can take Namidate-dori to the museum, which you can, but it will meander through residential streets with very few English signs. From personal experience, taking Route 44 or 120 southbound onto Route 7 west are better alternatives.

Aomori Museum of Art getting there from Misawa AFB

http://traveling-tengco.blogspot.com/2010/08/aomori-city-maps.html

Follow driving directions numbers 1 - 15 from my Aug 2010 blog: Aomori City Directions and Maps.

Get in the left lanes for Route 7 toward Aomori Airport. Continue along Route 7 passing Routes 103, 120, and 44 – all of which lead you to Aomori City Center.

Do not fret if you cannot locate road signs for Aomori Museum of Art. Most road signs will read Route 7: Hirosaki and Fujisaki. In addition, follow signs for Sannai-Maruyama Site, as it is next to the museum.

Look for the Sannai-Maruyama Site and Aomori Museum of Art exit on the left side.

Turn right at the bottom of the hill. Follow signs to the museum. There are two parking lost. This first one is disable-accessible. The second parking lot is the main one.