Hidetomo Kimura's Art Aquarium: Fishy fun

One of my favorite things about traveling is that when you're in another city or country you have the opportunity to discover different cultures, take in the sights, and enjoy the local cuisine. One of my travel traditions is to to visit an art exhibit or museum that exhibits local talent, because it provides me a glimpse into the values and mindset of the place I'm visiting. I'm hoping to continue an 'Art and Travel'  segment that highlights either exhibits I've seen personally, or ones that are upcoming around the globe that I'd love to see. Here's a glimpse into an exhibit I visited last summer that perfectly blended art, culture, and history.

Originally posted on my wordpress site: TheRoamingHeart

Hidetomo Kimura's Art Aquarium

Goldfish are ubiquitous during Japanese summers; they can be seen lulling in the cool waters of reflection pools at the local shrine, evading being caught by old and young alike at festival game booths, and gracing the yukata of stylish ladies. It is nearly impossible to evade these lucky fish when you visit Japan today, but this wasn't always the case. Goldfish, or kingyo (金魚), first came to Japan, in about 1502. At this time they were few and thus considered a rare and precious item belonging only to those of power and influence. It wasn't until the Edo Period (1603-1867) that the presence of goldfish spread to the entire population and began to influence art and fashion, appearing on woodblock prints and kimonos. Kimura's exhibit aims to recreate the ambiance of Edo Japan and the reign of Kingyo for this years theme: "Cool Goldfish of Edo".

Kimura's art aquarium is a relaxing way to beat the heat of Tokyo summer. A perk, in the evenings the exhibit turns into a lounge where you can order a glass of champagne or sake while enjoying the languid movement of the surrounding goldfish dancing to a DJ's set. If you didn't catch Kimura's exhibit this past summer, he puts on a fresh art aquarium exhibit every year. Location details at the bottom of this post.

A projected kimono with live goldfish mimics the authentic kingyo adorned kimono from the Edo period on either side. Taken on my Iphone

The magnum opus of the exhibition, The Four Season Aquarium. The projection changes to depict spring, summer, fall, and winter. Image Courtesy of culture.cdjapan

A kaleidoscope world. When fish swim by the lens, the pattern changes as though you are rotating the kaleidoscope. Image courtesy of Japan Times

Image Courtesy of Spoon&Tamago

Hidetomo Kimura's Art Aquarium
Dates: Held annually July-Sept
Times: Art Aquarium 11am-7pm
Night Aquarium 7pm-11:30pm
Venue: Nihonbashi Mitsui Hall-5F Coredo Muromachi, 2-2-1 Nihombashi-Muromachi,  Chuo-ku, Tokyo
Admission: 1,000yen for adults, 600 yen elementary school age and under
URL: h-i-d.co.jp/art/index.html or www.facebook.com/artaquarium1

Japanese Culture

About a month ago while at a dinner party hosted by an older Japanese man, some of my 2nd year ALT friends had been chatting about something called Kancho. Being the newbie, I had no idea what they were talking about and so naturally I asked them what this mystery topic was. Instead of giving me an answer themselves, they told me to ask Taisho (our host). So I turn to our host and ask in English, `What is kancho`? He smiles and chuckles a bit and pauses before giving me his answer in English, `Japanese culture desu`, laughs a bit more and leaves it at that. My friends explain that I will more than likely find out sooner than later (it being usually rather prominent in Elementary school age students) and gave me a bit of a run down on this odd bit of Japanese culture.


At Breakfast Taisho showing us some more traditional and appropriate Japanese culture.

Today, Novemver 8th (the day I began this post, not the day I will eventually post it) marks the day that I have officially visited all of my 17 schools (both elementary and JHS) at least once, some I have already visited multiple times. This last school was Migama, one of my 12 elementary schools. As mentioned before in an earlier post elementary schools are both the reason and bane of my existence here in Japan. And this day was no exception, my elementary school children were suuuuper super cute and as per usual, super genki and excited to see me. Which of course leads to a happy but exhausted Keri. At this point, having visited all of my schools at least once I was beginning to think that maybe Oshima was too out in the sticks for my kids to know and engage in the odd kancho-ing activity, since I hadn`t seen any such activity or attempts in my over 3 months of being here. It certainly seemed that way to begin with seeing as the most exciting thing that occurred while teaching both the first and second graders was to watch a Japanese girl with a cold poke her finger into her nose, pull out a dribbling jem, examine it, and of course conclude by sticking it into her mouth and nom away (gaaahhh! I had to turn away as to not show my ultimate revulsion). Booger eating: one of those things that transcends cultural boundaries...
I can see it now, two little kids one from America and one from Japan bonding over the mutual experience of loving to eat their snot. (bleh)

Anyway, that small diversion/revulsion aside my classes had been going extremely smoothly. Playing games and singing songs with the kids. But then it came time for the 3rd and 4th graders. And now dear reader, you will get to hear what exactly this odd kancho thing is. As usual, I needed to first introduce myself and then one by one my students would stand up and do their own small self-introduction. The first 3 students were giggly third grade girls and that went smoothly enough. My next student was a third grade boy, (whom I suspect the giggly girls had a crush on) anyway when he stood up to introduce himself the girls attempted to do an odd -kancho-inspired prank. So what they did was that once their boy crush stood up, the girl sitting closest to him put her cupped hand down onto the seat of the boys chair fingers sticking up. And next thing you know the boy is done giving his self-intro and sits back down and....well thankfully it was a rather slow movement and his bum felt those little pointed fingers before anything too invasive happened.
And there I stood completely appalled and surprised at this kind of kancho like behavior and, my JTE not concerned in the least while the boy stood up again protected his bum and watched to make sure that the girls did not try to re-attempt their trick as he sat back down. Spurred on by this small success and maybe by my queer reaction the girls continued to attempt to do this to each boy who had yet to do introduce himself to me. Thankfully the boys picked up on this and kept an attentive eye on their seats.


Anyway, like I have said, what I experienced was not the traditional kancho method, or whatever you would call it. Thank goodness my kids have not tried to pull a full on legitimate kancho in front of me (or worse, to me!) because I would probably be even more mortified than when I saw the little girl digesting her snotty booger (well maybe the snot is more disgusting). So, I will briefly explain what kancho is. Simply put it is a kind of game or prank that young Japanese kids play (usually aged from preschool to maybe 2nd/3rd grade). And basically all this entails is clasping your two hands together with your pointer fingers sticking out (as if you were pretending to wield a gun) and then take those fingers and do your best to ram them up your friend or teachers butt. A lot of the 2nd year + JETs have witnessed this in action, and some of them have even fallen victim to this `harmless` prank. Yes, this game/prank/thing is not only popular, but this behavior is also tolerated....geeze louise Japan, you are an odd country indeed. Thankfully, this behavior seems to last only up until about 2nd or 3rd grade.
The best way to prevent a Japanese kid ramming their digits up your bum: keep your back to the wall our your hands clasped behind your back. I`ve also heard that taking a kid hostage is also a suitable prevention method.



Oddity Commodity

Check this link to see some good ol` Santa Kancho
poor guy, didnt even know what he was in store for.
http://youtu.be/GDbA9E6Blbo

Check the wiki page for a little more info
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kancho

And anytime you ask about Kancho to a Japanese person. Their response, you guessed it, `Japanese culture (desu)`.

There was something else I think I had wanted to write about odd or interesting Japanese culture, but I have since forgotten about it, so for a later post maybe!

Today (the day I am concluding and posting this blog) 11/11 is a rather special day for two reasons. Reason 1) Today is Pocky day in Japan, kind of like 7/11 in America. So today you go into the 7-11, Lawsons, Family Mart, etc. convenience store and say `Today is Pocky day` and they will give you some free Pocky, awesome! Reason 2) Today is my good (new) friend Ciaran`s birthday and so to ring it in with honor a group of us will be going out for Mexican (as close as you can get to it in Japan anyway) and drinks!
Until Next Time!

Keri