Sunday Adventure, November 4

My first destination, today, was the antique market at Toji Temple. This market was more interesting and a lot less crowded than the flea market I went to when I first arrived in Kyoto. I really enjoy this kind of market; I love looking at other people’s junk. But I had a purpose this time. I went looking for another crouching cat, like the one I’m using for my logo. I found nothing: not bigger, not smaller, not different material. There were lots of cats, but they were all sitting up and mostly the Hello Kitty variety. I guess finding nothing is almost as interesting as finding something. I’m thinking my cat is a rare specimen, even though I found a similar photo in a book about folk art.

Toji Temple is near Kyoto Station where I got on a Shinkansen and in 15 minutes I was in Shin Osaka. It took another 20 minutes on the subway for me to get to the Municipal Art Museum where I again saw Biombo, the show about gilded folding screens I had seen in Tokyo. There were some differences; they rotate the articles on display through the time of the show, so no one piece gets too much exposure to light and whatever else they are worrying about. Since this is one of my greater interests I enjoyed seeing the show again.I finished my museum visit with coffee and cake at about 2 pm and decided to go to the other end of Osaka to the Folk Crafts Museum in Expo Park.

Today seemed to be my day for stairs. After yesterday’s climbing I wasn’t too happy about it. Or, I should say, my knees weren’t too happy. I’ve become careful about looking for elevators or escalators and usually find them, but this was not my lucky day. Every subway station, the park where the museum was located, even the museum itself, had lots of stairs. Trying to avoid some of them as I left the park I found another Chrysanthemum exhibit, maybe even more interesting than yesterday’s.

My adventure began in trying to get to Expo Park. When I was in Osaka last week I got a map of the park from the tourist bureau. Somewhere along the way, I decided I wouldn’t go there and threw out the map. I remember, approximately where I needed to go, but didn’t really know. I thought I would find signs when I got to the appropriate subway station. There may be signs, but they aren’t in English. So there I was: the subway station empties into a huge shopping center. One side of the station said North end of Center Wicket. The other said, South end of Center Wicket. That Center Wicket stuff only confused me more. What to do. It occurred to me I could just get back on the train and forget the whole thing, but I hate to give up.

A sign in English said, Stationmaster’s Office. I went in, and with great difficulty managed to make them understand what I wanted. I know the word of folk crafts museum in Japanese, Mingeikan, but I guess I have a bad accent. One of the men finally got it, said it was in Expo Park and I would have to take the monorail. He led me up an escalator, down a long corridor and over to the monorail station, where he made sure I bought the right ticket and told me to get off at the second stop.

Following his directions I got off and still couldn’t figure out where to go. I found another official office and was given walking directions to get to the park.

This huge sculpture called Tower of the Sun, looking exactly like a Nikki de Saint Phalle, but actually made by Japanese sculptor Okamoto Taro, is at the entrance to the park. The monorail stops within sight of a huge amusement park. I really wanted to try the Ferris wheel, but it looked like a long walk in the wrong direction. In order to get into Expo Park I had to buy my ticket for the Mingeikan. That was reassuring; at least I knew it had to be somewhere nearby. The park was filled with people, what looked a huge flea market and lots of picnickers around the edge of the market.

I walked, probably not as far as I thought, but remember, I’d already had a full day, and finally got to the Mingeikan, which had a big sign in English.

The museum is small and beautiful, and empty. Peace and quiet prevailed.

 

Of course, I really went there in pursuit of that Yanagi map I had read about. They were sorry. They had exhibited it about 10 years ago. Now it was back in Tokyo. I do much better happening on things than trying to pursue them. I’m probably giving up on that one.

I really didn’t want to walk back through the park to the monorail. The museum people called a taxi for me, and I took another one of those expensive rides back to the subway station. It was worth it; at least I wasn’t totally wiped out when I got back.