Art is Hard

Oh. My. Gosh. Art Festa!

Whitney and I went to Tokyo Big Sight; which is the largest convention center in Japan to the biannual International Art festival that they put on. It was sheer madness, and we had a blast. They had just about every art media that I could think of and then some that I did not think of. We saw all sorts of characters as well.

They had live painting, live music (indoor and outdoor stages), live theatre (indoor and outdoor stages), food trucks/stands, and 3,000 spread over 2 stories. The booths were free-style exhibitions, so the artists were either presenting and/or selling. Some media examples include painting, illustration, photography, craftwork, flower/plant arrangement, dolls/figurines, jewelry, clothing, accessories, etc.

I did get a pretty neat view of Tokyo Bay on my way there, and I was too slow with the camera on the way back, but on the way home, there were what looked like about 20 colorfully lit gondolas floating in the water. I still really like it here, so that’s good :). The big upside-down pyramids are what Tokyo Big Sight is known for, and up close, it was quite impressive.

Japanese people are the most courteous people you will ever meet. So, I don’t know why I was surprised to see a map for the bathroom, but it made me laugh. Note it is even complete with a ‘You are here’ marker.

I did not get pictures of everything I saw since it is people’s art and they are making their living selling it, not having people take pictures of it. Some artists/vendors did not mind, and even encouraged it though. So, in some of these pictures I will try to explain… The body suit one: They were having people draw on them… That’s all the explaining I can do…

Throughout the day, on the bottom level, they had a main stage that they rotated acts though. They had interpretive dance (which was our favorite… maybe because we had beer at that point though), these drummers, belly dancers, samurai fighters, and various other acts, but those were the only ones we caught snippets of.

Once again, they sure do love cats. I cannot tell you how many cat

things I saw. Two whole booths of cat butts too! Haha. The picture of the cat I saw from clear across the room. Took the picture with the zoom on the camera. It was like Cat-zilla peeking over 5 rows of booths. Mrow!

Around lunchtime, one artist was sitting by her booth cutting an intricate design in an apple with a scalpel. Not much of a story behind that one, but she let me take a picture because I thought it was cool. Arigato gozaimasu!

We spent 7 hrs and still didn’t see everything but we decided it was just the right amount of time. It is a lot to take in and a LOT of people to be around.

Also, I know some of the pictures are small... Not sure if you guys have figured this trick out or not, but if you click on the picture, it should pop-up full size.