Adventures of Anette

Sunday, October 4, 2015

Fishy Japanese Art: Nihonbashi Art Aquarium

Anette 11:01:00 PM

Japan is certainly the place to go if you want to experience modern and unique types of art. One example of this is the immensely popular Art Aquarium exhibition, where art is created using a selection of specially selected fish as fish tanks. The first Art Aquarium exhibition was held in 2011 when the famous Nihonbashi bridge celebrated its 100th anniversary. This year the Art Aquarium Exhibition was held for the fifth time in Nihonbashi, but even though the event already has been held multiple years in a row we still had to queue up for 90 minutes in order to get in.

Nihonbashi Art Aquarium

Entrance to the exhibition

As the name of the exhibition suggests you can see a range of fish tanks shaped in different forms and sizes. What separates this exhibition from a regular aquarium is that the fish tanks come in all kinds of fancy shapes, and that they light ups in different colours creating an exciting backdrop for the colourful fish that swims lazily around inside the tanks. Here are some of my pictures from the exhibition:

Taking pictures of the fish

A kimono with gold fish pattern

Details on the kimono

http://artaquarium.jp/en/nihonbashi2015/

From Art Aquarium's official page

Kids watching tiny goldfish

Fish and Japanese sake

The last day of the Art Aquarium exhibition in Tokyo was held on September 23rd, but the Art Aquarium is being held in Okinawa from Sep. 18, 2015 (fri) – Nov. 15 (sun). If you plan on a trip to Okinawa you can check out the official page for the Art Aquarium exhibition in Okinawa.

Art Aquarium Official Page

Art Aquarium Okinawa

Recommended Hotels in Tokyo

More Tokyo hotels

Royal Park Hotel The Shiodome

Bunka Hostel
Tokyo

Sotetsu Fresa Inn Nihombashi

Ryokan Asakusa Shigetsu Hotel

Related blogposts

All blogposts from Tokyo

Thank you for reading! Please feel free to leave any comments or questions below
Anette

Monday, September 28, 2015

日本語あり

"Moomin Story" Scandinavian Fair at Matsuya Ginza 松屋銀座北欧フェア

Anette 11:50:00 PM

Matsuya Ginza has a history going back to 1869, and as well as being the first department store in Ginza it is one of the leading department stores in Tokyo.
今年も松屋銀座で北欧フェアが開催されましたので、友達と一緒に見に行きました。北欧各国のキャラクターやグッズもあり、北欧出身の私にとっても楽しいイベントでした。

Moon Story & Scandinavia Fair at Matsuya Ginza

A couple of times a year Matsuya Ginza is having a Scandinavian Fair (北欧フェア) where people can come to the exhibition area on the 7th floor and check out various Scandinavian design and products. This time the main character of the fair was the Finnish character Moomin, and the fair was held to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the first Moomin publication. The fair included a Moomin exhibition titled "Moomin! Moomin Story". For those who aren't familiar with this character it is a white troll from the books by Finnish-Swedish author Tove Jansson, and this character is extremely popular in Japan.

A Moomin cafe at the Scandinavian Fair

今回はフィンランドの有名なキャラクターであるムーミンの誕生70周年を記念してこのイベントは開催され、ムーミンの商品や芸術が沢山ありました。日本ではムーミンがフィンランドの作品として知られていますが、ムーミンを作成した作家のご両親は二人ともスウェーデン出身であることをご存知ですか。トーベ・ヤンソン自身はフィンランドで生まれましたが、ムーミンの原本はフィンランド語ではなく、スェーデン語で書かれています。北欧の言語はノルウェー語、スウェーデン語、デンマーク語、フィンランド語があります。フィンランド語のみ他の北欧の言語と全く異なる言語ですが、その他の北欧の言語は
ひとつの言語の方言のようにどれも非常に似ており共通点も多くあります。そのおかげでスウェーデン語で書かれた原本をノルウェー人の私でもそのまま読むことができます。

Mugs with Moomin drawings

The Norwegian cartoon character "Kubbe" (which means "log" in Norwegian) was also represented at the Scandinavian Fair along with other characters from the Scandinavian countries. As I have written about before a lot of Japanese people seem to enjoy so-called yurukyara (ゆるキャラ) mascots, and for the moment it seems that Kubbe is the character that best represents Norway in the Japanese market.

今回の北欧フェアではノルウェーの可愛いキャラクター「キュッパ」も見かけました。「キュッパ」はノルウェー語で「丸太」の意味があります。最近は日本でも少し人気を集めているようですね。

Kubbe in Tokyo

A lot of different sellers were showing of their products at the Scandinavian Fair. My friends Chiaki and Mayumi also had a booth at the fair with their store Blancway, and as usual they participated with various products from Scandinavia with the main focus on Swedish tea.

北欧フェアで様々なお店が出店されていたのですが、そのなかで普段は代官山でBlancwayというお店を運営している友人のブースもありました。Blancwayは様々な北欧商品を販売していますが、メインとして高級のスウェーデン紅茶で参加されています。

Booth at the Scandinavian Fair

We are also having a small collaborating with my small project selling safety reflectors with traditional Norwegian design under the brand name Nordlys, which means Northern Lights in Norwegian. Safety reflectors increase visibility in the dark, and make it possible for a car driver to spot you at 300 meters distance and even more, while the distance is only maximum 100 meters.
そこで自分がプロデュースしている交通安全の反射板リフレクターもBlancwayとのコラボで販売しています。まだ規模が小さいですが、おしゃれなノルウェーデザインで暗いところで歩いてても３００メートル先から車に認識されるように作られています。そのブランド名Nordlysはノルウェー語やデンマーク語でオーロラ（直訳で「北の光」）の意味で、ロゴも実際にオーロラの形の模様で描かれています。

At Blancway's booth

The project is still very small, but I hope that we’ll be able to increase pedestrian safety at the same time as promoting Norwegian design in Japan.
規模はまだ小さいですが、おしゃれな北欧デザインと共にみんなさんの交通安全をアップさせることができれば幸いです。

The first part of the Scandinavian Fair was held from 17. September until the 23. September. While the Moomin Exhibition is over the general Scandinavian Fair is still going on until 5th October. For the latter part of the Scandinavian Fair my friends are running a cafe called Stockholm Cafe where they also are displaying their items, so for people who might be interested please feel free to check it out.
ムーミンの展覧会は９月１７日から９月２３日まで開催されましたが、北欧フェアは１０月５日まで開催されています。北欧フェア後半にはBlancwayが「ストックホルム・カフェ」を運営していますので、興味がある方は是非お越しください。

Other pages:

Matsuya Ginza Official Site

Blancway Official Site

Nordic Aurora Design Official Site

Nordic Aurora Design - Online Site

リンク（日本語）

Blancway公式サイト

Nordic Aurora Design公式サイト

Nordic Aurora Design - オンラインストア

関係あるポスト：日本語あり

オシャレな北欧ザインの反射板リフレクター「ノールリス」のご紹介

「ノールリス」とはノルウェー語とデンマーク語で「オーロラ」の意味です。　　　　　

「Nordlys」

　・＊北の光＊・

オーロラの様に暗い夜でも光り、夜の歩行者の交通安全をアップさせるリフレクター(反射板)です。現在ノルウェーで活動する若手ノルウェー人アーティストによる北欧の伝統的なデザイン。

命を守るオシャレな交通安全リフレクター「Nordlys」を是非お試しください(´∇｀*)♬

Saturday, September 26, 2015

Sendai

Dining out in Sendai: Ruriza (瑠璃座) in Kokubuncho (国分町)

Anette 5:45:00 PM

If you're spending an evening in Sendai and want to experience the nightlife here you might want to go and check out the down town area called Kokubuncho (国分町). Here you can find a lot of the typical things Japanese nightlife has to offer, such as karaoke, traditional izakaya bars and restaurants. During my recent trip to Sendai my friend Amee and I ended up at a small Japanese restaurant in this area called Ruriza (瑠璃座). Here are some pictures for those who might be interested in checking the place out:

Entrance to the Kokubuncho area

Entrance to Ruriza

Details from the interior

If you sit by the counter you can watch as the food is being prepared

Sushi ready to be served

Otoshi (お通し)

At a lot of Japanese izakaya-style restaurants it is common to get served an otoushi (お通し), which is a small appetizer that you pay for in lieu of a cover charge. This restaurant served us a couple of pieces of sushi with our drinks (picture above), and the cover charge was 432 yen incl. tax.

Sashimi (raw fish)

All in all it was a nice place. We payed around 2500 yen each in total for our food and drinks there, but the food came in relatively small portions so if you don't mind spending more on a dinner you might want to order more than we did. For those interested in trying the Sendai speciality Beef tongue gyuutan (牛タン) you can also get it here.
Either way the atmosphere was good, and an evening here will definitely be a nice dining experience in Sendai.