Week 22 - Sun's out, fun's out in Tokyo

Edited BY

G P Kennedy

Ian and Minako - Tokyo, Japan

 Hello again from scorching Tokyo, we are both well, surviving the maximum temperatures of 35+ degrees in the last fortnight and looking forward to a slightly milder September, though it could also bring some typhoons!

 

 The big news here is that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has announced his resignation due to health reasons. He has seemed pretty inactive for a long time, his popularity rating is very low and elections are due next year. We will have to wait and see whether his successor will be any better or worse.

 

 Abe hasn't gone yet though. On Friday he announced that vaccinations for the coronavirus would be available for all citizens by the first half of next year. Testing is to be improved and increased and the Health ministry is considering down-grading the disease to a lower ranking as hospitals and health professionals are more experienced and better prepared for dealing with it thus freeing up resources to deal with other patients.

 

 The daily average for new coronavirus cases is currently 207 in Tokyo, 20569 in total and there have been 358 deaths.

 

 Nationally the daily average is 820 with 67353 in total and 1271 deaths.

 

 So at least the figures are on a slow downward trend, the average was over 1000 at the beginning of August.

 

Marunouchi Street Park with artworks, seating and grass

 The rule (or request) that bars and restaurants in Tokyo that serve alcohol should close at 10pm is being extended into mid September but only in the 23 wards of central Tokyo. So, in theory, drinkers in our town can walk a few minutes (or a 1 minute train ride) to the next town, Kichijoji, which is outside the 23 wards area to continue their boozing. This seems an odd arrangement, Kichijoji and similar outlying places are big, busy towns and the virus is there too so why limit the restriction to just the central wards?

 

 Nothing much has changed locally. Restaurants are surviving with a mix of takeaways and reduced seating and screens for dining in. Shops are open with many social distancing guidelines, screens and sanitizers. Mask wearing is almost 100% everywhere, which means less stress.  People seem to be adjusting to the new normal and getting on with their lives.  The neighborhood children are all back at school so the days are quieter.

 

 We still haven't visited anybody in their house since the beginning of the year. It'll have to happen some day, but when?

 

 We’ve been venturing out a bit more lately with a couple of trips downtown for shopping and art viewing.

 

Lee Ufan artworks in the "Stars" exhibition at Mori Art Museum

 Last week we went to Shibuya, which has been undergoing massive redevelopment, it won’t be completed until around 2030 but there’s a lot of new bits to see already. After checking out a fantastic artwork on the platform of another station on the way, we had a look at the new Miyashita Park, which is adjacent to Shibuya station, it has a rooftop park with a large lawn, skate park and even a beach volleyball court! It was very quiet but that’s probably more due to scorching sun than coronavirus.

 

 Then the highlight of this week was spending all of Saturday in the centre of Tokyo. A long street near Tokyo station has been turned into a “street park” with no traffic. It's a cool tree-lined street and they've put down some turf, tables, chairs, fans and mist sprays. There's a trail of permanent public artworks and various wooden installations using trees that were felled in recent typhoons. We got there so early before any shops were open so we could just wander round taking pictures.

 

 Then we went on to the Mori art museum, which is on the 53^rd floor in Roppongi Hills. Normally it would be very crowded here at the weekend especially as it's a big-name show aimed at the millions of tourists who were going to flock here for the Olympics. But now admissions are limited to quite a small number, we had to book a time-slot in advance which is a bit of a hassle but the viewing experience is so much better, there were only a few people in each room so we could see everything clearly and leisurely. 

Tokyo skyline from Mori Art Museum 52nd floor

 So, good for us but we worry about their future sustainability and the employees job security. On the 52^nd floor there is a great panoramic view of Tokyo, it was unusually clear and blue sky so we took lots of photos of course.

 

 There are many other events timed to link with 2020 Tokyo Olympics, some of them went ahead whilst others were cancelled or postponed. 

 

 The shops are full of merchandise that was obviously planned to launch over the Olympics period, special editions of various food items (lots of vegan and halal too!), stationery, ornaments etc. It’s a bit sad seeing them on the shelves with not a single tourist around to buy them. We wonder what will happen next year, will organizations and manufacturers risk another attempt at producing special events and products when it’s not at all certain the games will take place or that many people will travel?

 

Concave sculpture on the Toranomon station platform by Michiko Nakatani.

 On the way home we bought some delicious vegan, gluten-free strawberry cream cake, but not from a shop! It's a ‘vegan sweets lab’ and this cake is the only product they sell at present, you need to pre-order and pay for it online then pick it up – no cash payments. There’s a lot of these strange experimental places in Japan, that’s partly why we like it so much!