Mori Art Museum in Roppongi Hills

There’s a lot to do in Tokyo. You can cycle, walk through various parks, shop, go to temples, sit on the terrace (something that Malaysia doesn’t have), eat sushi and udon endlessly, look at the different people and you can visit museums. This last thing was on my program and so I took the subway to Roppongi Hills and visited the ‘Mori Art Museum‘.

Observatory deck

We’d been to Roppongi Hills during the weekend. There was the ‘Bon Festival’ in the arena. This is a modern part of Tokyo with lots of designer shops and an observatory deck to look out over the city. It’s only possible to visit the deck if the weather is good and you have to pay 500 yen (€5) to take the elevator to the top. When I went, it was raining…

Finding Nemo

The Pixar part was very nice to see and very informative! You were explained step by step how an animated movie is made. From sketching and modeling to the mathematics involved and swimming in the ocean for research. They did this with the film ‘Finding Nemo’ because they wanted to know how the underwater world works and where the light comes from. Super interesting and also very complicated! For every pixel in a scene, it can take hours to edit. For example, a balloon in the film ‘Up’ is blue, but what kind of blue? A balloon can contain dozens of different colors of blue. Also for children, this part was very nice, because you could experiment with for example decorating the kitchen from the movie ‘Ratatouille’.

Coffee

After reliving childhood, what do I say, these films I still like very much, it was time for serious work. A cup of coffee! I had to point out some kind of picture on the menu and when my drink was delivered, this picture was on my coffee. I was impressed and wondered how they could paint this creature in the coffee so quickly. Later it turned out, before I took a sip, that this was a very thin plastic layer. A little less impressed, but a good coffee for €8,50….

Queue

The rain was actually a welcome surprise, now I could be inside during the rain and still see all kinds of things. You don’t have to order tickets for this museum in advance, but this is handy. I didn’t do this and arrived on Tuesday at three o’clock in the afternoon. The queue was 40 minutes and the museum was only open until five so it didn’t make much sense anymore to visit the museum. The next day I went back and the queue was only ten minutes. Despite Tuesday, the museum is open every day from ten to ten o’clock.

Pixar

Adults pay 1800 yen for a ticket, which is about €18. If you are still a student, you pay 1200 yen, €12. I look like the eternal student (read: I showed my old student card) and got the student discount. From April to October 2019, you can also visit the free exhibition ‘Pixar‘. I always have the feeling that a free exhibition is a lot smaller than the real exhibition you originally came for. This is certainly not the case with Mori Art. I picked up the phone everywhere to listen to the story (all the signs were only written in Japanese and when you got the phone, a voice in English started to talk to you) and took my time. It turned out that the Pixar exhibition did not take up one room, but five rooms. I realized this quite late and then I walked through it a bit faster, because I also had to look at the other part of the museum.

Red and black threads

Going on to the exhibition of the work of Shiota Chiharu. She lives in Berlin and is known for installations that express the intangible, such as fear, dreams, memories and silence. In the Mori Art Museum, you will find her largest exhibition so far. The public knows her mainly because of the enormous installations consisting of red and black threads stretched across entire spaces. And that was what this entire museum was full of. A large room with nothing but red threads and another room where there was only a piano with black threads on top of it. Very special to see and you might wonder how they managed this, without everything getting tangled up.

Exhibition

This museum is worth a visit. Not only is the exhibition of Shiota Chiharu impressive, but also the Pixar part is very nice to see. You can easily walk around for a few hours without being bored. Have a nice cup of coffee in the museum café, but don’t forget to remove the plastic layer!

Mori Art Museum in Roppongi Hills

There’s a lot to do in Tokyo. You can cycle, walk through various parks, shop, go to temples, sit on the terrace (something that Malaysia doesn’t have), eat sushi and udon endlessly, look at the different people and you can visit museums. This last thing was on my program and so I took the subway to Roppongi Hills and visited the ‘Mori Art Museum‘.

Observatory deck

We’d been to Roppongi Hills during the weekend. There was the ‘Bon Festival’ in the arena. This is a modern part of Tokyo with lots of designer shops and an observatory deck to look out over the city. It’s only possible to visit the deck if the weather is good and you have to pay 500 yen (€5) to take the elevator to the top. When I went, it was raining…

Queue

The rain was actually a welcome surprise, now I could be inside during the rain and still see all kinds of things. You don’t have to order tickets for this museum in advance, but this is handy. I didn’t do this and arrived on Tuesday at three o’clock in the afternoon. The queue was 40 minutes and the museum was only open until five so it didn’t make much sense anymore to visit the museum. The next day I went back and the queue was only ten minutes. Despite Tuesday, the museum is open every day from ten to ten o’clock.

Pixar

Adults pay 1800 yen for a ticket, which is about €18. If you are still a student, you pay 1200 yen, €12. I look like the eternal student (read: I showed my old student card) and got the student discount. From April to October 2019, you can also visit the free exhibition ‘Pixar‘. I always have the feeling that a free exhibition is a lot smaller than the real exhibition you originally came for. This is certainly not the case with Mori Art. I picked up the phone everywhere to listen to the story (all the signs were only written in Japanese and when you got the phone, a voice in English started to talk to you) and took my time. It turned out that the Pixar exhibition did not take up one room, but five rooms. I realized this quite late and then I walked through it a bit faster, because I also had to look at the other part of the museum.

Finding Nemo

The Pixar part was very nice to see and very informative! You were explained step by step how an animated movie is made. From sketching and modeling to the mathematics involved and swimming in the ocean for research. They did this with the film ‘Finding Nemo’ because they wanted to know how the underwater world works and where the light comes from. Super interesting and also very complicated! For every pixel in a scene, it can take hours to edit. For example, a balloon in the film ‘Up’ is blue, but what kind of blue? A balloon can contain dozens of different colors of blue. Also for children, this part was very nice, because you could experiment with for example decorating the kitchen from the movie ‘Ratatouille’.

Coffee

After reliving childhood, what do I say, these films I still like very much, it was time for serious work. A cup of coffee! I had to point out some kind of picture on the menu and when my drink was delivered, this picture was on my coffee. I was impressed and wondered how they could paint this creature in the coffee so quickly. Later it turned out, before I took a sip, that this was a very thin plastic layer. A little less impressed, but a good coffee for €8,50….

Red and black threads

Going on to the exhibition of the work of Shiota Chiharu. She lives in Berlin and is known for installations that express the intangible, such as fear, dreams, memories and silence. In the Mori Art Museum, you will find her largest exhibition so far. The public knows her mainly because of the enormous installations consisting of red and black threads stretched across entire spaces. And that was what this entire museum was full of. A large room with nothing but red threads and another room where there was only a piano with black threads on top of it. Very special to see and you might wonder how they managed this, without everything getting tangled up.

Exhibition

This museum is worth a visit. Not only is the exhibition of Shiota Chiharu impressive, but also the Pixar part is very nice to see. You can easily walk around for a few hours without being bored. Have a nice cup of coffee in the museum café, but don’t forget to remove the plastic layer!