The kids want to go shopping, alone, in Shin-Okubo this morning. We also need some postal supplies and to make Shinkansen seat reservations. After Noe is gone to Waseda, and once laundries etc. are under control, we split. The kids go with a little notepad, but no money yet, to spot what they want to buy for gifts and souvenirs. Samuel goes to the Muji in Shinjuku for envelopes. On the way, he notices that the “cloud tower”‘s lower part is now visible. Workers are still at it, but they are testing the new gigantic screen of what will be called the Kabuchiko tower. Plenty of people are taking photos of the site. After shopping in Muji, Samuel reaches the JR East travel bureau and, with JR passes in hand, is able to make reservations for our upcoming trip. Next comes some shopping in the Marietsu. The kids are back home when Samuel arrives back at the apartment. And they wish to eat Corn Dogs, but Samuel wants to try to score a top of the line one. A tour of the neighborhood, under a little rain, allows us to score Arirang corn dogs and enjoy them. There is still some shopping to do, and the kids want to go on to the next stage of their process: going back to where they spotted things and buying gifts. Off they go, armed with 5000 yens. The rain has stopped when the team meets up again at the apartment. Time for some culture!
But first, we have to find a post office to have some mail sent. We walk towards the Shinjuku station, find a small post office in a big administration building, then proceed through the Shinjuku tunnel, aiming for Shinjuku I-land, a business center and plaza that is said to have a nice set of sculptures publicly reachable. After a while, we reach Shinjuku I-land, and quite quickly see one of the famous Indiana “love” sculptures. Some other sculptures surround it. But we do not spot directly the two Tokyo Brushstroke sculptures. In front of the complex, we do spot another tower with elevators looking like boats going up and down! We go around the complex, spotting some other sculptures, but no sign of the Brushstroke I and II. We ask a security man, he tells us to enter the complex, which we do. On a wall, a description of all the art, and a plan. We take a photo and proceed to find the sculptures we missed (and take another, more informed, look at the ones we have already seen.) And thus we get to see work from the following artists: Daniel Buren (France) / Luciano Fabro (Italy) / Robert Indiana(USA) / Sol LeWitt (USA) / Roy Lichtenstein (USA) / Hidetoshi Nagasawa (Japan) / Katsuhito Nishikawa (Japan) / Giulio Paolini (Italy) / Giuseppe Penone (Italy) / Gilberto Zorio (Italy).
Here are the titles:
After taking our time, we start heading back home. Eyquem and Gadea wouldn’t mind a Bubble tea, but we need to go to the main post office to check out the commemorative stamp window. After a little detour to take a picture with another piece of art, The Shinjuku Eye, it is too late for bubble tea as Samuel has some phone calls to do. We spend a relaxed evening at home.
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