"Monet is Big in Japan" Week 18 Jan 4th-10th

Sunday I set out for Nagoya to meet Gwenn and Derrick at the Nagoya City Art Museum for a Monet exhibit that had just opened.  The small museum situated in Shigawa Park next to the City Science Museum has a nice permanent collection of various artists from many different countries including works by famed Mexican muralist Diego Rivera who I came to like after seeing his work displayed with his more famous wife, Frida Kahlo at the Philadelphia Art Museum’s Frida exhibit.  For the next two hours we viewed about 40 Monet paintings on display many of which were some of Monet’s most famous works.  Also interesting was each painting listing where it was on loan from.  In most cases the paintings were owned in permanent collections from larger museums all over Japan.  Only one piece was on loan from France itself and in some cases the pieces seemed to be owned in private collections or by large corporations like the Ashai Brewery and large Japanese construction firms.  I could not help but assume many of these were purchased during the high flying late 80’s and early 90’s when the Japanese economy was at its strongest and plenty of cash was on hand to plunk down several billion yen on a rare Monet.  After leaving the museum we headed out to Tiger Café in Fushimi for some coffee and sandwiches before going our separate ways home.  I finished the evening by meeting Akiko in Kasugai and grabbing some Indian food at my new favorite spot, Shanti.

     Monday I went back to Nagoya to check out the Midland Square Building across the street from the Nagoya station.  The building, which appears to be the largest in Nagoya, has an enclosed Skywalk on the roof from which I was able to see for miles as well as snap some great photos of Nagoya from above.  The building houses a modern movie theater on its 5^th floor as well as a high-end shopping mall on floors 1-4.  From there I headed back to Tiger Café for some coffee and to do some work online before closing out the night by meeting up with my new pal Garreth, my co teacher Sam, her friend Margot and Akiko at where else but out new hangout, The Hub.  Even better Garreth made many friends by drinking a little too much and wearing a cocktail shaker on his head as a hat and terrifying Japanese patrons by asking them to join him in a song he created about wearing a cocktail shaker as a hat all the while wearing a cocktail shaker for a hat.

     After another week at school I did the thing that has become most regular for me and headed to the Backbeat with Sam, Sayaka and Hiro for some drinks after work before stopping for a late evening meal at the 24 hour Chinese restaurant, Osho a few blocks from the bar before turning in for the night.  As always I went with my personal favorite, the “Kasugai Seto” consisting of still I claim the best gyoza in Japan, fried rice or “Cha Hahn” as it called her as well as a large bowl or Pork ramen.

  On Saturday after school Sam and about 15 friends as well as myself headed to Ozone to our friend Adam’s apartment for a house party he was throwing.  Adam who is from California plays professional basketball for the Nagoya based Mitsubishi Dolphins and his apartment as you would imagine is cavernous by Japanese standards boasting three bedrooms as well as a large kitchen.  For the rest of the night the group did what you would expect at a house party, drank, and played music with me getting some DJ experience on Adam’s large DJ turntables.  At the end of the night myself and two of my Japanese friends, Hiro and Yoshi split a cab back to Kasugai well after 2 AM to close out the week.

 

I Will Take That as a Compliment

This week while preparing a lesson on food I grabbed some plastic fruit and what I thought were small plates from the storage room to use during my baby lesson.  I thought handing the kids fake food on a plate would be a good way to show how to receive food etc.  As I walked passed my Manager she began laughing and asked what I was doing.  When I explained she took what I thought were plates and explained they were actually small toy cutting boards (who knew they made those) and showed me we did have real plates to use for the lesson.  She then said, “Brian, you always make us laugh with your actions that are both funny and ridiculous”.  Ok, thank you, I think