{"id":1087,"date":"2024-10-31T23:22:06","date_gmt":"2024-11-01T03:22:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/onlylove.art\/?p=1087"},"modified":"2026-01-11T22:56:54","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T02:56:54","slug":"facing-death-facing-oneself-at-urbanguild-kyoto-april-16-2024-2-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onlylove.art\/ja\/archives\/1087","title":{"rendered":"Asuca Hayashi \u6797\u660e\u65e5\u9999 \u2014\u00a0Song of the Earth, Tokyo (May 5, 2024)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On a sunny 5th of May \u2014 Children\u2019s Day in Japan \u2014 I made my way to what seemed like an unlikely venue, Mifa Football Cafe, for a matinee child\/family-friendly concert by the J-Pop singer Asuca Hayashi \u6797\u660e\u65e5\u9999. Mifa is located in Toyosu, which is one of a series of artificial islands in Tokyo Bay just southeast of the former Tsukuji Fish Market in Tokyo. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I later learned that the new fish market is in Toyosu, and I had just missed it! I recalled there were concerns that the ground on which the new market was built, a landfill created with rubble from the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake, was contaminated. The government and developers had assured the public that the contamination posed no threat to the fish or the people working at or visiting the market. Incidentally, I also later learned that Tsukuji literally means \u201creclaimed land\u201d and that Tsukiji, similarly, had been created by dumping rubble from the enormous fire of 1657 into the Sumida River. For a country so dependent on water and for a people who have traditionally believed that gods inhabit the waters, it\u2019s curious that they are so willing to fill them with contaminated debris, pave their river banks, and sacrifice their scenic beauty. I guess it\u2019s a reminder that co-existence with nature on Japan\u2019s limited amount of inhabitable land remains a constant negotiation. Despite how ultra-modern and organized Japan can seem at times, it remains at the mercy of volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, and floods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That said, what Tokyo has created in Toyosu is quite remarkable. The Mifa Football Cafe faces a soccer complex and is surrounded by other sports facilities. There is also a popular outdoor market and a BBQ beach! On the walk from the station, I also passed a Gas Museum of all things and teamLab Planets, a large venue housing a series of cutting-edge \u201cbody-immersive\u201d exhibitions that seem to combine AR with tactile experiences such as wading through water and flowers and navigating bouncing, rotating spheres! teamLab says that when the \u201cboundary between the body and the artwork dissolves, the boundaries between the self, others, and the world become something continuous.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"aerial
aerial view of Toyosu<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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