The strange mind of Aida Makoto

After lunch I headed over to Roppongi Hills, a large indoor shopping mall in a slightly less easily accessible part of Tokyo. Only one train line runs idirectly to the building and I'm not on that one. Instead, it looks like I'm going to have to walk a few blocks in what has become a crazy downpour.

Once at the mall I wander around checking out some of the stores. I pass a Joel Robuchon bakery but I don't stop for snacks (a missed opportunity). Instead I opt for a shot of whiskey at a special tasting and then I head downstairs for a Green Macha Latte at Starbucks. I feel like I owed Starbucks at least one purchase while in Tokyo given that I had been taking advantage of their free wifi for a week now.

It also gave me the opportunity to sit peacefully for about an hour while browsing the Internet and catching up on things that had happened in the previous week.

After the coffee I headed up to the 53rd floor of the Mori Tower (still in Roppongi Hills) to visit the Mori Art Museum which had just opened an exhibit to the Japanese conceptual artist Aida Makoto.

I had never heard of Aida prior to this week but it seemed I would appreciate his bizarre and somewhat disturbing sense of humor.

His work covers all kinds of styles, multimedia, sculpture, collage, regular canvas. Some of the pieces brilliantly satirize the Japanese military culture as well as some of the seedier sides ofJapanese society. A large canvas with a blender full of beautiful women being pureed into a red slurry is set next to a canvas showing an ashen landscape where all that is visible are mountains of dead businessmen and salarymen dressed in suits.

A lot of his work also has a sexual or scatological edge to it. A manga parody of WWII called Mutant Hanako was completely demented and perverted but you had to admire Aida for being willing to go so completely over the top in telling his story.

Aida was actually speaking there that night but 1) it was sold out 2) I had other places to be and 3) I don't understand Japanese.

Instead I bought a large overview of his work in an expensive art book. This wasn't the exhibit catalogue since that wasn't available for another month or two. However since Aida had been on site he had signed several copies of this art book and I snagged the last autographed one.

I'm definitely a fan now.