It was a sunny and hot day, therefore we decided to go and visit Tokyo. Moreover, we were right in the middle of the golden week, and everything should be open to please the huge amounts of tourists visiting Tokyo.

We first headed to the National Museum of Modern Art Tokyo (MOMAT) which is very close to the Imperial Palace. Indeed we saw on their website that a special exhibition called "Where is Architecture ?" seemed very interesting.




When we arrived at the museum, we could discover a gigantic "sculpture" outside the building, which was part of the exhibition, and representing big animals (elephants and giraffes) made of bamboo trees, eating in the garden in front of the museum.

We finally entered the building and spent more than an hour enjoying the special exhibition, especially works of ITO Toyo and NAKAMURA Ryuji.

Then we had a look at the permanent collection of the museum, and we spent some time in the very nice museum shop.




We then crossed the street and entered the Imperial Palace gardens. You can not enter the Palace itself (only once a year actually), but wandering in the huge park was really pleasant. We especially loved walking in the alleys of the oriental garden, where you can find beautiful ponds with colorful flowers.

After that, we took the metro and went to the Tokyo International Forum. Designed by architect Rafael Vinoly and completed in 1996, it features swooping curves of steel truss and glass ; the outside is shaped like an elongated boat. It is an exhibition, concert hall and conference center.




When we arrived, we discovered that "la folle journée au Japon" was taking place there, with many concerts of Chopin masterpieces, organised by ARTE. Many take away food shops were installed outside the Forum for the occasion ; therefore we had lunch there, on a table in the sun...





We then headed to the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (MOT). A. was indeed interested in a special exhibition on "Hussein Chalayan", who was originally a fashion designer, but extended his skills to contemporary art.
We had a quick look to the permanent collection before the museum closure. It was funny to see works of Art of Ric********g, which we discovered on Naoshima island.

Before leaving the museum, we went to the museum cafe and had a delicious piece of cake. We then took the metro (again !) and headed to Shibuya. This neighborhood, and especially the crossings (made famous in "Lost in translation" movie) is just amazing at night ! We even entered the Starbucks coffee which is on the second floor and from where you can have a nice view on the crossings.



We finished our day with a bit of shopping in Tokyu Hands which is a huge department store where you can find almost everyhting you're looking for (and even more !).