東京国立美術館の北斎展The Hokusai Exhibition at the Tokyo National Museum of Art

Visiting the Katsushika Hokusai exhibit today was a once in a lifetime experience. The exhibit ROCKED, but that was not what was so extraordinarily extraordinary about the whole affair. The feature that made today so unforgettable was how maniaccly crowded it was. I've never experienced anything like it - ever.

For starters, I woke up this morning at the crack of dawn - before the sun even rose - which was a genuine act of holy providence for me. My idea was to get to the museum just as it opened. Why? Because I had heard that "it might get crowded."

Well, that was an understatement. When I got there, there were already hordes of people rushing over to the museum, a 15 minute walk from Ueno Station. After buying my ticket, I made my way in to the museum grounds, only to find that a long queue had already been forming for quite some time... There would be a 40 minute wait for those of us who had just arrived.

So, I waited. Fortunately the weather was gorgeous - a little chilly, but blue skies, and thanks to the throngs of Japanese people skirting me in all directions, I had a natural wind buffer and central heating unit which seemed happy to follow me closely, right on into the building.

Finally, I managed to get into the building at 10:20 am. (The museum opens at 9:30 am) Once in, I found that my wait thusfar had only been the tip of the proverbial iceberg. The exhibit displayed roughly 500 of Hokusai's works, from throughout his 80-year career. As museum displays go, the works lined up in a relatively small area: 4 rooms, each roughly the size of a racquetball court.

I ask, how long should it take a girl to look at an exhibit along the walls of four racquet ball courts? 30 minutes to an hour? Perhaps 2 or 3 hours if one takes her time?

It took me 6 hours...

And Not because I am slow at these things either... but because I had to wait in line with half of Tokyo on a Saturday morning at every bend and turn of the exhibition - which, incidentally, also included some islands of works in the middle of the rooms. At the beginning of each display, a girl would have to wait in a tight crowd of about twenty to thirty people, all packed into a space of roughly the size of a VW beetle. Everyone was quietly jostling for a space next to the wall - so that they could get up close to have a view within a two millimeter proximity of the work - and consequently block the view of every other onlooker. Upon finally inching our way up to the first print in each display (took roughly 30 minutes at each interval), I - submersed within the crowd - would commence to be moved up along the sides of each wall. In order to catch a glimpse of any of the works, one would have to follow, deep within these teaming groups of tired, overheated spectators as they clung their ways along the walls, like ketchup upside down in a bottle, refusing to get on out for supper time.

To make matters worse, I happened to wear the worst shoes I could have ever possibly worn today: my beautiful black leather boots, with heels that combine to a total of about 7 inches.

I can hear my mother, brother and every other man I've ever met in my 35 years right now: "Serves you right,you silly, silly, vain, vain girl. Serves you right!"

Despite my aching feet, I WOULD argue that today did in fact turn out to be an immense success (that is, based on my rating of days spent on my own, sporting around Japan, trying to stay enlightened yet mildly amused). This visit was however, arguably, the most stressful day I have experienced this year.

Was it worth it? Yes. Would I do it again? Yes. Why? I like sado-masochism... Well not really, but. Actually, when a girl spends that much miserable time embedded tightly within muggy flocks of polite Japanese people, looking at a collection of the life works of one of the greatest "giants" of ukiyoe history, she gains some new insights on Japan, art, and history. That she might not have gained otherwise - especially on any other Saturday morning, dead asleep til mid afternoon...

I plan on writing more about the Hokusai experience very soon! Stay tuned for further adventures of a tired, raggedy young woman... who apparently got OUT of the museum JUST when all the lines were REALLY starting to pile up in the late afternoon!