Entries about street art

We were up quite early to enjoy another simple breakfast at the Turtle Inn Annexe. We then finished packing our small bags (having left most of our luggage in storage at the Ibis Hotel in Shinjuku) and our hostess kindly called a taxi for our drive to the Tobu Nikko Station.

We got to the station early so had plenty of time to shop for the obligatory bento boxes for the journey. Then I started to think about a missed opportunity from the previous day. As I mentioned, I was quite taken with several of the items we saw for sale in various shops in Nikko, as the quality of the workmanship here seemed high, but we already had several souvenirs by this point (a secret box from Hakone, a sake dish from Kyoto, our lovely wood-block painting from Takayama)so I was persuaded yesterday not to buy anything else. One item though had stuck with me, and it was my turn to do the persuading, convincing Chris that it would be light and easy to carry and was easily worth the price asked.

So I left him guarding our luggage and walked up the main street to one of the shops we had visited the previous afternoon.

Nikkobori

In a small shop on Nikko's main street a local woodcarver makes and sells his beautiful work - small bowls, hand mirrors, boxes and larger items, all carved with intricate flowers and stained red with a dye made from cashew nuts. This style of carving, known as Nikkobori, is typical of the Nikko region, employing a unique v-shaped gouge known as a hikkake (meaning ‘scratcher’). This was originally developed during the restoration of Toshogu Shrine, as the triangular shape of the end made it the ideal tool for scraping off the difficult to remove varnish. Later, at the end of the Edo period, this tool began to be used in carving, using it to gouge out the design by pulling towards the carver. You can see being used in this YouTube video I found. Another characteristic of Nikko carving is the use of plant life as the main theme, influenced by the carvings at Toshogu - tree peony, chrysanthemum, Japanese apricot and cherry trees are all common.

I had fallen for one of the shallow bowls, which cost me 4,000¥. Each one is unique so that isn't a bad price at all, and the items are all so light and easy to carry (and of course, as this is Japan, beautifully wrapped on purchase) that they make great souvenirs of your trip or gifts for someone back home. This one was very definitely a souvenir for me (it still sits on a table in our front room). I only wished, however, that I had taken my camera when I went back to buy it (I’d left my heavy bag with Chris, taking only my purse), as I would have loved to have captured a picture of the artist at work and of some at least of the many other beautiful items he has created.

Returning to the station in good time for the train I rejoined Chris for the ride back to Tokyo. As on the outward journey we travelled via Shimo Imaichi to Shinjuku. There we headed for the Ibis to check in and retrieve the luggage we had stored.

Exploring Shinjuku

The bad weather that had been forecast had arrived, with driving rain and strong winds. but we were determined not to waste the last afternoon of our trip to Japan. So we grabbed our umbrellas and ventured out of the hotel to see more of Shinjuku. The area to the west of its massive station (the busiest in the world!) consists mainly of skyscrapers, some of them very distinctive in design – I loved the so-called Cocoon Tower! But in the pouring rain it was hard to get decent photos.

Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building

At the western edge of Shinjuku’s skyscraper district is this, its tallest. Indeed, when it was built in 1991 it was the tallest in the city, an honour it held until 2006 when it was overtaken by the Midtown Tower. It was designed by architect Kenzo Tange and intended to resemble a computer chip (no, I can’t see it myself!), while the twin towers are said also to echo the design of a Gothic cathedral. It is 48 stories high with three further levels below ground, and splits into its two towers at the 33rd storey height. Both towers have an observatory on their 45th floor which is open to the public and free of charge.

On a good day you can see Mount Fuji from here; on a bad day you can’t see much further than the next skyscraper. Unfortunately this was a very bad day! Of course we knew how bad the weather was before ascending and had no illusions that we might get much of a view, but it was free and promised time in the warm and dry, so we headed up. I had reckoned on poor visibility but, rather stupidly, had not considered that the glass windows would also be streaming with rain, which made it even worse. So – no great photos even of the surrounding streets, but it was fun to be so high for a while and peer down at the traffic (light as it was a Sunday), although frustrating to be told by informative plaques at every window about the great sights we weren’t seeing!

Sompo Japan Museum of Art

As well as checking out the architecture in this part of the city, we visited the small but interesting Sompo Japan Museum of Art which as well as showcasing the work of Japanese Cubist-influenced artist Seiji Togo, has several notable Impressionist works including Van Gogh’s Sunflowers (bought at the height of the 1980s bubble economy by the insurance company which owns the building for a then unprecedented five billion yen) and others by Gauguin and Cezanne. It’s not a large collection by any means, but a visit here is worthwhile if you are interested in art of this period, and especially in poor weather.

On our way back to the hotel my umbrella finally gave up its fight with the wind (we learned the next day that we were on the edge of a typhoon). But there was a trusty Lawsons nearby, the chain we had come to love when staying in Hakone, and they had the ubiquitous Japanese style of large transparent umbrella for sale, which coped much better with these conditions than my flimsy telescopic one brought from home.

Our last evening in Japan

We decided that given the weather we would eat in the hotel restaurant that evening (an OK pasta dish, salad and garlic bread) but the rained eased a bit later so we went back to the nearby pub we had spent an enjoyable hour or so in a few evenings previously, the 82 Ale House. It was a Sunday evening and the place was as busy as before but luckily not totally packed, and again we were welcomed and shown to a table.

I had developed a taste for Japanese whisky so sampled two of the four on the menu, deciding that the Yoichi was my preferred one. Chris again had local beer (Kirin) and we had a lovely last evening in Japan in this cosy spot.

Postscript

Of course the next day was fine and bright, just as we had to leave! To return to Narita Airport for our flight home we travelled not on the subway but using the so-called Friendly Airport Limousine service, which was more convenient leaving from Shinjuku. I say ‘so-called’ not because it isn't friendly but because it isn't really a limousine but merely a bus. However, it is a good and useful service nevertheless - and probably far far cheaper than any limousine would be!

We had pre-booked the bus we wanted a couple of days beforehand, on arriving back in Tokyo from Nikko. It's always best to do this to be sure of a seat, although as it happened when we arrived at the stop early we were able to get on the bus before the one we'd booked.

The buses run very frequently throughout the day and the journey is advertised as taking 90 minutes although we did it in about 75 (and that in the morning rush hour). We were dropped off right in front of the main entrance to departures, so it couldn't have been more convenient. And as a bonus, we got some great views of Tokyo on the first part of the ride as the route follows an elevated stretch of road that loops around some of the high-rise business districts. I was glad I had my camera at the ready to capture a few last shots of this amazing country.

We had a later start for today’s final outing with Amadou, so there was time for some photos from the decking before breakfast, as we enjoyed our customary coffee. It was still not quite light – Venus was visible above the mangroves, a heron was silhouetted against the sunrise, and a Goliath Heron kept watch from the trees – probably the same one we had seen on other mornings.

Dawn over Mandina Lodges

Goliath Heron at sunrise

Local woman by the river near Kubuneh

Kubuneh

I had read before leaving home about the Wide Open Walls art project and was keen to visit, so we asked Amadou if it would be possible to see some of the art and he proposed a visit to one of the villages involved, Kubuneh, about a half hour boat ride from Mandina Lodges.

We landed on a small beach where local women boil the oysters they have prised off the mangroves. Collecting these is a tough job, and one traditionally done by the women whom we saw frequently passing Mandina in their dug-out canoes or pirogues.

The oysters have to be boiled for an hour to make them edible (you can’t eat these raw as you do the coastal ones, we were told). Some are eaten by the locals but most sold to restaurants. The discarded shells are picked clean by Hooded Vultures and Piapiacs (an African crow) before being smoked, ground to a powder and mixed with water to make a wash for the walls of buildings.

The Wide Open Walls project

Some years ago, one of the owners of Makasutu and Mandina, Lawrence, who is a keen artist, decided to use art as a way of bringing some income to the local villages. He invited internationally known artists to stay at Mandina after the end of the tourist season, and to create street art in the most unlikely of settings, the small rural Gambian villages dotted around the area. The idea was that the works would function as a valid art installation in their own right and at the same time promote The Gambia as a tourist destination and thus benefit local communities. Progress has been slow, mainly because of the recession, but gradually the project, known as Wide Open Walls, has begun to create more and more interest. You can read more about it on the Mandina Lodges website: https://www.mandinalodges.com/makasutu-forest/wide-open-walls.

It was fascinating to see the works as they seemed at the same time both incongruous and totally in their right place. They are on public buildings, private houses, walls and even on the trees! And because quite a number of artists have been involved since the project began, there is a good chance everyone will find some that appeal.

As you can imagine, I took lots of photos. Here's a selection for you to enjoy - or scroll past, depending on your levels of enthusiasm for street art!

Wide Open Walls

As I said, even some of the trees have been used by the artists as 'canvasses'.

Life in Kubuneh

Visiting Kubuneh didn’t just give us the opportunity to see the Wide Open Walls street art but also to see a rural Gambian village.
The village seemed still largely untouched by the extra attention it is starting to receive but there were some early seeds of the development of a tourist infrastructure – a part-built restaurant, a small craft stall under a baobab tree, signs promoting bird-watching trips. I hoped that this would benefit the local people but not spoil the special atmosphere here – from what I learned about Lawrence I thought it fair to say that was unlikely.

Certainly overall the village was then (2014) still largely untouched by the presence of visitors, and although some small children called out a hello, in the vain hope of being given sweets (giving which is strongly discouraged by the authorities and tour companies), there was no sense of the commercialisation that we had experienced earlier in this trip, to some extent at least, at the former slave trade villages on the River Gambia.

On our walk through the village we stopped to chat to a local woman whom Amadou knew. She was happy for us to take photos of her and her children (twin boys and a baby) and we gave the boys some postcards from home in return which they seemed to like (and much better for them than sweets!) This is one of the houses that has been painted through the Wide Open Walls project and the woman told me how much they like it.

Amadou also took us to visit the local community-run school, which takes children from the ages of three to nine as these are considered too young to walk to the nearest government school 1.5 kilometres away. Unfortunately for us (but not presumably for the children!) the pupils had been given a day off in recognition of having won a sports competition the previous Friday, so we weren’t able to see and interact with any of them.

But we were able to meet the headmaster, Malik, who showed us the classrooms and told us a bit about the school. They are currently setting up a programme to give all the children a breakfast each morning, as many arrive without having eaten anything (or generally eat poorly at home), so we gave Malik a donation towards that as well as some pencils and crayons we had brought with us from home. He has a donations book which we were asked to complete and it was interesting to see how many others, from a variety of countries, had been here and done the same.

The writing on one of the blackboards tells a surprising story for a school whose pupils are relatively young, of a man accusing his son of being a bandit and asking the police to 'take him away'. His only crime seems to have been playing his music too loud and not reading his books!

There is also mention of the man beating one of his two wives before throwing her out, accusing her of stealing a chain in order to buy cannabis.

Last day at Mandina

The rest of the day passed in the by-now usual mix of swimming, relaxing and photographing the birds. Among the latter were a pretty Firefinch and some White-throated Bee-eaters who enjoyed darting down to the pool water in search of any insects floating there.

Another highlight was a Malachite Kingfisher on one of the posts of our decking. He didn’t hang around long enough for me to get a great photo but at least I got something!

A Giant Kingfisher paid us an even more fleeting visit but again I managed to get some sort of photo although his head was in shadow.

Later we watched the local women on their way home after collecting oysters – some presumably heading to Kubuneh and the beach where we had photographed the discarded shells this morning.

That night at dinner some excitement was caused by a Goliath Heron in the shallows right next to the restaurant – very difficult to photograph in the dark but of course I had to try!

Time to go home

On our last morning there was time for a few more photos from the decking of our Floating Lodge.

Jenny tried to make it difficult for us to pack and leave but sadly we couldn’t linger as we had a plane to catch.

Our transfer back to the airport near Banjul went smoothly, and we found the airport surprisingly well-organised, with only a short queue to check in and a reasonable one for customs and security. It helped that we had already filled in our departure card, but these are available at the airport if needed. Security was cursory by modern standards, with no request to screen electronic devices separately or to remove liquids for inspection.

The departure lounge had three duty free shops all selling much the same goods (mainly cigarettes and alcohol) plus one souvenir shop and a couple of bars. One of these, the Sky Bar, had very pro-active waiters who handed us a menu as soon as we entered the lounge and helped us find a space among the crowded seats. They sold snacks, cold and hot drinks, Julbrew and ice creams, all at reasonable prices, so we enjoyed a cold drink while waiting to board. The other bar was outside on a terrace with good views of the planes but very exposed to the hot African sun, so we gave that a miss.

The return flight was in a smaller and more cramped plane (it seemed that Monarch used smaller planes for their Tuesday flights than their Friday ones) but was similar in terms of service quality. We landed at Gatwick on a chilly February evening. The warmth of The Gambia already seemed a long way away …