Hokkaido - Abashiri

Back to Hokkaido! No, not us, we're stuck in Tokyo, but I realized I hadn't finished blogging about our trip to Hokkaido this summer.

After leaving our new friends, we drove to Obihiro (which neither of us can now say normally, we MUST sing it  like the Orihiro glucosamine commercials) where we had quite possibly the best meal of our entire trip, an amazing "Genghis Khan" (grilled lamb/mutton bbq) feast.

The next day we continued north, stopping on the way at Akanko, and going to Abashiri. We spent the morning with all of the other tourists at the Abashiri Prison Museum, which ended up impressing me much more than I had anticipated. It is an open-air museum that tells the history of the infamous prison and role of the prison (or rather its inmates) in opening up Hokkaido. In addition to a traditional museum with exhibits, there were also plenty of hands-on opportunities, dioramas in historical settings, and easy-to-understand explanations in four languages (Japanese, English, Korean, and Chinese, the latter was often included in both simplified and traditional, so I should say 5 languages).

 Welcome to Abashiri Prison - in five languages!

a wing of the old prison, with one heater for a long hallway of cells

that must have been bitterly cold in the long Hokkaido winters

a diorama of a more modern prison cell -

you could open the door and walk in and poke around

a line of prisoners... with U bringing up the rear!

After a nutritious lunch of gelato made from Hokkaido cream, we were ready to tackle our second museum of the day, the Museum of Northern Peoples. Very close to the Prison Museum, the Museum of Northern Peoples is sadly not a regular stop for tour buses. We, however, were lucky enough to have a personal tour arranged for us. My advisor knows the museum staff, having been involved in a number of archaeological digs connected with the museum. So after U and I toured the permanent exhibition on our own with the aid of one of their new and very impressive ipod touch audio-visual tours, the head curator gave us a tour of the special exhibition and the so-called "backyard" of the museum - the staff work spaces, the storage areas, and the director's room-with-a-gorgeous-view. The exhibits were stunning - a simple and straighforward but visually impressive overview of the huge range of native peoples that live in the northern reaches of the northern hemisphere. It was fascinating to see the similarities and differences between peoples who live in similar climates around the world. (and yes, I did get very excited in the kayak section!) Both U and I were surprised to discover that the exhibits date to the original opening of the museum, some twenty years ago. Sure there were some sections (the holographic video display!) that seemed dated, but overall it was a great exhibit.

a range of clothing from a variety of northern peoples

a little bit of home - exhibit on the peoples of Northwestern Canada

It was U's first time to see the backyard of a museum and he was fascinated. He asked tons of questions and kept talking about the museum long after we left. He was most impressed, however, by our guide. The head curator is an obviously very intelligent and dedicated woman who has been at the museum her entire career. She clearly loves what she does and, after a brief sizing up, she and I clicked as we recognized each other as kindred spirits - fellow museum nerds. She made the visit all the more special and I am very grateful to both her and my advisor for arranging such a special experience for us.

Hokkaido - Porotokotan

Try and say that five times fast - Porokoro... Porotokoka... Porotokoko... Porokoto...

Okaaaay then, just try and say it once, slowly!

Po-ro-to-ko-tan

There you go.

Porotokotan is Ainu, "Poro" means large, "to" means lake, and "kotan" means village. It is the name of an Ainu outdoor museum near Shiraoi, where we stopped the afternoon after visiting Toshogu.

I had read a few articles about the museum, heard about how it was part of the local Ainu community, how it was creating pride among the community, and how it was contributing to keeping alive or bringing back traditions. I was excited about the museum. It started off well.

The Kotankorkur (statue of the chief) welcomed us.

And two wooden bears stood at attention at the entrance to the village. Unfortunately, however, they aren't the only bears at the museum. There were a handful of large bears and a whole flock of dogs in small cages just off to the right of this picture. I was disgusted and couldn't bear to look at them, let alone take pictures, so we hurried next door, to the Ainu Museum. 

The museum was dated and the exhibits were old, but easy to understand and informative. There were exhibits on traditional Ainu life, hunting, clothing and jewelry, ceremonies, and history. But what really caught my eye was that in addition to Japanese on the interpretive panels there was also English, Korean, and both simplified and traditional Chinese. This was a theme running through the entire site, as we were about to find out as we followed the suggestion of an announcement piped through the site - and made our way to the first big "house."

Inside the "traditional Ainu house" there was a stage and layered seating for probably about fifty people. It was almost full and rather stuffy and dark. We found ourselves a seat and watched a short presentation on traditional Ainu arts - dance, song, and music. While the music and performances were interesting, U and I both agreed that the most interesting thing was that the entire performance was translated into both Korean and Taiwanese by the tour guides of groups sitting on opposite sides of the building. The speakers on stage were obviously used to having what they were saying translated as they would speak a few lines and pause, wait for translation and speak a few lines again. They knew just how much to say and how long to wait and didn't get anxious while waiting. U, who hasn't seen that kind of translation before was very impressed, and I think spent more time listening to the tour guides translate than he did watching the stage.

Sadly it was pretty obvious to us that the entire outdoor museum is geared towards tour groups and individual guests are just extras. For example, only larger groups can book a hands-on experience (crafts, etc) or an "Ainu meal." If regular guests get hungry they have to make do with nikuman and Hokkaido ice cream from a rather sad looking glass-walled shop.

But the lake (that the museum is named after!) was eerily beautiful against the grey overcast sky. And the rain stayed away until we clambered back into our rental car!

Kindred spirits

When I was doing my MA in Japan I was lucky enough to be surrounded by supportive friends and a professor who still continues to support and guide and help me in more ways than I can count. The only problem was that there was only one other student in museum studies, all the other students in the program were in clinical psychology (it is a VERY broad program!), sociology, or education. Then, not long after I entered the program, my sempai (student above me) graduated. She and I met other students at a conference and got an informal monthly study group started, but I never had a sense of community, other students I could share book recommendations with, or go to museums with, or just talk "shop" with over a few drinks. 

Until this year. I'm not in an MA program anymore, but I now have two kohai (students below me) under my professor and over the past half-year I've been introduced to or re-met about half a dozen other museum studies students or young professionals. A good number have studied abroad and two are even from abroad themselves!

One of those two, a woman from Taiwan who has just started her PhD here, became a good friend instantly. She had heard about me from my advisor and had apparently decided that we would be friends even before we met and it didn't take me long to realize she was a kindred spirit - from academic interests to general outlook to personal lives. Sadly she currently lives in Kansai, so we have only been able to meet up when she comes to Tokyo for conferences, but every time we have met up the time has sped by in a flurry of trading sources in Japanese and English (and one in Chinese, that freaked me out because I didn't realize it was Chinese and started hyperventilating over the kanji...!), debating the pros and cons of the Japanese educational system (followed by a heavy dose of complaining about Japanese academia), and good 'ole girl talk.

So turned to knitting to show my friendship in the best way I know how, even though the weather means that she won't be able to use it for months and months! 

Musings on multi-language services

I'm interested in visitor services in museums, particularly multi-language services or services for minority groups (ie foreigners in Japan, new imigrants to Canada, Indian communities in the UK, or Hispanic communities in the US). I feel strongly that, especially when these minority groups are residents (regardless of length of residency), such services can be useful in creation of a sense of belonging for the minority group, establishing mutual understanding and improving relations with the larger community, and a host of other benefits apart from the basic truth that, despite linguistic and or cultural differences, minority groups are residents too, and deserve to be recognized and treated as such.

So I'm always delighted to discover a Japanese museum offering such services, or advertising that it offers such. So when I discovered that the Edo-Tokyo Museum (http://www.edo-tokyo-museum.or.jp/english/) mentions multi-language services on their Japanese language "barrier-free" page, I was impressed... until I realized the conceptual placement of multi-language services within those offered by the museum... The page has three divisions of services - those for individuals with physical disabilities, those for visitors bringing children, and other. Multi-language services (the audio guide for the permanent exhibition, offered in Japanese, English, Chinese, and Korean) are the last listing in the first group.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(from http://www.edo-tokyo-museum.or.jp/access/barrier-free/index.html)

お体の不自由な方
車椅子	OK	貸出場所：1階・6階（無料）
白杖・杖	OK
歩行用補助目的のカート	OK
盲導犬・聴導犬・介助犬	OK
触れる展示物	あり
点字表示	あり
常設展示点字ガイドブック	あり	貸出場所：１階・5階（無料）
常設展示音声ガイド (日・英・中・韓)	あり	貸出場所：1階・3階

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On one hand I can understand this placement, as the preceding listings are for various types of information in Braille and touchable exhibits for blind visitors. Listing a Japanese audio guide (presumably predominantly for blind visitors) among these services makes sense. Listing foreign language audio guides with the Japanese also makes sense. But I can't seem to shake the feeling that being a non-Japanese speaker is being equated with a physical disability... Being a foreigner in Japan (whether or not you speak Japanese) can sometimes be compared to having a disability of some sort (linguistic? cultural?), and services for foreigners in Japanese museums are often included in services referred to as being for those with disabilities or in a socially weak position (a specific Japanese term that doesn't translate well into English) - along with services for (the increasing number of) elderly or (the decreasing number of) children/parents with babies. 

So why does this placement bother me? I guess I would prefer the listing of the Japanese and foreign language audio guides to be separate, with the foreign language guides having a listing of their own under the "other" heading, showing that they are recognized as a resource for a certain group of visitors. I would like to think that a Japanese audio guide for blind visitors would be designed differently than foreign language audio guides (more so to as to be able to respond to the needs of blind Japanese visitors!). But does it matter? Does the placement of these services within the museum's page actually matter?

It is interesting to note that in English (http://www.edo-tokyo-museum.or.jp/english/information/index.html#services), the page becomes "Visitor Information," with a section entitled "Services (Free-of-charge)." Five separate services are listed - two of which relate to multi-language services (volunteer guides, audio guides), one to physical disabilities (borrowing a wheelchair), one to visitors with children, and the final being an "other."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The volunteers can give visitors museum outlines, help school teachers make plans for educational visits, and act as guides for the permanent exhibition. Our volunteers include English, German, French, Chinese, Korean, Spanish, and Russian speakers, though guides in some languages are not available on some days.
We may not be always able to assign a guide to you. Reservation should be made as early as the 10th of the month prior to your planned month of visit and no later than 2 weeks prior to your planned visiting day. Depending on guide availability, we may not be able to answer your request. Enquiries should be made to the Volunteer Office. Hours 09:00 to 15:00

The earphone receiver enables you to tune into the guidance narration. You need to make a deposit to borrow an earphone. It is refundable.

Wheelchairs are always available on asking.

Baby carriages are available. Small tables for changing babies' diapers are provided in the Women's restrooms on 1F, 3F, 5F, 6F and 7F.

Insert a 100-yen coin to use the locker. The coin is returned when you open the locker.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What I learned at work yesterday... (or reason #74563 why I love my job)

In the expanses of Japanese-controlled Manchuria, trains were the major source of transportation of just about anything. The company history of the Southern Manchurian Railway Company includes a fare and tariff chart that lists the prices for various types of items.

In the early 20th century it cost 30 sen (100 sen in 1 yen) per mile (not km, which is interesting as Japan is most definitely metric now) to transport dead bodies. Children were half price (just as live children riding trains in Japan today). Passengers (live ones, sitting in passenger cars) cost considerably more, depending on the class of carriage they chose. Cremated remains cost significantly less, the same price as small (live) animals such as chickens or dogs. In addition, dead bodies could be left at stations for periods of time up to six hours (although this was later extended, with a fee being charged per every 24 hour period the body was held by the station).

I was told all this by a delighted coworker, who rushed to make copies of the pages from the history so she could use it in some later research. We giggled over the painstakingly detailed instructions and rules (and complete lack of hiding behind polite euphemisms as would be common in modern society, especially here in Japan), ignoring the obviously sad message, that the railway likely carried a fairly large number of bodies, especially during the war.

Either way you look at it, however, how can you say historical documents are dry and boring?

Bookcase Tour Tuesday - East & West

I finally got back onto Kimono Reincarnate's Bookcase Tour Tuesday bandwagon.

This week's book is a catalogue from a fascinating exhibit that I was somewhat disappointed by. The catalogue, however, is gorgeous! (I apologize for the quality of the photos, I'm playing around with my brand-new baby, and with the low light the close-ups didn't turn out as well as I would have hoped)


The exhibit - Self and Other: Portraits from Asia and Europe, had a fascinating idea, contrasting portraits from Asia and Europe:
(Asia doesn't just mean Japan, there was artwork from China, Korea, Southeast Asia, India, Sri Lanka...)

their leaders



of self





of the other (before contact)




of other at start of contact





of changing self as a result of contact





and of other again




The exhibit was disappointing in that it didn't go far enough for my liking - it didn't begin to raise all the questions I was hoping it would raise. The catalogue, however, in addition to all the images, and unlike many Japanese museum catalogues, has a large number of academic articles (that I have yet to read fully, I admit) that look interesting and intriging.

Bookcase Tour Tuesday - Hokusai

One of my friends works for the Cultural Properties Department of Sumida-ku, in Tokyo. She has been indirectly involved in the ward's plans to build a Hokusai Museum. The ward was given an impressive collection of woodblock prints by the famous artist, collected and donated by an American art historian, Peter Morse (great-grandnephew of Edward Sylvester Morse, a zoologist who first taught that field in Japan and also discovered the first shell mounds thereby starting the study of archeology as well; also half of the focus of my first MA thesis)

Anyways...

When he donated the collection to Sumida-ku, Morse stipulated that it should be put on display in a purpose-built museum. While that museum doesn't exist yet (although archaeological surveys are currently being carried out on the land where it is to be built) a catalogue of the heart of its collection has been published in limited circulation. I was lucky to be given a copy of this large hardcover book for free!



The collection is lacking in Hokusai's more widely known prints but it is very impressive and extensive, and contains some beautiful prints of people and everyday situations, of landscapes, and... of ghost stories! - I'm looking forward to visiting the finished museum!

Loving two worlds

As I mentioned last week, it has taken me a while to get back into the swing of things in Tokyo. For a while, with the glow of my visit to Olympic Vancouver still on, I was questioning my desire to stay in Japan. But slowly I've gotten my groove back. Today was a day that reminded me why I am here, an easy day for a things I love Thursday!

I spent the morning at SnB - while we haven't had many the past few months, there was a great turn out today, and we took over one side of the second floor of the coffee shop. I'm sure there were more than a few salarymen freaked out by the large group of foreign women laughing and talking loudly in English!

I left there and headed off to spend my afternoon with a very different group - all Japanese and almost all male. I had been invited to attend a meeting/mini-conference held by a group of about two dozen museums. It was very well attended and the discussion was much more lively than I had expected. It gave me a lot to think about, and reminded me that just because I'm graduating next week does not mean my opportunities to learn and discuss are coming to an end.

Two very different groups, two very different meetings, two very different parts of my life here, two very different things to love!

Bookcase Tour Tuesday - Ravishing Beasts

While visiting Canada last month I was able to visit two museums, including the Museum of Vancouver. I already mentioned the museum and the Ravishing Beasts special exhibit, but I wanted to share more about the exhibit and the catalogue.


When I discovered that one of the special exhibits was on taxidermy I wasn't expecting much, I tend to find it rather creepy. The exhibit, however, turned out to be a fascinating one.

It started with an overview of the history of taxidermy, including early museum-like displays.



Then there were step by step examples of how a model is constructed.



Then there was an area about dioramas and habitat exhibits with animals. These types of exhibits were once very common in museums but are increasingly being replaced in renewals so I really enjoyed this section, especially the video that demonstrated how one such exhibit was constructed.



Then were also a number of different animals on display - local animals, a "trophy" wall, and a few fantastical beasts.

(I convinced my friend that this particular animal was commonly found in the local area. She asked me about its habitat and diet and I was almost able to make up answers with a straight face, but then I started giggling and she realized she had been had... tee hee!)

There were some whimsical examples of how taxidermied animals were displayed.



and some less whimsical examples of modern art.



Being the museum nerd that I am, however, I loved the last section, with a display recreating how taxidermy animals are stored in museum storage. This section asked visitors their opinions on taxidermy collections and for suggestions about what should be done with these collections in the future.



A fascinating exhibit that connected into many of the things I've learnt about museum history and also made me think about the future of museums too.