I went to see an exhibit of Egon Schiele, the collection from Leopold Museum in Ueno, Tokyo. Schiele is my favorite painter especially when I was in early twenties while I was studying illustration in collage. It was my first time seeing a retrospective of Schiele and brought back old memories. Back then,I really loved the way he constructed the images, how he played around with spaces. I also studied the way he drew the peoples, the abstract, distorted figures, the faces and the way he drew fingers..

I’ve seen his painting once, only one painting, long, long time ago so therefore I can say that this is my first time to see Schiele’s work. I didn’t expect much but ended up being blown away by his “raw” paintings. All the stuff you can never capture in printed images. The color of the flesh was so transparent, like you can feel the veins under the skin. The intricate brush marks and his massive influence from oriental art was also very intresting.

２月の初めに東京上野にてエゴンシーレの展示会を見に行きました。行こうか、どうか迷っていた所、夫に誘われて出かけました。私は２０代前半、大学でイラストレーションを学んでいた頃、シーレのファンで画集も穴が開くほど見ていました。シーレのレイアウトが絶妙で、彼の描く人物像も、とても参考になりました。

夫が私がシーレのファンで有った事は承知してあえて誘ってくれたのですが、今更どう？と言うのが率直な感想。でも、結果としては行って良かったです。とにかく、筆遣い、絵の具の透明感が印象的。絵が生き生きしているんですよ。時が停まってないとでも言うか、生々しく、どう表現して良いか難しいのですが。。。決して印刷では捉えられないディテールが最高で、改めてシーレが好きになりました。やはり、絵は良いな。質の良いアートは心の支えになります。気づき、希望など、沢山のエネルギーを送ってくれます。

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We decided to have a late lunch in the area and my husband selected a local “Kissa-ten”. Kissa-ten is a Japanese old school cafe. We are in the Ueno area in Tokyo and Ueno is an old city with lots of old establishments. Kissa-ten served Japanize western foods like coffee, tea, sandwiches, pasta and desserts.

Kissa-ten became popular when the western culture was introduced to Japan, became a trend setting place for the young and curious ( a artist used to hang around therefore a lot of underground culture are born), then turned into a place for young couple for dating, and when I was a kid, Kissa-ten were places where business man hangout for meetings with clients, the whole places was filled with cigarette smokes and eventually, it became unpopular among the young generation. (french style cafe came into the scene and ofcourse the invasion of Starbucks…this really killed a lot of unique Kissa-tens.) Now, Kissa-ten are becoming popular among the young generations. Actually the day we went to this place, we were the oldest in the crowds which was mainly around teens to mid 20’s !!

One of the reason Kissa-ten are gaining back its popularity is that a lot of places had become non-smoking. Therefore not so much business man and makes it easier for the young people to come in. The interiors are usually never renovated and the classic old school ambiance feels so new to the young and the most important, the classic food menu seems to grab young generation’s attention.

Kissa-ten was in it’s peek during the late Showa-era (1926～1989) . My first 20yrs in Japan was Showa, so I did experience the good old days of Japan and everything Showa is popular here in Japan now. The “City Pop” (the Japanese pop music in ’70~’80) are also in Showa and that had become a world wide trend…

OK, back to the Kissa-ten. The place we went is call [Coffee Oojou], Oojou simply translated as “Grand castle”…classic already right? LOL Oojou is established in 1975 (yes when these kind of establishments are becoming popular). They are famous for coffee and foods. We ordered coffee, Keema curry, meat sauce spaghetti and a chocolate parfait to share. Kissa-ten usually serves Japanese style curry rice so, serving Keema curry is very unique. It’s a Japanese interpretation of Keema curry but it was spicy and good. Spaghetti is popular Kissa ten menu. Don’t expect the Italian version and don’t be surprise that the pasta are not al dente!! Meat sauce and Napolitan are the two staple menu in Kissa ten and is a must if you want to taste the Showa. You will be surprised that it actually taste good. And last of all, every Kissa ten have their interpretation of parfait and Oojou’s was a huge mounds of whipped cream which everybody was posting on SNS. We had such a fun lunch, will make more visit to Kissa ten in near future for sure.

美術館を楽しんだ後は遅めのランチと言う事で上野駅へ。気分はレトロな喫茶店だったので、珈琲王城へ。平日の午後、時刻は３時を回っていたのですが、私達の前に２組の待ち。意外とすんなり入れましたが、私達が入った後、列がどんどん長くなり、５組ほど並んでました。甘く見てましたが、人気のお店なんだと実感。もっと驚いたのは満席の店内に入ると、お客さんはほぼ若者。２０代前半とでも言いましょうか。１０代の男の子１人でメロンソーダとパフェを食べてのは驚きでした。

お腹が空いていたので、夫はキーマカレー、私はミートソーススパゲッティ。キーマカレーって珍しいなと思ったのですが、ここの名物らしいです。味見させて頂いのですが、ピリリと辛く、ルーが意外と多く、気をつけないとご飯が足りなくなりそうな。私が注文したミートソースなのですが、ちょっと塩っぱめのソースの下に隠れているスパゲッティがお野菜と軽く炒めてあります。故、凄いボリューム感です。正直お腹がいっぱいだったのですが、周りを見渡すと、みんなパフェを注文。やはり気になり、オーダーしてみると、改めて目の前に運ばれて来ると巨大。バニラアイス３玉ぐらい中に入っているのですが、外側はほぼ生クリーム。生クリームの爆弾。全体的私達の顔より大きい。普段こんな爆弾食べないので、帰りの電車では２人とも眠ってしまい、楽しい経験でした。あまり外食しないので、こういうのをたまーに食べると、あぁ楽しい。（笑）良い経験でした。