We weren’t all about the day trips while in Fukuoka. There were things to see in the city (besides the city itself).
First up there was a big Buddha to see in the suburbs. Said Buddha resides at the Nanzo-in temple. The temple was originally located on Mt Konya and was moved to its present location in the late 19th century where it became a part of a major pilgrimage route. Information about the site says that close to a million people visit it in a year.
The statue of the reclining Buddha is more recent – it was unveiled in 1995. Weighing in at 300 tons, the statue is 135ft long and 36ft high – immense!
The scale of the plaza gives you a bit of an idea of the number of people who visit.
The grounds of the temple were lovely and in addition to the usual flights of steps going up up up there was a long and winding ramp with a rubbery surface that took us up above the temple proper to where the Buddha was resting. The long ramp would make it accessible to wheelchair bound pilgrims.
After a visit to the temple and the Buddha we skipped ahead in time and went to see teamLabs Forest. When we were in Tokyo in 2018 we went to see the first teamLabs digital art project and were quite amazed. It was a combination of music and digital projections and interactive experiences that was unlike anything we’d experienced. Originally planned as a temporary exhibit the teamLabs folks now have permanent exhibits in various places on various themes.
Another subway ride and a walk to the building where the exhibit lives. It turns out to be right beside the baseball statdium, where the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks play. Hints along the way….
Not much to see from the outside – a big grey building with no windows and an easy to miss entrance. We were pretty much first through the door. The building also has a rollercoaster on the roof which appeared to have single seats suspended below the track – looked very swingy. There was also an unko museum on the upper floor – unko being poop, so a poop museum for children……
Anyhoo. Before we went into the first room we were encouraged to download an app onto our phone so we could interact with the animals. So I did. The idea was that through our camera we would look at the animals as they appear and ‘catch’ them. Information about the animal would then appear on the phone screen to be viewed and then on to the next critter. I felt like I was spending more time fiddling around, trying to make the ‘catch’ work and not really looking at what was going on around me. I decided to experience what was going on around me directly.
Not only were there animals wandering through the forest on the walls around us, but the floor was covered with fish swimming by and birds flying overhead. We moved from room to room through the forest as there was movement all round us. Mirrors helped to make the space seem even more huge than it was, and all the time there was music playing. It was very beautiful.
From the forest we moved into the more interactive rooms.
The first room was the ‘Oh, hell no room’. We didn’t get a picture there – too busy getting out. When we entered the room we were standing on a narrow solid strip. As soon as we stepped forward we were on a very squishy floor and we had to fight to stay upright. We were clinging to each other trying to figure out how to get back onto solid ground without having the other tip over. Eventually we did it and walked along the edge of the room. Lots of lights and movement and music.
In the next room the walls and floor were covered in pillow like bumps. If you stepped on them they changed pattern or colour and were very squishy.
We decided we’d be better off walking on the black part between the pillows – still soft but stable.
The third room had an undulating but solid floor.
Lots of animals and textures and music. The next room was our favourite ….
It was full of big spheres that floated about in the breeze, as well as big egg shapes lightly tethered to the floor. As the spheres floated by we could gently bat them away or forward or up as we walked through the egg shapes. The colours shifted every minute or so, and the mirrored walls and ceiling made it feel like an infinity of spheres.
There was also a station we could sit at where we could choose a piece of paper with an outline of an image on it. We would colour it as we chose and when we were done we would hand it to the attendant. She would scan it and when we walked back into the room our image would be on the floor.
Mine was a flower and when I stepped on it it exploded into a shower of petals around my feet. Wilf’s lizard came to life and ran around his feet before running off and joining the other lizards. It took mere seconds between the scan and the animated projection.
When I think about the two teamLabs events we have been to I have the same feeling. It is dazzling and amazing and very cool to be inside of it. And….. I keep longing for a story, for something to react to, some emotional connection. At the end I find myself thinking ‘that was cool, but what was it for?’ Dazzling for dazzling’s sake? In Tokyo there is an immersive digital display about Hokusai, including his Great Wave. We’re going to try and get to that and see if an immersive digital display with a theme feels a bit different.
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