With the coronavirus pandemic, 2020 is off to a rough start. In Tokyo and across Japan, museums and tourist attractions including teamLab Borderless and Disneyland Tokyo have temporarily closed while major art exhibitions such as Art Fair Tokyo and Kyotographie have either been cancelled or postponed till later this year. Since we’re all advised to practise social distancing, people have come up with creative ways to entertain themselves at home. You can spend the day listening to a 238-hour Spotify playlist featuring all the songs Haruki Murakami has written about, watch VR videos of cherry blossoms in Japan, and now, 'visit' some of the country's most prominent art galleries from the comfort of your couch.
Japanese art magazine Bijutsutecho has created an 'online viewing art gallery' called Oil by Bijutsutecho. Set to go live on Friday March 20 at 10am, it can be accessed for free without any registration from anywhere in the world. There will be a total of 700 artworks on display, sourced from over 50 galleries in Japan, including Tokyo's hpgrp Gallery, Misako & Rosen and Tomio Koyama Gallery. Click here for the virtual gallery.
Oil Bijutsutecho
Stay up-to-date with the latest coronavirus information on Tokyo. If you're staying home, make yourself a quarantini and then chill out to these Japanese shows with English subtitles on Netflix. Otherwise, learn Japanese language for free through these online resources.