Mori Building Digital Art Museum
2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics Art Posters L to R: Hirohiko Araki, Manga Artist, The Sky above The Great Wave off the Coast of
Kanagawa; Chihiro Mori, Artist, Beyond the Curve(Five Thousand Rings); Shinro Ohtake, Painter, Space Kicker.
Continuing with its sustainability efforts, Tokyo 2020 has pledged to use
100 percent renewable power at the summer games, with brand new
clean energy systems installed in seven venues. Additionally, medal
stands will be made exclusively from recycled plastics, and a goal to
recycle 65 percent of the waste from the event has been established.
The Tokyo 2020 Robot Project combines efficiency with fun, promoting
robot technologies for social good during the games. One example is
an automatic driving Field Support Robot, which will retrieve objects
from throwing competitions and help staff circumvent obstacles. Smiling
mascot robots outfitted with a variety of facial expressions will greet
athletes and guests, too. Guests in wheelchairs will have access to a
robot that will locate their seats and carry food from concession stands.
BEYOND TOKYO 2020
Outside the Olympics, the hottest ticket in town may be the world’s
first digital art museum — The Mori Building Digital Art Museum in
Odaiba — designed with Tokyo 2020 in mind, as the man-made island is
one of the major hubs of the summer games. Using 520 computers and
470 projectors, digital artists fill the 100,000 square feet of space with
a dazzling world of borderless art. In one room, encounter floating
lamps in pulsating colors; in another, face a dazzling infinity room full
of LEDs and mirrors whose color changes with a few taps on an app on
your smartphone.
Concurrent with the Olympics is the Tsukiji Honganji Temple Bon Odori
Festival, offering a chance to immerse in traditional Buddhist Japanese
culture. Held across four evenings in late July and early August, the
festival features costume-clad dancers honoring their ancestors to the
beat of the Taiko drums. This festival also serves some of the best of
Japanese summer festival cuisine from local vendors and market stalls
from the famed Tsukiji Outer Market.
A day after the torch arrives in Tokyo, the skies will glam it up with a
pyrotechnic overload, thanks to the Sumidagawa Fireworks Festival.
Dating back to 1733, the event is the country’s oldest of its kind,
attracting almost a million people annually. Indeed, the fireworks
festival is just one explosion of fun among hundreds in this exciting —
and Olympic — year for Tokyo.
GETTING THERE
United Airlines and All Nippon Airways offer daily nonstop service between
Washington Dulles International Airport and Tokyo. On March 28 and
March 29 respectively, United Airlines and All Nippon Airways will switch
service to Tokyo Haneda Airport, Tokyo’s close-in international airport.
SPRING 2020 37 FLYWASHINGTON.COM