I read that there are seven bronze casts of Maman, a 30-ft.-high sculpture of a spider carrying a sac of marble eggs by French-born American artist Louise Bourgeois (who apparently had some issues with her mother...). The one pictured above belongs to Tokyo's Mori Art Museum, and is the focal point of the big plaza in front of the Mori Tower, the main building in this mega-complex of offices, shops, restaurants and apartments. Wikipedia says the others are at the National Gallery of Canada, in Ottawa, the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, Seoul's Samsung Museum of Modern Art, in the Jardin des Tuileries in Paris, and in Havana, Cuba. A steel version is on loan to London's Tate Modern.
The other day, while the kids were in school and T was at work, I took my parents to Roppongi to see the spider and the city view from the tower's 52nd floor. It was too hazy to see Mt. Fuji, but it was fun to locate various buildings we knew, like the Ebisu Prime Square Tower, which is of minor note (office building with restaurants and shops, well-landscaped public plaza area), but basically marks the spot where we live. Later we went to the Modigliani exhibit at The National Art Center and had some great salmon pate at the French restaurant there, which you can see in the picture below (that's the view from inside). It's a pretty cool building.
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