I've made mistakes before, but....

...I feel really bad about this one.

So the boys and I were wandering through Roppongi Hills when we decided to go up to the top of the Mori Tower (52nd floor, 360-degree view of the city) so we could visit the Sky Aquarium, a temporary installation featuring all kinds of pretty fish. That part was great. But then....we made our way over to the Mori Art Museum, which is on the same floor. (The price of admission is included in the Viewing Tower ticket, which ain't cheap, so I was thinking we'd get our money's worth.) The exhibit changes every 2-3 months or so, and right now it's showing Annette Messager: The Messengers.

And now Conor is having nightmares.

OK, so I don't know for sure that he is, but I wouldn't be surprised. We had been in the exhibit hall for five minutes - the first room featured a series of authentic-looking birds and small mammals ('taxidermied'? 'taxidermal'?) with cartoonish stuffed animal heads -- when he said, in a low, slightly panicky voice, "I don't like this place. Can we get out of here? I don't want to be in this place."

"Freaky," added Dylan, staring at some ragged, deflated furry animal costumes and fake limbs dangling from cables.

I grabbed their hands and started walking quickly toward the exit, but it was just like the Ikea Marketplace: there was only one way to go, and the way out forced us to hit every department, or in this case, see every strange ensemble and disturbing set piece. We picked up the pace, through more doorways and down more halls, then up a ramp past some bright red silky sheet, spread across the floor, fans underneath puffing it up and making it billow, and I was reminded of that scene in "The Shining" when the hallway fills with blood...

Then we saw the bat. The wings of black cloth stretched along a wall, maybe 6-ft. across; the "face" was a photographic composite of a wide-open (screaming) human mouth and two bulging eyeballs. "Don't look," I said, and of course they did (who wouldn't?) and then we were running.

Outside the exihibit, heading to the elevator, Conor, now crying, demanded to know why I made them see that. I swear I don't know.

update 9/11: I found this image online (wish I could find one of the bat)