At one end of town there will be a young girl in a polka-dot dress standing some 10 meters tall. At the other, a team of large yellow mice will host a festival complete with portable shrines. Tokyo's Roppongi district is a spectacle at the best of times, but come March 24, it promises to outdo even itself.
Roppongi Art Night is the one time of the year when everyone in the Japanese art world can let their hair down. And they make the most of it, with dozens of street performances, public displays of artwork, exhibitions and much more starting at 10 a.m. in the morning of the 24th and continuing right through the night until the evening of the 25th. For the casual passerby it's a delightful distraction; for the committed art fiend, it's a marathon of creative indulgence.
Fumio Nanjo, the director of Roppongi's Mori Art Museum who chairs the event's organizing committee, recommends visitors to arrive at sundown on the 24th for the official opening ceremony at Roppongi Hills. At precisely 5:56 p.m., a giant inflatable statue of a young girl — along with a separate 4-meter statue of her pet dog — will appear at the Roppongi Hills Arena.