Museum finds poetry in motions
Japan’s culture of cute makes no exceptions for poop. It gets a pop twist at the Unko Museum in Yokohama near Tokyo. The poop is artificial, nothing like what would be in a toilet, and comes in twisty ice cream and cupcake shapes, in all colours and sizes.
“The poops are colourful and come out nicely in photos,” said Haruka Okubo, a student visiting part of the museum devoted to all-important selfies. “The shape is so round and cute.”
In Japan, little poop-shaped erasers with faces and other small items have long been popular items collected by children — and sometimes older folks. As elsewhere, rude jokes are popular and bodily functions discussed openly: a recent morning variety show by public broadcaster NHK featured tips on how to deal with farts.
Visitors to the museum get a short video introduction and then are
asked to sit on one of seven colourful, non-functional toilets lined up against the wall.
Music plays as a user pretends to poop, then a brightly coloured souvenir “poop” can be collected from inside the toilet bowl, to be taken home after the tour.
A ceiling-high poop sculpture in the main hall erupts every 30 minutes, spitting out little foam poops.
The “Unstagenic” area of Instagram-worthy installations includes pastel-hued flying poops and a neon sign with the word “poop” written in different languages.
In another room, players use a projection-mapping game like “whack-a-mole” to stamp on and squash the most poops they can. In another game, participants compete to make the biggest “poop” by shouting the word in Japanese, “unko”, as loudly as possible.
A football video game involves using a controller to “kick” a poop into a goal.
Toshifumi Okuya, a system engineer, was amused to see adults having fun. “It’s funny because there are adults running around screaming ‘poop, poop’,” he said.
Visitors get a bag to carry home their poop. If they want still more, the museum’s gift shop abounds with more poop-themed souvenirs.
The museum attracted more than 100,000 visitors in the first month after its opening in March. It will remain open until September.