As long as we’ve got half a day to kill at the Narita airport, let’s take a gander at the origami museum conveniently located in one of the terminals, shall we? Holy cow. Forget about folded cranes and cute little boxes and jumping frogs. Actually, don’t forget about folding cranes, but now, instead of picturing a single crane, picture that crane with either one or a series of smaller cranes sprouting from and attached to the larger crane, without glue, tape, or tearing of the single square or rectangular sheet of paper. Big crane, small crane sprouting from the tail. Or the wingtip. Or both wingtips. Or a whole halo of small cranes surrounding the big one, delicately connected by tenuous paper bridges again, all from a single sheet of paper.
And that’s just for starters. Everything from completely convincing animals of every shape and sort, down to the wrinkled appearance of hippo hide or the jutting lower incisors of a bulldog standing over a food bowl that contains a bone, to entire dioramas of folded fleets at sea, dragons sacking towns (Look out! Godzilla!), and dojo courtyards full of martial arts practitioners in identical poses. Flowering trees with falling petals, Escher knockoffs with square patterns of paper morphing into gradually more detailed fish and birds going in opposite directions, intricate kimono designs. Did I mention that this is all done with folded sheets of- right, I already said that. Enchanting.
