Photo/Illutration The Critical Resemblance House is the main attraction of the Site of Reversible Destiny park in Yoro, Gifu Prefecture. The roof is shaped like a map of Gifu and there is a maze inside, with upside-down furniture hanging off the walls. If you look up at the ceiling, you see an identical world in reverse. (Photo by Lisa Vogt)

Weird. Crazy. I wonder how much money was put into creating this mega... mega... park in Yoro, Gifu Prefecture. Park? I don’t know what to call it. I suppose it can be called a park.

I first visited the Site of Reversible Destiny in 1995. At that time, it was a gleaming, spick-and-span new attraction. I remember walking around the installation, not being able to make heads or tails of any of it, but because I was in polite company, I nodded and pretended to appreciate what I was seeing. The truth is, I hadn’t a clue. I didn’t get it.

Fast-forward to the present, the second time around.

Having matured a little over more than a quarter-century, I think I understand a bit more. Or, perhaps this time, I went with the purpose of writing this column, so I willed myself to see and feel.

Lesson one: Sometimes, you have to push yourself. Chiko-chan, the mascot of the Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK) quiz show “Chiko-chan ni Shikarareru!” (Chiko-chan will scold you), was right--you gotta wake up from slumber. Everything is a two-way street. Instead of being a passive observer, engage with what’s in front of you, and things will come to you.

The Site of Reversible Destiny is a vast 18,000-square-meter site built by the artist couple Shusaku Arakawa and Madeline Gins. Curious structures with names like Zone of Clearest Confusion, Imaging Navel, Mono no Aware Transformer and more dot the landscape.

There’s no path or recommended route around the park so visitors roam every which way, going up and down wildly uneven terrain and planes, and in and out of disorienting spaces and colors.

You lose yourself in a maze of illusions, and your sense of the parallel becomes warped. Like a Zen puzzle, it’s hard to put into words what you experience.

I was glad I wore sturdy high-top sneakers with traction. People with weak ankles are just asking for a strain walking around the lumpy topography. You have to continuously be mindful and pay attention to everything around you, or else you’ll get hurt. And, you’ll miss out on all that you can experience.

When you become aware and immersed with the off-kilter, time-and-space-warped field, your world and all its reality become nonsensical.

Lesson two: A reshuffling of one’s truth and absoluteness tears down mental constructions and makes one question everything. This place physically works on you to do this. Hence, it’s the Site of Reversible Destiny.

Wake up, engage, and be shaken up in Gifu!

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This article by Lisa Vogt, a Washington-born and Tokyo-based photographer, originally appeared in the June 6 issue of Asahi Weekly. It is part of the series "Lisa’s Wanderings Around Japan," which depicts various places across the country through the perspective of the author, a professor at Meiji University.

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