Thursday, May 11, 2006

   Architecture in Japan
Well… it’s time to post again… first off – a little housekeeping. I think somebody tried to PM me today. Unfortunately, I got a PM from one of the Dark Children from March instead. I am going to post my e-mail address for a few days. Feel free to use it instead of e-mail until they get the PM system working with a little more reliability.

Today’s topic – Architecture in Tokyo.
I was very surprised at the wide variety of architecture I saw in Tokyo. I am going to focus on more modern architecture and not the traditional Japanese architecture.
First off, I would like to show some more traditional “foreign architecture” found in Tokyo. The first building will probably be one of the first buildings you are in if you go to Tokyo – Tokyo Station on the Marunouchi side. It makes me think of an English train station (anyone living in or near England, feel free to give your thoughts). One of the things I like about Tokyo Station is that there is an art museum in the station. As well as a number of places to eat nearby – but no garbage cans in the station. They have had problems with terrorists, too.

And if you were curious – Narita (Tokyo) Airport is about 70 miles from Tokyo Station (or was that kilometers? – either way - a long way from the city)

The next building appears to be eastern style, but makes me think me more of India than Japan or China. I wish I knew what the building was, but I only remember that I passed it while walking from the subway station towards the fish market. Which fish market? THE fish market. I just don’t feel like looking up the spelling right now.


The next building is not far from the larger of the Akasaka subway stations. I was told that this building is used for visiting dignitaries Yes, it looks all wide open in the picture, but that is because I stuck my camera through the bars in the very large gate they had. Any architecture buffs out there that can name the style of this building? The closest I could come was “Looks kinda European”.


Enough of the old stuff – now it is on to more modern architecture. The first building I would like to show is the Tokyo Forum. It is not a far walk from one of the “other” exits out of Tokyo Station. I think I had to walk through the underground mall to get to this area. It is on the same side of the station as the Pokemon Center. Umm… maybe I shouldn’t have admitted that I knew where that was. It was for my nieces and nephews. Really. This building made me think I was on the inside of a whale or an upside down ship. The first pic shows the building from the outside. The next image was the best I had of the interior of the roof. The final image of this convention center shows walkways that they have crossing the airspace on the inside of the building. It was very strange and very intriguing. I think I used a whole roll of film on this one building. Yes – I was in Tokyo 6 years ago – it was before I had a digital camera.



Now, we move on to Odaiba. Yes, this is the area where you need to take the monorail to get to (or drive over the rainbow bridge). We get really interesting over here. I think this is a much newer neighborhood where the architects got to have some fun and show off. The first building is FujiTV. You may have seen this before – not too many buildings have a sphere as part of the building.


Next is a building I really liked. I’m not sure why, but probably because it looks like a giant playground. You may be able to guess from looking at it, but it is a Maritime Museum.


And I will leave you with a picture of a walking bridge that connects to the monorail station & a ferris wheel. I just had to post a picture of the ferris wheel. To get an idea of scale – it is 100 meters in diameter & 115 meters high. For the Americans out there – that is a football field across. Sadly, I did not go on it. I don’t remember the cost, but it was more than I wanted to pay ($18 maybe?)


Here is a link with more info on Odaiba: Tokyo Travel: Odaiba

I am going to be traveling for work, so I do not expect to be able to update for a couple of weeks. I will be in Northern California next week and not far from New York City the following week. Thanks to technology, I will be able to read your posts and comment from my phone, so that will be fun. I am also converting some downloaded anime so that I can watch that on my phone as well. It would be a little easier if it wasn’t all subtitiled… I guess I’ll just have to spend the time to learn Japanese.

Until next time
-bunraku

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