Japan Day 36 - Edo to Tokyo to the 21st Century

Today we had a free day to see what we wanted. I hadn't seen many any of the big attractions so I did 2 of the three star attractions, Originally I had planed to do 3 but I decided I wasn't up to getting up at 4 am to go see the fish market.

The first thing I did was to go see the Tokyo City Hall and go up to the observation deck. It has two towers- north and south. The book said the view was the same but the north has a restaurant and the south had a cheaper cafe. since it was getting close to lunch and being cheap I thought I would go up the south one. One hitch the south one was closed. Oh well. the North tower had a cool view but the restaurant blocked some of it. From up there it looks like the city just goes on forever

Then I went to see the Tokyo Edo Museum. It covers I broad range of the history of Tokyo from the Edo period to post WWII.

The museum was interesting to go through. The allowed photography which was nice and even posted signs on the ones you could use flash on. The museum showed how japan quickly became westernized and had model homes showing how western ways of living were Incorporated into their home.

Then I went back to Akibara to walk through it again and see it during the day when all of the shops are open. I happened upon a cool electronic parts flea market where the vendors were selling individual electrical parts like capacitors and resisters.

At 6 we met for our group dinner. This one was a farewell dinner that was included in the trip fee. Stan found a place in Shibuya that could fit all of use. It was yet another take on the cook at the table restaurant. this time we cooked meat, vegetables and noodles in a broth. It was really good. It wasn't that late when left so we searched for something else to do as a group. first we tried to find a karaoke place but the one we found was to expensive so the next idea was bowling. We asked someone and the pointed us down a couple of blocks and sure enough. There was a giant bowling pin on the roof of the building. The bowling ally was on the 3rd floor and it wasn't to expensive.

It was crazy bowling under black lights. I didn't do very well at all. My wrist started hurting after only about 4 turns. Stan on the hand did very good- He made one of those almost impossible split spares. All the equipment appeared to be imported from America and all the bowling balls were stamped with pounds. Now back to packing- I have to leave here in just a few hours.

The rest of the days photos

Japan Day 35 - Sekisui Homes

Today we went to tour Sekisui's Factory, another modular home plant. They have a very similar process to Misawa Homes.

They build steel framed modules that they assemble together at the job site. You can read all the details over at their website. They also have another factory that produces wood framed homes. There tour was very through. They had several videos showing the manufacturing process up close. One of the coolest parts was the huge machine that automatically assembled the steel frame. It loaded all the pieces and spot wielded all of the joints.

They also had a model home. Walking in, you would think you walking into modern western home. Very nice. The house was huge by Japanese terms- about three times larger than normal larger than the They had a couple of traditional Japanese rooms too and it was amazing how you turn a corner and you leave the west and enter the east as you walked into a very traditional tea room. Our guide said this house would be about $1million US (not including land). It was only a 2bed and 2 bath but it also had an office, living, dining w/bar, family room, tatami living room, tea room. It was huge. Unless you knew, you couldn't tell that it was a modular home- it looked spectacular. The were no hints that the home was built using 41 prefabricated blocks.

After dinner I went out to see Shibyua and this time I found the "Times Square". I stepped out of the JR station and there it was. Very cool.

There were had massive dueling big screens, huge billboards. The only things missing were the massive skyscrapers probably because of the difficulty of building in earthquake land. The shear amount of people waiting the cross the street was amazing.

Then I went to see Omotesando Dori at night but I got there too late and many of the stores had already turned off there lights the only one still nicely lit was this one-

The bold blue caught me by surprise. The building is white and glass during the day. It wasn't at what I was expecting but I really liked it and showed how dramatically a building can change at night.

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Packing

Well my trips come to the end and I'm just about packed. I've been working on the posts for the last two days but they probably won't be finished until I get back home. I just realized I packed everything from today that had the info I needed to fill in a few details.

Japan Day 34 - Ginza

Today we went to go see Ginza another shopping area with some significant buildings. This is area was were foreign stores first open in japan and has become a high class shopping area. On the weekends they close the street to traffic and becomes a giant outdoor mall. I think some of the companies wish that their American stores would be as crowded as some of the ones we saw today were.

First we saw the Tokyo Forum- It's a big convention center. It had a very nice public space.

Then we saw a bunch of different shops

Mikimoto

De Beers

Tiffany's

Cartier

Armani

The center glass block one was designed by Renzo Piano

Shops for Several Watch Companies in a building designed by Shigeru Ban. Each shop has it own glass elevator that takes you to their store inside.

Next we went to see The Capsule Hotel. This was any early experiment in modular and prefabricated construction. In the end it didn't work out very well so its mark to be demolished soon.

Then I went to see a few more camera shops, camera shop is a bit a misnomer, they were more like department stores for men with 8+ floors of cameras, computers, tvs and other electronics but they also had sporting goods, power tools and home appliances.

At Yodobasi camera, they had all of the most popular SLR lens out on the floor with some mounted on demo camera's and some out where you could try then out on your camera body.

They had two of the Canon professional white lens mounted on tripods that you could demo- one of them had an $8000 price tag on it. I was surprised about the lack of supervision. You could pickup cameras and play with them with out a worried sales rep looking over your shoulder. The reps weren't too concerned about people messing up their stuff. They also didn't seem to care when I was taking pictures...

I went to their food court up on the 8th floor for dinner. I had a peppered steak dish. It was another variation of the cook it yourself model. They bring your food on a super hot skillet and the meat is cooked by the time the dish cools off.

Then I went to see the night life around Shinjuk and try and find the Timesquare of Tokyo. The guide book didn't list a specific location but I assumed it would be near The Takshimaya Times Square Department Store. Not the case.... After looking it up online the place I was looking for is actually three districts south of where I was in Shibuya. Oh well. This area still had crazy lights and screens.

Japan Day 33 -Architecture Overload

Today we went go see all the buildings on Omotesando Dori. The street is known for its high end fashion stores like Prada. There seems to be a competition going on to see who has most unique building. But first we made a short detour to see the Olympic Arena built for the 1964 Olympics.

It has a very cool suspended roof. there was concert getting ready to start so we couldn't go inside but we were able to get in and the smaller secondary arena.

Then we head down to Omotesando Dori. I can't rember who designed what but I'll look them up later. Here are the most Famous

A Shopping mall by Ando

Prada's Store

Tods

Afterwards, I headed back to the hotel for a rest and dinner and then I went out to see the Akihabara Electiric City. It is whole district devoted to electronic stores. I was only able to go in a few before things started closing down. Many of the shops closed at 8pm and few stayed open until 10. I saw thing out on shelves I had only seen pictures of. It was like walking through Newegg's website. One shop had a whole floor dedicated to new computer cases. Most of the prices seemed to be on par with what I've seen states side. I sneaked in picture of Canons display and I checked the prices compared to bh's website and they were a bit more expensive here. One store had a used computer parts section and had some very tempting stuff. I'm definitely coming back here again our free day Tuesday.

Photos Day 33

Japan Day 32 - Yokohama

Today we went to go see Yokohama. It's a city right outside of Tokyo. We primary went to go see the pier there.

It was designed by Foreign Office Architects and was finished in 2002

Its a crazy up and down curvy building almost like a piece of inhabitable sculpture and has a large public park on top. The pier is so crazy that one person said if they were to design something like this in architecture school the professor would fail them.

It looked cool but I didn't think it was that spectacular. Interesting to see yes, good building no. It didn't good job connecting with it surroundings and it lacked hierarchy and order (almost purposefully). To me, there wasn't enough emphasis on the main entrances and lacked something to pull your attention towards it. To me it looked like a blob covered in wood with a little grass thrown in for variety. The detail work on the construction was nice though

Then we went to go see china town and find lunch. Talk about competition- There were dozens of Chinese restaurants all lined up next to each other on both sides of the street. We ended up just going to one that looked cheaper. It was pretty good. I ordered a beef and vegetables dish that was good, it was spicier than I expected it to be.

We took another crowed train back and now its raining and I'm resting hoping my sore shoulders will feel better tomorrow.

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Japan Day 31 - On the way to Tokyo

Well after my last post, I had to pack. I had been putting it off just about as long as possible because I was worried about trying to make all the gifts I bought fit in my. I got it all fit but just barely. If I buy much more, I'm going to have to get another bag. Since I'm not returning to Kyoto like some people are I had to bring all of my luggage with me to Tokyo. Remind me to pack lighter next time...

We left at nine thirty for Kyoto Station and caught the 10:30 Shinkansen to Nagoa. This was my first trip ever on a high speed train and it was nice. The ride was very smooth. You don't hear any of "clickity clack" sounds you hear on a normal train but you here a lot of air noise. It was a lot like being in an jumbo jet except with a lot more leg room. The one think I wasn't expecting was for my ears to pop when we went through the longer tunnels. I was curious so I looked up- apparently the trains are going fast that they displace more air than can escape from the tunnel so it compresses and creates an area of high pressure. Another interesting thing was how much you could feel when another train passed us going the other direction. As they approached we would slow down just for a moment and then we would be tilted to the side as it passed. Air pressure again.


In Nagoa we went to see one of Misawa Homes's factories. We put our luggage in lockers at the train station and then took a local train and then short taxi ride to the plant. Unfortunately the local train wasn't operated by JR so we couldn't use our rail pass and had to pay :(

Misawa makes modular homes using wood and steel construction. Everyday they build 24 modules which is enough to build 2 homes. They gave us a fantastic tour of the factory. We got to see there automated line were they make the exterior concrete/ceramic panels and then we got to see the line where they assemble all of the modules. Yhey followed Toyota's model of the always moving assembly line. One thing that surprised me was that the Japanese government suppresses them showing how much safer their homes are in earthquakes because it would likely put small conventional construction firms out of business. During the Kobe Earthquake, not one of their homes collapsed. No pics of the factory, they didn't allow us to take pictures.

Then we hoped back on the Shinkansen and headed to Tokyo. We got off and transferred to the JR Yamanoto line which runs in a loop around the city. Oh my was it crowded. we were stuffed in tight, It didn't take long at all for us to get of sense of just how busy Tokyo is. We are staying at the Tokyo Plaza Hotel which is only a block from the train station in Shin-Okubo, which is Korean Town.

For dinner we went as a group to a Korean Samgyeopsal restaurant. It was a lot like the yakiniku like we had in Kobe. They lured us in with 1500 all you could eat pork but then you also have to buy a drink too. We grilled all sorts of pieces of pork that looked a lot like bacon. I liked the Japanese Barbecue adaption we had in Kobe better (and lot better for you).

Photos Day 31

Japan Day 30- Bye Kyoto

Well today was my last full day in Kyoto. Tomorrow we are headed to Tokyo for the final week. Its hard to believe that I've been here for a month already. Time flies when your having fun!

The only thing on the schedule today was to meet with Stan and go over our projects with him. I worked all morning getting my project put in the computer (although I got a bit sidetracked chatting with family online). I got the basics laid out and but then on the way to meet with Stan for my review at a near by restaurant, I had one of those Eureka! moments that made me completely shift all of my floor plans and frantically sketch out a new set of plans while i waited my turn. I think the project is much better now and Stan agreed. Now I have just about a month left to turn it into a final project.

After that I went to go see one last building in Kyoto that I had some how manged not to have run into yet- The Times building, by Tadao Ando. This building is one of Ando earlier works and it was interesting to see how his style has changed since. This building wasn't the traditional cast in place concrete that one typically thinks of when talking about Ando. The construction was mostly exposed concrete block but it still had some elements like the vertical slits that are common in Ando's Work.

We are planing to catch the 10:30 Shinkansen to Tokyo but we are making a stop somewhere in the middle to tour a factory where they make modular homes. Should be interesting.

So long Kyoto. Hopefully I'll come back and visit you again one day.

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