the tall blond guy goes to japanthe tall blond guy goes to japan
I followed up on an in-flight magazine today. I remember, a few years back, I read in some in-flight magazine that the Canadian embassy in Tokyo is in quite a nice building. It had won some awards or something. It's across the street from the Imperial Palace, and its designers made the building into a pyramid so that no shadow would fall into the Palace gardens, in a show of respect. I thought that was pretty cool, so I decided to go find it and see for myself.
Requisite Canadian Art. Note pyramid in reflection.Yeah, it was a neato building. I especially liked being saluted at by the security guard. Very cold though. I don't mean temperature-wise... the building just looked rather cold and forbidding. The pyramid worked pretty nicely, and there was a huge plaza overlooking the Palace gardens.
To enter the embassy, visitors need to ride an external escalator to the 4th floor plaza, and enter into the main lobby from there. No one told me who the archetect was, but I seem to remember the in-flight magazine saying it was some Canadian guy.
No matter, because what I'm seeing right now blows everything else away.
Until I saw what I'm looking at right now, I used to feel some kind of civic pride to be able to live in the same city that housed the most beautiful building I've ever seen. Vancouver's Trade and Convention Centre is stunningly beautiful. I wish I had a picture of it to put in here. Built on a pier into the water, it's a massive building topped with a roof shaped like the sails of a ship. Very faboo, but what I'm looking at now is far, far better.
Tokyo International ForumThis one picture does not do justice to this mind-numbingly beautiful building. It must have cost a fortune, but it's worth every penny. I'll be back very soon for better pictures and hopefully some information on who designed it. The building consists of 4 cubes and a lens-on-its-side-shaped tall thing. The tall thing is basically a 10-15 storey tall glassed-in atrium with rows of meeting rooms along one of the curving walls. The roof resembles a huge overturned canoe. In the picture, taken from about halfway up the atrium, you can see the little blurry dots below- they're people. There are two very expensive restuarants on the top floor- which is about 3/4 of the way up the atrium. It's a very popular spot for young Tokyoites to go and smooch, judging by the number of couples strolling about. Really great view from the top too. If you ever have a chance to go to a conference here (especially if someone else is paying), you really should go for it. I'm still in shock about what a gorgeous building this is. Everything, down to the smallest detail, is perfect. The materials used- lots of granite offset by pine. All the outside walls are glass. I can't wait to see this place on a sunny day!
