21_21 Design Sight, Tokyo...'Redirect your eyes'...

My last day in Tokyo and I realised I'd almost forgotten about this place! I would have hated myself if I'd missed it because not only is 21_21 Design Sight an incredibly beautiful building, but the exhibition that's currently running, KOME The Art of Rice, is truly one of the best I've ever seen anywhere in the world. It's a very personal thing is art and for me this display of rice in its various forms was utterly captivating in its simplicity and presentation. 'In this exhibition, we take a fresh look at rice not only as food but also as Japanese culture, with graphic designer Taku Satoh and cultural anthropologist Shinichi Takemura acting as exhibition directors'.

The architect of 21_21 Design Sight, is unsurprisingly Tadao Ando and the Directors of the actual facility are three of the best, Issey Miyake (clothing designer), Taku Satoh (graphic designer) and Naoto Fukusawa (product designer). As per the website, 21_21 is a launch pad that provides the vision (sight) to search for, discover, and make things indispensable to the times and design as culture that enlivens our daily lives.

I spent hours there, mesmerized by the tiny writing on even tinier grains of rice, the superb photographs of everything rice-connected, moving short films featuring interviews with rice farmers and makers of sake, the test tubes of simulated growing rice, the endless framed sake labels, graphics, grasses, paddy field hats and long boots, the tools of the trade...there was so much amazingness which as you know, is something I'm constantly in search of as I wander here, there and everywhere, like Alice.

I've seen rice in a new light, with fresh, redirected eyes. So kudos to 21_21 Design Sight and KOME - you captivated and enriched me today and left me feeling lighter and gentler.

Walking down from Tokyo Midtown...

Striking angles...21_21 Design Sight is a work of art in itself...

Inside...

Gorgeous photographs by Yusuke Nishibe...

Wonderment...

Rice the way it looks before it's hulled...

Straw creations...

Constantly moving images of growing rice....

Everyone gets a chance to try write their name on a grain of rice. I gave up and just drew a heart...see next pic...

For details re how to get there (Roppongi) see www.2121designsight.jp

All pics on a Canon D600 | copyright DIVA PR

Lying under the Sakura in Shinjuku Gyoen Park, Tokyo...

What a day, what a park. Seemed as if everyone was out in the spring sunshine today. I took advantage of the good weather, got myself a pain au chocolate, tea and a tub of yoghurt and did breakfast under a cherry blossom tree...the Sakura are looking magnificent at Gyoen. This 58 hectare garden started it's life as an imperial one in 1879 and in 1949 became open to the public for the first time, being named the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden in 2001. There are 3 styles of garden here: Japanese, French and English. The garden is a favourite hanami (cherry-blossom viewing) spot and I tell you, it draws a vast local and tourist crowd with its more than 20,000 trees. In bloom it's a sight to behold: 1,500 cherry trees bloom from late March (Shidare or Weeping Cherry), to early April (Somei or Tokyo Cherry), and on to late April (Kanzan Cherry). Other trees found here include the majestic Himalayan cedars, which soar above the rest of the trees in the park, tulip trees, cypresses, and plane trees, which were first planted in Japan in the Imperial Gardens.

Scenes from Shinjuku Gyoen...

Peeping through the Sakura...

 

Just married....

 

 

Picnic under a cherry blossom tree...

 

The pavilion viewing point...

 

Take the metro to Shinjuku Gyoenmae...the park is literally a street away...ask anyone...

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A beautiful children's library by Tadao Ando, in Tokyo...

Tadao Ando is a legendary Japanese architect, someone Lateral Paul has spoken to me about for years, literally. So to see the International Children's Library (and thanks to Shingo for taking me there) was a major design and creative moment for me. Located within Ueno Park in Tokyo, the International Library of Children's Literature is a renovation and expansion of the former Imperial Library built in 1906 and expanded in 1929. (This next part is courtesy www.galinsky.com, for those who know design/architecture): The subtle interventions of Ando create a dynamic juxtaposition between the old and the new while creating the first national library dedicated to children's literature.

Whatever your knowledge of design etc, one thing stands out- the dedication of the local government to inspire children about books and reading, especially crucial in a techno age where finger-tapping on smartphones is the order of the day and turning a page is fast becoming obsolete ...

The facade....

Inside....the play of light is beautiful and note the chair designs....

Glass wrapped around an ancient staircase....feeling Paris here, there & everywhere...

A wonderful experience for kids....to be surrounded by such creativity is so amazing- they're absorbing top end design without even realizing it...

Looking into the research room...note the circular lines inside...

Kids have everything at their disposal here...and again, stylish chairs...

Hello Kitty & origami on the Librarian's desk...just perfect...

The International Library of Children's Literature

12-49 Ueno Park

Taito-ku, Tokyo

110-0007 Japan

Easy to find on the Metro as well....enjoy!

 

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Part with your plastic here...Omotesando in Tokyo...

If you're going to do a spot of serious shopping, parting with your precious plastic to score top end brands you feel you cannot live without, then do it properly and lose yourself somewhere where your surroundings are so beautiful that you won't feel the pain. These places exist in Tokyo, where odes to retail will blow your mind and eliminate any buyers' remorse lurking beneath the surface (otherwise known as your conscience), I can almost guarantee it. You may not even intend to buy, but buy you shall, because your purchasing environment will be so very pretty and too tempting to refuse. Ask me, I know this feeling- I just bought a watch at Paul Smith, Omotesando. Why, I'm not too sure - my 50th birthday present to myself perhaps? Who knows - the store was 2 levels of loveliness and I just could not resist.
Retail architecture ensues, taken to a whole new level in Omotesando, Tokyo - it has it's very own Champs Elysees ...this is uber shopping if ever I saw it, in the East of the world. Do it, if only to buy a pair of socks. I did that too, just by the way.

Introducing the Ted Baker building...

Tommy Hilfiger...

The interior of Omotesando Hills Shopping Malls, designed by the legendary Japanese architect Tadao Ando...

Partial exterior shot of Omotesando Hills mall...

Tokyo's own Champs Élysées - Otomesando ...

The Dior building, designed by architects Sejima Kazuyo & Nishizawa Ryue...

Chanel is in the building at right with the MoMA store on the 2nd floor...always full of amazing treasures...

Our friend Shingo...he of endless patience ....

Take the Metro to Omotesando - easy to find....enjoy....

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A Tokyo church, like none other...

Our good friend Shingo took me to see breathtaking buildings today, designed by some of Japan's foremost architects. St Mary's Cathedral in Sekiguchi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo (Metro stop is Edogawabashi), was our first stop, and it's all I expected-  spectacular. Before it was flattened in a WWll air raid in 1945, St Mary's church was a simple wooden gothic structure. Kenzo Tange was tasked with creating the new house of worship, an imposing house of worship that must have seemed way ahead of its time when it opened in 1964, some 50 years ago. I managed to sneak one pic inside, of the stained glass window at the altar - all the other details of the interior can be found online. My photos don't really do the building justice- it can be captured from many more different angles and from the sky it presents another beautiful perspective. Good luck getting that angle ...

The stained glass window behind the altar - so beautiful..

More info re Kenzo Tange- he is said to have been the greatest exponent of modern architecture in Japan and the first Japanese to be awarded the Pritzker prize. Tange's cathedral project is described as being at the midpoint between Modernism and Metabolism, between the abstract and the symbolic, between the bright and polished exterior and the dark and rough interior... in sum, between the East and the West *

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Tokyo~ a royal garden, another shrine or two, a swan & Ginza..

I walked up the steps like Scarlett did in Lost in Translation. The Meiji Shrine in Shibuya, the largest of the Tokyo Shinto shrines, circa 1921, is made of cypress and copper and surrounded by 175 hectares of evergreen forest - that's about 120,000 trees - and the imposing torii pillars at the entrance are said to be the biggest in the country. The original shrine was destroyed in WWll air raids, rebuilt, and completed in 1958. But enough of the shrines already so I moved on to more camouflage green, you know that wintery colour, this time at the Imperial Palace Gardens, a bit disappointingly dull though as the Sakura trees weren't in bloom. The other trees were also still bare, and on top of that it was a bit of a grey day with rain forecast for the evening. I'd only recommend a visit to those (and any other Japanese gardens) in the cherry blossom season which is early spring, or in summer - that must be exquisite. I spotted a lone swan paddling about in the moat- worried a bit about him for being on his own like that (can I get over my animal stresses already).
Up next, Ginza- upmarket without being stuffy with top end shops and a huge iStore. Here there is no such thing as a till; each salesperson has an iPhone that doubles up as a c/c machine so business is done toute suite! Needless to say I left armed with more Apple things that can't be found in SA.

The Meijii shrine and the torii (pillars) at the entrance...

A beautiful shaped roof I thought ...

Prayers on wooden tablets...

Barrels of sake gifted to the shrine...

And onto things royal ~ The Imperial Palace moat, a few eager Sakura trees and the lone swan...

Walking through the Imperial Palace Gardens...

An imperial pose maybe ?

That swan again, see him between the branches...where's his mate I wonder...

Sakura in bloom on the street in Ginza...

Back at Senso-ji Shrine, this time in the late afternoon...in Asakusa

Geisha ladies checking out their selfies...

More of Senso-ji...see the smoke plume? If you stand there and let it waft over you, you'll be made well they say...

Ginza...the Young Tower Clock, a sculpture by Taro Okamoto...

More of Ginza..

At the MoMA store in the fascinating SONY Experience building, Ginza. This is a must- visit destination especially if you have kids or are still a kid...

The iStore in Ginza, designed by the firm Bohlin Cywinski Jackson...the inside is average except for the glass elevators but the outside is fabulous...

Another satisfying day in Tokyo....

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