Tokyo mid-town in Roppongi

The hottest complex now in Tokyo, "Tokyo mid-town" in Roppongi, has opened today. It contains shops, restaurants, museums, some headquarters of Japanese companies and a luxury hotel, the Ritz Carlton and apartments for some hundreds of families. The following is some photos there.

C'est le printemps!!!

Cherry blossoms are now in full bloom in Tokyo

C'est le printemps!!

C'est le printemps!

A big earthquake in Ishikawa in Japan

There is a huge earthquake in Ishikawa in Japan. The scale is, roughly speaking, about the same as the earthquake in Kobe.
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New buildings are eating the old one

An artwork on a street

R380

This car was designed and made in 1964 and it is the first car for racing in Japan. This is exhibited at Nissan headquarters, in Ginza, Tokyo.

Have a nice weekend.

My other offices in the city

Cafeterias often become my office, sipping a cup of coffee, reading some books and typing keyboard. It is rather a relax moment and I love it.

Have a nice weekend!!

An artistic chair on a street

a retro-flavored tavern

a street about 200 years ago in Tokyo

Nerve cell? Blood capillary?

At the railway station at Friday's night

This photo is taken around 23:00 on Friday. Many people in the photo have red faces because of some booze, although it is hard to know it by the photo. This is a typical Friday night on the railway station.

By the way, I don't want to get on the last train around midnight. The last train is usually so crowded and full of smell of alcohol.

Ema, a wooden plate for dedicating to shrines

Many piles of small wooden plate are called, Ema(絵馬). A horses is drawn on each plate and the plates are dedicated to shrines. Dedicating it to shrine means giving a horse to the gods in shrine to call on them to make one's wishes come true.

The shrine is Yushima Tenjin(湯島天神) and is, first of all, famous for the god of learning. So this shrine is very popular with students taking the entrance exams to universities or high schools.

Most of entrance exams to universities and high school are held from Jan. to Mar. and these plates are dedicated just for telling the god that they passed the exams.

These plates are sold at shrines. Shrines seem to have a talent for business.

A brand new coffee of Starbucks

Starbucks has sold coffee in Tokyo since 1996 and Tokyo has more than 200 Starbucks chain stores now.

By the way, Starbucks's packed cold coffee is also sold at 24/7 stores. The coffee was made in association with a Japanese beverage company, Suntory. Now caffe latte, called Seattle, and expresso caffe, named Milano, are sold. And the brand new taste, caffe with caramel, named Qandi, will be released very soon.

I am writing this blog, enjoying the aroma of the expresso, Milano.

Have a happy and wonderful weekend:-))

Moleskine notebooks

Now notebooks are popular among business persons. They are trying to make their dreams come true by making best use of the notebooks. Moleskine's notebooks are becoming popular here and we can get them at many book stores and some stationery shops. I love to use this pocket book.

By the way, one of Japanese saying is, "Do planing for the year on 1st, January"(一年の計は元旦にあり). I made some plan on 1st, Jan. this year but it is getting hard to achieve my goal. Oh, I wish a day had 48 hours just for me....

Small and modern Stonehenge in Tokyo

Free paper in Tokyo

Many information magazine for free, called "free paper" in Japan, are put on the corners of subway and railway stations. Some contain the information of hot restaurants and shops. Some are something of a small weekly magazine, covering all kind of news. Others contain full and part-time job information.

These kinds of free paper has been popular for the last few years because the contents has been getting better.

"R 25" in the photo, above all, is more popular and they will disappear very quickly as soon as they are published and put on magazine racks.

By the way, a free manga, cartoon, paper was published and distributed in front of Akihabara Station, famous for manga and computer, a few month ago. Tokyo seem to be manga paradise!!

Slightly-misshapen grid of the modern in Tokyo and the traditional in Kyoto

This neon in grid shape is projected on the facade of CHANEL building. The slightly-distorted grid comes from the pattern of CHANEL suit.



On the other hand, this is a window of a tea house. This window was made up by leaving the wall un-plastered. The un-plastered wall was diverted into the window. The pattern of the grid can add the light to the unique expression, changing up to time.

Ordinary scenery on weekend

People are waiting for the entrance to a hall and in the hall are sold some jeweries at reasonable prices.

This kind of the scenery, the line of people's waiting, is very ordinary on weekend in Tokyo. I can see many people waiting in line at Tokyo Disney Land, some movie theathers, some popular restaurants and in front of women's washing room of some concert halls during the intermisson of some classical music concert....

How about your city??

What do you want to eat?

This building has a variety of restaurants, from Vietnamese, French, Italian cusine to sushi, tofu, Japanese cusine and it is not so unusual in Tokyo.

Have a nice and delicious weekend!!

Chocolate shops

Luxury chocolate shops are popular in Tokyo now. Chocolate is popular as an item for good health because it contains much polyphenol and it is said to be good for blood and effective in preventing cancer. Plus, it is popular as a magical item for making people feel relax and happy.

Have a nice weekend!!

A passanger boat in Sumida River

A blood in the city

An under-construction apartment over the rusty and out-of-use bridge

A big tree on a building

When I happened to find the building, I was surprised at this. The old and gigantic tree is eating the building! But the tree is totally fake and this building is rather new and less than a year old. This building is a video game arcade.

Prototypes of the modern apartments in Tokyo

The followings are the facades of apartments in Shinonome(東雲), in the bay area of Tokyo and built just a few years ago. These are flat and simple. The below was designed by Kengo Kuma.

The below was designed by Toyo Ito.