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!!

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.

Good job, chris & deb and Raquel!!

This is "Le Penseur" by Auguste Rodin. This sculpture is also famous in Japan

Ummm, do you know who I am???

Classic car, Subaru 360

This is the first Japanese small car, Subaru 360 and it is displayed at Edo-Tokyo museum.

This was launched out at 1958, about 40 years ago, for a bread-and-butter car, volkswagen. It is a little similar to Volkswagen Beetle.

The design looks like insects and I love it.

Tokyo Tower

This tower, Tokyo Tower, was constructed about 50 years ago to supply electric waves to watch TV and to listen to the radio. In the middle of the tower is a place for enjoying the vista of Tokyo.

The tower is one of the popular and typical spots for travelers but people living in Tokyo seldom visit there. Because it is a sightseeing spot. In general, sightseeing spots seem to be unpopular with people living there... How about your city??

A symbol of the city: Ginza, Tokyo

This buliding have been a symbol of Ginza and Tokyo for a long time. This is a department store but surprisingly is closed on Sunday. Because this store, WAKO, is not for ordinary people, but for luxury mesdames. By the way, Wako's chocolate and sweets are delicious:-)

Spring has come??

Walking around Ueno Park, one of biggest parks in Tokyo and famous for its cherry trees, this weekend, I happened to find a few cherry blossoms come out. It has been rather warm this winter in Tokyo. Cherry usually bursts into blossom a little later than this year. It would be too much earlier if spring really has come.

MUJI store again

This is a MUJI store. These minimalistic items feel light and simple.

Related article
http://artofjpn3.blogspot.com/2007/01/muji-store.html.

Prada in Tokyo

This crystal cut building is Prada in Tokyo, designed by Herzog and De Meuron, famous architects worldwide.

Their works are famous for their unique facade, successfully using ordinary material just like stone, glass, copper...

Prada adds the big gem, including other gems inside, to the city of Tokyo.

Bonus

This smaller device than the one in a previous post, shot at Nihonbashi, is for slicing niboshi, small fish for flavoring Japanese cusine. This is the first time I have ever seen it. The price is rather expensive.

Tokyo International Forum 2

This is another photo of Tokyo International Forum.

Anago don, a kind of Japanese cusine

This cusine is grilled anago, just like unagi, eel, with rice. The anago is slightly more non-fatty than unagi, eel.

The anago is grilled, steamed and then flavored with a special sauce, made of say sauce, sugar, mirin and the other. We eat it with boiled rice. The fish contains many kinds of vitamin and good for health.

We can also eat it with soup flavored with dashi taste and the mixture between rice and soup is called Ochazuke. It is spiced up with a little wasabi, sesami, chopped raw Welsh onion, called negi in Japan, and grated Yuzu, something of citrus.

By the way, Japanese sake, a Japanese alcoholic drink made of rice, goes with this cuisine.

Have a nice week!!

a vinegar standing bar in a station

This is a standing bar in a station, selling a variety of soft drinks with vinegar. They are, for example, apple-cider vinegar flavored with tomato, the apple vinegar flavored with carrot, black vinegar with soy milk...

Now vinegar is also known as an item for maintaining one's health and soft drinks with vinegar are sold at 24/7 convenience stores.

By the way, vinegar, su in Japanese, is one of the five fundamental elements in Japanese cusine. They are called sa-shi-su-se-so.

Sa means satoh, sugar,
Shi means shio, salt,
Su means su, vinegar,
Se means seuyu(syoyu), say sauce,
And so means miso, miso.

Comme des garcon, Tokyo

This is the facade of a fashion shop of "comme des garcon" by Rei Kawakubo, a Japanese fashion designer.

The curving wall is impressive and reminds me of Richard Serra, though their feelings are different each other.

National Art Center, Roppongi, Tokyo

This is a brand new National Art Center in Roppongi, Tokyo, designed by Kisho Kurokawa. Modest curves and cones features the exterior and interior.

The museum has no permanent exhibition but only temporary exhibition. A comfortable cafe and restaurant are attached to the museum.

Unfortunately, the fee is rather high, 1300 yen for adult and 1000 yen for college student. The fee means even the National museum is only for rich people. If the lower fee doesn't allow the museum to carry on it and the government cannot afford to help the museum financially, I think the prices of the attached restaurant should be higher, as a kind of donation. If so, the museum can make the fee lower.

Plus, the opening time is as usual as the other museum, 10:00 to 18:00 and 10;00 to 20:00 only on Friday, though this is located in the middle of business area. I think that the opening time keeps business persons from going to museum after working....

OK, I have to stop complaint and have a nice weekend!!

Fascinating Muses

Many fashionable sign boards are in Harajuku, Tokyo, and these adds some nice touches to this town. We can meet Muses without going to modern museums.

Love

Japanese women always use a word, love, as a question: "Do you love me?"
Japanese men always usually use the word as a reply: "Sure, I love you."

And not vice versa....

Roller coaster in the middle of city

On the roof of a building is, surprisingly, installed a half-tube small roller coaster. The building is in Roppongi, in the middle of Tokyo and full of bars, discos, restaurants of various countries. This roller coaster was almost open to the public but was not because the neighbors were against it. Now this turned to be just an ornament of the building....

By the way, I don't like this kind of rides though I fully understand it is safe...

Chocolat in Japan

February in Japan is the season of chocolat since women in Japan give some chocolat to their husband or boy friend on 14 Feb, Saint Valentine's Day.(Don't ask me why chocolat. I guess it is just for commercial reason.) In turn, men give back to their wife or girl friend some presents on 14 March, called White Day in Japan.(I don't know what is "white" at all and the day is, I guess, just made for department stores to make money.)

Now chocolat is getting popular because some TV or magazine reports that cacao is healthy. So chocolat with less sugar and much cacao is in vogue.

Expensive chocolat are also selling well now, especially the Belgian and French ones. One piece of chocolat on a break makes us feel relaxed.

By the way, it is said that confectioners making chocolat have colder hands than usual and it is about 26 to 27 degrees C. It is lower than the degree that chocolat melts, about 29 degrees C. As they make chocolat over and over again, do their hands turn to be cold naturally? I think that their hands are cold because they give all their affection and passion to chocolat when they are making it. So chocolat contains a lot of love and good for Valentine Day in Japan, I guess.