Out and About

Here are some more pics from Gen's birthday. We went to Shinjuku and just wandered around.

A cool building. On the whole, I am not impressed with Tokyo's architecture. Most of the buildings are pretty utilitarian and look like giant concrete blocks, but there are some exceptions. Architectural preservation is not a priority here. They are in the midst of preserving the historic Tokyo Station, a really pretty train station near the Imperial Palace, but that is very unusual. Generally if a building is in disrepair it's merely torn down.

Me at the Hanazono Shrine. My head almost touched the top of the gates. It's a new feeling, being tall!

Yesterday (March 3rd) was the Girl's Festival. Households with daughters set up a doll display and the traditional meal is chirashi-zushi (a dish of sushi rice with the toppings cut up and scattered over the top). This display was in the lobby of the Imperial Hotel. That's another example of the lack of architectural preservation. The original Imperial Hotel was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. It was torn down in the late 1960's and replaced with a Wrightian impostor. The hotel is still gorgeous, but I would have loved to see Wright's creation. Of course, Japanese architecture does have to take earthquakes and fires into consideration, which is probably the reason for the concrete blocks. Much of Tokyo was destroyed by the great earthquake of 1928, and then again by the US WWII firebombings. I got a good overview of Tokyo's history from the Edo-Tokyo Museum.