Shibuya and Rappongi, Week 3

Saturday was my first proper trip to Tokyo, and I decided to make it a 'Design Tour', however Tokyo is gigantic, so even the design tour will have to be staged over a few days, never mind the tourist stuff. As a result, this blog post may be a bit dry for those expecting exciting sunsets and pictures of shrines.

Friday, Ofuna

Friday was my first opportunity to have drinks and food with my colleagues. We went to an Isakaya - a traditional Japanese gastropub - where the main food on offer is raw fish. Unlike sushi, it comes as a bowl of assorted types mainly without rice; Yellowfin, Tuna, Mackerel ect. and the eaters take their selection as they please. The fish in Japan is delicious, lovely and soft, not too 'fishy'. 

A non fish highlight is the beef, I had both beef on it's own and as a sushi piece, it comes barely cooked and is much more intwined with interior fat leaving it soft but not with the chewy edges that some people leave out. We also sampled cheap, average, and expensive Sake, so I could learn the difference. The more you pay the purer and less 'ricey' it tastes, and it begins to take on a slightly liquorice flavour - so there you go.

Saturday, Shibuya to Rappongi

Most of the first half of my Saturday in Tokyo was spent walking. I walked from Shibuya, the place famous for the busy crossing, to Rappongi, a district with a high concentration of galleries and other designy stuff. The streets out of Shibuya seemed very trendy, they were the home of high-end walking stores and 'functional' fashion destinations like Ralph Lauren Denim ect.

What's surprising about the built environment in Tokyo is it's total lack of historical precedent. I touched on this last week - the cramped space is filled with a variety of different ages and styles of building - but in the trendy neighbourhoods, signature statement architecture - the kind that you would find only one of in an entire english town - is the rule rather than the exception.

I went past the site of where the 2020 Olympic Stadium is being built too.

Rappongi - Tokyo National Art Center

I entered Rappongi and my first destination was the Tokyo National Art Center. Famous as a piece of architecture as well as a gallery.

I went to see the Salvador Dali exhibition that was on, and it was very busy, but also fantastic. The displays told a real good story, there was mixed media, not just his paintings, which showed his burst into pop culture and the collection of art on display was both beautiful and entertaining in a way that is uncommon in 'high art'. I might do a post just on Dali.

21_21 Design Sight

Design Sight is a Design Gallery, co-directed by a personal hero of mine, product designer Naoto Fukasawa. The Building itself is certainly a significant piece of architecture, very unobtrusive for a two storey building, but with a significant twist of Tadao Ando brutalism.

There was an exceptional queue to get in, and the exhibition was not actually all I was expecting. It was meant to be a 'dissection' of commonplace Japanese products, but 90% of the display was about Meiji food products.

But despite some comical large versions of the products, the displays were quite boring, and too much of each display was solely on the graphic design, or packaging regulations, despite there being a lot which could have been said about the taste of the products or how they are made industrially.

The Japanese seemed more delighted displays, but I guess to them these are common, familiar products, and so they have more meaning.

There were some cute machines however.

Toto Gallery MA - Torafu Architects Inside Out

An exhibition in the Gallery MA brought the day around to a good end however. By Torafu Architects, the exhibit showed a collection of their work at various scales, as they work designing products and buildings.

The display also featured a small train moving around between the objects, and a video upstairs showed the exhibition from the trains line of sight, allowing you to see the model architecture from a different scale.

Although more whimsically displayed than the architecture and design I usually admire, I could appreciate that had an honest fun element, and a lack of egotism that usually brings down most postmodern design. It was certainly a lot less boring that 21_21 Design Sight.

Sunday, Isakaya Round Two

On Sunday we were kindly invited to another session in a different Isakaya, this time by our host, and manager of our Dorm.

As well as the raw fish I had had on friday, there was (suprise!) cooked fish as well, this time among the selection was the head of a fish.

Which was nice, I also found a 'weird' food (like any of this is normal) that I actually properly like. Eel, served as a piece of sushi, is deliciously soft and melts in the mouth.

So that's a collection of this weeks thoughts and experiences, I'll be back soon with more travel updates, and perhaps i'll do some 'boring' posts on design too, so watch out!