Hullo..
It’s been another interesting weekend, but a little better this time because I got to sleep in sat and sun so got some rest instead of walking around all day on the weekends. Went to see the Yokohama International Ferry Terminal and it was AWESOME. It’s got to be the only large scale project that is so open to the public and so radical in design – subverting ideas of floor, wall, folding into each other, space and the natural and manmade – exciting and really inspiring. Especially when you see the freedom that people have to do on the roof garden and the level of interaction….a coffee cart and lounge chairs with stylish Japanese couples sipping lattes and enjoying the view of the bay, people on the roof garden watching a wedding on a docked yacht, dogs in hooded ensembles and stylish outfits chasing each other on the grass, Japanese couples making out on the lawn, a group of mates enjoying a carton of beer, 50Japanese students taking group photos, babies crawling on the paths and trying to push their strollers off the roof…
It is an awesome building and the roof garden is the best bit (best to go on a weekend evening). Again, too many pics to email out so check them out here.
www.flickr.com/photos/folio
And on Sunday went to Kamakura and visited a shrine, temple, temple in a cave and a giant Buddha. The temple was really cool, it had a huge golden buddha in it and there was a queue from the entrance to the top of the hill to see another Goddess on the top of the hill so I didn’t bother visiting that one. I also went to my first Japanese beach at Kamakura and immediately thought “No wonder Japanese go nuts when they get to Bali”. But gotta hand it to them, they are really stoked with whatever there is. Maybe 20 guys out on longboards surfing the knee high wind chop, it looked really fun but I don’t think I’ll be going surfing in Japan anytime soon, they’re still in steamers (3mm wetsuits) and I didn’t bring nuthin but a bikini. Whheee-ooo…I am tired.
I wonder where to go next weekend? I’m seriously considering…Tokyo Disneyland…I mean, why not? Happiest place on earth where Mickey and friends speak fluent Japanese.
Take care and talk soon,
Shi