Day 15: Ginza

Today marks what I think is the halfway point on our trip, and today was one of my favorite days so far.

Our first stop was to Hibiya Kadan flower shop which I guess is famous, but I had never heard of it before. They had some really amazing plants though and they were all very expensive. They have hydrangeas here which are so beautiful and it makes me so bitter that I can't grow them without killing them in LA. There must be some secret to getting them to stay alive. They are definitely my favorite flower though so I might just have to move to a climate where I can grow them.

After the flower shop we went to a few other places that were a little bit dull and then we headed to Ginza, which is another major shopping area in Tokyo. So many Burberry, Dior, Prada, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany's, Gucci... any luxury store, you name it I am probably in walking distance to at least 5 of each. 

But my favorite store was the Nicolas G. Hayek Center by Shigeru Ban. At first the building looked pretty normal, but as I walked in I realized the building had several stores inside, which each had their own private elevator to get to. The picture doesn't really describe it, but there were round elevators, square elevators, all different sizes all moving at separate times. And one side of the building has a live plant wall running all the way up the eight stories and the elevators would gently graze the plants as they moved. 

We got to go up a little indoor garden by taking the elevators which was really fun. This was one of my favorite buildings we've seen so far and by one of my favorite architects too. 

Our next stop was one of my all-time favorite buildings that I studied in school and I still can't believe I got to see it in person because it is such an historic icon from the Metabolist period. 

The Nakagin capsule tower by Kurokawa opened in 1972 and the idea was to re-new the individual capsules every 10-15 years so that the building basically had an infinite lifespan. But this never happened, probably due to money and the thing is original, and now facing demolition because it is a hazard. I personally hope it is restored instead of demolished, but regardless it was covered by a net when we saw it to avoid anything falling off and was still breathtaking. One day my dream is to get to go inside!

After this it was all downhill the rest of the day. We walked and saw the Fuji Television Building from 1996 by Kenzo Tange. The building had a giant ball built into the top as an observation room but it was closed. And then we saw some SANAA building and it was closed. And then we saw a giant 3-story tall Gundam robot statue for my teacher. 

And then lastly we had an amazing pizza dinner back in Roppongi and ended the night with cold stone ice cream while they sang us a little song while they made our order. It was a pretty fantastic day.