Peaceful Discontinuities in the City.

Rows of buildings, brilliant lights, and hordes of people seem to extend endlessly across the Kanto Plain that surrounds Tokyo. Even though Tokyo lags behind other major world cities in terms of green space, one never knows what to expect around the next corner. When walking between Shinjuku and Harajuku, I discovered this small, quiet, and mostly empty shrine. It takes up a small part of a city block, but it feels a world away from Tokyo.

Cleanse Here.
One should cleanse their hands and mouth with water from the trough before visiting a shrine.

Shrines are associated with the Shinto faith, a primitive and ancient system of faith passed down from a nation of rice farmers to a modern age. Buddhism, Japan's other major religion, spread from India. Many Japanese take part in both Shintoism and Buddhism, and sometimes, a little Christianity for good measure.

Surrounded.

T

Drawn to the Light[ness] II.

...More shots from Tokyo's Aoyama/Harajuku area. It's as if the building above was dropped by a twister from Europe; I have seen nothing else like it in Tokyo.

Lost Girl /Future Prada Customer?
The Prada flagship building by Pritzker Prize winning firm Herzog & de Meuron possibly attracts as many architects as customers.

Solitary Customer Climbs Stair.
Mannequins in the Window.

T

Drawn to the Light[ness].

Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of SANAA designed the flagship Dior and HHstyle buildings in Aoyama. Whatever one may think of their architecture, it certainly lives up to the reputation for lightness and transparency.




T