Fri, 29 Aug '08 - First impressions of Kyoto

The Kyoto tower in bright blue and orange stands above illuminated Kanji text that constantly moves. It's an unexpectedly futuristic view of the city of 2000 temples. I stare from the floor to ceiling glass window for best part of five minutes watching to see the animating ads loop, but I can't see the join...

The next morning the Kyoto Police band plays at the entrance of our hotel. They sound incredible and look superb in crisp white dress uniforms. A crowd looks on entranced by their perfect rendition of swinging standards from the 1940s and 50s. We applaud loudly but are sad to discover we’ve missed the majorettes.

For the first time we look back at the giant post modern building built over the train station within which our hotel resides. It's totally unlike anything else in the city and was designed by an artist, Hiroshi Hara. It is itself an excellent example of traditional meets contemporary Japan... and also contains the bus station, subway hub, shopping mall, restaurants, bars and clubs, and the Sky Plaza which is basically a park on the roof accessible from a giant staircase that begins from the 10th floor in the huge atrium.

Thought

Hiroshi Hara's building is not without it's detractors. Not everyone in Japan is comfortable with such an enormous and futuristic design statement. Perhaps it's just not that great to look at in places. The fact that a project of this scale was completed and is used by thousands of people every day does prove that Japan is a country where visions can be made real and can work.