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<\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\nHop on the Ginza line to its terminus at Shibuya Station to\nwitness the world\u2019s busiest crossing before planning your foray into Omotesando\nby way of Harajuku, or either Meiji or Aoyama Boulevard. Adjacent to Yoyogi Park,\nyou can see Tange\u2019s stadium, the precursor to the propagation of impressive projects by domestic\ntalent. You would be forgiven for taking a short break to visit the Blum &\nPoe or to immerse yourself in the world of teen fashion on Takeshita Street\nbefore returning to the gloss and gleam of high society on Omotesando. Though\nnot widely known outside of Japan, Hiroshi Nakamura’s Tokyu Plaza, with its\nkaleidoscopic entry and rooftop oasis, is a fresh take on a department store at\nthe intersection of Meiji and Omotesando Boulevards. Self-taught architect and\nPritzker Prize winner Tadao Ando has Omotesando Hills nearby, an upscale\nshopping mall. Like much of Ando\u2019s work, its unassuming exterior belies great\ndepth within, in every sense of the word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe number of\naward-winning architects showcased on Omotesando Boulevard and its immediate\nenvirons is nearly overwhelming, many of them Pritzker Prize recipients,\narchitecture\u2019s highest honor. As you walk gently uphill in the direction of\nRoppongi Hills, you come across one eye-popping three-dimensional statement\nafter another. TOD\u2019s by Toyo Ito, the Prada building by Herzog & de Meuron,\nThe Jewels of Aoyama by Jun Mitsui & Associates, who also designed the De\nBeers building in Ginza, and The Ice Cubes in Shibuya. Sunny Hills and the Nezu\nMuseum by the aforementioned Kengo Kuma complement each other well. One wows\nyou with its chaos, the other with its calm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\nCommune 246 makes for a great place to grab a quick, healthy and delicious lunch, with its many international food stands and Bohemian atmosphere. Afterward, if you feel like some retail therapy in the form of traditional Japanese tableware, Aoyama Square is a great one-stop-shop. Or, if you\u2019re interested in a more contemporary take on tradition, WA SPACE, tucked down backstreets in Akasaka, is well worth a visit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To round out the day, you\ncan continue on to Roppongi, where you\u2019ll find The National Art Center, Tokyo\ndesigned by Kurokawa. The Mori Tower in Roppongi Hills was probably beckoning\nyou as you looked down Omotesando Boulevard from Harajuku; the sprawling city\nviews from its rooftop observatory are as impressive as its forward-looking\ndesign, supposedly inspired by samurai armor. Tokyo Midtown, less than a\nkilometer away, is where you\u2019ll find Ando\u2019s 21_21 Design Sight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s difficult to\nappreciate just how vast an urban sprawl Tokyo really is. While there are many\ngems sprinkled about, you could easily spend a week hopping around from place\nto place and feel like you\u2019d barely scratched the surface. However, the areas\ndetailed above tilt the scales of time and treasure in your favor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bring a good pair of\nwalking shoes and enjoy!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Few places in the world have such a wealth of cutting-edge architecture as Tokyo. Partly due to necessity\u2014being at once one of the planet\u2019s most seismically active zones and densely populated regions\u2014mandating technological innovation and thoughtful use of space. And also partly because of a belief that if something is worth doing, it\u2019s worth doing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":268,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[49],"tags":[20,19],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovejoyphotographic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovejoyphotographic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovejoyphotographic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovejoyphotographic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovejoyphotographic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/lovejoyphotographic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":435,"href":"https:\/\/lovejoyphotographic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22\/revisions\/435"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovejoyphotographic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovejoyphotographic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovejoyphotographic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovejoyphotographic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}