Japan travel tips and stories. Vacations ideas, cruises spa and resorts

Cafe Kureon is a small cafe designed by Tokyo-based architectural design firm Kengo Kuma and Associates located in Toyama, Japan. It has its own uniqueness with shades amid vacant lots that have a beautiful lawn. The whim was ‘to create a building like a forest by piling up pieces of wood, rather than joining them together’. This beautiful wooden design is a testament to the sophistication of that Japanese architecture.

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Unusually rotund and magnificently modern, the Villa Ronde by Ciel Rouge Creation and Henri Gyeundan Architects rises naturally from the sea on Japan‘s coast. This building includes a private museum, a guest house and a resort. The design features a porous front elevation that allows the interior to experience the wind and sun light as well as provide wide views of the surrounding landscape. Cross ventilation is achieved thanks to an inner garden that serves as a convection system in attracting fresh air.

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Japanese fireworks are without doubt an elaborate and magnificent art and one of the most spectacular in the whole world. The Miyajima Water Fireworks Festival held on August 14 every year in Miyajima, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Attracts over 300,000 visitors and thousands of photo enthusiasts and presents seven spectacular scenes, the festival is one of the most famous in Japan.

Continue reading You must go if you are in HIroshima on 14 AUG

Located in the fashionable Aoyama district of Tokyo, Prada’s Tokyo becomes a landmark attraction due to its visibility. Designed by the Swiss architecture team of Herzog & de Meuron, this is a strikingly unconventional 6-story high glass crystal store. Amidst this beautiful symphony of mass and void spaces, the 5-sided polyhedral Prada Aoyama is as decorative as it is architectural and is both metaphorically and literally linked to its surrounding environment.

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This a tea house located in Chino, Nagano Prefecture, Japan. Its name is Takasugi-an which translates roughly to “a tea house built too high”. It was built by Terunobu Fujimori, a tea master, who has an interest in architecture and wished to push the limit of a traditional teahouse. Sits atop two chestnut trees, Fujimori designed and built the structure for his own use. Built in 2004, one of the interesting points is the method Fujimori used to support the tea tree house.

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This is an art museum sited at the top of a hill overlooking industrial Toyota City, in central Japan. The city - home of the popular automobile company is known as a “city of industry and cultural communication”. Housed in modern building constructed by Yoshio Taniguchi, who also renovated the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City, the museum displays collection and permanently exhibits of modern and contemporary art, designs and crafts, both domestic and internationally.

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Located in Shibuya, Tokyo, the museum opened in September 1990. Designed by Swiss architect Mario Botta, it is known for its unique ways of presenting contemporary visual arts. The Watari Museum of Contemporary Art stands together with the Mori Arts Center and the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa as one of the major institutions in Japan and in Asia.

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Located in Tokyo’s Hatsudai, Tokyo Opera City is a large cultural community comprising three zones focusing on the arts, business and commercial amenities. Opened in the cultural complex in September 1999, Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery has its own permanent collection as well as operating as a changing exhibition gallery. This is a cultural center showcases a variety of events in addition to the usual gallery offerings. Fashion, design and architecture from artists both Japanese and international are featured here for the last four years.

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The Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography is the only museum in Japan devoted to photography and imagery. Occupying a four-floor building in one corner of Ebisu Garden Place, in southwest Tokyo, it houses the largest number of photographs and images/video within the country. The museum operates a year-round programmed of about 20 events, including individual exhibitions of celebrated photographers, exhibitions of original designs and exhibitions of the work of up-and-coming artists.

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Located in the southern outskirts of Sapporo, the Sapporo Art Park is 40 hectare outdoor art museum exhibits sculptures including “Way to the hidden garden”, a large installation by the Israeli sculptor Dani Karavan. Covering a quite large area consisting of various sections, the park presents art in a more open and accessible environment.

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