The architects used an ordinary again affordable rectangular timber sectioned in 105 mm. Its walls are made of glass and accessories plus personal stash namely by placing hundreds of wooden beams are arranged neatly on the front and the ceiling. Cafe Kureon have tables and chairs are so elegant and thin white. Tables and chairs are placed on the outside and inside. Both the flexible structure of the layout and the fact that the timber is free of special treatment make that it can easily go back to its initial state when the building needs to be disassembled and moved. The 197 square meter restaurant appears to minimally touch the ground. The internal dining space is contained within a glass enclosed box and the exterior is wrapped with interlocking lengths of timber.

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.

A 40cm thick roof garden, which hosts 500 m2 of solar panels, serves as natural insulation weight addition to blurring the physical top between architecture and landscape. Villa Ronde curls upon itself to provide a large protective wall, dotted with open parts for light coming in and views going out. The meeting place of the home drops in its topography into a private courtyard, accessible from floor-to-ceiling glass doors also curling staircases from above. The position of the guest house provides a grand landscape of the ocean below, while an open courtyard becomes a point of entertainment for occupants and guests alike. The entire roof is accessible, and is covered with 30 cm of earth, lush grass, and plants. The green roof helps cool the interior and save energy, and a built-in watering system keeps it healthy and growing. The top of the building is nearly covered in foliage, from evergreens to grasses, separated visually from the sweeping while lines that represent the home’s framework. This home by Ciel Rouge Creation and Henri Gyeundan Architects is a wonderful achievement, a prime escape from the often over-paced, over-crowded vivacity of Japan’s modern cities.

Architects: Ciel Rouge
Location: Japan
Project area: 1800 sq.m
Project year: 2010

 
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.

Voted by photographers as the number one location in a listing of the top 100 fireworks locations in Japan,  the Miyajima Water Fireworks Festival displays over 200 fire flowers complying with a yearly theme. The fireworks festival is not only eye catching because it is set to match the image of a scene but also because of its incredible location over water next to the traditional Otorii Gate. The world-famed vermillion “Otorii” (Grand Gate) gateway to Itukushima Shrine provides a unique background unmatched anywhere to a spectacular display of fireworks rising from the sea. Manufacturing techniques, power and height have improved tremendously with many new types of colourful bursts and rockets lighting up the sky. You could see 5000 fireworks!!!
 

Photographers, both professionals and amateurs, are eager to take pictures of the vermillion torii gate and shrine buildings fantastically lit up in the night sky. Visitors to Japan are invited to enjoy a splendid evening watching Japanese fireworks displays. 

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.

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.

Rather than build in existing live trees, he instead chose to harvest two Chestnut trees from a local mountain and install the trunks like irregular poles to support his creation. Like traditional Japanese teahouses, the Takasugi-an was built for ceremony rather than comfort and luxury, so the interior is very modest – covered with plaster and bamboo mats. Building upon this tradition, Fujimori’s tea house is quite small and compact and can accommodate four and a half tatami mats (2.7 sq m) or even just two tatami mats (1.8 sq m) of floor space, makes it feel as though it were an extension of one’s body, “like a piece of clothing’. It is accessible only by free-standing ladders propped against one of the trees. To enter, visitors must remove their shoes and crawl through a nijiriguchi, or small entry opening.

Project name: Takasugi-an
Description: teahouse
Category: religion and memorial
Design: Terunobu Fujimori
Building status: built
Construction period: started 2004
Location: Chino, Japan
Tags: local material, craftsmanship

Opened in November 1995, Toyota Municipal Museum of Art features works by Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Edvard Munch, and others. The museum’s exhibition rooms, which emphasize exhibitions and their viewing, are designed with special lighting. In a bright, simple, and contemplative space, the museum offers the best environment for visitors to enjoy art. Along with its permanent exhibition, the museum holds exciting and meaningful special exhibitions four times a year. Through these activities, the Toyota Municipal Museum of Art is striving to become an art museum that is reflective and tranquil, as well as stimulating and able to capture the minds of its many visitors. OPERATION HOURS: Sunday:10:00 AM – 5:30 PM; Tuesday – Saturday:10:00 AM – 5:30 PM

Although spread out over several floors, Watari-um’s exhibition spaces all pivot around the cavernous second floor gallery. The first floor is devoted entirely to the museum shop, an emporium of designer gadgetry, stationery, secondhand art postcards, and leather products. The basement houses both a café and the revered On Sundays bookshop.

Designed with its focus firmly on the lifestyle of the Tokyo metropolis in the 21st Century, the Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery consists of more than 2,500 mostly post-war Japanese art works. Galleries 1 and 2 aim to show the contemporary situation of Japanese and overseas art scene in a real-time basis in a style similar to “alternative space” or kunsthalle. Galleries 3 and 4 exhibit a wide variety of works ranging from paintings from the Japanese tradition to abstract paintings. The gallery exhibits include works in a variety of mediums such as paintings, sculpture, photos, designs, and architecture. Apart from art galleries, the area includes one of Tokyo’s tallest buildings, the 54-story Tokyo Opera City Tower and also Tokyo Opera City concert halls, the Takemitsu Memorial and Recital Hall, which were designed to sound like musical instruments. Opening hours: Tue, Thur, Sun 11am-7pm, Fri-Sat 11am-8pm.

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.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography was officially opened to public in 1990. It was one of the first photography galleries in Japan not to be dedicated to the works of a single photographer. It boasts a large permanent collection and brings in leading lights of the photography world for regular star-studded shows. Comprised of three exhibition rooms (located on floors B1, 2 and 3) and a screening hall (1F), the museum features a world-renowned collection of an estimated 25,000 items and 60,000 books.

Visitors can peruse the collection of photography books and valuable photographs in the 4th Floor Library for no fee. Ticket Prices: Adults: 500 yen; Ages 6 to 18: 250 yen. Open: 10:00 am – 6:00 pm Saturday – Wednesday (Ticket office closes at 5:30); 10:00 am – 8:00 pm on Thursdays and Fridays (Ticket office closes at 7:30); Closed on Mondays (Open if Monday is a national holiday, closed on the following day).

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.

Established in 1986, the park consists of a Sculpture Garden, the Museum of Contemporary Art, various craft halls and studios, an outdoor stage, a music hall and a number of artists’ cottages. What makes this park so interesting is the integration into nature of the sculptures. Although many different styles are represented, the art park is a fine collection of some eighty pieces of art. Every object has its own spot, and although there are no rooms of course, it feels like every sculpture really appears to its full advantage.

Visitors can spend a relaxing day here strolling and enjoying art. They also have opportunities to test their own artistic talents at the park’s regular workshops in crafts such as ceramics, cloisonne, and weaving, as well as glass, wood and silver crafts. Try your hand at pottery and glassmaking at the crafts center and atelier. The entry fee for the Sculpture Garden is 600 yen for adults, 480 yen for seniors and free for children and Junior high school students.

The National Museum of Art is a subterranean Japanese art museum occupies two underground floors on the island of Nakanoshima, Osaka. Inspired by the life force of bamboo, the museum’s current building was opened in 2007 and represents the growth and shape of a bamboo plant. Soaring titanium coated steel tubes, resembling the wings of a butterfly, rise from the lobby to become a sculptural icon on the Osaka skyline.

The Osaka National Museum of Art clearly shows how art in Japan has developed over the years. The museum focuses on collecting, storing and displaying both Japanese and foreign contemporary art, with exhibitions from the museum collection as well as rotating special exhibitions. Most of the artwork in the collection is from the post-war era. Pre-war exceptions include work by Paul Cézanne, Pablo Picasso, Max Ernst, Tsuguharu Foujita and Yasuo Kuniyoshi. The museum facilities include a public space that creates interaction between people and art, and provides an even more comfortable environment to appreciate art.

Located in the city of Nagoya in central Japan, visitors should definitely put this museum on their list of things to do in Nagoya. This is a rather modern looking building located in the picturesque greenery Shirakawa Park in the heart of the city. Housed in a modern building designed by one of the leading Japanese architects – Kisho Kurokawa, Nagoya’s art museum is focused on modern artists of the local Ise Bay area. Opened in 1988, the museum also features works by Ecole de Paris and Mexican Renaissance artists.

Located in Kagawa prefecture, Japan, this museum displays the works of the painter Genichiro Inokuma, who spent his childhood in Marugame City. Built by Yoshio Taniguchi to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the city of Marugame, the museum is situated on the central plaza of the city. Designed as a “station front”, at the entrance of the museum, visitors will find Genichiro Inokuma’s huge mural and a space with some of the artist’s objects.

In the interior of the building, the first floor houses the museum shop, while the second contains two exhibition rooms of contrasting sizes, and the third, a spacious exhibition room with an approximately seven-meter-high ceiling. The visitor may enter directly from plaza level into the exhibition gallery, choose to take the grand stair to enter the exhibition gallery at the second level or to access the Art Library, Museum Hall, Workshop and Creative Studio or continue to the upper level which leads to an exterior courtyard.

Asian art is currently attracting the world’s attention and now we are presenting you one museum that claims to be the only museum in the world that systematically collects and exhibits Asian modern and contemporary art – The Fukuoka Asian Art Museum. Located in Fukuoka City in the Fukuoka Prefecture of Japan, the museum is a part of the city’s progressive strategy for interaction with different Asian cultures. Opened in 1999, the Fukuoka Museum displays a wide variety of Asian art and culture together under one roof.

The FAAM collects modern and contemporary Asian art, including paintings, sculptures, prints, crafts, and other art forms of unique and other forms of art that have superior aesthetic and originality. The quality of museum’ collection makes it a world-class institution. The Museum is separated into ten major facilities: an Exhibition Gallery, the Asia Gallery, Artists Gallery, Art Information Corner, Sculpture Lounge, Open Studio, AJIBI Hall, a Library, a Nursery, and a Museum Shop.

The collections include nearly 2,300 pieces in various styles from 23 countries and territories in Asia. FAAM is focuses on modern and contemporary works from the 19th century to the present, from an area bounded by Pakistan to the east, Mongolia to the north and Indonesia to the south and west. The permanent exhibitions include 764 works by 258 Chinese modern and contemporary artists such as Ai Weiwei, He Duoling, Yang Fudong, Zhang Xiaogang, Cai Guo-qiang, Fang Lijun, Li Shuang, Xu Bing and Zeng Fanzhi. They present the originality and charm of Asian art in a way that cannot be experienced in any other museum in the world. Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale is a special exhibition that is held every three years in order to introduce the most up-to-date Asian art.

Inspired by Lewis Carroll’s classic story, Alice in Wonderland is one of the most unusual restaurants in Tokyo. Located in Tokyo’ district of Ginza, the restaurant combines psychedelic decorations, dramatic designs and waitresses dressed in Alice costumes. Designed by Japanese studio Fantastic Design Works, this Tokyo restaurant is unique and unforgettable and is a must stop on your travels to Japan.

When you enterer in the restaurant, you are transported into a whole different world. Upon entrance, guests are graced with oversized vintage books, mirrored walls, and polished checkered floors. The entire story unfolds within the walls of the 2,000 sq. ft. restaurant, from beginning to end. The space is divided into themed sections that reflect scenes from the 1951 animated movie.

Dramatic theatrical elements are in play throughout the entire space accompanied by intense lighting, various spots of colour on the ceiling. From the Lewis Carroll inspired clock to the blue velvet draped walls to the playing card suits printed on coasters and bathroom doors. In the main dining room, you are meant to feel as if you are in some version of the Mad Hatter’s tea party. The center of the room is made up of long tables surrounded by mismatching ornate chairs.