Omotesendo From Above

This morning there was a solar eclipse in Tokyo, so with that in mind, I was tempted to show you this photo of a setting sun over Omotesando in the heart of Tokyo.

Finally – Rain

I can’t even remember when we had rain last in Tokyo, the weeks around New Year was just dry as a tinderbox. Touching anything was a sure invitation to a hit of static electricity and I can imagine sales of softening skin lotions must have gone through the roof. We’re not being helped by the fact that most house heating systems in Japan are air borne, electric heaters and so on makes our rooms super dry in winter. But finally, on Friday, we got some rain, and even more on Saturday. It’s not often that I am happy to see icy cold rain in mid winter, but this time it was really needed! I took this photo yesterday afternoon at one of my favorite photo spots in Omotesando.

Azuma Makoto – Collapsible Leaves

At the Gallery in Omotesando’s Gyre I saw the leaf art exhibition by Azuma Makoto. Born in Fukuoka in 1976 he has quickly become on of Japan’s most famous Ikebana artists using flowers, leafs, plants, moss and grass as his subject. All of the works in this exhibition was carefully made by hand in a process that must have take a lot of time. I really recommend putting his name in a Google Image search and enjoying the fabulous photos, or take a few moments to browse his personal blog. I really enjoyed the stark patterns that emerge from his works when viewed close up!

Omotesando Gyre

To compensate for the rough theme of the last post, here’s a few photos I took in one of Tokyo’s glitziest shopping buildings in the heart of Omotesando, the Gyre. I don’t think I have ever been inside or outside this building without grabbing my camera, it is just so visually interesting. While taking this shot of the main hall I almost fell over backwards, which would have been a very ignoble end of this blog. On the first floor of this building is the main Chanel store of Omotesando (which is Japan’s, and maybe the world’s most fashionable district) and they had a very cute wall sized mouse-lady photo up. Couldn’t resist all that glitz and those whiskers! The last photo is taken from the elevated walkway crossing the Omotsando itself. I think most people who visit Tokyo have taken a similar photo like this!