Saturday, 29 November 2025

First day in Tokyo and I had hoped to visit my second Frank Lloyd Wright building, Jiyu Gakuen Myonichikan, but it’s closed for events (weddings and wedding receptions by the look of the notice by the gate). It’s also closed tomorrow for the same reason and it is normally closed on a Monday so I strike out three times.

Still I got to photograph the outside, from a distance, and that’s what you get. There is a private residence somewhere in Tokyo and the Imperial Hotel foyer at Meiji Mura as the other remaining FLW buildings in Japan. Got to be happy that I got to tour one of them.

right place, wrong time

view of the main building

That lawn needs help. There is an auditorium on the other side of the road too.

the auditorium

from the side

So no FLW but an opportunity too catch up with one of my NatGeo tour companions over lunch in Ginza to make up for it.

this looked cool

this was just surprising

I was surprised that traffic was banned from the Ginza and there was a mixture of tourists and beautiful people walking up and down the street. Apparently this is a weekend thing but I’ve probably not been in Tokyo on a weekend as I would have flown out Friday night (for home or New Zealand).

No photos of the lunch, why would I do that?

After lunch I walked across to Tokyo station as I just zoomed through it last night to take a picture of the outside of the building. I am glad that they haven’t pulled it down and replaced it with a shiny new building.

tokyo station

when inside look up

look up

Dinner tonight was Breton!

smoked mackerel

lamb loin

icecream and the brown one isn’t chocolate

Walking back to my hotel I passed this pair of vending machines. I was quite disturbed by the one on the right.

japan surprises again with a vending machine

That’s it, a slack but enjoyable day. More action tomorrow.