Traveling around Japan: Tokyo

Probably, every person who periodically happens to visit Tokyo eventually develops favorite places where they are drawn to come again and again at every opportunity. For me, one of these consistently attractive places are two “cities within a city”, two wonderful centers of urban infrastructure - the Roppongi Hills and Midtown complexes.

Both of them, one after the other, built in the first decade of the 21st century, are designed to demonstrate to the world the idea of ​​​​the successful globalization of Japan, and are therefore full of various reminiscences of Western culture, from the architectural appearance to the contents of shops and boutiques. It is not without reason that eminent architects and designers of not only Japanese but also foreign origin were involved in working on the projects.

In some ways, of course, similar, but in some ways each possessing its own expressive individuality, for me Roppongi Hills and Midtown are the embodiment of the prototype of an almost ideal urban environment, a space where an active and sophisticated resident of the metropolis will always find something to do and how to make good use of your time. In addition to their impressive multifunctionality, the complexes invariably delight those who cannot imagine life without art and for whom the presence of modern design in everyday life is not just a whim, but an urgent necessity. And if, like me, it is important for you to spend your leisure time in a comfortable and aesthetically rich environment, you will certainly like it here too. Because where else can you enjoy the thoughtful details of public space and the convenience of public areas at any time, admire examples of modern design and constantly changing installations completely free of charge, and also visit so many magnificent museums in one place.

Midtown: art and architecture

I love Midtown, which, by the way, got its name by analogy with the central district of New York, for its calm, unhurried atmosphere and detachment from the bustle; for the wonderful view of the city and the square from the window near the boat bench on the second floor; for the fact that it is there that the compact but luxurious Suntory Museum is located, demonstrating in constantly updated exhibitions all the most valuable and beautiful in the field of traditional decorative and applied arts, from Edo-Kiriko colored glass to masterpieces of Imari porcelain or lacquerware. On a separate note, I love the stunning design museum called 21-21 Design sight, a joint architectural project by Tadao Ando and Issey Miyake, with its emphatically simple forms of Japanese origami made of reinforced concrete, providing an open creative playground for everything new and relevant. I like that walking through the cozy floors of the complex with a logical and thoughtful organization of the internal space, each time you can unexpectedly discover something new and interesting. For example, a cozy cafe with small culinary masterpieces, a shop with a countless variety of o-hashi chopsticks, or a comfortable mini-salon with a foot massage service, which is always extremely useful after many hours of walking around the city.

Links[edit]

1. Archived January 9, 2020 at the Wayback Machine港区
2. " Tokyo Weekender
   - Weekender Archives: Roppongi - The Story of Our Favorite Watering Hole". Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved September 27, 2007.
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5. "Archival copy". Archived from the original on January 3, 2014. Retrieved January 8, 2014.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
6. Robert Whiting, Tokyo Underworld: Fast Times and the Hard Life of an American Gangster in Japan
   (Vintage Departures, 2000) ISBN 0-375-72489-3
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8. "Trying to Tame Tokyo's Adult Playground". Los Angeles Times
   . January 26, 2010. Archived from the original on May 20, 2011. Retrieved February 26, 2010.
9. Richard Dre, Nigerians in Japan Pay the Price for Prosperity. Archived 13 July 2012 at Archive.today", The Japan Times
   , 19 July 2011, pp. 10-11.
10. Richard, Dre, "'Something My Spirit Wanted' archived 2016-05-02 in the Wayback Machine", Metropolis
    , #905, July 29 - August 11, 2011, from 14-15..
11. "Company profile archived October 5, 2021 on the Wayback Machine." The Pokemon Company. Retrieved December 14, 2011. "Head Office Roppongi Hills Mori Tower 18F, 6-10-1 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-6118"
12. "Company profile archived December 18, 2011 on the Wayback Machine." Mori Construction Company. Retrieved December 14, 2011. "Roppongi Hills Mori Tower Headquarters, 6-10-1 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-6155, Japan"
13. "会社プロフィール Archived December 28, 2011 at the Wayback Machine." Mori Construction Company. Retrieved December 14, 2011. "〒106-6155東京都港区六本木 6 10番1号六本木ヒルズ森タワー"
14. "Google Offices". Archived from the original on December 20, 2010. Retrieved November 12, 2021.
15. "Be Inc." About Us " . Being Inc. Archived from the original on May 12, 2012. Retrieved May 23, 2011.
16. 会社概要. Wrestling New Classic
    (in Japanese). Archived from the original on December 1, 2012. Retrieved December 27, 2012.
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    (in Japanese). Archived from the original on June 29, 2021. Retrieved July 12, 2021.
18. "Minato Board of Education". Archived from the original on 2007-11-16. Retrieved October 30, 2007.
19. "Archival copy". Archived from the original on May 20, 2007. Retrieved June 5, 2007.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
20. "Contact Us Archived May 29, 2014 on the Wayback Machine." American School in Japan. Retrieved May 28, 2014. "Early Learning Center 6-16-5 Roppongi Minato-ku Tokyo 106-0032 Japan"
21. "School profile archived 2014-05-29 at the Wayback Machine." American School in Japan. Retrieved May 28, 2014. "Location: Roppongi and Chofu Campuses, Tokyo"

Roppongi Hills: dynamism and provocation

But if Midtown attracts me as an oasis of calm and unhurriedness, imbued with the spirit of elegant respectability, then Roppongi Hills, aimed more at young people, fascinates with its dynamism, boldness and provocation. Here you can get an adrenaline rush by climbing onto the windswept observation deck of the 54th floor, marvel at the whimsical and paradoxical masterpieces of modern art in the Mori Art Museum, and look into the filming pavilions of Asahi Television. And then, having made an appointment with friends near the frightening, long-legged spider statue with the unexpected name “Maman,” go down one level to stroll through a traditional Japanese garden, admiring the small pond and stone lanterns.

The number of times I had to visit both complexes cannot be counted, and each of my visits added its own colors to the rich palette of intense impressions. I have been there in the spring, when a belt of wildly blooming cherry blossoms encircles the road along Midtown Park, attracting crowds of hanami lovers under their branches, bowed by the weight of flower clouds. It happened on the eve of Christmas, when the open spaces of the same park are covered with a huge dark blue carpet of festive lighting, creating a mysterious atmosphere of magic and a joyful feeling of the approaching holiday.

There have also been times during typhoon season, when the distance of several tens of meters dividing the road from the open door of a taxi to the entrance to the complex, due to the stormy wind, tearing umbrellas and bags out of the hands, seemed an insurmountable obstacle on the way to a life-saving shelter. It was then that I realized the full value of the system of long and branched underground passages connecting various metro stations with the complexes themselves, knowledge of the intricate paths of which allows you to move in the right direction without going to the surface. I had the opportunity to walk from one complex to another as part of a group of designers, accompanied by a professional architect who was directly involved in the construction project of the complexes and in the company of assorted foreigners and an eccentric guide from the city excursion service. Later, I myself had to lead excursions from Roppongi Hills to Midtown and back, each time surprised by the innovations and updates that met me along the way. By the way, some of the most pleasant discoveries on this route are a rather modest but popular restaurant of Russian cuisine called “Baikal”, as well as an absolutely cute pet store with adorable dogs and cats.

Economy

TV Asahi Headquarters
Mori Building Company Main Offices

) and The Pokémon Company are located in Roppongi, in Mori Tower[9][10][11].

In addition, Roppongi is located:

• Anderson Mori & Tomotsune is one of the "Big Four Law Firms";
• Ferrari Japan
• Genco - anime studio
• Yahoo! Japan
• Google Japan[12]
• TV Asahi

Several international companies also have offices in Roppongi, including Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, State Street Corporation, Gorilla glass manufacturer Corning Incorporated, and law firms Allen & Overy, Davis Polk & Wardwell, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe and Skadden, Arps , Slate, Meagher & Flom.

In December 1983, Bandai Visual's headquarters moved to Roppongi, but moved to Shibuya in May 1985.[13]

The story of a Japanese guide

However, from the numerous palette of impressions associated with repeated visits to the Roppongi Hills and Midtown areas, the memory especially stands out for one funny episode that occurred at that rare moment when, for the sake of our school friend, who was visiting Tokyo for the first time, we decided, for a change, to take a city bus tour with Japanese English speaking guide. I would like to tell you more about this case.

“And now, dear excursionists,” the voice of our guide Kusaka-san, a short and middle-aged man with a bald head and a worn jacket, sounded both serious and somehow mocking, “I will show you our garden, Mori Garden.” Kusaka-san constantly added the word “our” to everything he talked about, as if all the time he involuntarily wanted to make it clear that he was here on his territory, and we were just guests. In his emphatically polite, deliberately exaggerated intonation one could hear notes of edification and poorly concealed irony. This is what they usually say to those whose mental abilities are doubted, but they do not want to demonstrate it too openly. It is possible that Kusaka-san’s many years of experience as a tour guide for foreigners convinced him that his charges are incorrigibly stupid creatures who are unable to understand everything that he is forced to tell them about day after day. I don’t know, I can’t say with certainty, of course. But his whole manner of communication made just such an impression on me.

“So,” Kusaka-san continued calmly, “our Mori-garden refers to our Mori-bir. Do you understand what Mori-biru is?” The excursionists, who did not know a word not only of Japlish, but even of Japanese, looked at each other in bewilderment. And Kusaka-san, with a triumphant expression on his face that teachers often have, looking from the height of their teacher’s authority at careless students who are never ready for the lesson, continued. “Mori-biru is the Mori Building, the skyscraper that our Mori-san built, understand?” The tourists nodded their heads knowingly and joyfully, as if they all suddenly remembered at once their personal acquaintance with Mr. Mori. “Here it is, here in front of you, the tallest building in Tokyo today, with an excellent panoramic view from its 54th floor.” (This happened even before the construction of the Skytree, which later took away the primacy status from the Mori skyscraper.) The sightseers obediently raised their heads up and whistled animatedly. And the satisfied Kusaka-san continued to slowly wander along the paths of the evening garden, taking us deeper into its mysterious twilight. “Our Mori Garden is the crown jewel of our Roppongi Hills complex. Here you can see our typical Japanese pond, our typical Japanese plants, our typically Japanese paths and... - Kusaka-san thought for a moment, and then continued enthusiastically, - our typically Japanese couple in love, "kappura", can also be seen here! " At that moment, he led us to a bench, in the shade of the trees of which a young couple sat secludedly. The unsuspecting lovers, who, by the will of Kusaka-san, became one of the attractions of “our” Mori Garden, were dumbfounded by such impudent unceremoniousness. Not expecting such a treacherous invasion at such an inopportune moment of a romantic date, the couple looked at us in embarrassment, probably dreaming of falling through the ground. In turn, all of us, completely disoriented gaijin, who unwillingly found ourselves participants in Kusaka-san’s simple-minded trick, also froze in bewilderment, realizing the awkwardness of the situation, but at the same time not forgetting to click the camera shutters. Only Kusaka-san, obviously enjoying the effect produced, stood victoriously surveying what was happening, with the imperturbable air of a man unusually pleased with himself.

Since then, whenever I again have the opportunity to walk along the paths of “our typical” Mori Garden in Roppongi Hills, I always remember this story and our eccentric guide with a smile. And who knows, maybe these memories are another reason why I love this place so much.

Nightlife[edit]

The area has many bars, nightclubs, strip clubs, restaurants, hostess clubs, cabarets and other entertainment. Among expats, the area tends to be a favorite of business people, students and off-duty US military personnel. In general, the area caters to a younger crowd.

Roppongi Crossing

Clubs can range from large multi-level establishments to small one-room clubs located on the upper floors of buildings. Recently, some of the larger establishments with known connections to the yakuza have closed. [4] There are several clubs around Roppongi Crossing that host foreign performers. There are also several bars, both foreign and Japanese, that cater to different crowds. In recent times, Roppongi has enjoyed a growing reputation for its organized events such as arts festivals, darts and billiards tournaments, pub crawls, [5] robot exhibitions, beauty pageants and so on.

Restaurants in Roppongi range from upscale Japanese to international favorites.