Headed home

After the late night out, I awoke early the next day at my Sakura apartment. The night before, I had packed all of the additional stuff that I had left in Tokyo while I traveled. My luggage was bursting at the seams. I also had to carry some other things that couldn't be put in a suitcase. I hobbled down the street, weighed down with baggage, carrying by busted suitcase with a missing wheel. It was awful. I had to make it all the way across town to Tokyo station by 9:30am to catch a train to Toke station near Chiba, a town east of Tokyo. Here I would be met by a couple Nikken folks to take a tour of a new museum under construction designed by one of my supervisors, Suzuki-san.

Unfortunately, this promotional image for the Hoki Collection that is already online is the only image that I can show at this point. There is a website with a few more images at http://www.worldbuildingsdirectory.com/project.cfm?id=1846.

The building is nearly complete, with nearly all of the interior finishes applied. It will house an collection of hyperrealism paintings, or paintings that are made to look like high definition photographs. The building has been designed in such a way that almost all seams and corners disappear, and where the material surfaces seem to have a continuity that almost defies what you think might be physically possible. The curves of the volumes make me think of stroke of a paint brush. An amazing steel cantilevered volume thrusts out over 100 ft. past the base of the building. There are many amazing little details to find everywhere. I felt very fortunate to visit this place before it opens. Despite all the amazing architecture seen on this trip, this was certainly one of the most inspiring buildings I visited.

After the visit, we had a final delicious Japanese lunch near the train station. We then rode together to Chiba station, where I would change to continue on to Narita Airport, and they would head back to Tokyo. We said our goodbyes, and I reluctantly departed for the airport. I say reluctantly because I'll miss those guys and I could have used a couple more days in Tokyo before leaving. However, the last two weeks had been exhausting, and in many ways I was ready to head home.

I was more than happy to hand over my awful luggage once I got to Narita. I browsed the gift stores, picking up a few extra things for some friends.

Finally, I boarded my All Nippon Airways flight home, glad that I at least had a few more hours of Japanese food and drinks aboard the plane at my disposal.