Japan has some weird buildings. Here are my top 4.
1. The “turd”
This is the Asahi Beer headquarters. Affectionally known as the “turd” in the middle of Asakusa (a popular destination for foreign tourists).
2. The Ball
This is the headquarters of Fuji TV, one of the major networks, located on the waterfront.
3. The Hole
This is the Umeda Sky building in Osaka. No that’s not an optical illusion.
4. The Pine Tree
This used to be Sofitel Tokyo, a hotel, until they shut it down. Don’t know what it is now.
They’re moving the sofitel hotel to a new site. I don’t know if that means it is going to continue as a hotel or not.
I’ve seen a lot of “gaishikei” hotels go under. The hotel business in Japan is tough.
The turd is actually (across the river) from Asakusa, not Akasaka. It’s visible from the train and subway stations there.
Andy,
That is an embarassing mistake. Thanks for pointing it out!
Very interesting buildings. I was worked in an English language school there for a year and personally, the architecture never blew me away. It always seemed designed for function and replaceable. Probably the best way to do it when you’re expecting an earthquake.