Wedding World 結婚式

A special report on the Wedding Village in Tokyo.

Wedding Village? That the he.. is that?



In Japan you can choose to marry traditional Japanese or Western style. Some even choose to do both on the same day. A traditional wedding is in a beautiful Japanese kimono in a temple. Western wedding is in a beautiful dress in a hotel or in the Wedding Village. Imagine: you marry in the nice church below with a beautiful stairway for a breathtaking descent.







You walk through idyllic streets with idyllic stores to receive all those congratulations of your family and friends, radiating happiness.

Every now and then you throw a glance in the shops while receiving even more good wishes.

Also our four footed friends are in the party.

You might ask by now why there is nobody there.

No weddings today. Sorry.

This village is specially built for western weddings.

It is all fake. Except for the church it is all décor, like a big film set. The stores are fake. With fake shopwindows. The shops only have a front facade, no backside. Really nothing is real. Also for this dream place the saying goes: dreams are deceiving. Wedding Village is located in an industrial area on Odaiba. At the exit you can, step in your Nissan Micra, wearing your beautiful wedding dress....on the way to the normal and real life of marriage.

Wedding Village was discovered by Harold when we left him out cycling unchecked. ;-)

This wedding report is specially recommended by Rosa (a very faithful blog reader) who gave us a special birthday calender for our apartment in Tokyo. A calender showing Máxima, the Mother Of All Weddings.

Tabemono 食べ物

A well known image of Japan is that of ‘copying everything’. Indeed, Japanese are masters in copying. They strive to make a copy as perfect as the original. Or even better. In a country where temples and houses frequently are demolished by climate, earthquakes, war and the real estate market, it is a very useful skill.

Something completely different is that as an immigrant you can often not read (or at least not yet) the menus in a restaurant. It is a perfect godsend that the ware offered is exhibited outside the restaurant. Real food (tabemono) has the imperfection of withering. And thus an improved copy is made in Japan. Which doesn’t wither. Really very clever. These models were originally made of wax. Nowadays plastic is used for it. The cakes above look so real that I could catch a lady touching it to check if it really wasn’t real.


Not only cakes, also lunch with bacon and eggs.


All variations of delicious noodle soup.

Vegetables, raw fish, you name it.

drink = nomimono
Even soft drinks with ice cubes and beer with a head. Undistinguishable from the real stuff.

And of course it looks even more real with a sheet of freshness foil over it. Even over the beer!

Bow and Scrape

Detour at Ebisu
Always apologise and bow. Japan is famous for it. My sister Loes e-mailed me about the weather man in the Dutch television news who told about a mishap of his colleague in Japan. The Japan Meteorologists forcasted the blossoms to appear but it didn’t happen in time. The weather man apologised and (of course) bowed for the spectators.
My sister asked if this was a personal drama for that poor weather man. It took me some time to figure it out. Until I realised that apologizing in Japan is not such a capital crime as for example in the Netherlands.

Koban 交番

A koban is a police box. A small building with a desk and a chair.
Two or three work here, sometimes only one.


There are many koban in Japan. On every crossing of significance you can find one.
Police is easy to find that way. Policemen do their job from the koban on a bicycle.


Some koban are nicely located.



Others are a bit more 'utilitarian'.

Sometimes they are incorporated in a larger building, leaving only the front door visible.

The idea of the koban is already very old. In Edo period (1600 - 1868) the powers of the shogunate kept a close eye on society. Ubiquitous police was in important instrument in that. It is said that Japanese prudentness and politeness originated then. People were killed for little or no misconduct so apologizing immediately could make the difference between life and death.

But a koban is above all a great opportunity for architects to build something remarkable.

This one is in Shibuya, a lively shopping area. Architect is Edward Suzuki.

In this case your colleagues have to be your friends.

This koban looks to be inspired on origami, the Japanese art of folding paper.

Apparantly there is no such thing as a standard koban. And that is a great asset of the governmental building agency here. It is very tempting to standardise such a small thing. The challenge now is to design an outstanding koban. Or the least outstanding. The latter can be found in the posting below.

Have you seen the invisible policeman?

Until recently it was only science fiction. The invisible man...
In Ginza it has become reality now. It is an invisible building. Watch the picture above. Do you see a Koban? Far left? No? Far right then? No? Really? Click on the picture for a larger version. Maybe that helps.


Need some help? The koban in close up. You can clearly see the policemen’s bicycles.


From another angle it may be easier. The trick is that the whole koban is built of mirroring glass panels. Therefore you only see fragments of other buildings. And you see people walking where they are not.


Here you see the koban in het center of the picture. Click for a larger version. Do you see the green frog on top? Look that up in the other pictures and you will find out how you were tricked. I think this koban should be mentioned in the architecture guides. Only: how to depict an invisible building?

Spring and Sunny

Cool!
It’s spring time! The sun is getting stronger.

Raw Reality

Good bye dinner with Kitty in Yurakucho. By now she will be back, all the way to Geldrop. And she really enjoyed Tokyo, at least that is what she told us ;-). Kitty has been here before in 2000. We travel the three of us for three weeks throughout Japan on Japan Rail Pass.


We are already used to it but it still worth noticing. It is special and delicious to eat: with chopsticks and raw fish. Today decorated with chrysantemum.


The chrysantemum is also the symbol of the Imperial family of Japan. And that’s a special bite! What it tastes like? Well mostly like er… chrysantemum.

Living on the Water

Shin kawa
Some cities like Venice are known for their special location on the water. Tokyo is not known for it although it is located where many rivers lead to the Bay of Tokyo. Tokyo is high ranked in the Hall of Shame http://www.pps.org/.



What is the attitude of Japan towards rivers?
In a nutshell: it looks like Enemy of the State number 1.

Well, that is how the government deals wit hit. And therefore that is what it is. Contact between people and water is to be avoided at all times. This is where the Law of No Surprises shows clearly. Rivers are lively and agile things that cause changes in the landscape and that is not compatible with the Law of No Surprises. Therefore the grow or decrease of river banks has to be avoided. And concrete is the answer.



Up to high in het mountains banks are concreted over. All to reduce the risk of landslides to a minimum, even in completely uninhabited regions.

A result of this canalising frenzy is the increased flow of the rivers. The water meets less resistance of overgrowth, rocks and meandering and flows much quicker out of the mountains, whereas the risk of flooding in the lower regions of the country (where all the big cities are) increases considerably.

And so a new job is created for the Construction Industry. All kinds of dams have to help slow down the water to an acceptable speed.

Here in Takayama people are able to touch the water.

There is a dam that makes a pond with big gold fish.




Another sollution is to build a wall along the river in the lower cities like Tokyo. An eventual surplus of water cannot flood the city. Imagine what happens if the metro would flood...

Kanda gawa

Meguro gawa

...kawa dewa arimasen...

On some locations the quality of water in residential area is appreciated though. But make no mistake. This is not a river but a pond. With dykes!

Ara gawa
Construction industry has much power in Japan. Like the bureaucracy. Competition is rare. It means that all governmental construction orders are distributed among the Zaibatsu, cartels of huge construction companies like Mitsubishi, Kajima, Takenaka and Shimizu. Companies not in the scene don’t stand a chance and the big contractors can ask exorbitant prices for state orders. It is like what has become known as The Construction Fraud in the Netherlands.

An important motive in this structure is the principle of the Amakudari. 'Gifts form Heaven'. Early retired bureaucrats who work in the industry that is to be monitored by the government. Staff of the Ministry of Finance become bank director, staff of the Ministry of Construction go to the construction industry, retired policemen run the Pachinko parlours etcetera.

It goes without saying that this is tricky stuff when it comes to governmental control. The salaries in the second career are very high compared with the first (government) career. Civil servants therefore are very lenient in their first career as to have it made in the second career.

Sumida gawa

Back to the water. To justify all these civil engineering works Japan depicts an image of rivers being the most dangerous enemy. And it works. The rivers have become the back end of the city.

Shibuya gawa

We already saw that motorways are built on piles over the rivers. In NRC (a Dutch newspaper) of January 6th of this year, a Dutch reporter wrote enthusiastically on Tokyo being built on piles. And that the Expressway runs over those beautiful clean rivers and that the Tokyoites accept that fully...

And it would be worth the effort to ride a bike along the beautiful Nihonbashi (litt. Japan bridge (!)) river. No way we should not follow such a valuable advice. Below you can see the best part of it.

Nihonbashi gawa

Shibuya gawa
The best location to live on the water in our neighbourhood.

Shibuya gawa

The option to come close to the water is unique.

Along the water is a fence. Always. To avoid surprises.

Shibuya gawa
On the steps somebody is enjoying the view.


And this is how you live with the backside(!) of your house to the water, on Sumida river. Where we made the boat trip with Kitty. The neighbours live in the blocks on the other side of the river. Did anybody say: "River" ?


Oh yes, river. There is even a bench and a waste bin to enjoy the view on this bank. The two meter high wall is there to protect us from the water of the river. Directly behind the wall live the homeless. Read more about them in the posting below.