Bored, I finally got round to processing some old photos of the Tokyo International Forum which I had never bothered doing. I guess the International Forum is probably my favourite building in Tokyo. It’s one of those buildings that doesn’t disappoint when you see it for real. The size, acoustics and, (whenever I’ve been) comparative lack of people allow you to sit on one of the benches and appreciate the actual architecture. I haven’t found a similar building in London where the quality of the architecture is matched by the amount of access the public have to saunter around inside. I end up going there pretty much every time I’m in the area, and then end up making some excuse to go here too. The photos below were taken at various times in the past 8 years, with a variety of cameras. Click the photos below to see bigger versions:
Sweet photos. There’s gotta be a secret deck in the International Forum with some buttons and a big ship’s wheel. The whole thing will just launch and float around.
What’s always struck me as odd when I visited is that I never could find anything going on. Where was the thing to do? What was the building for? Where is the main thingy thing where the thingy happens? I couldn’t find the International or the Forum – just epic contours of boat-like glass and steel. It was like an endless lobby for something great you don’t know about.
Except for that time when they were displaying skinless preserved human bodies and plastic-coated body parts.(Jintai Plastomics “Mysteries of the Human Body”) It seemed a bit out of place. Steel pylons and glass, bones and sinews – I guess it works.
In any case, I got to hold a brain. I held a human brain in that building. Yup.
I know, generally when I’ve been, the big hall downstairs is being prepared for a function, or being cleaned up after one. I did go there for a job fair at one point, but even then it was only one floor and about 3 rooms. And no human brains to hold.
I like the idea of them creating one of the biggest indoor spaces in Tokyo and then never using it except to display dead bodies.