After finishing our cycling loop of the southern part of Kyushu Island, Japan, we went north to Fukuoka. Here are Ken and Pete with our tour guide Akio. Both Ken and Akio are architects, so the two of them tailored a wonderful itinerary of Fukuoka's contemporary architectural highlights.
Akio set a fast pace for riding since we had a long list of buildings we wanted to see. We headed first to Island City, an artificial island in Hakata Bay.
Island City buildings have a nautical theme, with the Island Tower Sky Club built to resemble a lighthouse. Completed in 2008, it's the tallest building in Fukuoka at 477 feet.
This building is said to look like a ship's bridge.
Also part of Island City is Grin Grin, with glass-covered half-subterranean greenhouses and a park. It was designed by the Prizker Prize winning architect Toyo Ito.
We liked its organic shapes. Formed over mounds of landfill, concrete was poured 16 inches thick, then the landfill earth was dug out from under the shells.
We enjoyed walking the pathways that went over and around Ito’s buildings.
The views from the roof were great, but we were surprised that the plants were not well maintained.
Ken is posing next to Grippi, the cutesy character representing this botanical garden.
The botanical garden inside had lots of paper kite butterflies.
The park on Island City was fun to ride through.
We think this sculpture was also designed by Toyo Ito.
We learned that Fukuoka has 4 sister cities, including Oakland, Ken’s home town.
Here is Ken in front of the Oakland garden, which was not impressive.
This tile mural was in the same garden, so we think it's the Golden Gate Bridge. The color is right but it's missing a tower and the view is more from Berkeley than Oakland.
Ken had many questions for Akio about everything we were seeing. Here Ken is striking a typical architect's pose.
Fukuoka is one of the best places in the world to see the works of world-class contemporary architects side by side. Nexus World housing development, built in 1991, has been called one of the most interesting housing experiments in recent times. Six western architects participated in the project. These housing structures were designed by Mark Mack, a California architect. The building Ken is in front of has a set back creating a small plaza, which was also landscaped by Mack.
The building behind and to the left of the sculpture was designed by Rem Koolhaas. Viewed from the street, we found the appearance disappointing, since the triangular glass roof elements weren't visible. His use of stones are reminiscent of a Japanese castle.
Because the stones are at the second level rather than the base, the building is described as levitating. Koolhaas was catapulted to international fame after participating in this project. We liked this Steven Holl building (on the left). Later we read that the walls inside were moveable, giving flexibility to how the apartments could be configured.
We asked Akio to take us to a bike shop. Pete and Kristina were happy to find jerseys with Shigeru Mizuki's classic manga character Kitaro. We look forward to wearing them next month in Burma on our next cycling adventure.
We happened to spot this incredibly simple and elegant home as we rode.
Next we cycled to the ACROS Fukuoka International Hall. Designed by the Argentine-American Emilio Ambasz, it's a lovely, agro-urban structure that blends into nearby Tenjin Central Park.
The building resembles a mountain. Using 75 different types of plants, ACROS is said to have 37,000 plants living on it. Each of the 15 outside levels has a garden, with waterfalls that muffle the city noise.
The interior of ACROS is interesting too. It has a symphonic auditorium, a museum, offices, restaurants and shops.
We arrived back at Akio’s office as it was getting dark. We were very happy we had seen so much of Fukuoka on our tour!
We noticed this float while we were in a Fukuoka shopping area. As part of the Hakata Gion Yamakasa festival that’s held in July, half a dozen floats like this one are carried by loincloth-clad men running at full speed through the city, trying to be the first to finish the course.
Fukuoka also is known for yatai, small food stands that are assembled each night to become fully functioning restaurants. Ken had read about these, and Akio told us where to find them.
We saw a barbeque yatai that looked tasty and took seats at the counter. About 150 stalls now operate in Fukuoka, the largest number of any city in Japan.
Ken treated and we ate several plates of grilled foods like these. From the right are pork belly, shitake mushrooms, peppers and bacon wrapped enoki mushrooms. Everything was incredibly delicious! It was a great way to end our wonderful trip to Japan.
Akio set a fast pace for riding since we had a long list of buildings we wanted to see. We headed first to Island City, an artificial island in Hakata Bay.
Island City buildings have a nautical theme, with the Island Tower Sky Club built to resemble a lighthouse. Completed in 2008, it's the tallest building in Fukuoka at 477 feet.
This building is said to look like a ship's bridge.
Also part of Island City is Grin Grin, with glass-covered half-subterranean greenhouses and a park. It was designed by the Prizker Prize winning architect Toyo Ito.
We liked its organic shapes. Formed over mounds of landfill, concrete was poured 16 inches thick, then the landfill earth was dug out from under the shells.
We enjoyed walking the pathways that went over and around Ito’s buildings.
The views from the roof were great, but we were surprised that the plants were not well maintained.
Ken is posing next to Grippi, the cutesy character representing this botanical garden.
The botanical garden inside had lots of paper kite butterflies.
The park on Island City was fun to ride through.
We think this sculpture was also designed by Toyo Ito.
We learned that Fukuoka has 4 sister cities, including Oakland, Ken’s home town.
Here is Ken in front of the Oakland garden, which was not impressive.
This tile mural was in the same garden, so we think it's the Golden Gate Bridge. The color is right but it's missing a tower and the view is more from Berkeley than Oakland.
Ken had many questions for Akio about everything we were seeing. Here Ken is striking a typical architect's pose.
Fukuoka is one of the best places in the world to see the works of world-class contemporary architects side by side. Nexus World housing development, built in 1991, has been called one of the most interesting housing experiments in recent times. Six western architects participated in the project. These housing structures were designed by Mark Mack, a California architect. The building Ken is in front of has a set back creating a small plaza, which was also landscaped by Mack.
The building behind and to the left of the sculpture was designed by Rem Koolhaas. Viewed from the street, we found the appearance disappointing, since the triangular glass roof elements weren't visible. His use of stones are reminiscent of a Japanese castle.
Because the stones are at the second level rather than the base, the building is described as levitating. Koolhaas was catapulted to international fame after participating in this project. We liked this Steven Holl building (on the left). Later we read that the walls inside were moveable, giving flexibility to how the apartments could be configured.
We asked Akio to take us to a bike shop. Pete and Kristina were happy to find jerseys with Shigeru Mizuki's classic manga character Kitaro. We look forward to wearing them next month in Burma on our next cycling adventure.
We happened to spot this incredibly simple and elegant home as we rode.
Next we cycled to the ACROS Fukuoka International Hall. Designed by the Argentine-American Emilio Ambasz, it's a lovely, agro-urban structure that blends into nearby Tenjin Central Park.
The building resembles a mountain. Using 75 different types of plants, ACROS is said to have 37,000 plants living on it. Each of the 15 outside levels has a garden, with waterfalls that muffle the city noise.
The interior of ACROS is interesting too. It has a symphonic auditorium, a museum, offices, restaurants and shops.
We arrived back at Akio’s office as it was getting dark. We were very happy we had seen so much of Fukuoka on our tour!
We noticed this float while we were in a Fukuoka shopping area. As part of the Hakata Gion Yamakasa festival that’s held in July, half a dozen floats like this one are carried by loincloth-clad men running at full speed through the city, trying to be the first to finish the course.
Fukuoka also is known for yatai, small food stands that are assembled each night to become fully functioning restaurants. Ken had read about these, and Akio told us where to find them.
We saw a barbeque yatai that looked tasty and took seats at the counter. About 150 stalls now operate in Fukuoka, the largest number of any city in Japan.
Ken treated and we ate several plates of grilled foods like these. From the right are pork belly, shitake mushrooms, peppers and bacon wrapped enoki mushrooms. Everything was incredibly delicious! It was a great way to end our wonderful trip to Japan.
