Before we get into Jiufen and Spirited Away, though, let’s look at the history of this little Taiwanese town. It has had an interesting one, much of which is actually Japanese related, and will set the table for the comparison between the place and the film later in this article.

A Japanese-ish History

In 1895, Taiwan became Japan’s first colony, so Japan wanted to try to show off to the rest of the world that they could do the whole normally-Western-but-not-this-time imperialism sort of thing. They decided to make Taiwan a “model” colony for all their future colonies, so much effort and money was put into building up Taiwan’s infrastructure, industry, standard of living, and economy. They also made a big effort to change the culture and get everyone speaking Japanese. In fact, to this day elderly Taiwanese people still speak Japanese fluently, as that’s what they grew up speaking. I spent a good amount of time talking to one elderly Taiwanese person (in Japanese) and she was certainly a wealth of “Japanese Era” information… maybe more on that in another post.

Jiufen itself was starting to get popular even a couple of years before Japan appeared. Why? Gold was discovered. If I know anything about gold and the olden days, it’s that people like to “rush” for it. The height of Jiufen’s gold rush occurred during the Japanese occupation when (I imagine) the Japanese got really into mining for gold. Gold helps to fund war-related things, I imagine, and I hear the British POW labor from Singapore sent to work in the mines was top notch. Quite a bit was built up around here, and Japanese ryokans and bath houses exist in the town to this day. I seem to remember Spirited Away having one of those…

Jiufen And Spirited Away

While the story of Jiufen, its gold rush, its POW gold miners, and its rise to tourist popularity has nothing to do with the actual story of Spirited Away, many parts of the film do tear off some huge Jiufen chunks as inspiration for the characters and places that Miyazaki created. Unfortunately, having not seen the film recently, I was relying on some pretty shaky memories, so below are some pictures that I took as well as some pictures others took (these are the ones with a citation). I’ve broken it up into sections too, to help you to see exactly what parts of Jiufen made it into the film. Hopefully someday you can visit this place too and be able to say “hey, wait, that was in Spirited Away!”

Dragons

The dragon Haku was an important part of the film. This much I remembered. While this is true for much of Taiwan and not just Jiufen, there were dragons on top of the temple right when you get off the bus.

This alone is hardly enough to convince anyone that Jiufen was the inspiration for the places in Spirited Away, it’s a start. Let’s move on to something more connecty: FOOOOD.

Food

The spirits in the film ate tons of food (you know that from Fiona’s post about the foods of Spirited Away). The girl’s parents ate tons of food (and turned into delicious pigs). Food was a huge part of the film and Jiufen had plenty of it. Lining the streets were many stalls, and I’d say more than half of them centered around something you could consume. Certainly one of the main attractions of this place is the things that can be devoured.

Suffice to say, the variety and uniqueness of the food could have easily been a small inspiration for Miyazaki in making this film. While I don’t think I saw any of  the more unique Jiufen foods in Spirited Away (or in any pictures of Spirited Away), both places had numerous food stalls, food, and people/spirits eating the food. The vibe of the food stalls and the people eating the food was similar as well. Delicious.

Streets, Stairs, And Red Lanterns

The architecture and street layouts of both Jiufen and Spirited Away are quite unique yet quite similar. Jiufen has the whole Japanese but not Japanese thing going for it, due to the occupation period. Spirited Away has the Japanese but somewhat other-worldy thing going for it due to the other-worldliness of it. Not too far off from each other, I’d say.

Another notable similarity is all the red lanterns. Both Jiufen and Spirited Away are teaming with them. Just the amount you see in both the film and real place is enough to convince me that Miyazaki was here and taking notes. If that’s not enough for you, all you have to do is look at the winding roads and long staircases featured in both places.

Stairs.

And even more stairs.

Jiufen seriously had way too many stairs, but it made for a very unique looking place. I seem to remember stairs being a common occurrence in Spirited Away, as well. Up the stairs down the stairs, stairs in the background, egg and stair, bacon and stair egg, bacon, sausage and stairs with eggs, stairs stairs stairs stairs.

Buildings

The buildings in Spirited Away were incredibly iconic. What stood out the most (because this is where much of the story took place) was the Bath House in which the main character worked. This building was supposedly inspired by the Grand Tea House in Jiufen. While not as magnificent as the anime version, it’s difficult to not see the similarity:

Another thing I noticed were the tunnels all throughout Jiufen. It was a mining community for most of its recent history, so it’s only natural that there be tunnels. One thing that surprised me were the tunnels that you could go through in Jiufen. They’d lead you to new areas of the town, almost magically. One tunnel we went through (pictured below) took us out to a tea house and beautiful view. You don’t expect that kind of thing when you get into small, scary tunnels. Viet certainly wins this “More Meta Than You” photo contest.

The surprise and magic of coming out of a tunnel and into a newish world (in Jiufen) felt really reminiscent of the beginning of Spirited Away when Chihiro and her parents go through the tunnel and into the town. Luckily, on the other side of our tunnel all we had was a tea house, run by ordinary people.

I believe there were other tunnels in the film as well, though someone will have to remind me since it’s been a while. The tunnel up above supposedly has a tunnel in Jiufen that’s more similar to it, but I didn’t find it in my journey. Anyways, Jiufen had tunnels galore, and it rewarded discovery and exploration, making the place feel more magical. When you go through one, who knows where you’ll end up! Dun dun dunnn.

Characters

Of course, Spirited Away was filled with interesting characters… that being said, I couldn’t stop getting the impression as I walked through Jiufen that the real place had just as many odd people/spirits. Usually in Taiwan you don’t see this many odd people gathered all in one place. In Jiufen, these kinds of folks were a dime-a-dozen. This isn’t a bad thing – I think weird is great (where’s my “Keep Jiufen Weird” bumper sticker?) – what’s interesting to me is that there’s potential that some inspiration for Spirited Away could have come from Jiufen. Most people just mention the streets and architecture when making the Spirited Away / Jiufen comparison, but I think I’m onto something here.

Take a look at this guy, for example. He runs a leather shop in the middle of Jiufen, but he’s just in the back rocking out on his electric guitar, never selling any leather. I was the only one who stood there to watch, then clapped a bit at the end. He seemed a bit surprised by that, so I quickly moved on. Anyways, he’s a little bit odd, all things considered. It gets more interesting, though.

Take a look at this guy. He sells and plays (and maybe makes?) ocarinas. Of course, he runs an ocarina store so this makes sense. That being said, his personality and look were pretty unique to me yet a little familiar…

Maybe in twenty or thirty years? Haku does not age well.

Apparently, and you can see them in the background in the ocarina guy’s picture, he has some ocarinas that have a resemblance to No Face in the film. I’ll let you decide on that one, but perhaps this real-life character made a fairly big impact on Miyazaki?

The last guy I’m going to show you was the most direct correlation between the characters of Jiufen and the characters of Spirited Away. I have no clue if he was around when Miyazaki was here, so perhaps I’m just throwing this out there, but do you remember the three heads that rolled around in the movie? These guys right here?

Well, there was a mask exhibit, which was basically a place where this one dude who makes a ton of crazy masks/heads/busts displays his art. They immediately reminded me of this part of the film, just because they were unattached heads like the masks/busts that this guy made. Here he is in all his glory with a bust of… himself making a face. Actually, he made all the faces for us, but I’ll leave the rest to your imagination.

It doesn’t end here. He had three and a half large rooms filled with masks/busts that he had made, usually not of himself. Just about everything looks like something from the mind of a serial killer / psychopath, though the guy himself was super friendly and nice (but aren’t they all?). Take a look at some of his other masks. There were too many for me to take pictures of them all and too many pictures to spam up on this post, so suffice to say there were a lot. I can only imagine the time he put into all of this.

Lots of masks, and lots of sources for possible character inspiration, wouldn’t you say? Whatever happened or didn’t happen here, though, I can easily conclude that this was my favorite part of Jiufen. I really like this sort of thing for some reason… Maybe Miyazaki stopped by to walk through this exhibit as well? Spirited Away was definitely one of Miyazaki’s most unique and interesting films character-wise, I’d say. If he ran across this place, there would have been no shortage of wild inspiration for him to draw from.

Getting To Jiufen

If you want to go to Jiufen, of course you’ll want to first make your way to Taiwan. Once there, go to Zhongxiao Fuxing MRT Station in Taipei and leave Exit 1. You should see Bus #1062 near the corner. Get on that bus, and prepare for a fun ride (remember, left side of the bus = “best” / most terrifying view!). If you get the bus driver that we got, you’re going to have somewhat of a lead foot on the ol’ gas / brake pedal. Oh, and did I mention there are plenty of steep ledges? It will make the food of Jiufen taste all the more better because you’ll feel alive (or you’ll just be dead from rolling bus syndrome).

Besides Jiufen, Taiwan is a great place to visit. It really does feel kind of like Japan in a way. Of course, it’s not anywhere near the same and a unique society and culture exists, but there’s that sort of background, white noise sort of feeling that Japan is subtly there, somewhere, watching you. There is still something remaining from the occupation years and it makes for an interesting mix of people, food, and culture. Definitely pop down to Taiwan sometime if you get the chance!

And lastly, if that wasn’t enough, I found this side-by-side picture comparison of Jiufen/Spirited done by Oh What A Day that I thought was quite good. It’s hard to not see the similarities when you see it presented this way!

Hope you enjoyed this post. Jiufen and Spirited Away certainly have connections, though I don’t know how much is real inspiration and how much is “reading too much into things.” Whatever it was, it was a fun trip and I highly recommend it. You can fly from Japan to Taiwan for fairly cheap, so if you have an extra week or so pop down to see what the fuss is all about. Hit up some night markets while you’re at it.

I figure that I’ll answer this question once and for all; or at least until people forget that I wrote this post and start asking me again.

While I skim a lot of the sites loaded up into my RSS reader, there are a select few that I really enjoy reading, teach me a lot, and keep me coming back for more.

I should clarify that this list contains blogs about Japan written in English with a Western audience in mind. If you want to find blogs written in Japanese, that’s another post for another time.

Here are some of my favorite Japan blogs, in no particular order:

Gakuranman

Long time Tofugu collaborator Gakuranman is more than just a manly, manly rayon body pillow; he’s also an avid haikyo (abandoned building) explorer.

He visited Japan’s forbidden island, Gunkanjima, long before James Bond was taken there in Skyfall; and while the internet was marvelling at the Japanese “anti-zombie fortress” from afar, Gakuranman was able to actually visit the Shime coal mine and tell us a little bit about its history.

While I was lucky enough to explore an old amusement park and the long-abandoned school on Cat Island with Gakuranman, I’m not sure that the haikyo lifestyle is for me; but I’m glad that I can visit see these beautiful, abandoned places in Japan without ever leaving my apartment because of him.

This Japanese Life

This Japanese Life isn’t produced by WBEZ Chicago and has no relation to the popular radio show, but the way that author Eryk tells stories would make Ira Glass proud.

The best posts on This Japanese Life are first-person narratives of Eryk’s life as an English teacher in Japan. The slice-of-life qualities of these posts cut through the popular misconceptions of Weird Japan and reveal the really strange parts of Japanese culture (see the post on kindness and obligation).

I also just really enjoy the writing on This Japanese Life, which is peppered with unique phrases like “Willy Wonka-san” and “kabuki juggalo.” This kind of writing might not be the kind of thing you’d hear in act one of our program, but it’s been more than enough to keep me reading.

Shisaku

Japanese politics can be a mystery. Not only does the Japanese political system function completely differently than the political system of my home country, the United States, but most of the news that us Westerners get about Japanese politics focuses on a few, paltry subjects. Unless a Japanese politician reaches the level of prime minister or says something incredibly stupid about Japan’s military past, then chances are the AP, Reuters, and other big news organizations won’t care at all.

Fortunately, Shisaku is there to pick up the slack. Run by Tokyo-based Michael Cucek, Shisaku is full of independent analysis about Japanese politics. So if I open up the New York Times and find an article about a high-level Japanese diplomat traveling to North Korea, I can count on Shisaku to give me some in-depth context and analysis of the event.

Reading Shiasku is almost enough to make me feel like an expert in Japanese politics. Almost.

Surviving in Japan

While I enjoy blogs that talk very broadly about large, cultural issues in Japan, I’ve been a huge fan of Surviving in Japan for years because it offers a lot of very practical, down-to-earth advice about living day-to-day life in Japan. After all, once you get past the bigger cultural differences, you still have to do all of those mundane, everyday things that you take for granted.

You’d be hard-pressed to find another site that offers as many guides and how-tos on topics like banking, finding personal care products, and how to deal with the different seasons in Japan.

Even though the updates on the site have slowed a bit since its creator has moved out of Japan, Surviving in Japan still gets the occasional new post and has a wealth of information in the archives.

Japan Subculture Research Center

Author and journalist Jake Adelstein has been having a pretty good year so far. His book, Tokyo Vice, is being turned into a movie with Harry Potter alumnus Daniel Radcliffe starring.

But aside from his recent Hollywood success, Adelstein is a seasoned Japanese reporter who broke many barriers for foreign reporters in Japan; he was the first foreign staff reporter for the Yomiuri Shinbun and first to be included in the Tokyo Metropolitan Press Club.

Japan Subculture Research Center is Adelstein’s web presence and, together with a few other writers, does a great job covering Japan’s seedy underbelly. You’ll not only find a wealth of information about the yakuza (Adelstein’s area of expertise), but also information about the myriad not-so-legal activities that are usually hidden from public view.

If you want to know about all of Japan and not just the shiny image that’s usually presented to the West, Japan Subculture Research Center is a great place to start.

Spoon & Tamago

Japan has long had a worldwide reputation as a design powerhouse, but it’s sometimes difficult to find concrete examples of that. Fortunately, Spoon & Tamago manages to do a good job at exposing me to Japanese art and design and making me feel at least somewhat educated in the process.

The team of writers at Spoon & Tamago cover all aspects of Japanese art and design, from architecture to photography, to the design of small, everyday things. The best part: it’s all very accessible to those who have absolutely not background in art of design.

Japanese Rule of 7

Every once in a while, I’ll read something that just completely hooks me. For Japanese Rule of 7, the blog by Ken Seeroi, it was comparing knowing Japanese to being like David Blaine doing magic tricks at a party:

Your magic trick is that you can speak English. That’s what everyone wants you to do. And every time you do it, and tell them about how big the cheeseburgers are back home and how people wear shoes inside the house, their eyes will light up and they’ll be like, Wow, amazing!

Seeroi’s sometimes cynical writing, paired with his great stories of Japan, paints an entertaining picture of everyday life in Japan for an expat.

Honorable Mentions

There are a few authors and blogs that I enjoy a lot but, for whatever reason, didn’t quite make the cut. Here they are:

Hikosaemon

While Hikosaemon’s actual blog is infrequently updated, his presence on the rest of the internet more than makes up for it. This Kiwi is a social media God, posting so many insightful links and updates via his Twitter and Google+, it’s scary.

That’s not even to mention his YouTube channel. Between his solo videos and his weekly YouTube show with Gimmeaflakeman (and the occasional appearance by Milkjamjuice) Two and a Half Oyajis, there are probably days’ worth of amazing discussion on Japan on Hikosaemon’s channel.

And when Hiko does decide to sit down and crank out a long-form blog entry, he does an amazing job condensing his experiences living and working for over a decade in Japan. His guest post for us here at Tofugu from a few years back is based on a level of life experience that’s impossible to fake.

Culture Japan

I hesitate to include Culture Japan because I don’t watch anime, read manga, or do any of the things that fall under the umbrella of otaku culture. Given that, it’s sometimes hard for me to understand the allure of Culture Japan, the Dollfie-loving, body pillow-filled otaku haven run by internet superstar Danny Choo.

Even if I don’t always understand the appeal of Culture Japan, it undeniable that Danny Choo is a massive figure online. His blog post “How Discovering Japan Changed My Life” is incredibly popular among Japanophiles, and you’ve probably seen him dressed up as a Star Wars storm trooper, dancing on the streets of Tokyo to Earth, Wind, and Fire.

But beyond his internet fame, Danny Choo does a lot of hard work promoting Japan and Japanese culture. He works for the Japanese government under the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry, and produces and directs a TV show about Japan also called Culture Japan. So while I might be turned off by figurines and wall scrolls, there’s a lot to be said about Danny Choo and Culture Japan’s contributions.

These are just my personal picks—your mileage with these sites may vary; and I’m sure that I’m missing some amazing sites and writers, so share your favorites in the comments.

Bonus Wallpapers and GIFs!

Our talented illustrator Aya has whipped up some desktop backgrounds and animated GIFs for your enjoyment:

Wallpaper (1280×800)
Wallpaper (2560×1440)

GIF (700×438)
GIF (1280×800)

Despite my ignorance, there’s something about Japanese architecture that stops me dead in my tracks. I don’t always understand the history, engineering, theory, or artistry behind it all, but I’m always fascinated by Japanese architecture.

If you’ve read Tofugu for a while, you probably already knew that. I’ve written a lot of posts about architecture, mostly as an excuse to post pictures of these really, really cool places.

Tadao Ando’s Hundred Step Garden

Obviously, I’m not the only one who’s in love with Japanese architecture. For hundreds and hundreds of years, Japanese architects have received global recognition for their very distinctive work.

And as recently as just last month, Japan has captured the world’s attention. This year, Japanese architect Toyo Ito was awarded architecture’s greatest prize. Ito the sixth in a line of celebrated Japanese architects to win the Pritzker Prize, more than any other country except for the United States.

Toyo Ito’s Sumika Pavilion

As I heard more and more about Japanese architects and spent hours scrolling through Google image searches, I began to wonder: why are Japanese architects so revered, so distinctive?

What separates the Frank Lloyd Wrights from the Toyo Itos of the world?

The Japanese Aesthetic

The Japanese aesthetic—the qualities that Japanese culture values in art—has always sort of been a mystery for the rest of the world. Westerners usually see it as yet another aspect of the mystical Orient they don’t understand.

In reality though, the Japanese aesthetic makes a lot of sense. A lot of the Japanese aesthetic, like a lot of Japanese culture, has its roots in religion. Shinto and Buddhism are the two biggies in Japan, and once you understand that, it begins to click into place.

Shinto is a set of beliefs that puts a lot of emphasis on nature. Probably the thing that most people know about Shinto is that it believes that spirits, or kami, live in everything. That tree? He’s got a little spirit inside it. Yeah, just like those Miyazaki movies you like so much.

Ito has gotten a lot of attention in recent years in part because of his work on the Sendai Mediatheque, a library in Sendai. Located in the middle of the city that bore the brunt of the 3/11 earthquake, the Mediatheque came away from the disaster practically unscathed.

Toyo Ito’s Sendai Mediatheque

The Sendai Mediatheque is essentially a huge glass cube, which makes it look very, very fragile. If you looked at the Mediatheque and imagined one of the largest earthquakes in history hitting it, it wouldn’t be hard to imagine the building shattering into pieces.

But the Mediatheque held steady. The structure of the building allowed it to brave the storm; or as one architecture critic put it: “The Mediatheque has these tubular-like things that look like trees, or look like waving grasses in the wind . . . They allowed the building to move with the earthquake and survive.”

Like trees or grass. Ito’s often says that some of his biggest inspirations are in nature — usually air, wind, and water. He doesn’t explicitly talk about Shinto, but it’s not so far-fetched to make that connection.

A lot of other architects use nature much more explicitly in their work. Another Pritzker winner, Ryue Nishizawa, created a very unique house in Tokyo aptly named “Garden & House.”

While the elements of nature aren’t built directly into the structure of Garden & House, all of the flora lining the house make it leaps and bounds more attuned to nature than the concrete and brick buildings surrounding it.

Ryue Nishizawa’s Garden & Home

Again, it’s not that these buildings are explicitly Shinto shrines or anything, although many buildings — like the Tokyo Skytree — are blessed by Shinto clergy. But I think that this fusion of nature and architecture goes to show how deeply ingrained Shinto beliefs are into the Japanese aesthetic.

Zen and the Art of Japanese Architecture

Buddhism too has a role to play in shaping the Japanese aesthetic. A lot of Japanese Buddhist dogma, the kind of things that have made “Zen” a household word around the world, influences Japanese architecture.

Even if you’re not a Buddhist scholar, you’re still probably able to look at something and tell if it’s very “Zen.” You know the look—very spartan, simple, and even empty.

Those elements that are emphasized and valued in some forms Japanese Buddhism are written all over the Japanese aesthetic. They’re especially easy to spot in places like rock gardens and other traditional locales.

Most Japanese rock gardens are raked and arranged to look like water or waves or some sort of movement. But a lot of gardens have just a lot of blank, flat space. Even though the trees and patterns often stand out a lot more, that blankness, that stillness, is just as crucial.

Lots of Japanese architects incorporate these elements in their own work. You’ll see spaces with large, intentionally blank areas. It might look like the architect forgot or overlooked something, but it’s usually deliberate.

I’ve noticed that Pritzker winner Tadao Ando (who I covered a bit here) is a big fan of big, blank spaces. In Ando’s work, you’ll see concrete walls stretching wide lengths and spanning great heights.

Tadao Ando’s Chichu Art Museum

I’ve heard a lot of people complain about the immense amount of concrete used in works like this. I understand where those people are coming from; concrete is a boring, industrial material, and makes you think more of sidewalks than of a rock garden.

But I also understand Ando’s intent. The dull surfaces make the more interesting features stand out and shine, the monotony can actually serve as a feature, rather than a nuisance.

Rejecting the Japanese Aesthetic

Simplicity. Beauty. Naturalism. These are elements of the Japanese aesthetic that you will see define Japanese architecture.

But then there are people who throw all of those concepts out the window, the people who understand the Japanese aesthetic so well that they intentionally choose to work around the fundamental principles that other architects follow so closely.

Somebody who definitely never won the Pritzker was an architect by the name of Arakawa. He and his partner, Madeline Gins, worked as artists and architects for over forty years, creating structures and places that will never, ever be honored by traditional architecture organizations.

Reversible Destiny lofts

You might have already seen one of their projects on TofuguTV — Yoro Park, the Site of Reversible Destiny. When traditional architects create a public park, they consider things like comfort, safety, and beauty.

Yoro Park doesn’t.

Yoro Park is less of a public park and more of an excercise in creating the most outrageous, impractical space imaginable.

For Arakawa and Gins, Yoro Park was only one piece of their lifelong work. More recently, the duo condensed all of the features of Yoro Park into a single house.

Called the Bioscleave House, it cost millions to build, and is as much of a safety hazard as Yoro Park. Children are actually banned from entering the house, and adults must sign a waiver.

Everything in the Bioscleave House is mildly dangerous. The floors are bumpy and irregular, there are poles placed randomly throughout the house, and the whole house is painted in a variety of bright, disorienting colors.

Why all of the danger? A New York Times writer summarized Arakawa and Gin’s philosophy nicely:

All of it is meant to keep the occupants on guard. Comfort, the thinking goes, is a precursor to death; the house is meant to lead its users into a perpetually “tentative” relationship with their surroundings, and thereby keep them young.

Extending your lifespan using dangerous architecture doesn’t quite fit in with the Japanese aesthetic; I don’t know of any Shinto or Buddhist teachings that advocate an adversarial relationship with your surroundings.

But there’s space in Japanese architecture for both of these approaches. Unorthodox styles pushes the medium forward; the Japanese aesthetic anchors practices in tradition.

Both guarantee that Japanese architecture will remain a fascination for me for years to come.

Read More:

• 10 Principles of the Japanese Aesthetic (a list by Japanese architect Ryushi Kojima)
• Wikipedia: Japanese aesthetics

Header image by mario lopez

But beyond its famous natural phenomena, humans have created a beautiful world on Awaji Island. The architecture on this small island is more “world-class” than “small island.”

Awaji can thank architect Tadao Ando for all of the beautiful, interesting architecture on the island. Ando is one of Japan’s most “Japanese” architects, and has won countless awards for his work. But it seems interesting to me that he’s focused so much on Awaji.

Dream Stage (夢舞台)

The Dream Stage is sprawling, multi-use complex designed by Ando. While it’s mainly billed as a conference center, it’s a lot more exciting than that. Dream Stage has lots of different sections, each of which boasts its own architectural beauty.

Miracle Planet Museum of Plants (奇跡の星の植物館)

The Miracle Planet Museum of Plants (besides being a ridiculous name) is, essentially, a giant greenhouse with five different sections, each showcasing a different climate or style.

Hundred Step Garden (百段苑)

One of the most iconic parts of Dream Stage is the Hundred Step Garden, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. The garden is divided up into little square plots of land, which each have different flora growing in them.

Water Temple (本福寺)

Years before Ando designed the Dream Stage, he drew up plans for the so-called Water Temple. While most people think of that hellish level in Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time when they hear the words “water temple,” the Water Temple Ando built is a much less stressful place.

Built for the Shingon Buddhist sect, one of the oldest and most secretive sects of Buddhism in Japan, the Water Temple is an extremely clean, modern, and minimalist building on the outside, mostly comprising smooth concrete and water; but the bright red woodwork on the inside exudes traditionalism.

(Hat tip to Jasmine from Zooming Japan)

Even though it hasn’t opened yet, it’s already made headlines as the tallest tower and the second-tallest structure in the world. And just this past week, it captured the imagination of people around the world as it glowed in celebration of the Tokyo Hotaru (firefly) festival.

While Skytree’s massive height and glowing LEDs are cool and all, that’s not really what interests me. What’s really interesting to me is how the Tokyo Skytree is so super Japanese in so many ways.

There are a lot of aspects of Tokyo Skytree that are Japanese in ways you wouldn’t expect. Sure, Skytree is located in Japan’s capital, but lots of little things make Skytree the most Japanese building I have ever seen.

Height Based On Wordplay

For instance, Skytree is 634m. That might seem like just a random number but, like One World Trade Center’s height of 1776ft, Skytree’s height was no accident.

That particular height of 634m was chosen based on its wordplay value. Seriously! As we’ve written about before, the Japanese love their wordplay, especially when it comes to numbers.

634 can be read as “Musashi” which, not coincidentally, is also the name of the area where the Skytree is located. It boggles the mind that an important detail of such a significant project was changed just so it could be more pun-y.

Its Own Mascot

The Japanese wordplay is only the beginning of Tokyo Skytree’s Japanese-ness. What’s more Japanese than goroawase wordplay? How about mascots?

Everything in Japan – from cities to castles to police departments to companies – has its own mascot. Mascots just make marketing and branding that much easier. Plus, they’re super cute and easy to trot out for photo ops (like below).

Tower mascot, or Animal Crossing character?

So it’s no surprise that Tokyo Skytree its own mascot: Sorakara, or ソラカラ in Japanese (pictured above). Is it a girl with a star for a head? A Super Saiyan in a dress? I guess Sorakara makes about as much sense as my favorite Japanese mascot of all time, the controversial crab-girl Manbe-kun.

Tokyo Skytree’s Japanese-ness goes beyond the somewhat superficial aspects like wordplay and mascots. In fact, it cuts straight to some of Japan’s most core, traditional beliefs.

Shinto Blessing

After construction on the tower finished up a few months back, people celebrated with some completion ceremonies. There were the predictable speeches by civic figures, but there was also a distinctly Japanese element: a Shinto blessing.

A kannushi (神主), or Shinto priest, came in with his whole entourage of priestesses to bless and protect the tower.

Buildings are, of course, blessed all over the world by nearly every religion imaginable. That alone isn’t something unique to Japan. But only in Japanese culture will you see a Shinto blessing.

All of those aspects combined together make Skytree the most Japanese building I’ve ever seen.

Or maybe I’m reading too far into things. In any case, Tokyo Skytree opens on May 22 and will, regardless of how Japanese it is, be sure to draw visitors from all over the world.

[Header image source]

It’s mind-blowing to me how many cool and unusual buildings are in just one city. Take Osaka, for instance; it’s the third-largest city in Japan and it has some of the strangest, most unique buildings on Earth.

The more I look into architecture in Osaka, the more I kept finding more and more beautiful, unusual, and just plain cool buildings.

Gate Tower Building

Sometimes, difficult situations lead to weird compromises. There’s no better example of this than the Gate Tower Building.

In 1983, a local business decided to put up a small office tower on their land. Unfortunately, they ran into a problem; the land where they wanted to build on? There was already a highway (the Hanshin Expressway) planned to run through there.

The two forces clashed and, ultimately, neither really gave in. The Hanshin company had no other options if it wanted to build its highway, and the property owners were steadfast in their desires to build an office building. Both sides were persistent and stubborn, and negotiations dragged on.

But after five years, they reached a compromise. The highway would go through the building.

What happens when an unstoppable force meets immovable object? Apparently, an architectural and engineering oddity.

Construction of both the highway and the office building began in tandem. They set aside floors 5-7 of the building for the highway.

The tunnel going through the building has measures in place to muffle sound and vibrations, and doesn’t actually come in contact with the building itself. Apparently, the office workers inside of the building don’t notice a thing.

The whole thing has a very futuristic feel to it. It’s easy to think of a giant metropolis with roads running through buildings on every levels, crisscrossing through the skyline.

What makes the highway even cooler is that, if you notice at the end of the video, it cruises right by the Umeda Sky Building.

Umeda Sky Building

Even though the Umeda Sky Building doesn’t have nearly as dramatic a history, it’s still probably the most recognizable sight in Osaka’s skyline.

Finished in 1993, the Umeda Sky Building is a unique skyscraper that, in essence, is two skyscrapers loosely connected. Not only does the Umeda Sky Building look amazing, but it also provides one of the best views of Osaka around.

The journey to the top of the building is long, but worth it. There’s a narrow, enclosed escalator ride up to the top, where you’ll find the Floating Garden Observatory.

Once at the top (if you’re not puking from vertigo), you’ll find yourself with a full, 360° view of Osaka. Take a deep breath and take the in the sights.

But the Gate Tower and Umeda Sky Building are both relatively recent additions to the Osaka skyline. For the last century, there’s been one, consistent sight in the Osaka skyline: the Tsutenkaku building.

Tsutenkaku

Tsutenkaku (通天閣) or “Tower Reaching Heaven” maybe isn’t as impressive to outsiders as it is to Osaka natives, but everybody should be able to respect its longevity as a symbol in Osaka.

A strange, round fugu?! Impossible.

The Tsutenkaku has been standing in Osaka since the 50s, but it’s not the first iteration of the tower. Before that, there stood another Tsutenkaku that was a bit different.

The original Tsutenkaku was largely modeled after the Eiffel tower and, for a time, was the second tallest building in all of Asia. Unfortunately, it was irreparably damaged in a fire and had to be torn down.

Up until now, all the buildings that we’ve been talking about have all been tall, fairly conventional buildings. What about more unorthodox buildings?

Namba Parks

Okay, so Namba Parks isn’t really a single building as a collection of buildings, but it’s still one of the coolest sights in all of Osaka.

Namba Parks is actually a shopping center and office park, but you wouldn’t guess that from looking at it. Walkways curve through the complex, looking more like canyon walls than the side of a mall.

And at the top, there’s a luscious garden. In one of the biggest cities in Japan, the collection of trees, shrubs, ponds, and waterfalls is a rare but welcome one.

But Namba Parks isn’t the only leafy, green building in the city. Another architectural marvel in Osaka is literally covered in plants. Say hello to the Organic Building.

Organic Building

Recently, eco-friendly buildings have been en vogue; buildings with LEED ratings, solar panels, and natural materials has been the trend as of late. But Osaka’s Organic Building, finished in 1993, has been green for longer than Al Gore’s been driving an electric car.

For the most part, the Organic Building is pretty run-of-the-mill; as far as I can tell, it’s just an office building. But on the outside, it’s a nursery for plants indigenous to Osaka.

With its bright red plates and leafy vegetation, the Organic Building stands out among the drab, white buildings surrounding it.

There are, of course, many other unique buildings around Osaka, but these were my five favorites. Which was your favorite?

[Header image sources 1, 2, 3, 4, & 5]