Pissing into Azure

I obviously did not take this picture, although I could have, given how empty it was. Mandarin Oriental Hotel Tokyo’s Men’s Room on the 38th floor. I wonder if there is any other place with such a view while you are doing your thing ? I actually did not go to [...]

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Nylo Plano

I get to go to some non-destination type locations. One is Plano, Texas. About 40 minutes away from Dallas, I would say it’s best known for it being headquarter for Frito-Lay, EDS and JCPenney. For years, I stayed at motel-type chains. And wham ! Out of nowhere came this BYOL [...]

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Useless Blog

As my friend Anne would say, a flaccid blog is a useless one. And how droopy mine has become. It’s been such a while since I last posted. And it’s not as though nothing took place. Much has taken place. I was to be in China and much to my shock, [...]

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Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

An unplanned visit to the Huntington Library. The garden tour was curated by a landscape architect friend, which added thousand times the pleasure. As he was pointing out the names of plants and flowers, I remembered just the other day, I was commenting to another friend how English botanical names sound so medical, [...]

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No-Thing-Ness 無何有

Mu-Ka-Yu.
今子有大樹，患其無用，何不樹之於無何有之鄉，廣莫之野，彷徨乎無為其側，逍遙乎寢臥其下。不夭斤斧，物無害者，無所可用，安所困苦哉。

Mukayu — Nothingness. It was an incredible experience. More pictures here.

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More Line

But the line was not for food this time. Last night, I saw a poster for Yokoyama Taikan exhibition that was closing soon. Wanting to stay close to Roppongi this time, we decided to visit National Art Center, Tokyo Sunday. Lucked out that [...]

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Castle Hopping

By chance, I got to stay at a castle. Oheka Castle in Long Island. Looking for a place to stay for couple of days, amidst the chains of regular hotels and motels, this one stood out. Built by Otto Hermann Kahn (hence the name O-He-Ka), it boasts 256 acre (used to be [...]

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Calatrava’s Sundial Bridge

I always thought, how cool is it to be an architect known for designing bridges ? And what bridges Santiago Calatrava designs ! One is in Redding, California, a location I had to google to make sure where it is. It’s one of those places that you think you heard of, but don’t quite [...]

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Soleil-Espace-Verdure

Sun, space and green. I’d like to believe those were the true elements Le Corbusier had in mind for his Radiant City. But reading his manifesto, he almost sounds tyrannical in his view of modern city: old decrepit structures from the past must be banished to clear way for unlimited production [...]

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Ban

Shigeru, that is, the architect. He is so much more and interesting than Tadao Ando. I’m still trying to digest what I felt at his Nomadic Museum. Wonder what kind of Ban condo is going up in NYC ? And how weird that Westside Highway, once called Death Avenue, is becoming [...]

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