Date & Time: Tuesday, July 18, 9:30 a.m. – 7:45 p.m.
Spots: Kencho-ji Temple, Kotoku-in Temple (Great Buddah), Hasedera temple,
Tower of Winds, Three Towers of Yokohama, Osanbashi Yokohama International Passenger Terminal, Motomachi-Chukagai Station, Chinatown
Visitor: a Mexican Woman
Guide: 1 KSGG member
Languages: English and Spanish
The visitor is a friend of the Mexican whom I guided last year. As soon as I met her, she began to talk about Toyo Ito with enthusiasm, showing a leaflet published by JNTO, Japan National Tourism Organization. “Toyo Ito is like a Nobel laureate in architecture and built a museum in Mexico. I want to look at the Tower of Winds at Yokohama Station and the building of Motomachi-Chukagai Station because they are his works. And I want to visit Kamakura too,” she said. In the past she worked for governmental organization in the area of preservation of historical buildings. In Kamakura, we visited a couple of temples. At Hasedera temple she turned around Rinzo, a revolving bookshelf to store Buddhist mantras accordingly with a ritual of the temple. We stopped by the Kannon Museum at the temple for a while to shelter from a shower. We then headed to Yokohama and looked at the Tour of Winds, a ventilation tower. Both of us were puzzled to see its unimpressive appearance and went around the tower, questioning repeatedly to ourselves, ”Is this really the famous one?” It is said that project mapping makes the tour beautiful at night. We refreshed ourselves and toured around the Three Towers of Yokohama, the Osanbashi Yokohama International Passenger Terminal, and tconcourse of Motomachi-Chukagai Station. She seemed very satisfied and to imagine the intention of the architecture and design of those buildings.