The long night...or was it day? a comfy 747 ride out, my own tv, two meals and three movies later...but no sleep left me at Narita Airport with a visa debit card that woulnt work! Always take money will be my future maxim, after an hour going through the excess of plastic I found a credit card that works, a trip to the bank on Monday methinks. The overiding memory however, will be Mount Fuji coming into view from the porthole window on a clear early morning over Japan, it really is stunning, something from a fantasy film, Lord of the Rings or should that be rather a Manga comic.

Finding the hotel was a breeze, in the midst of the quieter temples area, Askusa, then off to Electic Town, shopping, hard work, like tottenham court road on Speed, the fruit of which, my new camera takes very good photos if I can work out the Jananese settings!

On Saturday I awoke to a Japanese breakfast, 8 dishes which you would happily eat for dinner, so it may take a while to get used to it, but filling, part from a donut i nothing else all day!

Camera at the ready I set off for the architectural tour, Ando`s 21/21 a small art gallery in Midtown was quite lovely, but the setting next to the Midtown shopping mall and complex was a little too International, the area could be any commercial centre in the world, not helped that the centre piece is by SOM. the quality of finishes in the mall are amazing and so where the finishes displayed by the occupants, a well heeled location on a grand scale.

The next stop, around a non descript corner was the achitectural highlight so far, Kisho Kurokawa`s NACT (gallery) blew me away, the facade merely interesting, cruved glass mullions with horizontal glass sunshading, but internally, inverted concrete cones standing in a huge galleried space, really breathtaking, this is architecture that moves you, felt deep down in the pit of the stomach, a place to return and dwell time and again.

In contast to the crowds encountered elsewhere, the Aoyama Cementery is a place of refuge, tall rectilinear blocks mimicking the high rise set within an organic environment but in an ordered pattern, so heading into the extereme of upmarket retail that followed was an interesting contrast. The Prada shop by Herzog and de Meuron is as good as the guide books suggest, head and sholders above the banal facadisim of the diverse range of retail outlets, it provides series of interesting interlocking spaces and a circulation pattern that makes for a stimulating shopping experience. Though watching the excessive bowing from grateful shop assistants to the high flying customers was a distraction. They would follow the car out to the main road from the driveway and with their heads bowed (very low) wait for the customer to disapear from sight.

Onwards to Ando`s Omotesandoo Hills, a retail mall set out like the Guggenheim; one long ramp up 6 floors in a triangular plan arrangement , im sure I`ve been told by the retail gurus that it couldn`t be done! On to Shibuya and a road crossing reminicent of Times Square, or maybe more Blade Runner, I exited quickly down the side streets for Aoyama Technical College, the rather wild random explosion of engine parts building meant to be, according to the architect, a `fighting robot`? The timing was good though as there was an end of year architectural show on, all very interesting stuff from friendly students.

After getting lost for an hour I finally made it to the Mori Tower for dusk, a combined observation deck and gallery (a few Lichenstein/Warhole thats all) great sunset though. from 53 floors up.

Following high stuff, time for some basement activity, a foray into Japanese live music, and apart from the traditional stuff, Japan is really famous for its interpretation of the west, so maybe it was curiosity, or perhaps a nostalgic need that led me to the Caven Club and four guys from Tokyo wishing they were back in the USSR. I have to say these bootleg beatles were incredibly authentic, with one guy the spitting image of John Lennon. It did throw you a bit between songs though when they spoke in Japanese in between sets!