Here’s the alternative to Omotesando Hills I said I would write about in an earlier post. Forget the crowds at OH and take the train to Hibiya and visit the Sanshin Building 三信ビル. It was built in 1929 and the only building left standing in Hibiya after WW2. Whenever I’m in the area I always take a detour just to walk through the main hall. It’s never crowded as you can see and there’s nothing to do here. But after all those glass Mori monstrosities the Sanshin Building feels warm and familiar. I like buildings with a history. Unfortunately, they announced early last year that it will be torn down. There’s a website (三信ビル保存プロジェクト) devoted to preserving the building in some kind of form like moving it to another location or keeping the outer walls and erecting a glass skyscraper from the centre (like they did with the Marubiru). The website has a great photo gallery and banners you can put on your site.

This is like a Japanese version of an American diner with a funky meaningless name “New World Service Snack Bar Coffee & Grill”. The first time I visited the building was almost 15 years ago. I was attending a design senmon gakko at the time and one of my teachers there was fired because of his raging fits of madness. But I got on really well with him so we met up to have lunch here. He was a movie freak and could remember the names of every actor, director, cinematographer of any film ever made. It was an incredible talent that bordered on autism. He loved this building passionately and spoke at length about the history of it. My Japanese wasn’t that great then so I don’t recall all the details but I do remember having a good time and that was the last I ever saw of him.

The building looks western in most respects but there are little wafu touches like the hiragana for push and pull. Visit Sanshin before it disappears forever.

UPDATE: Some things I was thinking about. The name of the coffee & grill, “New World Service”. “New” and “World” were once catchy words used everywhere to express “modern” and “international”. There are many OLD buildings in Tokyo that are named “New XXXX Building”. Soon we will all think the same about things that use “e” or “NET” in their names. And maybe one day there will be a preserve Omotesando Hills Website. Will I still be alive to see that?