My wife and I never could decide if that "turnip" was a sperm or a turd. BTW I have a good episode of "soko ga shiritai" about old-timey Asakusa somewhere if you are interested. Actually I have alot of eps of that show...

you are so severe about this building ... it looks quite nice for me, like a cemetery candle with a flame or smth ... although i must say i don't like 'spectacualar' modern builings in Japan /like new prada shop / there's not enough space in Japanese towns for such sculpture-like stuff.

This particular building is by Philippe Starck, of course, and is the very essence of 80s pomo. It was one of the first places I visited in Tokyo in 1992, when the Asahi Beer Hall boasted a very slick designer restaurant. I've always thought that the combination of lax planning laws and novelty-hunger in Japan has been a godsend to Western designers and architects who couldn't build in their home nations. The latest example would be Vito Acconci's shop for United Bamboo in Daikanyama, perhaps. Why isn't it in New York? Because nobody there dares... or cares, perhaps.

or perhaps because they know better?

The latest example would be Vito Acconci's shop for United Bamboo in Daikanyama, perhaps. Why isn't it in New York? Because nobody there dares... or cares, perhaps.

I can't imagine building that store in NYC just because of physical restraints. How many freestanding 1-level buildings do you know of in Soho?

That UB store is nice (but bright inside). That beer-shaped building is unbelievably ugly - objectively speaking.

I believe it's known locally as 'the turd building'. I remember be driven past it by a Japanese friend who told me as much. "Whatever way you look at it," he said, "THAT IS A TURD."