Benjamin thought we might take the act of writing ‘theory’ into the streets, but what happens when you find it already there, staring right at you… making you desire it?

I got into Sendai in the late evening. Concrete overwhelmed by senses as I hurried to my hotel. Come the morning, however, I have been able to get a better handle on the place. It seems the city can be traversed relatively easily on foot, which is nice. My mission this morning was to locate the Sendai Mediatheque, where my conference will be tomorrow and the day after. 

The building appears to have its main structural elements on the inside, a sort of inside out kind of building, combining fluid curves seen through linear glass cladding. I couldn’t make it up to the higher floors, where there are galleries apparently (and where I will be attending the conference, I hope!). I did make it to the library however, which looked great (it even had a children’s library too).

There is definitely a high-tech element to the city, but it jostles with a much older feel too – there is a collision between quasi-socialist architecture as you find in Dresden and East Berlin and out and out high-fashion, consumerist styles. Japan does have that habit of accumulating all sorts… it piles up and up.

Sendai train station really makes me think of structures in eastern Germany. 

  
And here again, the sort of cladding you find with buildings in Dresden, yet nestled to the left the Louis Vuitton store – one of many high-end fashion stores in this area.

I say no more!