This Saturday, I had a relatively open calendar so I decided to venture across the city by train to see the St. Mary's Catholic Cathedral.
Excerpt from the wiki entry:
St. Mary's Cathedral (東京カテドラル聖マリア大聖堂 Tōkyō Katedoraru Sei Maria Daiseidō) is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Tokyo. It is located in the Sekiguchi neighborhood of Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan.
The original structure of 1899 was a wooden building in the Gothic style. It was burned during World War II. The present church, designed by Tange Kenzo, dates from 1964. Kenzo Tange won the competition for the reconstruction of this church in 1961. It was built with assistance from Wilhelm Schlombs, architect to the Archdiocese of Cologne, the engineer Yoshikatsu Tsuboi, who worked with Tange on many of his projects and the Zurich architect Max Lechner.
The plan of the building is in the form of a cross, from which eight hyperbolic parabolas rise up. These open upwards to form a cross of light which continues vertically the length of the four facades. To this rhomboid volume other secondary constructions are added, including the baptistry and the baptismal font. Their rectangular volumes contrast with the symbolic character of the cathedral. The bell tower is 60 m in height and stands at a little distance from the main building of the cathedral. The exterior surfaces are clad in stainless steel, which gives them a special radiance in keeping with the religious character of the building.
I inadvertently snuck in the back door based on my entry point and viewed the underground chapel first and then came upstairs through an interior side staircase right into a private wedding ceremony. So I stayed quiet and watched while I was able to see the ultra modern Cathedral. The first cathedral was burned during WWII, but this one is built for the ages. Not ornate gothic style but still very peaceful and appropriate for a massive modern city like Tokyo.
Across the street from the Cathedral sits the Four Seasons Tokyo, which looks to have been built in the 80s exactly when the two Four Seasons hotels I worked at during HS and College were built, Downtown Houston and Austin. I worked part time for 5 years at this hotel chain, and I really do believe it helped ingrain a certain level of customer service skills and experience for me that I use to this very day. One of the perks of being an employee is that you can stay a number of nights free, based on availability, in other Four Seasons Hotels. I've stayed at the Pierre in New York City and the Biltmore in Santa Barbara to name a couple. It was still cool to see one so far from the ones I worked in, even though I stopped being an employee there in 1993. This particular property was setup to be a wedding reception mecca. Onsite wedding salons, many many banquet rooms, many outdoor reception areas and of course a ton of amazing picture locales. Look through the pictures to see what I mean. There's actually an ancient, famous pagoda on the adjacent land that the paths and service ways lead to.
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