Roppongi Hills

Roppongi is an area of Tokyo that's the home of many embasssies, foreign companies, foreign restaurants, The Hard Rock Cafe... I think you get picture. It also carries the reputation of being one of the sleaziest areas and in response to that there's been a recent surge in large property developments, the first being Roppongi Hills which opened in 2003. A few weeks ago I had to be in the area so decided to take a look.

The quite good looking Mori Tower is the center piece, which is surrounded by restaurants, an art museum, cinema, the offices of TV Asahi, and countless luxury shops predominantly owned by the big Italian fashion brands. For architecture-tourists I'd say the area is worth a look. (Left: a panorama photo put together quickly without proper stitching software).

While I was there, there was some sort of outdoor promotional exhibition by BMW. Aside from a few of their latest 4x4s, racing cars and motorcycles being on display, there were a few interactive exhibits to make it all a bit more fun. Visitors could have a go at playing a F1 game (I think the game was Grand Prix 3) from inside an "F1 car"; it wasn't particularly impressive but enough to warrant a queue of about a dozen people. Elsewhere there was a yacht racing simulator with a yacht-sized steering wheel. The graphics for the water, sunlight and surroundings looked pretty good for its purpose but the model and texture of the boat itself were downright shoddy.


Not far from Roppongi Hills the National Art Center Tokyo is nearing completion and is due to open January 21st, 2007. The building looks impressive enough from the outside, so I'm quite keen to have a look inside.