15 June 2009

I slept in until noon as usual, and it felt especially good after staying up a bit later than I had originally planned since I got carried away with updating my blog and photos. For brunch, Miyo made ramen with lots of greens on top. It was a huge bowl, so I was very full by the time I finished it. After brunch, Toshio wanted to take me to Matsumoto City to visit the Yamabiko Dome. I had never heard of the structure, so I was curious to see what he was excited about. Matsumoto City was one city over from where Naoko, Toshio and Miyo’s daughter, lived. It took about 50 minutes to get to Matsumoto City, and once we were there, the dome was very easy to spot. It was homogenous in design all the way around, except for a wooden awning at the entrance. What made the dome architecturally interesting was the radial pleating constructed of wood. It had rained off and on during the drive over to Matsumoto, but once we got there, the clouds parted, and the sun shone through to illuminate the building. It was beautiful. Toshio wasn’t sure if I’d be able to see the beautiful interior since most places are closed on Mondays. He walked into the dome anyways, and the lady at the front window said it was alright. We were lucky once again! The inside of the dome was even more amazing than the outside. The interior was almost entirely made of wood, and the radial pleating was clearly accentuated. No events were going on either, so all of our photos were very clean. The versatility of the space was very intriguing as well since it could be used as multiple tennis courts, two playing fields, or one baseball diamond. What a concept! We finished taking pictures, and right after jumping back into the Prius, it began to rain again. Perfect timing!
Toshio didn’t have any other major buildings to show me, so we drove back to Suwa. Along the way, we stopped at a grocery store so I could buy my favorite candy to take back to the U.S. We also stopped at the train station to purchase our reserved train tickets back to Tokyo for this upcoming Wednesday, June 17th. I can’t believe I am already going to leave Nagano! Lastly, we stopped at a small camera store so I could print out some of my photos of me and the relatives to give to them before I leave. Masaru had printed a couple of his photos to give to me, so I returned the favor to him, Miyo, Toshio, and Mitsunori. I usually take most of the group photos with my camera anyways since I have a tripod. It has really come in handy during my stay in Nagano. I got the photos printed, and we returned home just in time for dinner.
For dinner, Miyo prepared some veggie roll things, scallops, lotus roots, tsukemono, rice, grilled vegetables, and fresh fruit. It was another filling meal. Mitsunori came home late as usual, and he surprised me with an architecture magazine he had picked up from the store on his way home. He is really thoughtful! The rest of the night we all looked through the magazine, and I had surprisingly visited a couple different places showcased in the articles. I shared a couple more of my architecture books with them and also showed them more of my photos. It was a fun night overall. I can’t believe tomorrow will be my last full day here in Suwa. I am going to be sad to leave. Tomorrow we will walk to a museum that is close to their house, since we saw it in the architectural magazine, and it is supposedly done by Toyo Ito. Other than that, I have no idea what we will be doing.