Page 114 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Japan

INSIDER TIP
Market Days
The best time to visit
the Tokyo International
Forum is on the first or
third Sunday of the
month when the Oedo
Antique Market – the
EXPERIENCE Central Tokyo 6 "
largest in Japan – takes
over the forecourt with
overflowing stalls.

Kabuki-za Theater
歌舞伎座
 H8 ⌂ 4-12-15 Ginza
 Higashi-Ginza Stn, Toei
Asakusa & Hibiya lines
∑ kabukiweb.net/
theatres/kabukiza/
information/index.html
Tokyo’s principal theater for
The enormous, sleek Kabuki opened in 1889 during
interior of the Tokyo the reign of Emperor Meiji as
International Forum part of Kabuki’s shift from
daytime entertainment for
the masses in Asakusa to
A tree-shaded courtyard a more high-brow art form.
5 \-= separates the two, while Despite facing destruction
Tokyo International glass walkways provide an multiple times, the building is
Forum overhead link. one of the oldest surviving
東京国際フォーラム The interior of the huge examples of a Japanese-style
atrium is filled with light and structure built using Western
 H7  Yurakucho Stn, has a ceiling resembling a materials and techniques. It
Yurakucho line; Tokyo
& Ginza Stns, Maru nouchi ship’s hull. There are shops, was almost destroyed by the
line £ Tokyo and cafés, and restaurants, as Allied bombing of 1945, and
well as conference rooms,
was rebuilt in 1951, only to
Yurakucho Stns, many all supported by state-of-the- be demolished again in 2010.
lines # 7am–11:30pm daily
∑ t-i-forum.co.jp/en art facilities including high- The theater reopened in 2013
speed internet access and enchanting performances
Designed by the American- available in the lobby. take place here most days.
based architect Rafael Viñoly,
and completed in 1996, the
International Forum is one
of down town Tokyo’s most
distinctive and enjoyable
buildings. A bustling cultural
center, it is made up of two
buildings: a curved, glass
atrium soaring 200 ft (60 m),
and a white, cube-like
structure housing four halls
(the largest seating 5,012).

The entrance to the
much-reconstructed
Kabuki-za Theater
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