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I’m at the Glass Building in the Tokyo International Forum right now. I can’t describe how much I love this place. I’ve traveled a bit, and so far this is the building I like the most.

From the outside this building looks like a gigantic ship hull made of glass, steel, concrete and wires. From the inside it feels as if you’ve been swallowed by a huge skeletal whale, or perhaps an alien spaceship. It stands seven floors above the ground, with a huge glass façade on one side, and conference rooms on the other. It also has two more floors underground, the first one connecting to the train and subway lines, and the second one housing a conventions center.

I’m standing now in the top floor. There’s a very nice Chinese restaurant here. It’s probably very expensive too. From here I can hear the sound the steel wires make as they handle the tensions of the building frame moving this way and that with the wind. There’s almost no other sound, other than the trains running outside towards Tokyo station and the strokes of a bell coming from the Yurakucho station.

This place both inspires and relaxes me. I could stay here the whole day just thinking.

If only there was a damn place to sit.