Tokyo to Nara: imagination land

For many people, this is one of the beacons of artistic creativity in Tokyo. Installed in a bunker designed by Ando Tadao, 21_21 Design Sight is the meeting point for the capital's artists. More like a studio than a museum, this is an incubator of ideas where one visits as much to discuss as to view. In this space, you can learn about new trends in design, architecture, and art in all its present forms.

SCAI the Bathhouse is a small contemporary art gallery that has been housed in a 200-year-old building, once the public baths, since 1993. Today, the avant-garde of the artistic community meet here among works by Anish Kapoor, Tadanori Yokoo, and Lee Ufan. SCAI is also a venue where you can discover the future stars of Japanese art, such as Tatsuo Miyajima and Toshikatsu Endo.

This garden-museum, which opened in 1969, spans more than 17 acres and is home to some 120 works by world-renowned artists. Visitors can amble through lush greenery, passing monumental sculptures by Rodin and Miro, Picasso and Calder, Niki de Saint-Phalle and Yasuo Mizui. Even though the atmosphere changes with the seasons and blossoms, many visitors feel time come to a standstill amidst these sculptures.

Founded in 1823 in downtown Kyoto, the old workshop of Miyawaki Baisenan developed unique know-how and techniques in the art of fan-making. In 1987, the New York Times wrote a piece about it, declaring, “The store bespeaks a tradition that goes back over a thousand years, to the first flowering of classical Japanese culture.” Time and the winds may continue to push us forward, but the fans made within these walls are as wondrous as ever.

This impressive cathedral of glass and steel conceals one of the country's most astonishing museums. The contemporary building designed by César Pelli looks like it is poised to take flight from the center of the island of Nakanoshima. Inside, hidden underground and sheltered from the daylight, visitors stroll past traditional Japanese paintings, engravings, and works by the great masters (Monet, Cézanne, Picasso, and more).

Osaka is the birthplace of bunraku, the 17th-century theater form in which characters are represented by oversized puppets controlled in full view of the audience. A one-of-a-kind experience, with some performances lasting an entire day! All of the parts are recited by a single narrator.