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https://mossandfog.com/in-this-japanese-town-commuting-happens-inside-a-giant-strawberry/>
"Round a quiet coastal bend on Japan’s Route 207 and you won’t find a sterile
glass shelter waiting for you. Instead, you’ll meet a six-foot-tall strawberry.
Down the road sits a giant watermelon, a webbed honeydew, a plump tomato, and a
bright mandarin orange.
Welcome to Konagai’s Tokimeki Fruit-Shaped Bus Stop Avenue, a collection of 16
oversized, functional fruit shelters dotting Nagasaki Prefecture.
In Japanese, tokimeki means the heart-fluttering thrill of a pleasant surprise,
which is precisely what happens when your daily commute involves waiting inside
a piece of produce.
Built for the 1990 Journey Exposition and inspired by Cinderella’s pumpkin
carriage, these shelters are serious works of public art.
Hand-sculpted from mortar over metal lath frames, the craftsmanship is
delightfully detailed—right down to 180 individually molded seeds on the
strawberries and hand-carved webbing on the melons.
Best of all, the fruits reflect the local crops grown by the town’s farmers.
More than 35 years later, these playful structures remain a masterclass in how
everyday civic infrastructure can transform a mundane wait into a moment of
pure wonder."
Via Joyce Donahue.
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
