I head back to Ikebukuro at around 1PM to meet up with the group so that we can all head over for our reception at the Canadian Embassy.
The Embassy is hosting a little meet and greet for the Canadian artists in attendance and some people from the local Canadian cultural community.
I'm expecting the embassy to be a relatively functional office building but it turns out to be much nicer than that.
Located facing a large park with a clear line of sight to the kitschy Tokyo Tower, the Canadian Embassy is a well designed (Japanese architect no doubt) stone building with numerous interesting Canadian touches. A rock garden on an upper level outdoor terrace features symbolic representations of the many different regions of Canada. The inside of the building is just as impressive with large atria and cathedral like spaces done with what looks like granite. It's probably the coolest building belonging to the Canadian government except perhaps the National Gallery in Ottawa which this building definitely reminds me of.
There are many reception spaces including a large theatre which has been made to resemble a traditional Japanese Noh theater with lights on the ceiling to give the out of doors effect.
Our reception takes place in the Library which is a warm and well lit space containing an extensive collection of Canadian books and periodicals. Displays of the works of our guest artists are laid out on several tables and the artists mill about talking with some of the guests as well as Embassy Staff.
It's not a large crowd but that suits our group nicely. The cultural attaché gives a short speech and then Chris Butcher, TCAF Festival Director and leader of this trip speaks about the group of artists and the goals of our trip to Japan.
Seeing as I'm tagging along for the ride I decide to appoint myself as the photographer for the group and snap some candid party shots with my new camera.
At the end of the reception (which included some maple cookies from Canada and coffee) the artists announced that they would be donating their books on display to the library thereby populating the graphic novel section for the first time.
Following the reception the embassy staff invited us to their lounge for their weekly Friday afternoon happy hour. The lounge was a glass walled room with a stunning view of the Tokyo skyline just now beginning to light up for the evening. The bar served Canadian beer (although I stuck to Japanese). An automatic vending machine dispensed snack foods that were reheated from frozen. I'm told that the Takoyaki (Octopus Balls) were awful. Still a great time was had by all.
At one point our hosts indicated to us that an earthquake had just taken place but it was a small one that most of us hadn't even noticed.
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