Following in the theme of previous iDump story, here’s a great photo of Tokyo’s famous the kin no unchi Japanese for “Gold Turd.” Created by the French designer. Philippe Starck, the building is an Asahi beer hall. The locals also call it the ‘unchi biru’ (poop building). Actually, it’s not poop but golden beer foam (or gold flame) that is rising up from the black beer hall which represents a beer mug. The flame/foam/turd is made of submarine-quality welding of hi-test stainless steel and weighs around 300 tons.
Japan Times: So, what the heck is that….Super Dry Hall is the gold objet of art…
UPDATE: Check out the flickr photo of the “turd cheesecake” modeled after this Asahi Beer Building, hee, hee. →
well i once lived in Japan and i took at boat ride thru tokyo and i have seen this before just thought i would let everyone no by the way i also have a pic of it and it is alot better lookin than this one so if u wnat it let me know
Sure, Adam, send that photo of the Golden Poop Building along to us!
The photo above is actually a composite my own terrible blurry photo and one from the Asakusa chamber of commerce, so the quality is funky. Please send your photo and I’ll replace the one above giving you picture credit, of course.
UPDATE: Check out the flickr photo of the “turd cheesecake” modeled after this Asahi Beer Building, hee, hee.
I went there for a meal a couple of weeks ago, both the beer and the food were rather good and not absurdly priced. The best thing about the insides were, weirdly, the toilets. They’re one of those post-modern toilets where you’re not really sure if you’re peeing in the right place and I couldn’t find anywhere to wash my hands!
As you know, in grim Japanese schools and factories, urinals are often just a concrete trough with a shower head looking faucet at one end. The first one I saw was brand new and I thought it was the sink. D’oh.
Of course, urinals aren’t really necessary in Japan where men just pee on the street when they feel the need.
thanks for putting my cheesecake photo up. here’s some more tokyo photos .
I was in Asakusa this weekend for the Sanja matsuri with some friends. When we got off the subway, we saw this building and didn’t know what it was, so we told some of the beginning students that we were with that it was “golden unchi”. I can’t believe we were actually telling them the truth.
You’re lucky to have survived the Yakuza fights at the Sanja matsuri!
Never underestimate the ability of the earthy Japanese to be dorokusai —泥臭い, どろくさい, (adj) smelling of mud or earth / unrefined / uncouth.
Here’s some golden dancing west of the Golden Turd of Tokyo…
Avant-garde dancing group ‘Dairakudakan’ dancing in Tokyo on April 27, 2014