Gorgeous Fukui Prefectural Library

Ultra modern architecture in a rice field

Takako Sakamoto Oct 18, 2014 - 2 min read

<p>Towering brick-colored building under the blue sky</p>

<p>Modern building suddenly materializes in a green rice field</p>

<p>Look around and you'll find an endless stretch of rice fields</p>

<p>Fukui prefectural library under the blue sky</p>

<p>On the left is van accessible parking only for the physically disabled</p>

<p>Entrance of Fukui Prefectural Library...it looks like a museum or a concert hall!</p>

<p>'Friendly-Bus Stop'; free shuttle bus is available between JR Fukui Station and the library</p>

<p>Silence permeates the inside of the library</p>

<p>Some visitors are relaxing in a chair looking out at the beautiful pond</p>

<p>Free shuttle bus departs JR Fukui Station every hour from 9 A.M. to 6 P.M., and takes 27 minutes to the library</p>

<p>There is a vast parking space for 400 cars, which is of course free!</p>

When I was driving back home, I saw a gigantic, modern building in the middle of a rice field. Of course I stopped my car and investigated. It turned out that this ultra modern building was the Fukui Prefectural Library. But it looked more like a gorgeous museum in the mountains or a stylish urbane concert hall. Wow! I should've come much earlier! Since it's a prefectural library, everything is free! (parking, entrance, etc.) Furthermore, I later learned that this building was designed by the internationally renowned architect, Mr. Fumihiko Maki, who designed Tower Four of the new World Trade Center in N.Y. and the MIT Media Lab. And now a building he designed is standing in the middle of rice fields in Fukui! Fukui's citizens are so LUCKY!

Fukui Prefectural Library Series 1. Gorgeous Fukui Prefectural Library 2. Beautiful Garden of Fukui's Library

Takako Sakamoto @takako.sakamoto

I was born in and grew up in Tokushima prefecture, and have lived in many places since then: Nishinomiya, Kyoto, Nara, Mie, Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama, Chiba, Fukuoka and Fukui. I am currently living in Yokohama City. All the places I lived, all the places I visited, I have loved dearly. The histor...