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Places for domestic travelers

Hara: I think it’s been four years now since we started presenting the Kengo Kuma Award and Kenya Hara Award for outstanding research presentations by groups at Shibecha High School, right?

Suzuki: Yes. Shibecha High School is one of the town’s most valuable resources, isn’t it? It covers 255 hectares, and currently has 174 students studying the region’s industry and culture. I have high hopes that Pon Ponyu will become known as the place to go to buy and sample dairy and meat products made at the high school. Pon Ponyu will hopefully catalyze change throughout the town’s facilities. In terms of resources, Shibecha has always had great potential, and I think all it needs is a little push to get things going in an interesting direction.

Hara: At the moment, there are very few places where you can eat lunch. There’s a pasta joint that’s really excellent, but whenever I’ve gone there, it’s always been packed. There’s also Tancho, the ramen shop. If visitors increase with the opening of Pon Ponyu, such places will be even more crowded.

Suzuki: There aren’t that many attractive hotels and restaurants around Kushiro, Shibecha, and Kushiro Shitsugen at the moment, and I think the area would gain a lot and become more enjoyable if some places opened that make good use of local produce such as butter and fresh cream. Such places could well draw people to previously undiscovered spots.

Kuma: I’m sure a lot of things will start taking off.

Hara: Kuma-san, have you done a lot of projects in Hokkaido? There’s nothing wrong with luxury hotels, but it would be great to see more affordable places in Hokkaido to make it easier to attract more visitors. Take Lake Furen in Nemuro. You can feast on Hanasaki crabs, and JR’s Nemuro Main Line is a lovely quiet ride. Watching the countryside go by as you tuck into some good food accompanied by a tipple or two is the real pleasure of local line travel. Hokkaido’s countryside is truly beautiful, and those old-fashioned seats facing each other are fine as long as you have a sturdy table too.

Kuma: I agree. I’ve also become totally hooked on such travel lately.

Hara: That’s why I think you need to build more affordable accommodation like that place near the tip of the Nemuro Peninsula, places that make travel easier for ordinary people who live in Japan. If you lay the ground for domestic travelers, then foreign travelers will follow. We have to build a lot more places everyone can afford to stay at, and make it taboo to cater just to the well-heeled.

Kuma: Yes, especially in Hokkaido with all of its fabulous nature, there should be more than enough demand for budget accommodation.

Hara: From the legal standpoint, it’s no longer possible to build new facilities within national parks, so renovating existing facilities like Pon Ponyu might be the answer.

Kuma: Since there are no restrictions on renovation, finding new uses for existing structures is certainly an option. I think Pon Ponyu is a great example of how much can be done with existing buildings if designers get seriously involved.

Hara: I think that Japan as a whole would change a little in the right direction with the building of more facilities like Pon Ponyu that have their own character and differ from luxury hotels in their business model.

Rethinking how people interact with the region

Suzuki: Tourist destinations like Akan and Wakoto have been struggling in recent years owing to the aging of their facilities. It’s hard to find places that match the nature of Hokkaido. They’re all facing the same issues and wondering what to do about it, so I wouldn’t be surprised if other projects appear that call for the kind of magic that you two have worked on Pon Ponyu. I’ve heard from people in Shibecha who want to get involved in Pon Ponyu in some way. I’m looking forward to following Pon Ponyu’s evolution.

Hara: I certainly hope that you will, as Honeybee Suzuki, continue to take us to look at interesting local “blooms.” Personally, I would like to see Kuma-san get more involved in railways. That might suggest I’m interested in carriage design, but actually, I don’t really think trains need to be that cool. I’d prefer rail companies to focus rather on equipping platforms with lunch box stalls, that kind of thing. They don’t have to be fancy. A shack would do just as long as there’s somewhere selling tasty stuff. I would even go so far as to say that any railway that ignores such aspects has no future. Anyway, I’d love to hear some railway-related suggestions from you, Kuma-san, as an architect.

Suzuki: I think Hokkaido’s railways would change if station buildings were a little more picturesque. Kushiro Shitsugen Norokko Train and SL Fuyu-no-Shitsugen Train run through Shibecha, so if there were a store of some kind at the little unmanned station, I think it would attract people. The scenery is great, and the Senmo Line between Kushiro and Abashiri also has a lot going for it.

Kuma: When people talk to me about railways, they tend to think I’m going to come up with some incredibly expensive rolling stock redesign, but they’re mistaken. I too think that railways could do wonders for their image simply by selling delicious boxed lunches in a way that makes them look delicious, but it’s not easy to get that across.

Hara:A long time ago, you designed what looked like a kind of clothes horse for selling boxed lunches for the Sagara 33 Kannon Pilgrimage in the Hitoyoshi Kuma district of Kumamoto Prefecture, didn’t you? I think it’s great that the same Kengo Kuma who designs high-tech buildings also designs clothes horses. Things like that, profound in their simplicity, are surprisingly effective at attracting people. I’d love to see Pon Ponyu trigger the creation of many other places in Hokkaido with the same kind of ethos. I myself found the sheer beauty of the marshland almost unnerving. After all, it’s rare to be given a job that involves such amazing nature.

Kuma: The nature did indeed pose a formidable challenge for designers like us.

Suzuki: The drone footage of Kushiro Shitsugen is also great. It’s eerily beautiful, and gave me a completely fresh impression of the place.

Hara: That’s the kind of footage for which drones excel. Just by flying over the marsh filming straight down, you can create a perspective that’s never been seen before.

Suzuki: It would be wonderful if people could gain a new appreciation of the nature of Hokkaido through Pon Ponyu.

Hara: We’re planning to get the students of Shibecha High School to help do a human alphabet thing and model a circle to use for writing the Pon Ponyu name, filming them from directly above. Using computer graphics would be much easier, but the resulting circle would be just too contrived to insert into such nature. It needs to be man-made to do the nature justice. That’s kind of thing I want to focus my efforts on.

Suzuki: I’m looking forward to seeing you both again next year at Shibecha High School for the Kenya Hara and Kengo Kuma awards. I’m sure the same goes for the students.

Hara: Yes, let’s do it again next year. If we get a chance, Kuma-san, let’s go fishing in the marshland again.

Kuma: I’ll never forget that time, it was liking fishing with a microscope.

Hara: I would have liked to have gotten a lot more bites. Last time around, the smelt were so tiny that you could barely tell what you were fishing.

Kuma: Right.