On my first trip to Japan, the thing that impressed me most was the architecture. These weren’t just buildings with a nice touch; some of them were crazily unusual, stuff to stop and stare at and take photos of for friends back home. I met a young European architect in Asia that year who said he had left the west because there just wasn’t anything interesting going on. I could see his point. Boring and conservative seemed to be the norm while Asia seemed hell bent on dropping your jaw. Even in Nagoya, a city that most travelers are going to skip, but which I visit on business each year, has its share of cool skyscrapers. I saw the 36-story Mode Gakuen Spiral Towers going up and a couple years later the final product.
 

It is home to three vocational schools. Really" That’s the coolest campus you’re going to find.  

 
But it wasn’t until this year that, while visiting a new office location, I saw Oasis 21. But it’s been around since 2002. Oasis 21 is a green space around an oval plaza set below ground and surrounded by the underground mall and nearby Sakae subway station. That lower level amid the shops is covered by a huge glass pavilion lifted into the air on columns rising above ground level. All parts of it are open to pedestrians, including the very top of the glass, which has a walkway around the perimeter. But much of the glass roof is covered by water. The wind sends ripples across it which in turn play with...