JAPAN: Tokyo Station gets high-tech Christmas and year-end makeover using projection mapping technology

Record ID: 466805

  • Title: JAPAN: Tokyo Station gets high-tech Christmas and year-end makeover using projection mapping technology
  • Date: 21st December 2012
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) SACHIYA DENPOYA, 51-YEAR-OLD HOUSEWIFE, SAYING: "I was impressed, I saw it and I just thought that it was amazing. I was really impressed how it looked like it was actually coming towards you."
  • Embargoed: 5th January 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Japan
  • Country: Japan
  • Topics: Quirky,Technology,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVA4LJEKVA6CDB07SWFU2CX2Z376
  • Story Text: Tokyo Station got a high-tech makeover ahead of Christmas and New Year's on Friday (December 21) with projection mapping technology being used to change the face of the iconic station, albeit for only ten minutes at a time.
    The Tokyo Station light-up and video projection is part of a larger initiative in the area that even includes the Imperial Palace being lit up for the first time ever for a year-end event.
    The "Tokyo Hikari Vision", which sees Tokyo Station transformed for ten minutes at a time is the crown jewel of the events however with hundreds coming out to see each showing.
    Designer Ryoutaro Muramatsu said that his biggest hope was that after seeing the 10-minute show, people would experience the same feelings they do through Christmas and the New Year.

    "As it's Christmas and indeed the end of the year, as I hope you've seen in the video as well, I'd be very happy if people felt that this was a performance where they feel the same sort of things that they feel around the end of the year and use it as a chance to look back on the year as it's been," Muramatsu told Reuters.
    The show itself uses projection mapping, wherein a video can be projected onto an uneven surface such as a building to provide an added layer of reality.
    With the projection mapping technology being used to turn the pillars of Tokyo station into everything from verdant green tree growth to castle walls, visitors were delighted with the spectacle.

    "I was impressed, I saw it and I just thought that it was amazing. I was really impressed how it looked like it was actually coming towards you," said 51-year-old Sachiya Denpoya.
    While the show was played four times on the first day and each time it was completely packed with people to the point of having police managing traffic, others said the 10-minutes was still a bit too short.

    "Having it go together with music, and see it with the 3D parts where it sort of comes at you was pretty impressive. Although it was a bit on the short side," said 40-year-old Kazuaki Goto who had brought his 3-year-old daughter to see the show.
    The Tokyo Station projection mapping and the surrounding "Starlight walk" LED light display only lasts until December 28th.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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