WAAJ treated its sustaining members to a special tour of the privately owned Meguro home built for and by Kameki/Nobu Tsuchiura in 1935. Now an Important Cultural Property of Tokyo, the wooden structure is practically unchanged since its heyday, thanks to the stewardship of owner Tsuneko Nakamura. Despite its fame as a prime example of the International style, the Tsuchiura home features a breathtakingly beautiful double-height central room that evokes Wright's mastery of interlocking spaces (there are also homages to Wright in nearly every room).

Our group heard about the Tsuchiuras and the building from two experts: Nobuko Ogawa, an architect and professor emeritus of Japan Women's University, and Atusko Tanaka, an architect and architectural historian. The women are coauthors of the groundbreaking study of Nobu Tsuchiura, Big Little Nobu.

In the afternoon, we moved on to St. Anselm's Church, designed in 1955 by another husband-and-wife team who worked with Wright: Antonin and Noémi Raymond. Guided through the church by Koichi Kitazawa, who worked for Raymond from 1966-1973, the group admired the symphony of light created by the dozens of windows, and the many sculptural installations.