Shinjuku I-Land Astronomical Clock

In many European cities you can admire astronomical clocks, built during the Middle Ages, impressive works of old European masters. But I was delighted to find an astronomical clock also in Tokyo, in one of its most modern areas, in Shinjuku. Designed by the Italian artist Giulio Paolini, this clock can be found near the I-Land skyscraper from Nishi-Shunjuku.

It can be quite hard to fully interpret an astronomical clock (with positions of the moon, the sun and the planets), but the basic information is relatively simple to read: in this case, on the outer circle, the silver dial will tell you the date when the photo was taken, August 15. Then, the second circle and the golden sun indicates the hour - it was past 1PM. Finally the year should be represented by the zodiac circle - but this is where I get lost - I can tell you that it was 2009... (^_^)