The National Art Center, Tokyo

From Nogizaka Station on the Chiyoda Line, exit 6 leads straight into the building, but it is worth walking round to the south side first to see the glass wall ripple along the front like a wave. Kurokawa Kisho designed the National Art Center with Nihon Sekkei. It was finished in 2006 and opened on January 21, 2007. Unusually for a national museum, it owns no collection. Its 12 galleries, about 14,000 square meters in all, hold temporary exhibitions and the open-call shows of Japanese art societies, often several at once, each with its own ticket. Walking into the building costs nothing, and the atrium, 21.6 meters high, is a good place to sit out a rainy afternoon. Brasserie Paul Bocuse Musée is on the 3rd floor, with cafes on the first, second and basement floors, and the art library keeps exhibition catalogs. Hours are 10:00 to 18:00, until 20:00 on Fridays and Saturdays during the center's own exhibitions, and it closes on Tuesdays. One warning: each exhibition sets its own price and sometimes its own hours, so read the page for the show you want rather than relying on the general times. There is no car park.