Shining construction example to the world

Tokyo - Passers-by stop and stare at the ramshackle, hand-built concrete tower that looks like it has been lifted right out of a Japanese animation and dropped onto a real-life Tokyo street.

Its creator, who spent almost 20 years making the four-storey Arimaston Building, thinks his slow approach to construction can be an example to the world.

"We need to stop mass-producing things and find another way, otherwise we'll be in trouble," 59-year-old Keisuke Oka said.

With its wobbly lines and weird, wonderful ornamentation, Oka's building has been compared to the animated Studio Ghibli movie Howl's Moving Castle.

The architect himself has been dubbed the "Gaudi of Mita," referencing the famed Spanish architect and the Tokyo area where Arimaston Building is located.