Utopia may be a little while coming in the real world, but -- earthquakes and broken bullet-train lines notwithstanding -- Ryutopia is not too hard to find if you are in Niigata, where it is the name given to the city's magnificent Performing Arts Center. Opened in 1998, the vast oval-shaped glass building is located by the mouth of the River Shinano and at night it glows like a flying saucer hovering amid the darkness of the trees and gardens that surround it.

Inside this mammoth cultural and social center are restaurants, a rooftop garden and numerous areas for people to meet and enjoy wonderful views of the city. But Ryutopia also has a state-of-the art, 900-seat theater, a cavernous 1,900-seat concert hall and, on the fifth floor, a 380-seat traditional Noh stage.

It is traditional in the sense that this beautiful theater and its honey-colored cypress wood stage is covered with a roof supported by four massive timber pillars keeping three sides of the house completely open. It also features a roofed-over one-sided corridor connecting to the backstage area and a large garden visible through the building's glass walls that is used as a backdrop when performances require it.