An important feature of many Japanese gardens is the careful integration of the architecture of a house and the design of its garden. Many of the finest examples are located in private homes, and so are sadly not open to public view.

Fortunately, right in the dense city of Tokyo itself, visitors have the opportunity to enter some formerly private residences to get a feel for what it must have been like to live in a house that opens onto a beautiful garden. Now, as the city's notorious summer heat begins to flex its muscles, it's a great time to go and check one of Tokyo's loveliest secrets — Asakura Choso Kan, the former residence of the so-called Rodin of Japan, Fumio Asakura (1883-1964), in Taito Ward. About a 5-minute walk from JR Nippori Station, on a narrow and quiet street, I passed through the gate, which consists of unevenly matched, unfinished wooden posts, making it look as if it had been slapped together overnight with scraps off a woodpile. In striking contrast, the house with its three-story black facade has a very imposing modernist look, as if out of a Le Corbusier sketchbook.

Hidden inside are treasures: Asakura's sculptures and his garden entirely enclosed by the building.