Who says we can only feature Pinoy sights from the Philippine Islands? I say that there are other equally interesting Pinoy things to see elsewhere in the world. So, I’d like to present the first of the many international Pinoy sights you can see in Google Local, the Official Residence of the Ambassador of the Republic of the Philippines to Japan. This mansion, located in Chiyoda-ku in Tokyo, is only a few blocks away from the Imperial Palace of the Japanese Emperor.

The mansion used to be the home of Yasuda Zenjiro, the founder of Fuji Bank and leader of the Yasuda zaibatsu (conglomerate) before WWII. Pres. Jose P. Laurel purchased the residence in 1944 and it has been used as the home of Philippine ambassadors ever since. More information can be found under the Gallery section of the official website of the Philippine Embassy in Japan.

Locating the residence on Google Local wasn’t as easy as I would’ve thought. The address is 1-1-1 Fujimi, Chiyoda-ku. Chiyoda is one of the 23 special wards (cities) of Tokyo. 1-1-1 Fujimi represents the district (1-chome Fujimi), block, and finally the house/building. (See the Japanese addressing system article at Wikipedia.) I confirmed that what I was looking at in Google Local was correct when I saw the フィリピン (firipin) katakana for “Philippine” on the Map view of Google Local.

Download KML file (for Google Earth)