Japanese and Slash Metal

It's about 6:30 on Wednesday night, and this week seems to be going by pretty fast.

I had Japanese class this morning at 9 and it got a little intense. The vocab isn't too bad yet, but we started making a little more complicated sentences, such as "Yesterday, I went to Ise and then returned to the hotel." I'm glad we're jumping right into it, but it was definitely a bit much for our second lesson.

After class I ran a couple errands, picked up some fruit cuz I've been craving it, and then went back to the hotel. I got to talk to Andrew for a little bit which was nice because we haven't spoken in a few days.

At 2, we had our first design studio at the Community Center. We're doing some minor design charrettes (quick design activities) in pairs. Jeff and I are working together on this first one that is due next Wednesday. We are taking a site in the outdoor market in downtown Kyoto and designing any sort of retail space we want. Jeff and I have decided to pull influence from the Japanese goth/metal/punk scene, and design what is essentially a better version of Hot Topic. We came up with 3 basic design concepts today, each based on a different fashion style.

The first one is based on slash metal and the facade of the building (which is all you can really design on an urban infill site) is based on the idea of the stairs thrusting through the facade of the building. The facade material responds by ripping, tearing and stretching based on the puncture of the stairs, that protrude out into the public walkway above people's heads. The stairs almost become a shard that has torn this other material apart, creating a cave-like entrance to the store.

Our next idea was based on the dichotomy of brigh colors and darkness in the candy punk scene. This design takes the store and divides it into two sides, the colorful and the dark. There are 2 seperate staircases up to the 2nd level, the happy one and the sad one. Where the two sides meet, there is a collision, both in the floor plan and in the facade. The walls are warped and bent...almost creased, both on the outer walls and any inner walls, reflecting the bent 'give and take' within this style.

The third idea is based on the layers involved in the goth/metal style, especially in Japan. Fishnets often become the underlay or background in this fashion style, acting as a semi-transparent base. We translated this into stips of glass on the front facade, with literal fishnet material stretched between two strips of glass. Other parts of the face are to be left open, with pull-down doors to close up the store when it's not during normal business hours. The next layer, based off the standard pants and offensive t-shirt, is a solid, dark layer overlapping the previous layer. Next comes the coat or jacket, which we saw as framing the area of focus. We translate this into a material that borders the building and helps to frame the entrance. This material is the only one that angles sharply and really contrasts with the edges of the other materials. Finally is the accessories, which we have translated into the signage of the building. This will take the form of red lettering randomly placed across the surface of the building. It will resemble a shirt with random phrases all over it.

We need to put together a brief presentation for Friday, but I don't think it's too big of a deal. Anyways, after class Jeff and I wandered around, and I finally bought a change purse because most of the money here is in coin form and it's starting to get annoying. I actually bought two, and one is meant to be for Ashlyn when I get home, so I'll let her pick between the two when I get there. We went to a ramen place for dinner and it was with pork and in pork broth. I really don't like pork very much, so it wasn't very satisfying for me.

Now I'm in the lounge and I'm about done with the blog for today. I still have a reading to do before our field trip tomorrow and I'd like to at least start my Japanese homework, which involves me translating English phrases into Japanese. I still haven't started my scrapbook project, but whatever I guess. I'll tell you all about Nara after our trip tomorrow.

Night