The Worst Day I've Had Here

Tuesday and Wednesday Story Time!

Tuesday was definitely the worst day I've had since coming to Japan, which is probably a good thing cuz it wasn't even that bad. I woke up early to talk to Andrew, but he couldn't talk, so I was a little annoyed that I lost half and hour of sleep, but that's ok. Jeff, Matt, Karen and I had an appointment at 11:00 at Shûgakuin Ryoji, which is similar to Katsura but bigger. We left our weekly mansion at 9:15...just like D Choi told us to. For the Imperial Villa's, you have to be there 20 minutes before your appointment, so we were supposed to be there at 10:40...we got there at 11:05 (after running 10 minutes uphill trying to get there before the tour started) and missed our time. Later that day I realized that my favorite...well, my only pair of sunglasses had broken in the middle of the frames when they were in my bag. I was not happy.

We hung out for a while and got some food. Then met D Choi at 12:45 at the train station to go see Manshuin and Shisendô, and we told him our sad story.

Manshuin and Shisendô are two smaller temples in northeastern Kyoto, near Shûgakuin Ryoji. They are both in the sukiya style of the Azuchi-Momoyama period of midieval Japan. This was created in reaction to buildings like Nijo Castle, with ornate and seemingly self-centered design. Sukiya architecture developed along with the rustic tea ceremony, created by a new class of merchants and soldiers trying to establish themselves within the structure of the upper class. The style emerged almost as an affront to the overtly overdone designs of the time. The design aesthetics are summed up by the phrase Wabi-Sabi, which means lonely or desolate and mellow. Sukiya also dealt with suki, meaning conneseurship and sakui, meaning personal creativity. These were the basic principals of the style and they created beautiful, peaceful and natural spaces. The garden and Manshuin is one of the nicest I've seen. The design at Shisendô was based on poetry, and one room features images of the immortal poets of Japan. The idea behind the complex was to create a background from which one could imagine the famous scenes of Japan. It was not the point to actually view these scenes, but to visualize them. This fits well with the idea of the roji, or path to the teahouse, through which you traveled and cleared your head so as to be in the proper and higher state of mind for the tea ceremony. The mental affects and imagery are just as important as the physical structure or garden.

After these two, we stopped by a Kengo Kuma building in Kyoto called the Kyoto University of Art and Design. The form of the building is somewhat deconstructivist, but it's very interesting. The skin is created by a series of folds in a plane, and the form extends out over the stairway, creating intriguing views upward. Windows are created by rectangular punches through this folded plane. Unfortunately, the interior spaces do not live up to the excitement of the exterior and to be honest, are somewhat bland. There is also a lack of natural daylighting, which I would have expected more of for art and design classes in particular. Overall, not my favorite building but an interesting site visit nonetheless.

Today was mostly classes. Japanese in the morning and studio after that. D Choi finally got smart and broke up our design class in to two sections, since we have 2 sections of the language class. So we met at 1 instead of 2 and ended at about 2:30. Jeff and I are still in the midst of designing our multi-use building, but it's starting to come along. We have established a form that's somewhat difficult to explain, so I will post pictures eventually. Speaking of which, I know I'm behind, but I will catch up this weekend.

After class, Jeff and I went to the Imperial Palace to make another appointment to go to Shugakuin this Saturday. We went to dinner at a place in Kyoto Station. It was Italian food, and it was actually really good but I guess Jeff got sick later. I ended up taking a short nap and then working for the rest of the night. We're meeting at 10 tomorrow to go to some zen gardens, so until then...