The Adventures of Britney Shae in Japan

The Last Night

2009-06-09T09:37:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, June 10th, 1:30 am

Today was my last day in Japan. I was pretty tired so I didn't do too much. I spent the day packing and updating my blog, trying to get ready to go home.

We had a group dinner tonight before we all go our separate ways tomorrow. It was one of the nicest meals I've had here, with sashimi and crab...it was really good. Just good food and a couple beers with the people I've spent every day of the past 10 weeks with.

Tomorrow, our sheets are due by 9 am, check out is 10 and our train to the airport is at 12:30. My flight is at 4 pm on Wednesday, June 10th from Narita Airport in Tokyo. I will land in LAX at 10 am on Wednesday, June 10th, which is really crazy. I'll let you know what time travel is like.

This trip has been one of the best experiences of my life, but I am exhausted by it, to be honest. I am ready to come home tomorrow, and I can't wait to see my family. Now, I'm going to try to stay up for a while so that I can fall asleep on the plane...trying to prevent jet lag.

I plan to write one more entry when I get home, but I have at least a month's worth of pictures to post after that, so keep checking up for a while. The next time you hear from me, I will be back in California. Looking forward to it.

Edo-Tokyo Museum and Sumo Pictures

2009-06-09T00:18:00.003-07:00

Edo Tokyo Museum and Sumo

Hakone, Fuji and Yokohama Night Shots

2009-06-08T23:02:00.001-07:00

Hakone and Yokohama

Day 1 in Hakone Pictures

2009-06-08T21:36:00.000-07:00

Hakone

Odaiba Pictures

2009-06-08T20:13:00.000-07:00

Odaiba

Roppongi Museums, Internet Cafe, Shopping and Kamakura

2009-06-08T07:09:00.000-07:00

Monday, June 8, 2009, 10:00 pm

I last wrote about Friday, June 5th so let’s talk about my last weekend in Japan.

Saturday (June 6th) I woke up at 8:30 so I could take a shower (which I’m not supposed to do outside the hours between 5 and 11:30 pm by the way), turn in my sheets and finish packing before our check out at 10. After dropping off most of our stuff at the baggage checking area at the Olympic Center, we headed out as a class to Roppongi for a day of museums.

We started at the National Art Center in Tokyo, which was designed by Kisho Kurokawa with a sensuous curving glass façade that was unfortunately dulled by the overcast weather. There was an interesting exhibition by Nomura Hitoshi, who uses photography and sculpture to discuss ideas about the cosmos. The exhibition is a strange mix of observational photography, studies of the celestial bodies, and sculptures involving circling strands mimicking DNA, meteorites, glass and even solar panels. The collection is a retrospective piece comprised of about 130 works from the 1970s onward.

After getting lunch, we went into the Tokyo Midtown complex, done by a collaboration of architects, with Nikken Sekkei playing the role of the core architect. The master planning was done by SOM, and pieces of the large site were done by Tadao Ando, Kengo Kuma, Sakakura Architects, EDAW Inc., Communication Arts, Inc., and Frank Nicholson, Inc. This list includes some of the most prominent architects in the world.

Our main stop in the complex was the Suntory Museum of Art by Kengo Kuma. The museum was focused on sort of historical art, with an exhibition called Tenchijin-The Life and Times of Naoe Kanetsugu. The interior of the museum was really nice, with a very warm and comfortable palette of materials including wooden slats and a soft white light, reminiscent of the shoji panels of traditional Japan.

Our last stop as a group was at 21 21 Design Site, the museum designed by Ando. The building is, just as we would all expect, beautiful. Most of the space is sunk underground and the form above remains grounded while it seems to reach upwards at the same time, much like a bird spreading its wings before flight.

The exhibition itself is probably the most interesting thing I have ever experienced inside a museum. It is called ‘Bones’ and it was directed by Shunji Yamanaka. All of the works focus on bones, and strives to make a connection between the history and evolution that is contained in our own bones and the implications of the ‘bones’ of technology and machinery. There were skeletal structures of animals reinterpreted, as well as x-rays of machinery, including an airplane. The idea is to expose the beauty of internal structure, and for us to gain a new understanding of the things and creatures that surround us from the inside, out.

Some of the most interesting pieces included a bench that displayed both with light and on a computer screen, where the loads are distributed and where the stresses lie in the structure. It was a structural engineer’s dream. Another was based on the idea of a shadow, and that shadow developing its own ‘bones’ and becoming a separate entity. You stepped out in front of a light that was projecting on the wall, creating a shadow. As you move, the shadow is captured and analyzed by a computer. The shadow then begins to move and dance on its own, based on its own, separate structure. Finally, I think my favorite might have been the piano keyboard which displayed the structure of the music visually through lights that were activated by the hammers of the piano keys. It was a visualization of the music and I really enjoyed it.

After that, the group split up and Jeff and I headed to the Mori Art Museum, designed by Gluckman Mayner Architects. The main exhibit here was ‘The Kaleidoscopic Eye’ which focused on questioning reality and perception. Most of the pieces involved lights and optical illusions. Though some were interesting, the view over Tokyo from the museums Observation Deck on the 52nd floor was much more impressive. Jeff and I spent some time up there, and it was interesting to get to see Tokyo Tower in our cityscape images of Tokyo.

Finally, we were tired so we went to Ikebukuro, near the first place we stayed in Tokyo, to go to an internet café called W.I.P. (What’s up People?). On the way, we stopped at Denny’s for dinner. Don had given us each $50 for the night for lodgings. What is fortunate for us is that there was no way the internet café was going to cost that much, so our meal was paid for by the program.

Now before I go on, I should explain Japanese internet cafés. In the states, an internet café is essentially an open area with a bunch of computers filled with gamers. Here, there are internet lounges, with open computers, but there are also private booths. Jeff and I got a double private booth, which has a couch and a door. Internet cafés here also have showers, free soda, free movies, food for sale, comics and books. This one even had pool and ping-pong tables in another area. It is not uncommon for people to spend the night in internet cafés, if nothing else just to get some privacy. There is a pretty substantial lack of privacy in this country, just based on the density of the population, and it has led to some different viewpoints on public space and what functions are to be found outside of the house. Though our stay was not exactly comfortable, it was cheap and it was fun. All in all, the experience of staying the night in a Japanese internet café was totally worth the inconsistent sleep.

Sunday (June 7th) we woke up at 8 to pay for more time at the café, and then we slept for another few hours. We decided to turn the day into our ‘shopping spree’, buying all the gifts and souvenirs we had yet to buy. We spent most of the day in Sunshine City, Ikebukuro because we couldn’t check back into the Olympic Youth Center until 4. We went to a few department stores, a camera store and a few little shops along the streets. Finally at around 3, we decided to head back towards Yoyogi for check-in.

We got back to the Olympic Center and dealt with the hassle of checking in and getting our bags out of storage and getting our clean sheets. Then we needed a break. It was nice to just hang out for a minute before Jeff and I went to get sushi in Shibuya. We went to a place where the sushi goes by on a conveyor belt and you pick off the plates that you want. These places are, again, not uncommon here in Tokyo. The sushi was incredibly good, too.

After that, we wanted to go to Condomania, which I’m sure you can guess what they sell by the name. There were a bunch of joke gifts and stuff and I spent more money than I probably should have just because the stuff was too funny. Finally, we got home at a little before 11, completely exhausted.

Today our class took a trip to Kamakura, which is where my grandfather was stationed when he was in the army just after World War 2. We went to Kotoku-in temple for the giant Buddha, known as the Kamakura Daiibutsu. It is the second largest Buddha statue in the world and is a national treasure. What was interesting is that you can actually go inside the Buddha, and see the interior form of the casting. As architects of course, we were all fascinated by this.

Kamakura was made the political center of Japan in 1192, under Minamoto Yoritomo. It remained the most powerful city in Japan for over a century under the Minamoto shogun and then the Hojo regents before the center of power was moved to Kyoto. This was long before Edo, the ancient foundation of Tokyo, even existed. Kamakura is still considered the most prominent historical area in Eastern Japan, offering various temples, shrines and monuments. We also visited the Hachimangu Shrine, which was constructed for Hachiman, the patron god of the Minamoto family and a god of war and of the samurai. This explains the shrines construction and importance in the center of power of the ancient shogun.

Unfortunately, it seemed like the entire class just crashed today. I think the trip and our non-stop travelling and work has finally caught up with us. Because we were so exhausted, we did not see anything else in Kamakura today. We spent some time on the streets, wandering through the market and stopping here and there for some coffee or a snack. At around 5, we headed back to the train station to head home.

Tonight, I plan on relaxing and sleeping very soon. We meet tomorrow at 9:30 for our last meeting as a class to discuss our flights and any other final business. After that, I plan on relaxing all day, packing for my flight on Wednesday and maybe doing a little work. I will try to upload pictures tomorrow, but I don’t think I’ll be able to catch up before I get back to California, so keep checking my blog for a few weeks after I get home if you are interested.

My adventures in Japan are coming to a close. I look back on my time here and can’t believe how much I’ve seen, and how many insights I have gained. The cultural differences I have experienced here have definitely broadened my horizons and my understanding of the potential of architectural program and space. I am sure that I will miss this incredibly beautiful country, but to be honest, I think I am ready to come home. But don’t cry for me, Japan. If I have anything to say about it, I will definitely be back.

Kuma, Project, KDa, Aoki Jun and Yokohama w/ Koizumi, Mikan and Yamamoto

2009-06-08T05:37:00.001-07:00

Friday, June 05, 2009

It has been a week since I last wrote. The past week has been full of work and firm visits. Our final project was due today, so I finally have time to catch up on blogs, pictures and sleep.

Let’s recap…

Last Friday (May 30th) we were lucky enough to go to Kengo Kuma’s office. Unfortunately, he was not available himself, but we were given a tour of the office. In contrast to the open, studio-like environment of Fujimoto Sou’s office, the Kuma office felt very much like…well like an office. There were partitions up and cubicles and it was crowded with books and magazines, but still very organized. To be honest, the tour was a little disappointing because they had very little that they could show us because of the nature of their projects and the confidentiality agreements with clients. They, like many architects in Japan, work through models and do a lot of competitions. It seemed that they weren’t really sure what to show us, so we just kind of looked around and asked some questions, then we were off.

It was rainy and our final projects were due in a week, so the rest of Friday and the vast majority of the weekend was spent in our rooms, working on the design projects. We asked Don to make our deadline Friday the 5th so that we could have our last weekend in Japan to explore and prepare for our flights home. It cost me a lot of sleep, but I’m pretty happy with our decision. It always feels good to be done.

As I said, the weekend was spent working a lot and sleeping very little. On Monday (June 1st) we had our last preliminary meetings with Don before the Friday due date. It was brief, and the rest of the day was spent on work. Jeff and I have worked together pretty well on the project, with him focusing on the model and renderings and me trying to get the plans of our very narrow building to fit all the programmed space. Of course, all this occurred in the midst of technical difficulties, just to make our lives more fun.

On Tuesday (June 2) we met with Astrid Klein of Klein Dytham Architects at Gallery Ma (one of the most famous architectural galleries in the world) in Tokyo. KDa has an exhibition at the gallery right now, so Astrid introduced us to their projects, their process and their design ideals. She is energetic and eccentric and overall, just fun to listen to. She and her partner, Mark Dytham, were educated in London and came to Japan where they worked in Toyo Ito’s office. Toyo Ito is still one of the most renowned architects in Japan. KDa is interesting because they don’t really have any particular style; they tend to take on any project that is new and exciting and approach each one individually. The foundation of KDa was really the first time foreign architects had been able to really establish themselves in Japan. Since then, they have pushed the boundaries, blending the lines between architecture, interior design and furniture. The firm has also founded a series of architectural presentations called Pecha Kucha Night. This is a place for architectural discussion, and the concept has even found its way to the Cal Poly SLO campus.

On a more personal note, Astrid Klein was the first famous female architect that I have met, and I was not disappointed. To be honest, I thought she was adorable, and I loved that she was actually bold enough to be playful with her architecture. As she said, “architecture is just too damn serious”. Occasionally we need to remind ourselves to lighten up and keep an open mind to what it means to create an enjoyable space. Granted, some of the designs were a little kitschy for me, but there were others that stunned me and I think that’s a major compliment to the designers, that they can continuously be surprising and showcase their skill by avoiding becoming “stylized”.

After the meeting, Jeff and I decided to take advantage of what very well might have been our last clear day in Tokyo. We were near Roppongi, a district in Tokyo that I had not been to yet. Of course, we are going there with Don tomorrow, but Jeff and I got a preview and headed to Tokyo Tower to photograph the city from above. The tower itself is a pretty obvious Eiffel Tower knock-off, which has been painted red. Of course, they had to add a spike to the top so that they can technically be 10 feet taller than the original. At first I was nervous because I remember my experience at the top of the tower in Paris, but it was not bad. The upper observatories are all enclosed in glass, unlike parts of the Eiffel Tower, so my fear of heights was somewhat diminished. I even stood on the structural glass “look down” windows in the floor. After taking panoramic photos of Tokyo, we headed back to the Olympic Youth Center for…you guess it…more work.

On Wednesday (June 3rd) we had a meeting with Aoki Jun at his office. He is another pretty well known Japanese architect. His office was interesting because of his own mindset. He considers his office like a university; no employee can stay on longer than 4 years. This offers a constant change in the office, sparking new ideas and new influences. Probably the most famous recent buildings by Aoki Jun are the Louis Vuitton stores in Japan. These stores tend to focus on unique materiality with relatively simple forms. Again, the office was very model intensive and we had a very thorough and informative discussion with Aoki Jun himself, though I’m sorry to say that it wasn’t more interactive because we were all so tired.

Wednesday night was another late work night. I don’t think I went to bed earlier than 2 am this entire week. Luckily, we were meeting later than usual on Thursday, so despite going to bed at 4 or 5 am, I was able to get about 6 hours of sleep.

Thursday (June 4th) was our last day to finish up our projects. It was also the day that we were going to Yokohama for a day with three firms there. We met at Shibuya Station at around 12:30 and headed to Yokohama to meet with Koizumi Masao at his office. The office had planned a whole day for us in Yokohama, which was incredibly nice of them. At his office, Koizumi Masao gave us a presentation in English on his work. His office is somewhat unique in that, since he is a teacher at Kyushu University in Yokohama, he cannot legally be the head or founder of the firm. Of course, in practice, he is the head architect, but on paper he does not run the firm.

Koizumi Masao’s firm, as do many of the firms we’ve seen, design mostly through model. They do not really use any digital techniques and emphasize modeling and sketching more. He has recently won an award from the AIJ, the Architectural Institute of Japan, in 2007. Finally, he designed the Zou-no-Hana (Elephant Trunk) Port Project. The name is based on the nickname given to the port for its elongated and curved shape.

It was interesting also that Koizumi’s firm organized for us to meet with other architects in the area. After we were through at his office, we headed just down the block to meet with Mikan Gumi, a firm made up of 4 principal designers; 3 are Japanese and the fourth is French. We met with Manuel Tardits, obviously the French member of the group. The other members are Kamo Kiwako, Sogabe Masahumi and Tekeuti Masayoshi. This firm focuses not only on architecture, but on design of all levels. They do projects ranging from product design to installments to interiors to actual buildings. It seems like they see architecture in each of these realms of design. It seems that they often design exhibitions; for example they designed an exhibition for the Hakone Art Musuem, which I visited a few weeks ago, as well as the pavilion for the 150th anniversary of the opening of Yokohama Port.

This most recent exhibition is called Hajimari no Mori (Forest of Beginnings) Y150. The design is based off of ‘trees’ of structure, all built out of simple steel pipes. These organically based pavilions relate to the existing trees on the site and recall the time 150 years ago when the area that they stand on was a forest. The goal is to celebrate Yokohama’s growth as a city, as well as the opening of Japan to foreign trade, but at the same time, to encourage future growth in a sustainable and healthy direction.

After the Mikan office, we (including Koizumi and Tardits) went to Yamamoto Riken’s office. This firm is also pretty well known and does some larger buildings. Many of the more recent projects are competition based and are overseas. In fact, they now have an office in Beijing. Their work includes Guan Yuan in Beijing, Yokosuka Museum of Art, Pan-Gyo Housing (competition work, not completed project), and the Odawara Public Hall. They tend to push the bounds in terms of form and materials, but also seem to focus on master planning for some of the competitions. As their work overseas grows, the office works hard to keep up, sometimes putting in as many as 100 hours in a week. As Americans, this was a little intimidating for most of us with our 40 hour work week.

After we were done with the offices, we went to the Osanbashi Yokohama International Passenger Terminal by Foreign Office Architects. The building is really spectacular. It extends out to the water, but seems to remain part of the landscape. It is comprised of terraces and curved paths, created by wooden slats or grassy mounds. The building itself is sunken under what becomes almost a seaside park.

Next, we visited the work of our guides, including the Zou no Hana project by Koizumi and the Hajimari no Mori by Mikan. Both projects were very well done, in clean, but still somewhat industrial materials. Yet somehow these metals recall organic forms and create a natural feeling in the landscape. I was very impressed with both works and the deep roots of their concepts within the community and the history of Yokohama.

Finally, our touring was done. We went to China Town in Yokohama as a class for dinner, which turned out to be at least a 5 course meal. Unfortunately for me, most of the dishes had pork in them which has a tendancy to make me sick, but still the meal was very nice and the beer was good. Though I’m not sure how good of an idea the beer ended up being since we got home after 10 pm and I ended up having to pull an all-nighter to finish up the plans and presentation stuff for our project that was due at 12 the next day. I finally went to sleep at 7 am and woke up at 11.

Our review today went pretty well. We went pretty early on since Jeff and I were both very tired and we wanted to get it over with. Don requested that we add a little bit to the project before we present it at Cal Poly in the fall, but this was by no means an unusual request. To be honest, I’m surprised that so many of the presentations were as well done as they were. With how little time we had available to design and complete the project, what with moving every few days and trying to see Japan, I was very much impressed with the work of my peers.

Tonight, I need to catch up on sleep, but we have to move out again tomorrow morning. We’re going to go to Roppongi to see Roppongi Hills and Tokyo Midtown. Then Jeff and I are planning on either finding a love hotel or an internet café, just for the experience. I will let you know how all that goes in a few days.

Again, sorry for getting so behind, but there you have it.

Ginza Pictures

2009-05-29T06:03:00.001-07:00

Ginza

Namba, St. Mary's, Tokyo Dome, and Fujimoto Sou

2009-05-28T03:04:00.000-07:00

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Our meeting with Namba Sensei on Tuesday was really nice. We got to take a look around the Tokyo University campus and had lunch in the food court. Then Namba Sensei gave us a lecture on his design philosophy and examples of his work.

Namba started working on Box House projects in 1995, and since then has done one hundred and thirty houses based on this philosophy. Now his office designs and constructs about 10 houses per year, spending on average 6 months on design, 6 months on construction. He explained to us that the concept of the house is always the same, but it is adjusted for each site and program. His design process is based on what he calls the four layers of architecture. The first layer is the physical matter, for which the focus is on standardization and optimization to create buildings more efficiently. Next comes energy control which may be implemented incorporating new technology, but is always focused on energy savings. The third layer is the social implications of the building, which for Namba is focused on creating one living space for a flexible lifestyle and in an attempt to bring families back together. Finally is the cultural layer which manifests itself for Namba in the simple form of a box shape, symbolizing something pure, efficient and clean.

Throughout his study of the box houses, Namba Sensei has done a few different series, starting with a wood frame series, the progressing to a steel frame series and finally to Aluminum Eco House. One of his most interesting explorations was the Muji Infill Timber Houses. In these projects, Namba designed the structure and shell, while the interior was meant to be filled with parts from the Muji catalog. Muji is a Japanese company that designs furniture and the like. The houses are really interesting and showcase the modern idea of standardizing housing designs into a kit of parts. Currently, Namba Sensei is working on a house that is constructed entirely out of plywood. The structure is based on the plywood boards almost weaving together, creating a structural skin.

After our meeting, we went to a bookstore district, but I am trying not to spend too much money, so I headed home to work on our project a little.

Wednesday Jeff and I met with Don in the morning to discuss our project. We need to start developing the plans and such, and we’re really trying to just get this over with. After the meeting, I went out on an adventure by myself to a few districts in Tokyo. First I headed to Ikebukuro to see the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Space and Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office. The Art Space was an interesting building, mostly because of the intensity of the structure. The two buildings are directly across the street from one another and they create an interesting contrast. The government building is very solid, with its design based on two tower-like structures. The Art Space is a glass form, creating an extremely open interior. The program was interesting because it seemed to be a combination of an art gallery and a shopping mall.

Next, I headed to Gokokuji Station and then walked for about twenty minutes trying to find a particular building: St. Mary’s Cathedral by Kenzo Tange. The building was definitely worth the search. As a cathedral, it seems appropriate so say that the building was awe-inspiring. Tange is not my favorite architect and he has come up with some pretty bizarre buildings, but every once in a while he literally stuns me. St. Mary’s Cathedral is absolutely beautiful. From the exterior, the play between the tall, vertical towers and the flowing, organic, almost tensional roof structure creates interest from every angle. I see some similarities in terms of form between this building and his Olympic Gymnasiums in Shibuya near Yoyogi Park. The inside of the cathedral did not disappoint. The flowing concrete form of the roof, though it may be considered somewhat yonic, creates a natural, almost cave-like feeling to the space that is broken only by the stained glass and light coming from behind the altar that continues through the middle of the roof. I was blown away by the space and the use of light. Of course I had to sneak some illegal interior pictures that will be up soon.

After that, I went to Iidabashi Station to see a few smaller buildings and the Tokyo Dome City area. I also stopped at the Koraku Police Box and passed by the Bunkyo Civic Center by Nikken Sekkei Ltd. Tokyo Dome was designed by the same firm in collaboration with Takenaka Corporation. The area around it has been developed into essentially an amusement park, with roller coasters and a ferris wheel, called Tokyo Dome City. The area was busy, crowded and loud even on a Wednesday evening.

From there, I headed to the War Dead Memorial of Tokyo by Takefumi Aida. Unfortunately, I got there too late and it was closed. I settled for snapping some pictures through the gate and then headed home. The rest of my night was spent working on floor plans.

Today, we met with Don in a group at 11 am. We presented our work quickly and then headed out to Fujimoto Sou’s office. Fujimoto Sou is probably one of the most popular architects in Japan right now. He is the architect that all the graduating arch students want to work for. Unfortunately, he was out of the country himself, but we were given an incredibly gracious tour by Chijiwa Hideto who works in the office, and luckily for us, speaks fluent English. The firm is interesting because they work mostly through models. The office looked very familiar to us, with models and supplies literally strewn into every corner…it felt like home haha. In terms of atmosphere, the office keeps a very open mentality, as well as an open space. Each table is working on a particular project, but everyone can see what everyone else is doing and come have a conversation about the project. I really liked the firm, mostly because of their open minds. Fujimoto seems to take any project that comes his way, and seeks out competitions that involve new challenges. Recently, the office has been able to hire more people from overseas, which has added to their palette by giving new perspectives on architecture and design. I really respect the office’s openness to new ideas and different points of view. We were also each given a signed copy of Fujimoto Sou’s book Primitive Future. I was just blown away by the hospitality.

The rest of my day was spent on floor plans, pictures and blogs. Tomorrow we are going to Kengo Kuma’s office. I’m actually really impressed because if you know your architects, we are seeing quite a few of them that are pretty big deals. Anyways, I’ll be back within the next couple days to let you know how stuff is going. I might head to Roppongi for Tokyo Tower tomorrow after the office visit and depending on the weather.

Fujimori Sensei and Namba Sensei

2009-05-28T00:38:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, May 26, 2009 11:00 AM

We came back to Tokyo from Gokayama on Sunday. It was a long day filled with a bus and three separate trains. Headphones and naps are life savers on long train rides. We left Gokayama at 2 PM after hiking up the hill to get some pictures of Ainokura and then down the mountain a little to go to the Japanese washi (traditional Japanese paper) store. I finally got back into my room at the Olympic Memorial National Youth Center at around 8:30.

Monday we had the opportunity to meet one of Japan’s famous architects, Fujimori Sensei. We saw a brief glimpse of his work at the Tokyo Gas Sumika Projects. He designed the ‘Coal House’. Don was actually one of his students when he lived in Japan. Fujimori Sensei took us to one of his residential projects that is finishing up landscaping. He is known for his tea houses or rooms in his projects. His focus is on nature, and it shows in the spaces he designs as well as in his material choices. This project was clad in copper sheets, bent and folded to create an aesthetic based on the American use of wooden shingles. The tea room cantilevers off the front of the house, so when you are in it you are literally sitting on air. An interesting story he told us was about a column in the house that is untreated and naturally shaped cherry wood. He and the client, Kojima-san, went together up into the mountains, picked out the tree, and cut it down themselves to go in the house. This sort of dedication is really inspiring. The influence of nature on design really helps to create a unique beauty in Terunobu Fujimori’s designs.

We also went to Fujimori’s own home. This was his first architectural design after teaching architectural history for many years. The main interest of his house is the roof. His roof actually functions as a sort of garden, and has flowers and plant planted in between shingles. This creates alternating rows of plants and roof material and is really interesting. He told us with a laugh that many people have been interested in his roof because it is different, but no one has taken it as inspiration yet. He and his wife were very gracious hosts. We spent a bit of time up on the roof, and then went back down into the house only to receive an incredibly nice (and incredibly unexpected) sushi box lunch. It was definitely one of the best meals I’ve had here. Then Fujimori’s wife was nice enough to perform a small, informal tea ceremony for us. I was just blown away by their generosity, especially after being privileged enough to get to meet Fujimori and have him take us through his projects.

The rest of the day yesterday was spent on work. I am trying very hard to catch up on everything, and I’m slowly starting to. I’ve made decent progress with my travel journal, so I just need to keep it up.

This morning, we met with Don to talk about our project which, to be honest, isn’t going to be my best. Jeff and I are both a little burnt out and there really just isn’t enough time. We’re going to finish it, and it’s going to be decent, but I highly doubt it will be something I want to show off lol.

In about half an hour, we are meeting to go to Tokyo Universtiy to meet with Namba Kazuhiko, another famous Japanese architect. Both he and Fujimori Sensei are full time teachers at Tokyo University, the most prestigious university in Japan. Namba Sensei’s work seems to be mostly focused on modernism and structure. He is known for what is called “box houses”. These are modern homes, designed based on principles of prefabrication and modular parts. This is one of the most efficient ways to construct buildings and is a strong focus of many modern architects. The fact that Namba Sensei has mastered the use of these systems in order to create spaces that offer interest and beauty, using their ‘kit of part’ construction is really commendable. I am looking forward to meeting him, and I’ll let you know how it goes.

Amlux and Ueno Park Pics

2009-05-26T05:09:00.000-07:00

Amlux and Ueno Park

Harajuku Pics

2009-05-26T05:08:00.001-07:00

Harajuku

Shinjuku Pics

2009-05-25T02:53:00.000-07:00

Shinjuku

Gokayama

2009-05-24T07:30:00.001-07:00

Saturday, May 23, 2009, 9:11 PM

This morning we left Kanazawa at 8 AM, and headed to Gokayama, a small gassho-zukuri style farming area of houses that are easily 300 years old. We got into the village of Ainokura at around noon and checked into our inns. We are staying in a place that is like a bed and breakfast, so essentially it is someone’s home. It is a very old house with a steep, thatched roof, and it is incredibly comfortable. The city is up in the mountains and it snows here during the winter, but today it was very hot and humid. The concept of seasons is still a little foreign to me, coming from California.

After we dropped off our stuff, we wandered around the village a little, taking pictures of the old houses and the rice paddies. At about 2, we took a bus to one of the other villages in the area called Suganuma. It was similar to the first with thatched roofs and a very old feel, but the site has become more of a tourist spot since the area was declared a world heritage site. There was an area with buildings that had been moved from other sites, but had the same style and feel. You can actually stay in those places if you want, but there are no meals included like there is at our inn. What was really interesting in Suganuma was a random modern museum near the old houses. It was the Style Museum of Gokayama, and it was built into the small hillside with walls of concrete and strange protruding rocks. It was really bizarre and totally out of place.

After that, we went to one of the most famous of these old houses. These houses had a pretty standard set up with two earthen floor rooms at the front of the house and then either two, or four raised rooms that were originally floored with planks of wood, but have now been replaced with tatami mats. There were two upper levels, the first accessed by stairs, the second by ladders. Some of the areas were structurally questionable, but it was nice because you could see the entire structure system of the house, which is unique because the members are tied together and kept in place that way. It is interesting because the upper triangle-shaped members come to a point and rest on the larger columns of the ground floor, creating a pin connection. When the roof is loaded with snow, the triangular members will shift without affecting the rest of the structure. This, in combination with the thatching of the roof being done in bundles, makes the building very easy to repair if one part of it were to fail.

The concept of thatching a roof is also really interesting to me because you are essentially keeping out water and holding up snow loads on dried grasses. The idea is that there are too many layers of thatch for the water to get through. Thatch is laid in bundles and is then tied to the roof structure in layers. In our town, the entire village gets together and re-roofs a house when it needs it. It only takes them one day to complete the process with all of them working together. It is amazing to me because this is a community and a system that has been in place for generations.

From the house, it was a half hour walk back to our inn. We were all a little tired, so we took a nap before dinner. At 6:30, dinner was served downstairs. Most of the meal looked very appetizing, but the main dish was a little intimidating. It was a fish…literally a whole fish, which had been skewered and cooked over the fire pit in the main room downstairs. You were meant to eat the fish…head, tail, bones and all. Now I do not like pork, and I only occasionally want beef, but poultry and fish I think are fair game. My reason for this has always been that I don’t like these creatures…I think they are ugly and so I will eat them so that I don’t have to look at them, plus they taste pretty good and don’t seem to have any other purpose really. This philosophy was definitely put to the test tonight. So when confronted by my dinner, I picked up that fish with my chopsticks, looked it in the gross little eyes and said “Alright fish, let’s do this.” Then I bit its head off.

It was crunchy and salty and really…not bad. I am not used to the whole idea of eating bone, but once you get past that whole thing, it was really good. The bones started getting a little intense for me down by the tail, so I just left the last little bit. The rest of the meal was pretty standard. We were served tofu with fish flakes, white rice, a bowl of vegetables with mushrooms and bean sprouts, some pickled things that I don’t really like, some sashimi with wasabi, vegetable tempura and soup with thin noodles, green onions and mushrooms in it. It was actually a lot of food, and on top of that, we shared a couple incredibly large bottles of biiru. It was fun, especially because Don is staying in our inn with our group (we had to break into two groups) and he’s always amusing. Plus it’s usually fun to drink with your teachers.

After dinner, we went up on the hill to try to get some night shots of the village with the houses all lit up. Unfortunately, my camera does not let me adjust the exposure time, so it’s not very good for night shots. I have messed with all the settings in vain, and have finally accepted that I will eventually need to drop a few hundred dollars on a camera that can actually take night shots. Oh well…I’ll just have to steal other people’s pictures since they have decent cameras.

Tomorrow we head back to Tokyo and I will hopefully catch up on some work. I’ll let you know how that goes.

Kanazawa

2009-05-22T07:50:00.000-07:00

It is now Friday night, almost midnight. May 22nd.

Yesterday was basically a travel day. We came by bullet train to Kanazawa from Tokamachi. When we got here I was pretty tired, so I tried to focus on catching up on some work and getting some sleep. The work load is catching up...it's been too much all quarter, but now we essentially have 2 weeks to finish up and it's going to be a little difficult.

Today was really our one full day in Kanazawa. This morning we went as a class to the Kenrokuen Garden. This garden was built by the Tsunanori family, the second wealthiest family in Japan. It is considered one of the three most beautiful gardens in Japan. It was originally constructed as the outer garden of Kanazawa Castle but, as with so many other historic sites in Japan, it has been burned or destroyed and reconstructed several times. It was named based on the combination of the six attributes to a perfect landscape garden: spaciousness, seclusion, artifice, antiquity, watercourses and panoramas. The most striking remaining aspects of the garden are probably the spaciousness and the watercourses. The grounds are quite large and house two large ponds: Hisagoike Pond and Kasumigaike Pond. Streams wind throughout the garden and the fountain, or funsui, is the oldest in Japan.

We also went to the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art by SANAA. They are celebrating their 5th Anniversary (the project was completed in 2004) with an exhibition called Hundred Stories About Love. The museum in unique in that it seems to house more unique and modern forms of art. Many of the exhibits are experiential, and involve music or physical interaction. The museum was originally created with the mission of rejuvenating Kanazawa and its citizens. They aim to be open to the public, much like a park would be, and provide the opportunity for learning and growth. Some of the most interesting exhibits included the Green Bridge by Patrick Blanc, Swimming Pool by Leandro Erlich, and The Origin of the World by Anish Kapoor.

Finally, Jeff and I went to a temple called Myôryûji, or "Ninja-dera". This temple has been nicknamed Ninja Temple because of the complexity of its construction. The temple houses numerous trick staircases, hidden rooms and trap doors. Built during the Edo period, when local lords were demoted and kept in check by the Tokugawa shogunate, the building was meant to house soldiers that would be ready for battle at any moment. At the time, it was prohibited to build above three stories. From the outside, Myôryûji appears to be a two-story structure, but it actually has four stories, with seven actual level changes. The seemingly small building houses 23 rooms and 29 staircases, in addition to a seppuku, or ritual suicide chamber for Hara-kiri. Though it is called Ninja Temple, it was built in this way not for Ninja purposes, but to trick shogunate spies or enemies, as well as allow for quick escape or hiding for allies.

The rest of my day was spent trying, and failing, to catch up on my travel journal and other work. Tomorrow, we leave early in the morning for the gasshô zukuri village of Gokayama. We're going to be staying in old, thatched-roof inns so it should be an interesting experience, but I won't have internet again for a couple days. I'll catch you up when I get back to Tokyo.

Echigo-Yuzawa, Matsudai and The House of Light

2009-05-21T06:25:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, May 20, 2009, 9:15 PM

We started today in Echigo-Yuzawa. This morning we went to the largest ropeway in Japan, about ten minutes away from our hotel. At the top, we went down the summer bob sleigh, which was a lot of fun. I had never been on a bob sled before, so going down the track was a really cool experience. It let us out near a rock garden, with beautiful views of the mountain around us. We spent some time there and then headed back to our hotel to check out.

My group consists of Carisa, Katie, Karen, Sig, Jeff, Trent, Scott, Jon, Norio and myself. We all got our luggage from the hotel and then headed to the train station. From there, we went to Matsudai for the Snow-land Agrarian Culture Center by MVRDV. We didn’t have too much time there, so we kind of rushed through the outdoor exhibits so that we could get to the James Turrell House of Light in Tokamachi. The exhibits were interesting, mostly abstract art.

The House of Light is an art piece/architectural work by James Turrell. We were able to see some of his other work on Naoshima in the Chichu Art Museum. The main room of the house is called Outside In, and is focused on the changing lights of the sky in the morning and evening. A portion of the roof opens up to the sky, and we were able to watch the sky change from sunset to complete darkness. There are orange lights installed on the walls, providing up-lighting towards the ceiling, creating the visual effect of a film over the sky. This creates a stronger contrast between the room and the sky, making the gradual changes more noticeable. It was a really interesting experience. We were all lying on the floor in a circle, with our heads in the center of the room, staring up at the sky and taking pictures for an hour.

The other nice experience at the House of Light is the bath. The bath itself is another artistic experience. There are no lights in the bath room except those designed by James Turrell. At night, there are lights in the water that make anything within the water glow. When the girls went in, we actually took some pictures…nothing graphic, but more artistic to show how the combination of the light and the water can distort form and create interesting optical illusions.

The experience of actually being in this house and having the opportunity to photograph here, let alone sleep here is just extraordinary. It is amazing to think that one man envisioned the effects of the light in such detail that he was able to design and create these spaces. Pictures will be posted soon. We are getting up at 3:15 am to watch the sunrise in the Outside In space. Tomorrow we head to Kanazawa for two days. I’m excited about that because this is the city that my grandfather was stationed in when he was in the army. I’m looking forward to it, but we aren’t supposed to get into the city until the evening. I will have internet there, so I will post my blogs from the past couple days and try to get some more pictures up. Until then…

Tokyo Gas Project and Sendai

2009-05-21T03:26:00.001-07:00

Wednesday, May 19, 2009, 1:00 am.

Yesterday, we left Tokyo for our second week long trip. We headed through Utsunomiya and stopped to see the Tokyo Gas Sumika Project. These are four houses designed for the Tokyo Gas company by four different and distinguished Japanese architects.

The first one we saw is called “The Sumika Pavilion” by Toyo Ito. This building is based off of the structure and branches of a cherry tree growing on the site. It is essentially a glass box, whose wooden structure branches out like a tree, creating an interesting play between the glass and the angles of the structure. The idea was based off the idea of "eating delicious things under the cherry tree." The space is not really inhabitable, but serves as a show room for the Tokyo Gas appliances.

The second project we saw was “House” by Taira Nishizawa. This project focused on the almost reversal of the roles of the ceiling and the walls. The walls were completely solid, and all the light was let in through the ceiling. As the day progresses, the light moves from the bed, to the kitchen, to the living space. The outer wall is made of pivoting doors that can be opened up to look out onto a small field. This open ventilation can also be used to help control the heat in the room. Another interesting aspect of this project is the fact that the columns within the one-room house extend into the earth and serve as piles, the foundation structure of the building.

Right next door is “House Before House” by Sou Fujimoto. This project is based off of the idea of a child playing with blocks, stacking them up to create a rudimentary structure. The house is made up of steel boxes stacked on top of one another, welded together and painted white. Many of us likened the project to “an adult tree house.” Circulation between boxes was solved by simple ladders or stairs, which sometimes even serve to balance the cantilevered boxes, becoming part of the structure. This project was very intriguing because it involved looking back in time and finding a new way to explore and create space.

Finally, we went and saw the “Coal House” by Terunobu Fujimori. This house was based off the idea of the cave as a primitive dwelling. The main space of the house was envisioned as a cave, as if the space had been carved out of a form rather than constructed out of planes. Again, the circulation has been provided by steep stairways and ladders, up to the bedrooms on the second floor. A tea house has been attached to the house, as part of the original design. It branches off the master bedroom and is also accessible from the exterior by way of a ladder. Of course, in traditional Japanese style, the tea house is tiny. One of the most beautiful aspects of the project is the material: burnt cedar. The wood cladding was literally burnt, giving it a blackened and charred look that, when paired with the light wood detailing, is incredibly beautiful. The burning actually creates a sort of protection for the wood in terms of weather and insects, so the wood will not need treatment of any kind for twenty years.

After we finished at the Gas House Projects, we got on a bullet train for Sendai, famous in the architecture world for the Sendai Mediatheque. We got there in the afternoon and had some free time, so we went to see Ftown by Hitoshi Abe and then did some shopping before we met as a group to go photograph the Mediatheque in the evening. The building’s function is as a library and media center. It was designed by Toyo Ito and is really quite remarkable in terms of structure. It is essentially a glass box with vertical cores running up it, providing the structure. What is so unique is that the cores are open, diagram type structures of non-uniform sizes throughout each core. The metal for each of the steel hollow tubes is 2 mm thick. This type of construction was really only possible because of Sendai’s incredible shipping industry and the techniques and equipment employed there. The building really lit up at night and was nice to photograph, unfortunately it seems like it would have been better had there been nothing surrounding it and nothing inside it.

After the mediatheque, I went back to the hotel and tried (unsuccessfully) to catch up on my photos and blog. It was a pretty relaxing night at the typical Toyoko Inn.

Today, we had to check out at 10 am, as is standard. We were heading as a group to see the Sasaki-Gishi Prothetic & Orthotic Services building by Hitoshi Abe, but we got lost from the rest of the group so we found it ourselves. It was a little disappointing from the outside, because it seems that it has not aged well, but the interior had a surprisingly nice light well/courtyard space. It provided lighting to all the office space within the building very well and I was impressed with it, as well as the structure of the building.

We were lucky enough to be able to make an appointment at Aoba-tei, which is an award winning interior project by Hitoshi Abe. We were to meet there at 4 pm, which meant that we were much later getting into our next lodgings for tonight that was originally planned, but it was worth it and I was able to get some work done before. The restaurant is only open for reservations, and you can only get reservations if you are a friend of the owner, or a friend of a friend, so we were incredibly fortunate. The interior skin of the building is made out of perforated metal, with the holes punched in it to resemble the form and play of light of a tree. It is really incredibly well done and we spent quite a while trying to capture the effects of the material on camera.

After that, we took another bullet train to Echigo-yuzawa, where our hot springs hotel awaited us. We got in pretty late, so Carisa and I went to the public bath and then just uploaded our pictures. Tomorrow we’re going to try to go on the ropeway here, since it is the longest ropeway in Japan, and then catch our train to the James Turrell House of Light. He is one of the artist/architects whose work we saw in Naoshima, and The House of Light is one of his most famous projects. We will be staying there tomorrow night, so there’s something else to look forward to. I am diligently working on maintaining my blog, catching up on work and getting photos uploaded, so stay tuned. Hopefully I will be all caught up by the end of our travel week.

Shibuya

2009-05-18T09:29:00.001-07:00

Shibuya

The National Olympic Memorial Youth Center

2009-05-18T06:03:00.001-07:00

National Olympic Memorial Youth Center

Asakusa with the Kondo's

2009-05-18T05:10:00.001-07:00

Sensoji Temple and Touring with Kumi, Emi and Yasu Kondo

New Pics in the Band Album

2009-05-18T05:09:00.000-07:00

We're Huge in Japan

Project 1: Slashed and Torn

2009-05-18T04:13:00.001-07:00

Slashed & Torn - Project 1

Fun with Friends and Rail Passes

2009-05-17T02:25:00.001-07:00

Sunday, May 17, 2009

This weekend was relaxing but relatively uneventful. It is now almost 6 PM on Sunday, and I still have to pack to leave early tomorrow morning for our week-long trip.

Yesterday was a lot of fun. I got up and talked to Andrew while I got ready to meet with Yasu and Emi at noon. Yasu met me a little after noon at the entrance to my campus. He apologized and said that Emi would meet up with us later because she was home with their father…I guess he was not feeling well again.

Last time we met up, I had told them that the thing I miss most about America was the Mexican food. So yesterday, they took me to El Torito for lunch. Yes, that’s right. They have El Torito in Japan. If you are at all interested, we went to the one near the Ikebukuro Station and Sunshine City in Tokyo, but there is another one near Shinjuku Station. The food was good, but different than what I’m used to from California. The sauce was lighter and the portions were definitely smaller, which is not really a bad thing at all. Kumi and her boyfriend met up with us there for lunch.

After lunch, we wanted to go play table tennis, and Yasu found a place nearby that we could play at. It was interesting because the tables were in the back of a convenience store. We got there and the room was full…and full of people who were taking the table tennis way too seriously. Kumi and I were a little intimidated, and I’m pretty sure that I would have embarrassed myself if the room hadn’t been booked for the rest of the day.

Instead of playing ping-pong, we went to Starbucks and got some coffee. We were talking about the differences between the US and Japan, and I was very happy to learn that they get Gingerbread Latte’s in Japan during the holidays too…those are just too delicious.

We met Emi at the train station and then said goodbye to Kumi and her boyfriend. Yasu, Emi and I then went back to the area around their house. We went to a karaoke place called Big Echo for an hour. It was a lot of fun. We even tried doing a few songs all together, which was incredibly funny but pretty awful.

After that, Yasu had to leave us to go run some errands, and Emi and I went to get dinner at a Yakitori place. If you don’t know what yakitori is, it is essentially random parts of chicken that have been cooked and put on a stick. There are things like cartilage or liver or hearts…some of them are really good and others…not so much. We had a few different kinds and to be honest, I’m not really sure exactly what I was eating, but it was all good. There was definitely some liver in there and some chicken skin, which is fatty and delicious lol. We also had a couple drinks and another dish that was two patties of some sort of ground meat, with raw egg. I told Emi that I had never really eaten raw egg before and she seemed a little surprised that we don’t eat it in the US. It’s amazing the things you never really think about as being unique or different until you go to a new place. The dish was actually really good, and I’m still alive…so no problems with the raw egg.

After dinner, Emi took me to her old gym where she used to practice Kendo. I got to watch the warm up and the practice and it was really an amazing experience. The sport is pretty intense and with all the gear they wear I’m surprised that they can move at all, let alone how quickly they do. I was thoroughly impressed. I also found out that during a match, if you win against one opponent, you have to immediately play against a new one. That is so intense because you could be standing up there fighting for a really long time with no break and no water. Emi said that one time she actually passed out because she couldn’t take a break. I don’t think I could handle it.

Finally, I had to head home because I needed to try to get some work done. We are all so behind on the work that Don is assigning that it’s almost futile at this point. Emi took the train back with me and I showed her around the campus, and my small and really dirty room. She also met a couple of my friends who were around. She is so sweet and I had so much fun with all of them again. I told them that when I get back to Tokyo that I’d like to invite them out to karaoke with me and a few of my friends. They said that they would invite some friends too, and I am really looking forward to it.

After Emi left, I did a little work and tried to upload and organize my pictures. I was so tired though that I didn’t get much done.

Today, I slept in until 11, which was much needed. I talked to Andrew for a couple hours, which was nice. The first time we’ve been able to have a long conversation in a while. After that I had to go to Shinjuku Station to get my rail pass for our trip. I also reserved seats on the train while I was there. I got some curry on the way home and ended up talking to Chris for a little when I got home. I hadn’t heard from him in a while, so it was good to catch up. We were talking a little bit about Ashlyn’s wedding and it just reminds me how much I am missing out on. I really can’t wait to get home and plan out Ashlyn’s big day. I’m so excited for her.

Anyways, the rest of my night is going to be pretty boring. I’m planning on packing and maybe working on a paper and uploading some pictures. Tomorrow I am going to Sendai early in the morning. I don’t really know what is in Sendai, so I’ll have to write about it after I go.

Sumo Wrestling and Henri de Hahn

2009-05-15T09:25:00.001-07:00

Friday, May 15th, 2009

It is now almost 1 AM on Friday night here in Tokyo. I last wrote about Wednesday, so let’s catch up again.

Thursday we met as a class in the morning and Don lectured about Tokyo and its post-war development. We talked about the major players, like Kenzo Tange, who seems to be incredibly influential, especially in Japan. We can’t go anywhere without seeing at least a couple of his buildings. What is so fascinating to me about his office is that every project is completely different. You can compare his work and constantly be baffled that all the projects that you’re looking at were designed by the same person. We have a new assignment (we’re all incredibly behind, by the way, including Don) based on a reading by Tange and his proposal for post-war Tokyo. I have yet to read it, but from Don’s lecture it seems a little fantastic to me. It is one of those futuristic designs that is really interesting to think about, but doesn’t really take in to account the way people actually live their lives and use their spaces. As designers, we tend to think that our buildings will change the lifestyles of the people who use them rather than design for the lifestyles of our users. I’m not sure yet which one is a better method, but I’m pretty sure that it’s somewhere in the middle.

Tange’s proposal involved building small city-sized buildings out on Tokyo Bay based on a linear axis, contrary to Tokyo’s chaotic layout. These mega buildings would house the residential aspects of the city, including food and entertainment. The work would be contained on the main land in tube-like structures built off of dispersed vertical cores, providing circulation and structure. As I said, a bit on the side of fantasy for me, but still interesting.

After class we were supposed to go to the site and make some decisions about our project, but the night before, our plans had changed. Thursday was Carisa’s birthday, and it just so happened that a bunch of people were planning on going to a sumo tournament that day. So, rather than do our work, we decided to go watch the sumo wrestling. Before that, we did stop by an educational site on our way. We spent an hour or two inside the Edo-Tokyo Museum by Kiyonori Kikutake, trying to better understand the development of pre-modern Edo into modern Tokyo. The museum was interesting, huge and very modernistic and futuristic in itself; the exhibits were very historical and tried to explain daily life in different time periods in Tokyo.

The sumo stadium was right by the museum. We went in and the stadium was relatively small. Our seats, being cheap, were towards the top of the stadium, as far away from the wrestlers as we could get. It was an amazing experience. I’m very glad I got to go, despite the fact that we sacrificed some of our work to do so. I wish I knew more about the religious and historical aspects of sumo so that I could share them with you, but I don’t. I have plenty of pictures and video, but the quality is relatively low because I was so far away.

After the final matches, at about 6, we headed home, but stopped near our campus to go to dinner at a Korean restaurant for Carisa’s birthday. Jeff and I ended up staying up until 2 finishing our work for the next day so we had some improvement to show Don. It was worth it, but I was tired the next day.

Finally it was Friday. I woke up and went to my meeting with Don. We showed him the Sketchup model we had done and he was happy with our progress. After that, we had to go back to the site, and figured we might as well check out some of the buildings in Shibuya while we were out. We went out at around noon and wandered around and checked out our site conditions until about 3. Then we got food and I bought another router so that everyone can have internet in their rooms since we are split up in the dorms now. Hopefully everyone will pitch in like they are supposed to because the router was $60.

After that, we had an optional meeting with the Head of the Architecture Department at Cal Poly, Henri de Hahn. He is on vacation for a few days here in Japan and is staying at the Tokyo Hyatt where Lost in Translation was filmed. I was very tired, but really wanted to see the building so I went. We got a tour of the 41st floor lobby and a couple of the suites. Then we walked through Shinjuku, which was a little frustrating because we had all already been there, and got dinner. I was a little disappointed with the night because I was under the impression that it was going to be less regimented and conducted mostly at the Hyatt, but overall it turned out to be fun. After dinner, we headed back to the dorms, getting home at around 10. I had some laundry to do and some House episodes to catch up on, so I did that rather than the work I had been planning on doing before I was kept out until 10.

Now it is late and I am meeting up with Yasu and Emi Kondo at noon tomorrow, so I will have to say good night. I will be back either tomorrow or Sunday to write before we go on our next week long trip starting Monday. I still don’t know exactly where we are going, but I’ll keep you updated.

Hakone and Yokohama

2009-05-15T08:52:00.001-07:00

Wednesday, May 13, 2009
I last wrote on Sunday. The last two days, we have been on our own because our dorms in Tokyo were closed for some reason, so we had to find other accommodations.

Jeff and I decided to take this opportunity to go see something that D. Choi was not going to take us to: Mt. Fuji. Way back when we were staying at the Higashiyama Sanjo Hotel in Kyoto, I met a couple from Australia who had told me about the city of Hakone, near Lake Ashi. They told me about this amazing trip that they had just gone on and about the “Hakone Free Pass” for $40. They also gave me a brochure, from which we essentially planned our trip.

We got to Hakone, after issues based on the fact that we had no idea what the name of our hotel was, let alone how to get there, at about 1:30. We checked into our hotel called the Senkei Hotel, and relaxed for a while. Then we went out to explore and bought the Hakone Free Passes at the train station and rode up to Gora to try to see some museums. By that time it was almost 4, so everything was pretty much closed by the time we got there. We went back to the hotel and I took a bath in my first outdoor public bath. Luckily for me, I was the only one there and it was exceptionally nice. Like socially acceptable skinny dipping in a fountain. The view from the bath was nice and just the setting itself, on top of a hill, looking out from the warmth of a bath set in the middle of nature was really incredible.

We woke up early, hoping to go see as much as we could. The first stop was a water fall near our hotel called Tamadare Falls. Unfortunately, it was closed until the 18th due to construction. We were sad, but had too much to see anyways. We headed out to Lake Ashi to do the whole tour and make the most of the $40 we had paid.

At the lake, we walked through the Ancient Cedar Avenue, which was really pretty…beautiful old trees lining a dirt path. At the end of the path, we accidentally headed into the Hakone Detached Palace in Onshi-Hakone Park, which is actually where we wanted to be anyways. There were huge groups of students on a tour there, and we made a few friends because they were excited to speak English to us. The Palace grounds were supposed to have views of Mt. Fuji, but Tuesday was pretty overcast. We could see the mountain, but our cameras were having trouble picking it up. We went up to the observatory point, and tried to get some shots there too…hopefully it will come out better with a little help from Photoshop.

The next stop was the dock at Hakone Machi, to get on a boat to cross the lake and get views of Mt. Fuji from there. The boat turned out to be a pirate ship, and Jeff was like a kid in a candy store, he was practically giddy…it was cute. On the boat, the weather got pretty windy and brought in some more clouds…it felt like we were inside a cloud by the time we got into the dock on the other side of the lake at Togendai. The area itself was very pretty too and I’m glad we went, but it was a little disappointing not to get a good picture of Mt. Fuji.

At Togendai, we took a ropeway up the mountain, which was also supposed to have a view of Fuji. But by this time, there was no hope of us seeing it. We then took a cable car back to Gora Station, so by the end of the day we had pretty much taken every possible means of transportation.

It was after two by this time and there were still a couple places we wanted to see before we had to head to Yokohama and our capsule hotel. We got on a bus and headed to the Hakone Venetian Glass Museum which was about 20 minutes away. The museum was pretty cool and some of the stuff was very pretty, but we pretty much ran through it in order to get back to the bus stop in time to catch the next bus back. We left the museum at around 3.

Back at the Gora Station, we took a train to the Hakone Open Air Museum. The entrance fee was $14, so Jeff didn’t want to go in and we had to catch the last train before 5. So that being the case, I literally ran through the outdoor exhibits. Some of them were really interesting. One was called “Sfera con Stera” by Arnaldo Pomodoro. It was a golden sphere that had parts cut out of it…creating the notion of a landscape or a cityscape in parts. It was very interesting, just placed on the grass as part of a composition of other sculptures. Another interesting and architectural sculpture was the “Curved Space” exhibit by Peter Pearce. This was a bubble structure, creating interesting spaces inside and around the white bubbles.

At about 4:30, because Jeff was waiting, I left the museum so we could head to Yokohama. Figuring out how to get there was another challenge, but we managed it and got into the city at around 8 pm, after train rides and transfers and finding wireless internet so we could find directions. It took us a little while to find our hotel, probably because it was in the basement of a bigger, nicer hotel. It was like a subsection of the Breezebay Hotel in Yokohama. It was called the Sakuragicho Capsule Resort and was actually a lot nicer than I was expecting.

Capsule hotels are very interesting because they really make use of the idea of public space. Your only private space is inside your capsule, which literally consists of a bed. The bath, your locker, shower and toilets are all public and shared. I’m getting pretty used to the whole public bath idea, since this is like the third time I’ve done it. Tuesday night, Jeff and I went out to Mos Burger (really good Japanese burger place) and then went to figure out the internet situation at our hotel so we could do a little work on our project. We ended up at an internet café next door to our hotel, and again, it was surprisingly cool. I wish we had internet café’s like that in the states. You request the number of hours and the type of booth you want (Jeff and I got a private booth for two people) and then you get all the free drinks you want. There are also shower facilities, games, movies all included in the hourly rate. You can also buy food and towels…anything you might really need. Essentially, you could live in an internet café if you needed to.

Jeff and I rented a booth for 2 hours; plenty of time to get a little work done and check our email. Then we headed back to the hotel just to drop off our backpacks. By that time, it was after 11, but we had yet to explore Yokohama, so we went out and wandered a little. We walked towards the bay, where there was a Ferris wheel and a small theme park, along with a shopping mall and some interesting high rises. We saw a couple buildings that are being done for the 150 anniversary of Yokohama Port, but it was dark and I spent quite a bit of time finding out that my camera sucks for night shots.

We wandered around until about 12:30, then we headed back. I went to sleep at about 1 and woke up at 9. We had to check out at 10 and I had to rush to take a shower. We got out in time and then went back to the internet café and watched some movies. I got about 2/3 of the way through The Da Vinci Code before our time was up…I’ll have to finish it later.

After that, we headed to the train station to get back to Tokyo to meet with Don at 2 at the National Youth Center. We presented our sketches and talked about what we plan on doing, but we need to start producing on the computer so we can have presentations, which everyone else had. Our situation over the past couple days made that a little difficult, but we’ll just have to get on it. After we presented, I got to IM with Andrew a little bit, which was nice. I’m starting to miss him a lot, but I’m pretty sure my last month here is going to go by pretty quickly so I need to make the most of it. Finally, at 5, we checked back into our dorms and figured out the internet situation. Tomorrow, we have class at 10 and Jeff and I need to go back to the site to get better measurements, a better feel for the area and do an analysis of a nearby building.

That’s all for now. I’ll post pictures and write more about our project soon.

Shinjuku through Ginza/Odaiba

2009-05-09T07:33:00.000-07:00

Sorry it's been a few days.

It's now 10:30 pm on Sunday, May 10th. I last wrote on Tuesday, so let's catch up.

Tuesday night Carisa and I went to an Indian curry place near our campus. I love Indian curry, so I was happy. The class also had a "meeting" during which people who were upset with our lodging were allowed the chance to "voice their complaints". It was pretty much a bitching fest. I grew bored pretty early with it, and made it clear that I'm fine with our situation as long as internet got figured out (which it obviously has). After that, Carisa and I watched Iron Man and then went to bed.

Wednesday we had class at 10 am. Our final project was assigned, which is a mixed-use building in one of the busier districts in Tokyo: Shibuya. It is not that far from our dorms (less than a 30 minute walk), so after class Jeff and I walked down there to pick a site in the designated area. It was raining so it wasn't incredibly pleasant. We got lunch at Denny's (which is about 20 times better here than it is in the US) then we wandered around and checked out the area that Don had designated for us to choose a potential site from. We found a very narrow site in an interesting part of Shibuya. It is right next to a big department store called The Loft and had exposure on all 4 sides, which is rare in an urban setting, but it is also essentially an island in the middle of traffic. We have some pretty interesting ideas about creating a partnership with The Loft and allowing a physical connection between our building and theirs.

Thursday we had class again at 10. D. Choi lectured on the historical process of the development of Tokyo, from the Edo period. It is always interesting to compare the development of castle towns, like Tokyo, to towns planned and organized on a grid. The methods of organization and land distribution are so different, and can make castle towns somewhat difficult to navigate. Unfortunately, most of the historical architecture in Tokyo has been destroyed over the years, either by fires, earthquakes or war.

After class, we all took a trip to Shinjuku, which is a very busy district of Tokyo, with the world's busiest subway station. We mostly were trying to get a feel for the district, which is mostly mid to high rise buildings and many department stores. We saw the Tokyo Metropolitan Government/City Hall building by Kenzo Tange. This is a perfect example of Tokyo's tendency to borrow from western culture and design. Tange himself has said that this building was influenced by Notre Dame de Paris, and you can definitely notice it. The design consists of two towers, and definitely has a Gothic feel to it. We also passed by MODE Gakuen's "Cocoon Tower", also by Tange. It is so interesting to me that these two buildings were designed by the same architect because they are so different. The MODE building literally looks like a cocoon, with pieces wrapping upwards, and gaps filled with glass. At the top, it almost looks like a bird's nest. The form seems to be very organically influenced, as opposed to the almost ridged structure of the City Hall. We also headed towards Chuo Koen, or "Central Park". This is just another example of borrowed ideas. Shinjuku is a big area, and there is definitely more I'd like to see there. Hopefully I will be able to make it back there.

The rest of Thursday was spent working on site analysis and basic ideas/inspiration for our project. To be honest, Jeff and I just sort of threw some stuff together for class the next day.

On Friday, we did a brief presentation during class, and found out that two other groups picked the same site as we did. Oh well...not too much we can do about it. The feedback was useful, we just need to get motivated to work on the design inspiration.

I had some free time so I got to talk to Andrew and my family. It was good to talk to everyone. I wouldn't say that I'm getting homesick, but I am starting to look forward to going home in a month. I think the 3 month trip is a perfect amount of time. I'm pretty sure that I'll be heading home right when I will be ready to.

Friday afternoon/evening, Jeff and I went and explored Harajuku. I really like this district. It is the major fashion district in Tokyo and the major streets are lined with huge clothing stores. We used our architectural guide books to help us see everything we wanted to, and we pretty much exhausted the area in terms of seeing the buildings it has to offer. We saw way too many of them to list them all, but I'll talk about a few that I found most interesting.

The first one is called the Wedge by Edward Suzuki. The building itself has an intentional crack up its facade. I thought the idea was interesting but wish that more had been done with the crack in terms of allowing light into the building and peaks of the program to the street.

The next two buildings that caught my eyes were the Dior Omotesando by Kazuyo Seijima + Ryue Nishizawa/SANAA and Tod's Omotesando Building by Toyo Ito. The Dior building is essentially a large semi-opaque glass box and was very nice lit up at night. The Tod building was beautifully done. It was pretty much a simple glass facade with an abstract pattern across the front that gave off the feeling of a tree. At night, it was as if you could see light peeking through the branches of a large forest...it was beautiful.

After that, we saw the Prada Boutique Aoyama by Herzog & de Meuron (a famous firm). The building was nicely done, but was a little disappointing at night. The facade is made of bubbling glass in a diamond grid. Just across a small street, we saw the Cartier building, which was very impressively done. The form itself was interesting and the composition of the Cartier building with the building behind it was spectacular. Unfortunately, I do not know who designed it, so I cannot give proper praise.

A little later in the evening, we saw Villa Moderna by Sakakura Associates. This is a housing complex done in the typical 'modern' style of the 1960's (1970's in Japan). Usually these modern buildings feel somewhat cold to me, but this building seemed very well done. The units offset one another, creating a somewhat jagged and angular step back of the concrete. This move created a nice courtyard and entrance to the building, and the units gave off a soft glow.

After we were done exploring, we got Subway for dinner (so good!) and then watched The Dark Knight. I couldn't fall asleep, so I was up til 4 am watching South Park.

Saturday, the class was going to Asakusa, but I already went there with Kumi, Emi and Yasu. Instead, I went to Amlux, a Toyota show room in Sunshine City, near Ikebukuro Station. It was an interesting building and the interior looked nice, but I unfortunately didn't have time to go in. I had to meet back up with the group at 1 to go to Ueno Park.

I got there just in time, after spending much too long figuring out the complex public transit system of Tokyo. Ueno Park is great. We went to a few museums, but only went into the National Museum and a renovation by Tadao Ando. The National Museum is interesting because it is a "European" stone building, with a traditional Japanese roof on it. It was somewhat bizzare and the obviously Euro-knock off style of the surrounding museums was just as disorienting. It is strange to see how much Tokyo has taken from the outside world. The Ando museum was typical Ando...just amazing.

After the museums, we went around the park, stopping at a small amusement park, and to take a ride in a swan paddle boat for a while. We found the only other white people on the lake and decided to mess with them a little. We followed them around and raced with them and pretty much made asses of ourselves, but it was fun. It was just Jeff, Blake and I.

That night consisted of more curry and South Park.

Today we went to Ginza, which used to be the major fashion district in Tokyo. This was the place where most of the initial western influence entered Tokyo. The major building we saw was the Tokyo International Forum by Rafeal Vinoly. The building is absurdly large for its program, but the structure and form is really quite incredible. The interior space is huge and the curved, drop-like plan creates an interesting experience. The structure of the building itself was enough to impress, but the fact that the form was also well designed, makes it a somewhat rare building.

The other important place we went today was an island called Odaiba. There we saw the Fuji TV Building by Kenzo Tange (we've noticed that he's everywhere). The building is again, interesting but strange. It consists of mostly void, balanced by two 'buildings' on either end, connected by a series of square tubes, with a sphere balanced towards the top. We went up into the sphere (an observatory) and got a very nice view of the city.

We also saw the Venus Fort, which is a shopping mall designed based on the Venetian in Las Vegas. They did a good job if that was the goal; the building was very reminiscent of Vegas. It was actually a fun place for shopping and hanging out. We also spent a little time at the Toyota Show Room.

We saw another Kenzo Tange building, which, of course, looks nothing like the first one. It is called the Tokyo Fashion Town Building and is actually somewhat conservative. If you're interested, you should look up this building and compare it to the Fuji TV building. Keep in mind that they were designed by the same office, under the same architect.

The last building we saw was the Tokyo International Exhibition Center by AXS SATOW INC. To be honest, this looks like a strange, triangulated space ship that has awkwardly landed on our earth. Again, a strange but interesting design.

Finally, we were done and headed back to Ginza for dinner. We got some pizza and gyoza and then came home. Tomorrow, we have to be out of our dorms by 9 am. We are all going our seperate ways for the next couple days. Jeff and I have decided to go to Hakone, for hot springs and views of Mt. Fuji. On Tuesday we will head to Yokohama to stay in a capsule hotel, which should be a very interesting experience. On Wednesday, when I get back into Tokyo, I will officially only have one month left in Japan. I don't know whether or not I will have internet tomorrow, but I should have it on Tuesday for sure, so I'll be back then.

Sorry there's so much...but I had to catch up. Love you all.

The Band

2009-05-07T20:10:00.001-07:00

We're Huge in Japan

Japanese Exposure and The Move

2009-05-05T23:41:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

I last wrote on Sunday, my second day in Tokyo. Monday was a very interesting day for me. At 10, we met briefly as a class to discuss some new assignments and our moving arrangements for the next day. After that, I got to talk to Andrew for a little bit while I got ready for the rest of my day.

At noon, I was supposed to meet a business associate of my dad and his children in the lobby of my hotel. His name is Yoshio Kondo and I think he has known my dad for close to 20 years. I was in the lobby at noon, waiting to meet him and his children when three people walked into the hotel, who looked a little older than me. I thought maybe this was them, but they were all close to my age, so then I thought maybe not. Plus, I didn’t want to just assume that people speak English here and go up and ask if they are looking for me. Finally, one of them approached me and asked if I was Britney. I said yes, and she got very excited and introduced me to her siblings. We exchanged awkward greetings and I gave them the bottle of wine I brought from California. They explained that they were sorry, but their father could not make it to our meeting because his health is not so good.

The oldest is Kumiko (Kumi). She is 27 and works at a trading company, and so she is essentially fluent in English, which was lucky for me since I speak very, very little Japanese. Yasu is the brother who is 25 or 26 I think, and he is working very hard at learning English right now. Emiko (Emi) is a year older than me and is finishing law school right now. She will work for Citibank and they told her that speaking English was not optional, as she may be asked to work in another country. They are all incredibly nice and I was so glad, because we ended up having a lot of fun together and teaching each other a lot about our different cultures and languages.

They took me to a part of Tokyo that was new to me: Asakusa. There, they took me to lunch at a Russian place that they have been to many times. It was an incredibly nice meal, with multiple courses. First I had a seafood salad, followed by a cold and sweet pumpkin soup and then the main course of a hamburg (which is a burger without the bun) with vegetables. Finally, we had tea or coffee and desert comprised of a caramel pudding and fruit. It was definitely one of the best meals I’ve had here. It was also very pleasant because as we grew more comfortable with each other, we started joking and talking about the differences between our cultures. Poor Yasu; he has only been studying English for a few months and already he has caught on very well, but he would be in the middle of asking me a question and then would have to ask his sister for a certain word, and I could tell it was a little frustrating for him. He was also a little self-conscious about his English at first, but he grew more relaxed as the day went on, which actually helped to improve his speech.

After lunch, we went briefly to a tourist spot, which was very crowded because it is Golden Week in Japan, meaning everyone is on vacation right now. There were many traditional Japanese street vendors lining the way towards the Sensoji Temple, with the Kaminarimon Gate marking its entrance. We did not stay long because it was very crowded, but the temple was very nice. It was actually somewhat unique to see the stands lining the walkway right in front of the temple, as it seems that they are usually pulled farther off the religious property. The temple itself looked very similar to many of the temples we have seen, with its wood structure painted red and white and its traditional tile roof becoming a dominant feature. What was unique about the Sensoji Temple was its ceiling. On the inside, there are large paintings done on the ceiling, above a large golden shrine for worship. We threw coins into the shrine and prayed. Kumi explained to me that some coins are better than others to throw. You should not throw a 10 yen coin, for example, because of multiple meanings of the word for 10. Usually, “ju” is used, but one can also use “to” (pronounced toe) which also means people. The word “yen” can also be read to mean relationships. So if you throw a 10 yen coin, it is implying that you will have difficulty with human relationships. I thought this was very interesting, and though it was a little difficult for her to explain to me, I’m very glad that Kumi took the time to help me understand.

After our sight-seeing, Emi invited me back to their house because Yoshio very much wanted to meet me. I was very happy to have been invited since I had really been looking forward to meeting them all, so we all took a taxi to their home in central Tokyo. Their neighborhood is very nice, though not exactly what I expected for downtown Tokyo, I must admit. It is quiet and cute, with little single family homes rather than the high-rise apartments one might expect. I’m sure that this was just their immediate area, but it was very nice to get to see a typical Japanese home in Tokyo.

When we entered the house, we were greeted by the barking of their dog, which they had warned me about. I met Yoshio and his wife, with the dog barking wildly in the background the entire time. They offered for me to give her a treat or two so that maybe she would calm down. I took one, set it on the ground and said “matte” which I guessed means wait. When I felt like she could take it, I said “yoshi”. She pounced on the treat, so I did the ritual again, trying to develop at least a mutual indifference. She also pounced on this treat, but after it was gone, she went right back to barking at me and actually bit me. Fortunately, she is a wiener dog…not very threatening. Her bite didn’t even break the skin and was actually somewhat pathetic. They took her into a different room after making sure that I was alright and apologizing profusely. They said that she barks and acts like that with every guest…I’m surprised that the dog is still alive or at least that they still have it.

Anyways, their mother (I feel terrible, but I don’t think I ever caught her name) served us iced lemon tea, which was delicious, and we all sat down and talked. I asked Yoshio how he had met my father and how long they had known each other. It is amazing that they have known each other for almost as long as I have been alive. They asked me what I had seen in Japan, and what my plans were for the rest of my time here. Yasu also showed me a youtube clip of the “Japanese Beyonce”. It was very funny. It is this female Japanese comedian who does impersonations. She studied Beyonce’s movements and dancing until she could imitate it almost perfectly. She lip-synchs the songs and does the movements to them and it is really funny. If you get a chance, go to youtube and search for Japanese Beyonce. After that, Yoshio said that he would like me to join them for dinner. Again, I was grateful for the invitation.

Yasu also asked me about places he should see in Kyoto since he was going there for a short trip the next day. I suggested Kiyomizudera, Sanjusangendo and Fushimi Inari, since they are all in the same area and he only had a day. I told him that he should try to see Katsura some time, but it seems like it takes a lot more time for citizens to be able to schedule a tour for some reason.

To give Yasu time to pack before dinner, Kumi, Emi and I walked around their area. We saw some shops and they told me that the area is becoming more of a sight-seeing and touristy area. They took me to this beautiful street, which is actually called Gravestone Street, because there is a cemetery that is cuts through. It was quite beautiful though, with large cherry blossom trees lining it. Unfortunately, the cherry blossom season is over, but I could imagine that the walk along that road would have been incredible about a month ago. At the end of the street we stopped briefly at a small temple. We passed by a few more on our walk, but it was past 5 pm so they were all closed. I’m glad I got to spend some time with just the girls because I think we got to know each other better. Emi invited me to an event this Saturday. It has something to do with candles and a gym…I think it is some sort of custom that she does as a hobby, but I am not exactly sure what to expect. I told her that I would do my best to go because it sounds very interesting. The three of us talked about boys and school and jobs and English, until finally, we headed to the Indian Curry restaurant where we would meet the rest of their family for dinner.

At the restaurant, they asked me to teach them some slang, so I did. I tried to keep it pretty harmless, but you all know I have a mouth on me lol. It made me laugh because Kumi was taking notes…it was pretty cute. She kept saying “I want to know, I want to know!” It was a lot of fun. Earlier at lunch, I taught them “screw it” as being equivalent to “forget it” and Kumi wrote down “Let’s screw it”…I told her that she probably would want to drop the “let’s”, as it implies something else lol. Before dinner, I tried to teach them some things that are a little more harmless like “I’m stoked” or something is sweet, or tight, or baller. Of course we all ended up laughing.

The rest of the family showed up and we ordered our curry. I was so excited because I love curry, especially Indian curry. I got a chicken masala curry, mostly because it sounded delicious and was also not very expensive, since this was the second meal of the day that they were treating me to. Emi had to leave a little early to go tutor junior high school students in English, which is her part-time job. Hopefully I’ll get to see her on Saturday. After dinner, Yasu and Kumi went with me all the way back to my hotel, which was not necessary but was very sweet of them. Before we left, I thanked Yoshio for his hospitality and told him that I was very glad to have met him. At the end of the night, I gave them all my email so hopefully I will get to see them all again before I have to leave. The entire day was just an amazing experience and I was astonished by their generosity and attention. They fed me, gave me a tour of their city, invited me into their home…it was just amazing. By the time the day was over, I felt bad, to be honest, because they had paid for everything, insisting when I even tried. It was very sweet, but if you know me, you also know that it makes me uncomfortable when other people pay for me, so of course, I felt bad. I will just have to try to return the favor before I leave, and if Emi does end up in California, I would like to show her the same generosity and welcoming that they have given me.

I got home at around 8 and did some work, but I have been having insomnia lately so I stayed up til 1 or 1:30 watching House. I’m all caught up now so hopefully that will be the end of that.

Today, we moved from the Toyoko Inn to the National Olympic Memorial Youth Center near Yoyogi Park in Tokyo. Check out was at 10, but we weren’t leaving the area until 1, since we couldn’t check in at the Youth Center until 3…kinda complicated huh? So Jeff, Blake and I wandered around for a while and then just hung out until 1, when we left for our new housing.

The National Olympic Memorial Youth Center is probably the worst place I have ever stayed lol. The rooms are only $11 a night. They are tiny and we have a communal bathroom and shower. None of this is too big of a deal to me, but there is also an issue with internet. We have to pay for the internet, $5 a day. It’s not too bad, because it’s still much cheaper than any other place, and I’m pretty sure I can deal with almost anything for a month. It is also somewhat difficult to get anywhere besides the park from our new “campus”. What’s nice about the place is that it is almost a campus. We have a classroom here every morning and there are restaurants and a gym and a pool…none of which are free or even cheap, but that’s ok. The major issues are the internet and all the rules. The front gate is locked at 11, which isn’t a huge issue because we can still use the service gate. The worst part is that the rooms are dirty. The comforter on my bed is…nasty to be honest. There’s crap all over the walls and dust in the corners of the ceiling…it’s pretty bad. Also, we are not allowed to have food or drink in our rooms, classrooms or lounge area. I’m just not really sure where I’m allowed to eat in this place lol. I think we may have the internet situation figured out, and if that’s the case I can definitely deal with being here for a month if it means I get to see Tokyo. Unfortunately, it also means that I won’t be able to be online as often, so I am writing my blogs in word, and then posting them when I can. I apologize to my faithful readers lol. Anyways, that’s it for now. Pretty much everyone in the group is really upset with the living situation, but I don’t think it’s really that big of a deal. Tomorrow we have class at 10 in the morning and I have no idea what’s in store after that. Jeff and I decided to work on our final project together, but I don’t think either one of us is that motivated to work too hard on it. We’ll see how it progresses. Hopefully we can make it out to the site tomorrow so Jeff and I can pick an area and a specific site/program. My plan is to keep it as simple as possible lol. More on Tokyo to come.

So...

2009-05-03T06:10:00.001-07:00

Guess who's all caught up on posting pictures....This guy!

That is all.

Himeji

2009-05-03T06:08:00.001-07:00

Himeji Castle, Koko-en Garden, Ando's Museum of Literature and the Prefectural Museum of History

Ando Island: Naoshima

2009-05-03T01:15:00.001-07:00

Ando Island-Naoshima

In Tokyo

2009-05-03T00:02:00.000-07:00

Sunday, May 3rd, 4:00 pm

I got into Tokyo late Friday night and was pretty much exhausted. We got back to Kyoto from Himeji at somewhere around 7 and our train to Tokyo was at 8. Jeff and I got the rest of our stuff out of our "storage apartment" and repacked some stuff. The train ride was uneventful, except for the issues involved with us moving all of our stuff.

We got to Tokyo at almost 11. We're staying at a hotel for a few days because it is Golden Week, which essentially means that nothing is open and nobody has work, so our dorms are not open. We each have our own room, which is nice.

Yesterday I didn't do much, just wandering around a little with Jeff and Carisa. I had to find a way to get money so I ended up being on the phone with my Dad and my bank for much longer than was necessary in order to put a pin on my credit card so I can use it at ATM's. At the end of the day yesterday, I literally had 300 yen on me, which is about $3. So I'm glad we were able to figure it out so I could go get some money today.

We went to dinner at Denny's last night, which is nothing like the Denny's in the US except that they have french toast. The food was really, really good. I was impressed, so much so that I recommended it to a few people today.

My life in Tokyo isn't that exciting so far because I'm trying to recover from our week long trip lol. I'll let you know when I start exploring a little more. Tomorrow I am meeting with Yoshio Kondo, a work associate of my dad's. He and his daughters are meeting up with me to show me around, and I'm pretty excited for it.

Last night, I watched The Dark Knight and worked on my photos (as should be obvious lol) and started my scrapbook. Kind of a boring Saturday night, but I was totally ok with it. We're meeting briefly tomorrow morning but then we're free to explore. Jeff and I are planning on going to Yoyogi Park when we move to our dorms, because it's much closer. I hear it's just a fun place to hang out, so that should be cool. Anyways, that's the update though not much has happened. More to come...

Kurashiki and the Korakuen Garden in Okayama

2009-05-02T23:59:00.001-07:00

Kurashiki and Korakuen Garden in Okayama

Miyajima Pictures

2009-05-02T23:01:00.001-07:00

Miyajima

Hiroshima and Miyajima

2009-05-02T10:58:00.001-07:00

Peace Park in Hiroshima and Miyajima

Momoyama Castle

2009-05-02T08:47:00.001-07:00

Momoyama Castle

Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art and The Church of the Light: Tadao Ando

2009-05-02T08:36:00.000-07:00

Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art and The Church of the Light (Tadao Ando)

Osaka and Endo Shuhei

2009-05-02T08:34:00.000-07:00

Osaka and Endo Bathrooms

Kiyomizudera, Sanjusangendo, and Fushimi-Inari

2009-05-02T02:27:00.000-07:00

Kiyomizudera, Sanjusangendo, and Fushimi-Inari

Shugakuin Pictures

2009-05-02T00:57:00.001-07:00

Shugakuin

Naoshima, Fellonies and Himeji

2009-05-01T00:05:00.000-07:00

Friday, May 1, 2009

Recap time!

Wednesday we got to Naoshima at around 11 am. The island itself is not that exciting...pretty ugly for an island actually. What makes it so special is the atmosphere that has been created on the island through art and architecture.

We all stayed at different parts of the Benesse House, which consists of The Oval, The Benesse House/Museum, and The Park; all designed by Tadao Ando. My room was in the museum with Carisa, Trudy and Karen. Our room was the biggest since it was for 4 people, and the whole hotel was really nice. Most of the group decided to get drunk up in The Oval and watch the sunset. Carisa and I weren't really feeling the dynamics of the group, so we just had a few people in our room to do the same sort of thing, but much more mellow. I think we're all pretty happy about that decision because the rest of the group ended up breaking into what was essentially an art exhibit.

The Benesse House has an exhibit called a cultural melting bath, which is essentially a hot tub mixed with art, in which the whole experience is supposed to be a major part of the artistic nature of the site. This is what everyone decided to break into to "go in the hot tub". Granted, everyone was pretty drunk, but we're all still pretty pissed off about it. Seems like we're all adults here, and we should definitely know better. It's just really disappointing that a group of designers can't even be trusted to recognize and respect art work and the values of a different culture. I for one am really disheartened and, to be honest, a little disgusted with people for their lack of foresight and consideration.

Thursday was supposed to be our day to explore the island, but because of the incidents of the night before, it was a little tainted. Eleven out of eighteen people took part in the incident, and they were very lucky that they got to see the Chichu Art Museum before they had to leave the island.

The Chichu Art Museum was also designed by Tadao Ando, and is set into one of the hills of Naoshima. It houses four works by Claude Monet, three sculptural/spatial pieces by James Turrell and another spatial piece by Walter De Maria. The building itself was amazing and the joint composition with the artists was incredible. This modern spatial and artistic experience had made it onto my list of the top five places I have visited in Japan. Within his design, Ando has once again captured space, form and light in a series of concrete boxes. The man is an absolute master, and we were all dumbstruck by his skillful planning and his knowledge of material and light. It is still astounding to think that he actually had this all pictured in his head, and he definitely knew how the space would feel.

Each of the three featured artists were given their own space. The Monet gallery was beautiful, with all the pieces featuring water lilies. They were set in a simple white and concrete box, with beautiful lighting that allowed the paintings to captivate the viewers. The most interesting thing about spatial art is that starts to interact with the architecture. The three Turrell works, entitled "Afrum, Pale Blue", "Open Field" and "Open Sky" are all elegantly worked into Ando's architecture. All three are based on light, optical illusion and space. The concept of actually interacting with the art piece is incredibly interesting to me, and actually applies to the last piece in the Chichu Museum as well: "Time/Timeless/No Time" by Walter De Maria. The piece was a room that consisted of stairs and a platform, all done in concrete. Within the room, a dark sphere has been seemingly balanced on the platform and surrounded by what essentially becomes white space. Wooden sculptures covered in gold leaf were places around the sphere and the whole design is bathed in natural light, which makes it so much more interesting because it changes throughout the day.

After the museum, those of us who had not "been voted off the island", as Don Choi said, went to the famous Art Houses of Naoshima. These are traditional old houses, in which art installations have been placed. There were strange but interesting. There were six in total but three of them really stood out to me. One was the Go'o Shrine installation by photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto. It was stairs that looked like glass coming out of an old shrine and penetrating the ground. You could actually go into the basement and see the stairs coming down into the earth, after you pass through a very narrow hallway. Another was called Ishibashi, and had a room filled with paintings of waterfalls, reflected into a dark and polished wood floor, done by Hiroshi Senju. The last piece that was probably the most amazing experience unfortunately doesn't photograph well. It is a collaborative piece by Tadao Ando and James Turrell called Minamidera. Ando designed the architecture, but the light installation on the interior was by Turrell. The experience is quite incredible because you enter the house into complete darkness. You cannot see anything in front of you except pitch black, to the point where you literally run into walls if you are not careful. You are guided, partially by your hands on the walls and partially by the guide and the voices around you, onto a bench at the back of the room. You see absolutely nothing for a while, and then, faintly, you begin to see a light. Just a simple, orangish light in the left-hand corner. It is so faint that at times you think it has faded. Then, gradually, you start sensing something more before you even see it. Then, slowly, a blueish rectangle starts to appear in the middle of the far wall. After that, another simple light off to the right. Your eyes adjust from the point where you think you might either go blind or crazy, to where you feel like you might have night vision. All of a sudden, the lights are completely clear and you realize that you can see the people around you. As a group, you all get up and walk towards the back wall, curious to see what sort of trick has been played on you. You reach the back and find that it really is just simple, faint lights, reflecting and shining. A couple friends tried to take pictures of what they saw, but all the camera could see was black.

After we finished at the Art Houses, we headed back up the mountain via shuttle to see the Benesse House Museum and the Museum at the Benesse House Park. Both, again, were Ando designs. A few of the exhibits were very interesting, but nothing really compared to the buildings themselves for us. At 7 pm, we took the last ferry back to the mainland in Uno. From there, we took the train to Himeji.

Today was our one day in Himeji. We went to Himeji Castle, the Koko-en Garden, the Prefectural Museum of History and the Museum of Literature, by Tadao Ando. Again, the Ando buildings always seem to dominate, but the castle itself was interesting and the garden, though we have seen more inspiring gardens, was still very beautiful. There are a few things here in Himeji that I wouldn't mind seeing but we just don't have time. For example, there is a zoo and a "safari" where the animals are left to roam and you can go near them without a cage in between. Of course, these things are not exactly related to architecture, and so I guess it leaves me something to see if I ever get the chance to come back.

Now, we have about an hour before our bullet train back to Kyoto, where we will have an hour to get our stuff together before we get on another bullet train that will take us to Tokyo by a little after 10 tonight. I will try my best to catch up on pictures tonight so that you all can see the amazing things I've seen this week. Our first week-long trip is over. My feet are killing me, my shoulders must be as hard as rock, I probably lost like 5 lbs and I haven't had shin splints this bad since I was 5...but it was so, entirely worth it. The things I've seen this week are going to stick with me forever. For now, I'm just going to focus on catching my train and avoiding the swine flu. lol Next time, hopefully I'll have adventures in Tokyo to write about.

Daitokuji

2009-04-28T10:17:00.001-07:00

Daisen-in, Korin-in and Ryoanji

Manshuin and Shisendo

2009-04-28T09:49:00.001-07:00

Mansuin and Shisendo

Okayama and Kurashiki

2009-04-28T08:33:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Today was our one day to spend in Okayama. Unfortunately, we were all a little tired, so we slept in an extra hour and went around by ourselves instead of with the group.

First, we went to the city of Kurashiki to see the Kurashiki City Art Museum by Kenzo Tange. The exterior of the building was not that exciting, aside from the interesting and subtle texture of the concrete, but the interior space was nicely designed. We were all a little disappointed by the quality of the construction. The detailing and craft was not what it should have been, and was really distracting and unfortunate.

After that we wandered around the city for a while. We say the Oyama Memorial Museum, the Ivy Academic Hall, the Japanese Rural Toy Museum, the Ohara Museum of Art, the Ohara House, and the Achi Shrine. Of course, we didn’t go inside any of them because we were in a hurry to get back to Okayama. None of the buildings really stood out as anything amazing but experiencing the town was cool. The weather was all over the place today. It would be raining and cold one minute and the next be hot and sunny. In Kurahiki, we met this Turkish guy who had lived in Chicago for a few years so he spoke English very well. We ended up walking by his Turkish shop and buying some Turkish ice cream from him….it was all very Turkish lol. After that we headed to the Achi Shrine, and then back to the train station.
We got back to Okayama at around 3:30 and headed to the Korakuen Garden. The garden is in the picturesque style, oriented around a central lake. The landscape is a little overly controlled for me, but some of the views were still stunning. There were small buildings and gazebos around to enhance the landscape and provide stopping places along the way.

There were a few bridges along the way that we took advantage of for some more “band photos”. After the garden, we walked across the river to Okayamajo Castle. The castle was closed, but we could still get onto the grounds so we walked around and took some quick pictures.

By that time, we were all pretty tired so we headed back to our hotel, stopping at the train station on the way to try to get bullet train reservations to get to Tokyo and to get some food. We got the reservations and then went to dinner at a ramen place in the station. Of course all the ramen had pork in it, which has a tendency to make me sick, so I got gyoza (Chinese dumplings). Finally, we went home and traded pictures from the day. Our band photo gallery, hopefully, will continue to grow, because those are definitely fun.

Tomorrow we leave Okayama at 9:30 to go to Naoshima to see the Benesse Art Site and the Benesse House, all designed by Tadao Ando. The Art Site is comprised of The Benesse House, the Art House Project and the Chichu Art Museum and is focused on re-evaluating the relationship between man, architecture and nature. The setting seems like it will be very serene and I’m excited to see the architecture. Hopefully pictures will be posted of everything I’ve done pretty soon. Love you all.

Miyajima and Okayama

2009-04-28T06:35:00.001-07:00

Monday, April 27, 2009

Today, Jeff, Carisa and I explored the island of Miyajima. We woke up early and set out for the temple on the water, home to the famous Itsukushima Torrey Gate that is partially submerged when the tide comes in. There is something incredibly serene about the gate and its reflection on the water.

We finished at the Itsukushima Shrine at about 8:30, and it was already hot. We went to get a snow cone (an excellent breakfast, I must add) and met up with Derrick and Seth. The five of us decided to pay the ten dollars for a ride on the gondola/ropeway up the mountain rather than walk from the Momijidani Station to the Kayadani Station towards the top of Mt. Misen. It was a good decision seeing as the peak of the mountain was somewhere around 1700 feet up. Swinging out over a forest, with at least a 500 foot drop below you is quite an experience, especially when you’re afraid of heights. I actually did better than I was expecting, and the views were phenomenal.

At the top, we were greeted by an observatory and views of the ocean and surrounding islands, as well as monkeys. The monkeys are always my favorite, but the scenery on the mountain was beautiful. We spent quite a while with the monkeys, and then headed to the Sankido Hall and the Misen Hondo Main Hall and rest area, which was quite a hike. We reached the rest area, only to realize that it was another incredibly steep climb up to the highest observatory, the Mt. Misen Observatory. It was definitely worth the hike because the views were awesome. We got some funny pictures of each other as well.

After that, we started heading down the mountain, taking our time. We stopped along the trail to snap some pictures at the Dainichido Hall, The Reikado Hall,and some awesome “band” pictures at a dam. We stopped to check out the Daishoin Temple towards the bottom of the mountain, which was pretty nice, but it must have taken us close to 2 hours to get down, so we were all pretty tired. It was about 2 pm by then, so we went to get some food with D Choi.

We were thinking about going to a beach on the other side of the island before heading to Okoyama, but we kind of ran out of time. We ended up missing the ferry that the rest of the class took and had to get to Okoyama ourselves. Before we split up with Don, we double and triple checked that we had the correct directions, and yet, we did not. The directions Don gave us were to take “the train we took to get here” all the way to Okoyama. What Don failed to mention was that we were supposed to transfer to a bullet train at Hiroshima. So we ended up sitting on the standard train for like an hour and a half before we finally said screw it and figured out ourselves where to transfer to the bullet train. By the time we got to Okoyama (at around 8 or 9) we were all more than a little upset. The lack of organization on the trip is really starting to get to some of us, and I’m a little concerned that I won’t know my schedule for Tokyo until it’s too late to make plans with my dad’s friend and his daughters while I’m there. Hopefully I’ll be able to figure it out, because I’m really looking forward to meeting them.

Tonight we went out for food and got a few drinks, and then we just hung out and talked for a while. Now we’re all ready for bed…finally. Tomorrow we’re going to Korakuen, a picturesque garden in Okoyama, as well to Kurashiki for the City Art Museum by Kenzo Tange. I will try to post pictures asap because I have some really beautiful ones of the island.

Hiroshima and Miyajima

2009-04-27T08:58:00.001-07:00

Sunday, April 26, 2009

It’s now 8 pm and I am on an island called Miyajima. This morning I woke up in Hiroshima at about 9:30, after drinking with Jeff the night before. Today was his birthday so we were preemptively celebrating. I packed up and talked to Andrew for a little and then met our group in the lobby of our little hotel at 10:30. The hotel was actually nice. It’s a chain called the Toyoko Inn and we all had individual rooms. It was a nice break from the constant crowd of traveling in a big group.

This morning we went to Peace Park in Hiroshima, the Atomic Bomb Memorial. On the way, we passed by the A-Bomb Dome, a building that was close to the central blast of the bomb, but somehow managed to remain standing, though everyone inside died instantly. The structure of its once green dome remains, and it has been preserved as a reminder of the ramifications of nuclear war.

Peace Park, the memorial and the museum were designed by Kenzo Tange, a Japanese architect. The memorials were beautifully aligned with the dome from a specific spot on the way to the museum. The building itself is very simple, but it seems to suit its purpose very well. It becomes almost a blank slate on which the story of August 6, 1945 in Hiroshima can be written. The museum is lifted up off the ground floor, allowing a consistent view of the park, the memorial and all the way back to the dome.

Inside the museum, I read countless stories of lost lives, lost siblings, lost parents or spouses. The worst were the stories of lost children. The museum is arranged to tell the history of the event, so there is a lot of build up to the actual bombing. It gives the visitor a glimpse at what life was like in Hiroshima in the years leading up to the fatal attack. A good portion of the museum was spent just explaining how a nuclear weapon works, and its effects on the human body.
The question I was struck by (simply because I don’t know my history well enough) was why Hiroshima? Why was Hiroshima chosen as the main target of the U.S.? After going through the museum, it seems that Hiroshima had developed into one of the major military cities in Japan at the time. Unfortunately, it was also an educational and cultural center. I think the major reason it was chosen was because it did not have an Allied prisoner of war camp.

It is gut-wrenching that at 8:15 in the morning on a hot, sunny summer day, an entire city was leveled and thousands upon thousands of lives were lost in an instant. To be honest, I felt terrible being an American anywhere near the city. It really has nothing to do with being patriotic. It has everything to do with respect for human life. War is such a terribly ugly thing, and seeing the museum at Hiroshima served as a strong reminder of what destructive, hateful little creatures we people can be. Going to this place and seeing the vast amounts of devastation done in an instant was horrifying, but recognizing how long it has affected people’s lives and the livelihood of that city is even more petrifying.

Hiroshima has made strong efforts to continue on as a city of peace, serving as a reminder to the rest of the world of the consequences of war. Japan itself refuses to research, develop or have nuclear weapons. To be honest, I’m glad I went there, just because it made the realization that this terrible thing actually happened in the world more real. I won’t go into too much detail about the stories I read or the charred memoirs I saw because I know my Mom and sister read this, but there was more than one point that I couldn’t help but cry. To be honest, I was somewhat appalled that everyone around me wasn’t crying or mourning to some extent. I read every little plaque, every little story I could find, because these are real people with lives and deaths that are deserving of respect and consideration. Children who never got to grow up, those who lost parents, people who survived with life-long deformities or have cancer today…all of this shit really happened in one second. I must have spent at least 2 hours in the museum…in fact some people got worried and came back to get me after more than half of the group left without me. By the time I came out, I was stunned. I felt so bad because today is Jeff’s birthday, and I was just not in a celebratory mood.

Of course, we’re on a fast-paced schedule here so I tried to put it behind me, and get ready for Miyajima. We took a train ride and then a ferry to the island. We got in at around 4 or 4:30. Our hotel is called the Morinoyado Inn and offers traditional Japanese style rooms that are incredibly nice. I’m rooming with Trudy and Carisa tonight.

We all went out and wandered for a little while, checking out the island. It reminded me a lot of Hawaii on the approach, but it’s definitely colder here. There is a famous shrine that is out in the water when the tide comes in. We’re going to try to get some pictures of it tomorrow at high tide. There are also a few temples, but what we’re really interested in is another monkey park.

At 6:30 we were served dinner as a group. It was a very traditional dinner and, to be honest, was comprised of a bunch of crazy shit that I never thought I’d eat. It wasn’t terrible…everything was edible, but still, not really my favorite. There was just way too much fish. There was even octopus and squid…there was even fish in the desert. I wasn’t really feeling it.

Tomorrow we have until about 4:30 to explore (Don keeps reminding us that we’re on vacation right now) before we go to the next place on our list: Okayama. Our plan was to do karaoke for Jeff’s birthday tonight, but there doesn’t seem to be much in the way of that on the island. We decided to celebrate it tomorrow because that’s when it will be his bday in the US anyway. Hopefully, we’ll have some more options then.

For tonight, my plan is to take a traditional (meaning public) Japanese bath and then hang out/drink with Jeff and Carisa. Hopefully, tomorrow will consist of a visit to a shrine, monkeys and another train ride before we do some karaoke in a new city. Until then…

Has It Really Been A Week?

2009-04-25T07:33:00.001-07:00

So...I'm not quite sure how a week went by, but apparently it did. It's currently 11:30 pm on Saturday, April 25th and I am in Hiroshima. Let me fill you in on what's happened in the past week.

Sunday was supposed to be another day of touring around, but I was pretty exhausted. It ended up being a work day. I uploaded a bunch of pictures and worked on the sketch up model for our design project.

Monday was a standard class day...Japanese and studio. Our project was progressing nicely, and I just realized that I haven't put up any pictures of either one of our projects, so I'll work on that.

Tuesday we went back to Osaka to see some...well some bathrooms in the park of a castle designed by Endo Shuhei (a famous Japanese architect). Later that evening, we went to his office and spent some time with him. I guess he could be called a "paramodern” architect. He tends to focus on one specific idea on each group of projects he does. His work has been separated into these different areas of exploration. Some of his work is called "Gravitecture", in which he allows his buildings to be formed or influenced by the force of gravity. He also has collections of works he has titled "Bubbletecture" and "Rooftecture". These focus on redefining architectural elements and their implications and use in the formation of space. The meeting with him was really interesting, and though he is not my favorite architect, his ideas about space and form are really interesting and could definitely help contemporary architecture progress in new directions.

Wednesday consisted of classes and work. Our final for Project 2 was due on Friday and there are very few hours left over in each day after we go to our classes and on our tours. Needless to say, none of us have been sleeping very much lately.

Thursday we went to Kobe and Osaka to visit some of Tadao Ando’s works. He is just such an amazing architect. I love photographing his buildings because you can’t really go wrong. They are just so photogenic that every picture comes out amazing. We first went to the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art in Kobe. Ando tends to use a lot of concrete, but he always seems to capture the potential of the material in its relation to form, gesture and, particularly, light. There are beautiful little moments throughout his buildings that are very inspiring, though the buildings themselves may appear rather simple at first. The Prefectural Museum of Art not only creates excellently open spaces to show the artwork, but also becomes a work of art itself. As you walk through it, views are framed or you find yourself looking up at the sky, perfectly framed between two concrete walls. A shell-like stair case leads you down into the museum itself, where the spaces are left open, allowing the art to take over. Ando has mastered the artistic side of architecture without allowing it to deconstruct the programmatic and practical element of the practice.

We also visited the Church of the Light on Thursday. This is one of those buildings, like Frank Lloyd’s Falling Water, that every architect knows about and is inspired by. The building itself is very simple in terms of space. It is a rectangular shaped room that steps down to allow for seating and pews, but at the end of the small church, there is a beautifully simple cross cut into a concrete slab. It is really astounding how such a simple move can change the entire feeling of a space. There are some beautiful details and well thought-out connections in other parts of the building, but this simple void in the concrete is one of the most powerful architectural statements I have ever witnessed. I must have sat in the pews, staring at the concrete form for at least ten minutes before I even remembered to take pictures. The name “The Church of the Light” is extremely appropriate for this small, protestant church. The building itself captures light and shadow in an amazing and inspiring contrast. The experience is incredibly spiritual, even for those of us, like myself, who are not necessarily religious. The ideas of a connection to nature and to life itself truly rang out to me as I experienced the space.

Friday, our final project was due. Jeff and I stayed up until 4 am working on it on Thursday night, and I haven’t gone to bed earlier than 1 am this whole week. I think D. Choi has started to realize how hard we have all been working because he flat out asked us when we had time to do the work we did. Our project was well-received, and I think we’re both happy with it. I will do my best to post pictures soon.

After class, Carissa and I went shopping/browsing a little bit, then later we went to karaoke with Jeff and Blake. It was a lot of fun, and I think we’re all going to have to do it again sometime soon.

My money situation got a little stressful for a minute because I had to cancel my debit card, seeing as someone was using it in California while I’m in Japan…fun stuff. Jeff and I also ended up staying up til 4 last night cuz we had to pack to leave Kyoto after we got back from karaoke. We had to leave our weekly mansion at 11 this morning, so we went to Miyoyama Castle, and then back to Kyoto to meet with the group and leave for Hiroshima.

Our train got in at somewhere around 6. We have individual rooms for tonight, which I think will be nice for a minute. We went out to dinner in Hiroshima and then Jeff and I went and found a bar, where we had a few drinks. It’s kind of amazing to think that it was only 50 years ago or so that an atomic bomb was set off in this city. Every time I think about it, I almost cry, but I’m sure I’ll do enough of that tomorrow when we visit the Memorial Park here in Hiroshima. After that, we’ll head to Miyajima (I think) and spend a day or two there.

So, I think you’re about caught up. For now, I’m incredibly tired so I’m going to try to get a full night’s sleep (rather than the 4 hours I’ve been averaging) before we meet at 10:30 tomorrow morning to tour around Hiroshima. Don keeps emphasizing that we’re on vacation right now…I think he feels bad for working us so hard for the past month. I think he needs to be careful, or we’ll all be burnt out by the time we get to Tokyo next Friday.

Kyoto International Conference Center, Entsuji and The Kyoto Garden of Fine Art

2009-04-20T07:46:00.000-07:00

Kyoto International Conference Center, Entsuji and The Kyoto Garden of Fine Art

Nijo Castle and Monkey Park

2009-04-20T06:45:00.001-07:00

Nijo Castle and Monkey Park

Silver Pavillion and the Philosopher's Path

2009-04-19T00:20:00.001-07:00

Silver Pavillion and Temples Along the Philosopher's Path

My New Apartment in Kyoto

2009-04-18T21:44:00.001-07:00

New Apartment in Kyoto

Uji and Byodoin

2009-04-18T08:52:00.000-07:00

Uji and Byodoin

Imperial Villas, Holy Water, and Thousands of Gods and Torrey Gates

2009-04-18T02:20:00.000-07:00

It is now Saturday, April 18th, 7:20 pm.

On Thursday, we went to some of the Karesansui (or dry landscape) Gardens in Northwestern Kyoto. We first went to a head Zen temple called Daitokuji. An interesting point about most Zen temples is the fact that they have sub-temples. The sub-temples, for all intensive purposes, function independently but are dependent on the generosity of the main temple for land and for protection in earlier times.

Daisen-in was my favorite of these temples, and not simply because its garden is the most famous. I thought the grounds were designed very holistically, to tell a metaphoric story about how to live a virtuous and zen life. There are about 4 seperate gardens that are linked together by a story. They depict, by means of raked sand and stones, a stream flowing towards the ocean. Within this stream there are creatures, represented in stone, swimming against the currents, trying to stay young forever, but of course we must all one day to go "the great ocean". Along the path, on the side of this stream there are mountains and waterfalls created using only relatively small stones, plants and sand. It is amazing how beautiful the compositions were, and though I don't know how historically accurate the story we were told is, I liked it none the less.

Another sub-temple of Daisen-in that we visited was Obai-in, which was amazingly beautiful. It has a large moss garden, in addition to an austere rock garden, and it houses multiple buildings with beautiful woodwork and craftsmanship.We also saw Kohrin-in, with it's beautiful dry garden. Both of these sub-temples are only open during a certain period in the fall, and one in the spring, so we were lucky to get to go.

Unfortunately, pictures were limited in all of these places, but I will post what I can.

Later in the day, we went to Rokoun-ji Temple and the Golden Pavilion, which lives up to its name. The pavilion literally gleams with gold leaf. It is set in the middle of a lake, so its light is reflected and creates quite a site. Of course it was crowded with tourists, many of whom were eager to get pictures with some of our english-speaking group. We walked through the grounds and glanced at the small shrines, and there will be many pictures up soon.

Our last stop of the day was at Ryoanji. If you are an architecture student, and don't know what Ryoanji is, you should change majors. For those of you who are not architecture students, Ryoanji is arguably the most famous dry garden in Japan. This small garden was one of the major things I was most excited to see in Japan. The simple composition of sand and stone seemed so pure and beautiful in the pictures in my architectural history class. Ryoanji was a huge disappointment for me, and it has nothing to do with the composition of the garden. The temple was, unfortunately, under construction. So, instead of viewing the garden from the wooden engawa that surrounds the interior spaces, we saw it from scaffolding that extended out over a good portion of the garden, darkening the view. The rock compositions were still visible, but the perspective and scene was all off because it was designed to be seen from a different point. There were hoards of school children being incredibly loud and people talking on the phone as well. Overall, the experience of it was somewhat ruined for me, and I was incredibly disappointed. I may have to make another trip to Japan some time in my life because I didn't get to see Ryoanji the way it was meant to be seen. Maybe that's being a little overly dramatic, but I honestly think I might have preferred that they just had the temple closed during the renovations, so as to leave my high opinion of the garden untainted.

So, that was my "class" on Thursday. Friday was a normal day of Japanese and studio classes. Jeff and I spent a couple hours on Thursday night figuring out the structure and basic diagram for the facade of our building, but we're not really spending too much time or energy on this project as of now. We got good feedback on what we have, so I think we're close to being done with design, we just need to start production.

After class, Jeff and I had a plan to go see about 4 things. We made it to one of them (the Kyoto Handicrafts Center) and then realized that it was past 4, and that most of the temples would close at 5. I was a little discouraged because there's still so much I want to see in Kyoto and this is my last weekend to do it. To minimize our disappointment, we bought some beers and drank them on the way home (which is totally legal to do out in the streets here, by the way).

The rest of the group went out to eat raw horse (yuck!)and Trudy and I went back to that Italian place we went a few nights ago. It was really good, but we got lost in Kyoto Station trying to find it.

Today was finally Saturday, and Jeff and I had some catching up to do. We actually made it to our appointment this time at Shugakuin at 9 am, so we got to see the detached palace. The grounds are much bigger than those at Katsura, but I thought the design was a little lacking. Most of the buildings were larger and more impressive, but the gardens and grounds, though they were expansive and beautiful, almost lacked a certain unity. What was most interesting to me was the fact that there were farm lands and rice paddies within the compound. There are three parts to Shugakuin, the Lower, Middle and Upper Villas. Shugakuin was built for the retired Emperor Gomizuno as a retreat for him to come visit. The buildings served as his resting areas (in the Lower Villa), the residence and villa of Princess Akenomiya (in the Middle Villa) and as the retired Emperor's teahouse and space to read poetry (in the Upper Villa).

The complex was originally just the Lower and Upper Villas, with the Middle Villa being added later (around 1668). The most impressive part of Shugakuin were the views from the Upper Villa. When you reach the Rinuntei and progress on to the Kyusuitei (the tea house), Yorkuryuchi Pond extends out below you. A scene of the garden with all its foliage stretches out, with a view of the mountains and the center of Kyoto looming behind. It is as if Kyoto, and maybe even Japan as a whole, with all its beauty has been condensed into one view. The pond itself is almost breath-taking as you walk around it, but the view of it from the tea house is unrivaled. Katsura could never compete with such views, but in my opinion, the experience of walking through the small garden had a much richer meaning than the tour through the impressive grounds of Shugakuin.

Of course, Jeff and I had to make up for not seeing anything last night, so after Shugakuin, we headed out on our journey. Our first stop was a temple called Kiyomizudera, which means (roughly) Temple of the Purified/Sacred Water. It was a bit of a tourist trap, especially towards the top where the pagoda and main building are. We paid our entrance fee of 300 yen and walked through the grounds with our new friends from London that we made along the way. They were looking at a map and seemed lost, so we stopped in the street to help them and it turned out they were headed for the temple we were on our way to, so they walked with us. We lost them somewhere along the way because we were not as interested in the interior of the temple as we were the exterior structure. Kiyomizudera is built on top of a large hill, and so there is elaborate wooden structure supporting it from the bottom.

We continued around the grounds, found some good views of the structure and finally came upon the fresh water spring that gave the temple its name. There was a line to drink the holy water of the spring, and Jeff and I ended up paying 200 yen for "holy water bowls" to drink from. These weren't required, and are a little kitschy, but we thought they were decent souvenirs. We drank the water, and then figured out our route to our next destination: Sanjusangendo.

Sanjusangendo is not a large temple, nor is its architecture very fascinating. Yet, Jeff and I probably spent an hour inside. That's because it houses 1001 hand carved religious statues. Now, pictures were not allowed, but of course Jeff and I snuck a few, so I will eventually put them up. The sheer number and detail of the statues was amazing, and kept us in awe as we slowly made our way through the temple, reading the explanations of the different Buddhist gods.

By the time we left Sanjusangendo, it was after 2 pm. We decided to get lunch at a McDonald's because it was convenient. After being gawked at by some local boys for about half an hour, we finished our lunch, waved goodbye to them (which made them laugh and tease and talk more) we headed to what would turn out to be our last stop of the day.

There were 3 other temples that we were planning to visit today; just stopping by them quickly. We ended up going to Fushimi-Inari Taisha Shrine first because it was the farthest away from our appartment and we were planning on walking back. We didn't know that this was the place with hundreds and hundreds of Torrey Gates. We ended up walking through the massive complex of Torrey Gates for about an hour or two. The path turned out to be quite a hike and the massive number of bright orange gates was astounding. About halfway through, the hike turned into simple exercise and the gates lost their novelty. It was a good experience though and we're both glad we did it.

So that's it...all caught up after reading that huge novel. Sorry about that, but a lot has happened over the past few days. Tomorrow there are a few temples I'd like to visit, but I doubt I'll be able to see everything I want to in Kyoto before we leave next Saturday morning. I can't believe that I've already been here almost a month, and yet it feels longer than that at the same time. I still have a bit of work to do this weekend as well, but hopefully I'll be able to write again tomorrow so you don't ever have to read this much in one sitting again.

Until then.

Katsura

2009-04-17T06:43:00.001-07:00

Katsura

The Worst Day I've Had Here

2009-04-15T07:35:00.000-07:00

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...

Philosophers, Temples, Castles and Monkeys

2009-04-13T09:08:00.001-07:00

So...the last time I wrote was on Friday and it's now Monday night at 10:30...so I'm a terrible person...yeah, get over it.

This weekend was really eventful. Saturday we went on the Philosopher's Walk. This is a beautiful stroll along a small canal, lined with cherry blossoms. We started at the Silver Pavillion in Jishôji, in southern Kyoto. The Pavilion itself is under renovation, but the grounds were still beautiful. The rock and sand displays were meticulously maintained and I was impressed by their subtle details within simple forms.

Tôgundô is another building in the compound, dating from the mid-1400s. It is the earliest example of shoin style architecture in existence. The techniques and stylistic development in this building drastically influenced future buildings of its type.

We also visited Hônen-in and Anrakuji, which are just off the Philosopher's Path. These are two temple complexes , with beautiful gardens. We were lucky to be able to visit Anrakuji because it is only open for several weeks every year, when its gardens are flourishing. My favorite place we saw along the path was Eikandô. This is another temple complex, but it also houses a two story pagoda called Tahō-tō, which required a hike up to it, but yielded a nice view down on Kyoto. The staircase up to the Tahō-tō was curved and structured with beautiful curved beams.

When we finally finished the Philosopher's Path, I got some dinner by our old hotel with Biance and Sig, my new friends. After that, we made it back to our new "kyoto no apato" at the Good Life Weekly Mansion (happy fun time lol). The three of us then decided to watch Religulous and ended up talking about religion and philosophy until 1 am.

Sunday, we went to Nijo Castle. Nijo Castle was built by the shogun Tokugawa leyasu to be his military base in Kyoto. He ruled Japan from his capital in what is now Tokyo. Nijo Castle was meant to intimidate the guests and display the shogun's power and wealth. The spaces progress towards the shogun's private quarters. There is an outer wooden walkway and the rooms within have ornate details and expensive materials. The castle also shows examples of Japanese staggered shelving and storage within the walls. The grounds are also full of beautiful gardens and a lake.

After Nijo, we went to a place called Monkey Park. The park is near a lake, and up a mountain. It costs five dollars to enter, and then you have quite a hike ahead of you. When you reach the top, there's a site that you could never see back in the United States. There are monkeys all over when you reach the pinnacle. The monkey's are wild, but there is a feeding house and a few staff members to make sure everything stays safe. When there's food around, the monkeys are very aggressive, but if you go a little higher up, there are the babies with their mothers. They were so adorable, but you have to be careful not to get too close. The scenery was beautiful and the experience was amazing.

We stayed up with the monkeys for a couple hours, and then I headed to our new project site. Our new design project is a multi-use building at another long, narrow Kyoto site. We had concepts and site analysis due today, so the rest of Sunday (though there wasn't much left) was spent on that and Japanese homework.

Today I had Japanese class and then a brief meeting with Don to discuss ideas about the project. After that, Bianca, Sig and I got some lunch and then headed to the end of the K train line. We went to see the Kyoto International Conference Hall, a brutalist building from the 1960's. It was a surreal experience. The building is a huge concrete mass that resembles a ship from a Star Wars movie. At any moment you expect it to lift off or for smaller pods to fly out of its recesses. It seems to be gently placed in this beautiful landscape, with a garden and lake. It felt like something out of a strange dream, with this strange massive building protruding out of this natural landscape.

We then took about a 20 minute walk through a residential neighborhood to a small temple called Entsûji. The temple itself was not too exciting, but the zen garden at the back offers a poetic arrangement of rocks and trees, as well as a borrowed view of Mt. Hiei in the distance, framed by trees.

After meditating for a while, we took another long walk through the neighborhood, back into town and to the Kyoto Garden of Fine Art. This is a concrete building by Tadao Ando, one of the most famous Japanese architects. The building and its program are somewhat bizzare. The museum houses replications of famous paintings, and it is called a garden because it is entirely outdoors. The concrete forms intersections of beams and walls and stairs, but the main feature is the water. When you descend into the garden, you are essentially surrounded by waterfalls, which flow down below the concrete slab into pools. Within these pools, or on the walls bordering them, the replications are displayed. The intersections and angles create an interest to the building that is unique. This was probably one of the favorite things I have seen so far, and was definitely the best 100 yen ($1) that I've spent so far.

I finally got home at around 7, after a quick and cheap dinner of a shared pizza and salad in Kyoto Station. Bianca and Sig wanted to watch a movie, but I wanted to catch up on my blog, get the paper that's due Wednesday done and get to sleep early. Unfortunately that didn't happen as efficiently as I planned because Kyle called Jeff and me on Skype from Denmark. We haven't heard from him too much so we spent quite a while on the phone with him. Now it is about 1 am and I am finally all caught up. I need to sleep so that I can go to Shugakuin, another detached palace, in the morning. Hopefully it will rival Katsura, but I'm not expecting it.

The Move and Uji

2009-04-10T07:29:00.000-07:00

It's now Friday night at about 11:30, and it seems like this is becomming an every other day sort of activity.

Yesterday we moved across town into our new appartments in Kyoto. It was kind of a pain in the ass and I'm still not very well settled, but the place is much nicer than our last one and pictures will be up soon. We have our own kitchen and fridge and it's pretty awesome.

After our move...as in half an hour after we reached our new place...we had to meet in the lobby to take a trip to Uji. The Shinto Shrines at Uji are prime examples from the Heian Period in Japan. All the Shinto shrines seem to look very similar, but the smaller shrine we saw yesterday is one of the oldest shrines in existence, so it had some defining qualities. Specifically the roof structure and shape is distinguished from other shrines. The roof has a curved shape that is somewhat unique among the shrines and there are certain structural supports called frog leg supports that are u-shaped. The woodwork was beautiful of course, as it was in all the other shrines.

The most amazing thing we saw in Uji was Byodin. This is a temple, garden and lake complex built by Fujiwara Yorimichi, meant to embody the Pure Land as it was described in the Visualization Sutra. The Pure Land of the West is a sort of heaven where the faithful can be in paradise after they depart. The temple was built as a private place of worship and has a beautiful lake in front of it, making it and extremely beautiful building to photograph.

After the took a brief tour of the inside of the temple, and took a bunch of pictures, we went into the museum on the site which showed many of the original artifacts from the temple. It was really interesting and the museum building itself was also really nice, but we were not allowed to take pictures inside unfortunately.

This morning I had Japanese class and then a few hour break before our studio class. I was late to Japanese class because I got lost in Kyoto Station, but now I know how to get there so it's ok. After class Trudy, Carissa and I walked around and did some shopping and got lunch. I got some gifts for people and a towel, which we apparently need at our new place. Luckily I found one for about $5. I got something really pretty for my Mommy (which I can't really describe here since she reads the blog) and I hope she actually uses it, unlike the pretty scarf I got her from Paris...hear that Mom? The only thing I got for myself was a $10 pair of earings that are really pretty and hand made.

We made it to studio a little late and we went through a few people's design layouts for their travel journals, which I have barely started but will catch up on this weekend. We also talked about our trip down the Philosopher's Path tomorrow where we will see the Silver Pavillion and I'm pretty excited about it. We also got our new project assigned, but we convinced Don to make it a 2 week assignment rather than a 1 week one, since that stressed us out pretty bad last time.

Carisa and I wandered around for a while after class, and I found my towel. I managed to get to the nearest Subway station and to Kyoto Station without a problem. Unfortunately, I got out of the station on the wrong side and had issues figuring out where I was. I ended up having to ask some random guys if they spoke english and if they could help me. They ended up taking me to a hotel across the street since they figured that they would speak English there. They explained that I was lost and told them the name of my apartment complex and the guy behind the counter looked up directions and marked my new route out on a map for me. It was awesome how helpful everyone was, and I'm really glad that I can speak enough Japanese to figure out this sort of stuff, otherwise it could have taken me quite a while to get to my new home.

Jeff, Trudy and I watched a movie called Repo: Genetic Opera, which was a pretty sweet rock opera, but definitely a cult classic sort of thing. Then we went to get dinner with Blake and Derrick. We found an Italian place in the mall that's in the train station. It was pretty good, but the portions were pretty small for the price, even though it wasn't too expensive. They boys all got pizza, which seems like a better deal so I'll keep that in mind for next time. Now we are sitting in our room, with Trudy, Derrick, Blake, Karen and Katie watching Grandma's Boy and drinking a little. I'm pretty tired so I hope people clear out after the movie, but we'll see. Tomorrow we're going on the Philosopher's Path so there will be lots of pretty pictures up soonly.

Love you all and I miss you lots.

Kyoto Cherry Blossoms

2009-04-07T21:02:00.001-07:00

From Cherry Blossoms and Kyoto

And Somehow, it's Wednesday Already

2009-04-07T20:20:00.000-07:00

My week is going by really fast again. Our project is due in a couple hours, so I was up until 1 last night finishing it. We also have a paper due Friday, we're moving tomorrow, we have Japanese homework and a travel journal that I haven't started. They're keeping us pretty busy over here. We're actually going to talk to our teacher today about cutting back the work a little bit so we can go experience Japan a little more because everyone feels like we've just been working and touring all the time.

Yesterday we had small group tours of Katsura Ryoji (the Katsura Detached Palace) and it was beautiful. The gardens are so scenic and the little tea houses strategically placed throughout them are so thoughtfully designed. The experience has been controlled and designed from moment to moment, so that as you move through the garden your understanding of it changes and develops. Each bend in the path brings something new; some new and uniquely designed building or a picturesque scene. In fact, the way the garden is designed seems to relate to the Picturesque movement in architecture, in which a scene is designed to be viewed from a specific vantage point. However, it seems that the gardens are designed a little more thouroughly because there are obvious framed view, but also the experience and feeling within the garden changes as you stroll through it. And, unlike many Picturesque scenes, there doesn't seem to be a poor vantage point. As far as photography goes, you can't seem to go wrong within the walls of the Katsura Ryoji gardens.

Fortunately for us, simply because we had so much work to do, yesterday was a half day trip, so the rest of the day was spent finishing up our project (which I will definitely post pictures of) and Japanese homework. On our way home from the subway station, we stopped near one of the streams and looked at the cherry blossoms, which will be gone soon. I picked some up off the ground to press them in my sketchbook, but only one turned out well, so I will have to get some more today after class. Jeff and I also went to dinner at this semi-American food place. I got a pizza, which was good, but totally different than most pizzas you could expect to get in the states. It had chicken and a lot of onion on it, and cheese, but a thinner sauce that definitely did not have any tomatoes in it. Like I said, different, but really good.

This morning I had Japanese class and this afternoon I have studio class where we will all present our projects. We're going to try to convince D. Choi to hold off until Friday on assigning our next project, so I'll let you know how that goes. Tonight I need to pack for our move in the morning and I want to go see the cherry blossoms lit up and maybe pick up a few more to press before they're all gone. After we move into our new appartments, we are going on a half day trip to Uji, to see the dry gardens there. I'm really excited about it because the rock gardens are supposed to be beautiful, and this is another site that we learned about in Architectural History, so it should be amazing.

That's all for now. I'm going to try to put up some pictures of Katsura and the Cherry Blossom Festival that is going on in Kyoto, and I'll be back tomorrow.

So I've been slacking.

2009-04-05T23:01:00.001-07:00

Well, not really, but I am behind in terms of my blog.

It's now Monday at 3 pm and I haven't written since Friday, so I apologize.

Saturday Jeff, Trudy, Carisa and I met up with D Choi to go on a "leisurely walk" around Kurama, a small town about half an hour north of our part of Kyoto. It was really beautiful there, much less crowded and I have already posted pictures.

The area was just a small town, a much different and refreshing atmosphere compared to cities like Kyoto and Osaka that we've already experienced. There was a beautiful little river called the Kuramagawa (Kurama River...unique, I know) with hand made and potentially dangerous, but picturesque little bridges. Of course, we had to cross them and walk around by the river before we made our way up to the shrines and temples of Kuramadera.

There was also a house that is 100 years old that we wanted to see, but it was not open, so we only got to see the exterior, which is unfortunate.

We started at the Niomon gate and then proceeded through the worship hall, called the Haiden, of a temple called Yuki Jinja. This temple was unique in that it's worshipping platform was seperated from the shrines themselves.

We continued to climb higher and higher, seeing little shrines and temples along the path. I don't even want to try to guess how many stairs we climbed before we finally reached the Honden, or main hall, of Kuramadera. After a short break, we quickly found out that there were still a good number of stairs to be conquered. Of course, we're never ones to be defeated by inanimate objects, so we continued to hike.

Finally, 235 meters above the Niomon where we started, we reached the peak and took a break before heading back down to Kibune. My legs were shaking and sore by the time we were done, but it was beautiful and worth the climb. Of course, then there was the 20 minute walk to the train station.

The rest of my day was consumed by work as Jeff and I tried to hash out our design without too many conflicts. We are about done designing but we still have the presentation work to do.

Sunday was a work day as well, so there's not much to discuss there expect the fact that we're all a little upset by the amount of work being assigned. I don't think most of us would have paid $6000 to sit in a hotel lounge and do work. Hopefully it will get to be more manageable.

This morning I had Japanese class and then a brief meeting with D Choi. Now we are going as a class to see the cherry blossoms and relax a little, so I will post lots of pictures later.

Kurama Temple

2009-04-05T20:20:00.001-07:00

Kurama Temple

Nara Pictures

2009-04-03T05:07:00.001-07:00

Nara

Ise Pictures

2009-04-03T04:17:00.001-07:00

Ise
click on the picture to go to my album

Friday I'm in Love...

2009-04-03T02:10:00.000-07:00

well...I'm not. But my sister is and that's exciting :)

If I'm in love with anything right now, it's the idea of a weekend and a break. I feel like we haven't really stopped since we landed in Osaka only a week ago.

It's now Friday night at about 6 and it feels like my week went by really fast but at the same time I'm amazed by how much I've done. My day today was pretty mundane, just Japanese and design class. Jeff and I definitely need to develop our design a lot more and I was stressed about it at first, but now I'm not stressing at all. I feel like our project is going to be fine and I really don't want to spend my free time in Japan working on projects.

Tonight I feel like I need to take it a little easy. I'm going to try to get my Japanese homework done and maybe do a little designing with Jeff, but I'd also like dinner and a few beers. For now, I'm going to upload pictures. Tomorrow we might be going to Osaka again to see a few buildings so that should be fun. Anyways, goodnight my faithful readers and fear not, there is much more to come.

So much to talk about...

2009-04-02T20:04:00.001-07:00

So I shirked yesterday cuz we didn't get back into Kyoto until about 8 and then we had some work to do for today (Friday, March 4)

Yesterday, we went to Nara to see some of the oldest Buddhist temples in the world. They were much more ornate than the Shinto shrines we saw in Ise. The Shinto religion is much more based in nature so the trees themselves are thought to contain the gods, whereas in the Buddhist religion, idols and images are used. So there were statues and paintings of the gods and idols inside the buildings.

The first place we went to is called Horyuji. It is the oldest Buddhist temple that has been used consistently throughout history. We ended up taking an incredibly long and incredibly expensive bus ride to get to Horyuji. Don kind of dropped the ball on that one. The temple was really interesting and I'll post pictures of it later.

The other important place we went was Toodaiji. This temple is often considered the largest wooden structure in existence, and it was incredibly huge. It was almost unneccessarily large. Inside was a huge statue of Buddha. The size of the columns made you feel like you were standing in a forest. Just the pure scale of the structure and the statues was enough to inspire awe. Pictures will be up later.

Another interesting thing about Nara is that it is covered in deer...that's right...deer. They're everywhere! They follow you around and come up and sniff you while you're trying to take pictures of the temples and pagodas. At first they were cute, but then you watch them more and more and they are all a little mangy and they act like scavengers. It was actually kind of gross after a certain point. They are so used to people that they just walk right up to you and try to take any food you may or may not have.

We got back to Kyoto at around 8 and then had some work to do. I did some translations from English to Japanese and then Jeff and I had to put together a presentation on our basic ideas for the metal store, which we have now officially named "Slashed and Torn". I will put up some pictures of our presentation that we did last night cuz it's pretty cool.

So, that's architecture and Japan...now on to more important things...

My sister got engaged this week (on Wednesday night I think). I was so excited for her, I seriously started crying. I'm kind of sad that I'm not there to experience how happy she is right now, but she said she's going to wait for me to start planning, which I'm happy about. Now I'm excited to go home and help her plan her wedding. So congrats to Ashlyn and Jeff, I'm so happy for you guys.

Anyways, I have to go to my design class now, I'll be back later with pictures and more writing.

Japanese and Slash Metal

2009-04-01T02:26:00.000-07:00

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

Tuesday in Ise

2009-03-31T06:54:00.000-07:00

Today we went to Ise. The city itself wasn't too exciting, but we did manage to go to a nice, active little downtown area. It was essentially a street lined with vendors and little shops full of everything you could imagine....lots of food though. I got what was essentially a hash brown on a stick, a beef bun, and some ice cream, all of which was delicious, but sounds very fatty now that I read it.

In terms of architecture, we visited the Ise Shrines, which are the most sacred Shinto shrines in Japan. They are the most sacred because they have the strongest tie to the Imperial family of Japan.

First, we went to the outer shrine (Geku) which was nice because you can see a little deeper into the compound. It was really interesting to see the hierarchy of the little shrines and the different ways that the sacred areas are denoted. The buildings themselves seem to relate to most native architecture, such as some types of Native American buildings. They are supported by thick wood posts and beams, with wood-cladded walls and thickly thatched roofs. (pictured to come)

Sacred areas are marked off by simple, thin rope with white paper tied to them. This is just to make the sacred areas visible to the people, but the areas themselves were considered sacred before they were marked off. Along the wood fences that line the different areas within the compound there are also very green leaves, but I don't know what they signify.

In the most sacred areas, like the main shrine, there are no pictures allowed, but I think some people were able to sneak a few, so I'll have to try to get them and post them for you. It is really a procession of gateways and buildings that appear simple, but I have never seen the inside of them because only very select few people are allowed to enter them (like the Emperor)

The pillars and columns in the compound are of particular importance. They are made of solid wood, harvested out of the mountains. These posts serve much more of a spiritual purpose than a structural one, since many of them are not even needed structurally anymore. Especially the posts at either end of the gable thatched roof, supporting the main beam of the gable, are no longer structural, but are still considered very important to the shrines.

Pillars or columns are though to hold religious or spiritual meaning in and of themselves. They are tied to the idea of God throughout Japanese mythology. We did a reading on it that tells how the original man and woman built a pillar to heaven and that their daughter eventually ascended into heaven by way of this pillar. The words used to count people and gods are closely related to the word for pillar or column. This helps to tie together the idea that gods would reside in the pillars and that they have a strong relationship with man. It seems like the column itself almost becomes a spiritual entity and is at least respected, if not worshipped to some level.

We also went to the inner shrine (Naiku), which is more sacred. The grounds were beautiful and the shrines were very similar to the outer shrines. We were lucky because we got so see some of a ritual. There was a woman there who got to enter the compound and went through a ritual with a priest who then led her into the next level/ring of the compound where she was allowed to worship and pray. It was really interesting witnessing this ritual that has existed for so many years, and realizing that this woman must be someone important to even be allowed to enter that area. Unfortunately, my camera died on our way up to the main inner shrine, so I will have to depend on Jeff's pictures.

Watching people worship there was also interesting. They would approach a shrine, toss in some yen and then clap their hands twice, bringing them together near their chests for prayer. Then they would bow a few times. We saw people doing this at multiple shrines, always performing the same ritual.

After we walked through the inner compound, we wandered through the downtown shopping area a bit more, but after about an hour we were all ready to head home. The train ride was 2 hours there, and 2 hours back, but I think it was worth it.

When we got back to Kyoto, we went to the chinese food place for dinner and had some pot stickers, chicken, rice and, of course, biiru. It was necessary after such a long day. Now I am going to go review some Japanese before our class at 9 tomorrow morning, and head to sleep.

So goodnight, and pictures will soon follow.

The Rest of My Monday

2009-03-30T02:56:00.000-07:00

It's almost 7 now and I got back for dinner a little while ago.

Class with the D. Choi was longer than I wanted it to be. We all went through our presentation on our different topics but I had a huge headache so I had a little trouble paying attention. I've been getting those semi-frequently and I don't care for it. However, there were some interesting topics about the different food and shopping places around town and the different type of public outdoor space that is available in urban Japan. It's pretty unique how the street becomes almost a public open space here. It is much less vehicle focused and much more geared towards the pedestrian, much like many European cities. When you think about it, it makes sense because this city was around long before cars were.

There is also very limited public plaza or open space set aside. This is because these cities were originally designed as castle cities, which means they are designed for defense, not necessarily for civic activity. This might pose a bit of an issue for us as tourists because these cities are not meant to be easily navigated, but I'm sure we'll be ok.

Tomorrow we're meeting at 7:45 am for a day trip to Ise, which is where Japan's most sacred Shinto shrines are located. This is one of those sites that we learned about in our architectural history classes and I never thought I'd actually see in person, so it should be worth getting up early for. I should probably get to sleep early anyways since my head is bothering me.

After class I was really hungry...like too hungry for rice or noodles. No...this hunger would not be satiated by such mundane options. I'm sorry to say that it was time for...McDonalds. Yes, my friends, but an hour ago, I was sitting in a McDonalds in downtown Kyoto enjoying a delicious burger. Some would mock me for it, but I just don't care because it was so good, and it was definitely what I needed.

Now I am sitting in our hotel lounge, downloading some readings and the syllabi and schedules for our classes and enjoying some Maple Cookie flavored Haagen-Dazs (very delicious, by the way). I also bought a drink that I was told I have to try. It is called Pocari Sweat and sounds gross, but I was told it is good. I just opened it and tried some and it's not bad. It tastes like a very weak lemon gatorade, though I think it's a little thicker.

Anyways, now I'm going to go do some reading, some Japanese homework and then potentially some scrapbooking (which I haven't started yet despite my strong intentions to do so). I still have some more pictures to upload but I will slowly catch up on that. After tomorrow, there should be a lot more really beautiful pictures.

Until then...

Wandering Around Kyoto

2009-03-29T21:22:00.000-07:00

cherry blossoms

Kyoto, on the way back to our hotel

check this guy out ^

now check THIS guy out ;)

pretty fountain/courtyard space

piggy fountain

outdoor market/mall in downtown Kyoto

sometimes you just gotta be a huge tourist...

and make an ass of yourself with your friends...

until you realize that you're right outside of a temple (who puts those things right outside temples?!)

dude...screw babies

oh god...there he is

silly me right outside the Imperial Palace grounds

Recovery, relaxation and Japanese

2009-03-29T20:42:00.000-07:00

It's now Monday at a quarter to 1 pm and I just got back from my first Japanese language class.

Yesterday was a pretty mellow day. I got up at around 8 or 9 and came online for a while. I got to talk to my Andrew for a little, but then the sound stopped working on my computer :(
I also got to instant message with my Daddy for a little bit, so that was nice. I spent the rest of the morning uploading pictures, which are now up for all to see and there is still more to come.

Trudy and I got hungry and went off on our own to find some food. We wanted to try this burger place because they serve the patties plain or covered in egg, so it would be new but still somewhat familiar. Unfortunately, you had to write your name down on a list to get a table. Trudy and I looked at the list, looked at each other and then walked out the door. We're not quite at the point where we can write things yet.

Instead we went next door to a place called Mamma's Boy. Luckily we had a young waitress who spoke a little English, so she helped us out and we managed to get some food. There was an item that was all over the menu that looked rather intimidating, but I decided to order it because I saw a lot of people eating it. It looked like a ball of something covered in a thin omelet and then topped with some sort of reddish sauce. It turned out to be somewhat like a burrito. There was a big ball of rice covered in what I'm going to compare to enchilada sauce and then wrapped in the thin omelet that acted almost like a tortilla. Then the whole thing was covered in sauce again. It was really good, so Trudy and I were impressed.

Here are some pictures of the food:

Trudy looks intrigued

who wants some?

After that, we ran a few errands and then came home, where we sat in massage chairs and went online/worked on our projects for the rest of the day.

My project is a joint project with Jeff where we had to compare a Japanese coffee chain called Doutor Coffee to Starbucks in Japan as well as in the US. Doutor is a cheaper coffee chain and seems to be more of a get in and get out sort of place. Jeff and I did our best to make a fair assessment while still making our presentation look nice.

So that was yesterday. Today our classes officially start. I had Japanese class with Watanabi sensai this morning at 9. I was nervous at first because I feel like I know absolutely nothing, despite my efforts to learn some vocab and some of the hiragana characters. The class turned out to be a lot of fun. Watanabi sensai gave us some background on the development of the written Japanese and how most of it is derived from Chinese characters. We went over basic sentence structure (which is subject-object-verb while in english it is subject-verb-object) and the pronunciation of the hiragana characters. We also covered some basic verbs and vocab. Tabemasu is to eat, nomimasu is to drink, kaimasu is to buy, mimasu is to see and shimasu is to do. So when Watanabi sensai said to me, "Nani o shimasu ka?" (what do you do/what are you doing?) I said "Nihongo o benkyooshimashita" (I'm studying Japanese). He was very happy about this because he hadn't taught us nihongo, which is the word for Japanese. I was a little proud of myself.

After class we got some food at one of the ticket (kippu) machine places. Then we came back and I put together a quick presentation on the dessert food that Trudy and I tried. Now I am waiting until 2:30 when we meet as a class for our history and theory class.

Hopefully I'll write more later, but I might be busy learning Japanese :)

Our Area in Kyoto

2009-03-28T19:18:00.000-07:00

My Room in Kyoto

2009-03-28T18:16:00.000-07:00

the view from my room

the room i share with jeff (ignore the mess)

our extremely small bathroom...nice and compact eh?

Trip to Osaka

2009-03-28T07:13:00.000-07:00

It is 11:15 pm on Saturday, March 28.

I woke up this morning at 8 and went to breakfast with Jeff, Trudy, Derrick, Seth and Blake. We went to another one of those places where you put your money in a machine and don't have to talk to anyone. We're still not sure what is considered breakfast food, but we seem to be managing.

After breakfast we walked around trying to find The Lofts, which is one of the stores that we went to last night. We all wanted to find some rubber cement so we can do a little scrap-booking in our sketchbooks. Unfortunately, there was a little problem with translation. I'm not even sure if they have rubber cement here, so we settled for regular glue and tape.

Later, Trudy and I tried some weird mochi balls with a sweet-ish bean paste on the inside....not really my favorite, but one of our assignments is to try a new food. We documented the process, so hopefully pictures of it will be up tomorrow. Jeff and I also tried some strange omelet thing with onion and some sort of fish in it. It smelled really fishy (literally) but it didn't taste it at all. It wasn't that good, but I think it was meant to be eaten warm. Jeff and I agree that it would make a good breakfast food if it were warm.

Strange Food Documentation:

not ready for pictures

you ready for this?

hmmm...smells like food...maybe

aww...would've been cute

a little sketpical

cheers, buddy

I'm very unsure about this...

Jeff made us laugh

eww, Trudy! Don't pull it apart!

This is what warranted the above disgusted face

At 4, we met with the whole group to take a trip to Osaka. It takes about an hour to get to Osaka from our hotel. We went to the downtown area, which is "like a tweaked out Time's Square" as one of my peers called it. There are bright lights and advertisements everywhere, as well as plenty of food and entertainment places as well.

We went looking for some early Tadao Ando buildings but ummm...couldn't find them even with the help of Don and his guide book. So instead we went to dinner. Don found this place that is famous for what I'm going to call a Japanese version of latkes. They are like potatoe pancakes that are filled with...things. Jeff ordered one with shrimp and some vegetables and I had one with bacon and cheese (called the Italian Mix). We ended up sharing so we could try both. And of course, there was biiru.

We created our own version of a Japanese cheers, which is "bonzai biiru!", meaning "hooray, beer!" Then we found out that the actual way to say it is "kanpai" but I still like our version better.

After dinner we walked around the downtown area some more. Then Don took us into the strangest place I have ever experienced. When we first entered, it looked almost like a fun house but Don said something about it being a recreation of old Osaka. We were given little handouts and took an elevator up to the 5th story (there was no other option). The elevator doors opened and we were greeted by overly happy Japanese women who handed us tickets. Don informed us that if we don't buy anything we just return the ticket at the end and there is no charge...so then I was really confused as to what the hell we were doing. We started walking through what appeared to be a cross between a maze and a carnival that was designed by Disney, based on the pirates of the caribbean ride (or possibly the Treasure Island scene from Pinocchio) mixed with old Osaka and filled with hundreds of stairs and food vendors trying to sell you things. Apparently, we were in a food court, but it literally took me like 10 minutes to figure that out. I don't know what exactly is was about the place, but it freaked me out a little and eventually made me extremely light-headed. Finally we left the crazy place, but it took me quite a while to recover. Total sensory overload.

We took the subway to the train station and then the train back to Kyoto. I was dead tired on the train but I made it home. I'm trying to keep it relatively short tonight so that I can get to sleep. I didn't get to talk to anyone from home today, so everyone should know that I'm thinking of them. I promise, tomorrow will be a day full of studying Japanese and putting up pictures. There is also a few videos that Jeff took that I will put up as soon as I get them from him or have some way to link to them.

Oyasumi nasai! :) (Goodnight!)

Osaka pictures:

Touring Kyoto

2009-03-27T20:39:00.000-07:00

It is now Saturday at about 12:30, and I've written nothing about Friday.

Yesterday I woke up at about 6 am and couldn't get back to sleep. So I got up, took a shower in our tiny bathroom and went into the lounge to go online. I got to talk to my family and Andrew on Skype which was nice. I'm not sure how often I'm going to get to do that as the trip progresses so I'm going to take advantage of it now.

At around 10:30 we went out for some breakfast. We found a noodle place, but it's hard to tell what exactly is supposed to be breakfast here lol. The place is pretty cool, especially for us since you don't really have to talk to anyone. You go in and there is a sort of vending machine with pictures and descriptions (in Japanese of course) of different meals and items with the prices listed next to them. You put in your money, and the items you can afford light up. Then you select one of them based purely on a wild guess about what will be in it based on the picture, and you get a ticket. When you go sit at the counter, you are given tea and you hand your ticket to the guy behind the counter. He then brings you your meal, which usually consists of and includes things that you were not expecting, and there is very little language required. It's pretty much perfect for us and the food is not bad. It seems like all of the meals I've had so far cost about $5 at most. That is excluding the cost of biiru (beer) of course.

After we ate, we went to a large department store called Mina, which is a few blocks from our hotel. I found a present for my sister Taylor there and I hope she likes it. When I was purchasing it the girls behind the counter were talking to each other and giggling a little bit and they finally asked me if I was American. I answered "hai" which means yes, and they were so impressed with my incredibly limited Japanese that they started talking to each other again. Of course, they didn't know that Jeff speaks some Japanese and was catching a good portion of what they were saying. So when they called us cute, he said "so dessu" which means "that's right". The girls got really embarassed and asked him if he spoke Japanese and he said a little. They were so impressed with us for just that little bit of Japanese. I find it so interesting because in America, it seems like we usually expect foreigners to know or learn our language. Here, they are just so happy if we even make an effort. It can really make you consider our attitude about tourists and foreigners in the states.

At 1 pm, we met with our class to take a tour around Kyoto. We went down to the Kyoto International Community Center where our design classes will be held on Wednesday and Friday afternoon. There is a message board there and Jeff and I are planning on posting an ad as English conversation partners as a way to meet some people, and potentially make a few extra yen. We also checked out the library there, but it doesn't seem like it will be that useful to us.

After that we took the subway to the Imperial Palace to make appointments to tour a few of the palaces in the area. It took us a long time because there are so many of us and they usually only take groups of 4. We finally got it figured out, but we scared off everyone else in the office in the process.

We walked through the Imperial grounds which were beautiful. It's amazing to walk through what was once the palace of the Emperor of Japan. The traditional architecture is so amazing and it seems like there is a strong focus on framing views and allowing small glimpses into the more private grounds through somewhat elaborate gateways. Some of us ended up lagging behind to take pictures while Don Choi (our teacher) kept going on without us.

From there, we walked on to where our Japanese classes will be held. The building is a little house that was built 100 years ago. It was constructed as a complex of 3 townhouses and our sensai (teacher) has broken through a wall upstairs to connect to one of the next door townhouses. He fixed up what was once an old storage room and turned in into a classroom where our lessons will be held. He seems like a very sweet man, but I think we are all a little nervous since very few of us know the hirigana and katakana characters even though we are supposed to. The lessons will be pretty intense, but I am really looking forward to them, despite my nerves.

The whole house is covered in tatami mats, which means that we cannot wear shoes once inside. It is very interesting because the floor is treated more as a piece of furniture than a walking surface. I am learning to tell the difference between floors that are meant to be walked on and those that are more for sitting. The distinction usually involves a level change. The stairs to get up to our classroom are incredibly steep...more of a ladder than anything else. There are obviously different codes in terms of safety here.

By the time we were done at the Japanese school, we were all pretty tired of walking. But, of course, there is always more to see. We walked back towards our hotel but we ended up stopping at an electronics store to pick up a router so we can all have wireless internet at our hotel. Setting it up took much joint effort by Jeff (our official computer guy) and Norio (our official Japanese guy) and was finally finished at midnight.

After the electronics store, we walked through a fish market filled with strange foods. One of our assignments is to try a food that we've never tried before, so Trudy and I found some strange balls filled with....ummm...something. We really have no idea what they are, but we're going to eat them tomorrow and document the process.

Next, we went to a department store that has a strange sort of grocery store on the basement levels. Jeff and I were starving so we found some sort of fried things and ordered them based on randomly pointing at them and saying ichiban, which is the word for one when the thing you're counting is elongated in shape. We almost got left behind because we were the only ones who stopped. Luckily Don found us before everyone left.

Lastly, we stopped at a large store called The Loft which carries everything from makeup to household goods and electronics. I found a traveler's clock which tells me the time here and the time in LA at the click of a button, which is nice. I also got a passport holder so my passport doesn't get all beat up.

We were finally released for the evening. Jeff, Blake, Norio and I decided to go get some Chinese food at a place that Norio recommended. We all ordered gyoza which are essentially pot stickers that we have in the US. They were pretty good and it was a good amount of food for about $6. Then we went to an Irish pub for a beer. It was interesting because the owner obviously spoke English, but no one else did. The place was surprisingly empty for a Friday night.

After walking across Kyoto all day and having a beer, we were all pretty much falling asleep so we came back to the hotel. Jeff and Norio stayed up to get the router working, but I went straight to bed. Overall it was a productive, but exhausting day. Now I just have to try to remember where all those places are in relation to our hotel...I'll let you know how that goes.

Anatagata die suki des (I love you guys)

The Flight and Kyoto

2009-03-26T15:41:00.000-07:00

It is almost 8 am on Friday and I am now recovered from the process of getting from Southern California to Kyoto, Japan. I left my house in Yorba Linda at 9 pm on Tuesday, landed in Seoul, Korea at 5 am on Thursday and then finally got into the Kansai International Airport in Osaka, Japan at a little before noon.

To be honest, I don't even know how long the flight was, nor do I want to take the time to figure it out. There is a 16 hour time difference so feel free to figure out how long I was in the air and then you can let me know, but I'm pretty sure that I lost a full day.

The flight was uneventful...I slept for most of it even though I meant to study Japanese. I sat next to Jeff and he taught me some key phrases and helped me understand the structure of the language. He'll say that he feels incompetent with his Japanese, but he's definitely helping me out a lot. I'm begining to understand how to structure sentences and to ask questions. The vocab is coming slowly and the literacy is lagging behind that.

I can't tell you much about the country, but the airport in Korea was pretty nice. We decided to get some McDonald's but of course, we don't speak Korean. I decided to be the bold one and went ahead and asked if the girl behind the counter spoke English. She spoke a little and we managed to order some breakfast.

The Kansai Airport was designed by Renzo Piano (an incredibly famous architect) so despite being tired and ready to be at our hotel already, we stayed for a little and looked around. Then we took a train from the airport to Kyoto. I ended up sitting by myself on the train, immediately surrounded by people who I couldn't communicate with, so I took the time to take in the architecture and landscape on our way. Unfortunately, my camera was not charged when we landed, so I will have to steal pictures of our first day in Japan from Jeff and post them later. I did some sketches and took some notes. The design of buildings here is noticeably different. there is a lot of modern influence in the buildings, but every once in a while you come across a little traditional building. It's really interesting seeing the two side by side.

We stopped somewhere (I have no idea where) and switched from the train to the subway. Let me tell you that hauling your 3 months worth of luggage up and down stairs (and a limited number of escalators) will make you want to pass out after you've been on a plane for a full day. Finally we came up to a flight of stairs that was much longer than any of us wanted it to be, and when we came up on the street we saw our hotel. Everyone was noticeably relieved.

The hotel is called The Higashiyama Sanjo Hotel, and it is about 20 feet from the subway station. Our rooms are much smaller than one would expect from a hotel in the states, and they are shared. I'm rooming with Jeff because there is an uneven number of guys and girls, and we're like siblings anyway. Even though they're small, the rooms are comfortable and we have a private bathroom, which is nice.

Jeff, Blake and I went out last night for dinner. Trying to find a restaurant was interesting because we were all pretty hungry and we don't speak Japanese. We finally settled on a place and went inside and of course, no one speaks any English. We ordered beers (biiru) and then debated what to get for about 20 minutes. When we finally decided on 3 items, we ordered by pointing at pictures and saying "ichi" which means one. The food was pretty good, but we all felt pretty dumb in terms of communication.

Being in a country where you don't speak the language is an amazing experience. First off, it can make you feel incredibly dumb, but the real point is that you start realizing how limited your world has been. We walked around the area a little bit after dinner and there is a lot of shopping and food places, but we have no idea what any of them are. I'm sure we'll start figuring it out tonight...the beginning of our first weekend in Japan.

I'm excited and ready to throw myself into learning the language. I'm going to try to write somewhat consistantly and my camera is now charged, so I will post pictures also.

Sayonara :)