Carisa In Japan

21 June 2009

2009-06-21T06:51:00.001-07:00

Today was my last full day in Japan. I can’t believe it has all come to an end so soon! All in all, it was a really great experience. I didn’t have anything pressing to do today, so I first woke-up at noon. It was pouring rain outside, so I went back to sleep for another hour. It was 1:00pm by the time I rolled out of bed. I Skyped with Jenna while I got ready, then once the rain lightened up, I grabbed my umbrella and went out for a walk around Tokyo Station. I bought a few last minute gifts and spent almost all of my remaining change. I have about 610 yen left for tomorrow’s snacks. Overall, it was just a lazy and relaxing day.
For dinner, I met Masaru in the lobby at 6:00pm for my last dinner in Japan. He wanted to take me out to sukiyaki since I hadn’t had any while in Japan. He had a certain restaurant in mind, so we took the subway a couple stops to Ginza. The restaurant was really nice, and the atmosphere was nice. He ordered the dinner set of beef sukiyaki for both of us, but I wasn’t really sure what to expect. As an appetizer, a small square of Japanese pumpkin gelatin came out, and it was delicious. Next, a small bowl of raw egg was given to both of us in anticipation for the sukiyaki. A gas range was placed on our table and a large plate of beef and vegetables was also brought out. The lady started the fire, and she began cooking the vegetables and meat for us. She did this the entire time until we finished all of the food. She additionally would serve us whenever we would finish what she had given us before. It was a really weird concept. Every time she gave us the sukiyaki, she placed it in our bowl of raw egg, and that’s how we ate it. It’s a good thing I don’t have a problem with eating raw egg that why, otherwise the meal definitely wouldn’t have been as tasty. I was full by the end of the beef and vegetable sukiyaki, but there was still the udon sukiyaki left. Using the same pan, our waitress cooked the udon in the sukiyaki sauce along with four pieces of “fu” (breadlike squares made from wheat). The consistency of fu was very close to that of soft mochi, and I liked it a lot. I ate all of my udon, and for dessert, we each received a small square of Bavarian cream with a roasted slice of banana on top. It was delicious! I was completely full, but it was a great meal to end my trip. In total, it cost just short of 10,000 yen.
We caught the subway back to the Pearl Hotel, and Uncle Masaru made sure I could have a late checkout at 11:00am instead of 10:00am. I thanked him once again for dinner, and he left for the night. The rest of the night I relaxed and finalized my packing. It still feels a bit surreal that I will be leaving Japan tomorrow, but I am prepping myself for the really long flight. Hopefully I will be able to sleep for most of the time we are in the air.

20 June 2009

2009-06-20T06:36:00.000-07:00

I got up a little bit earlier this morning since I wanted to spend most of the day exploring the Odaiba area in Tokyo. I awoke around 10:30am, so I was able to leave by 11:30am. I took the subway to Shimbashi, then from there, I caught the Yurikamome Monorail Line. The interesting thing about the Yurikamome Monorail was that it was completely computer-driven; in other words, there was not person driving or operating the vehicle. It is pretty amazing how technologically advanced many of Japan’s gadgets are. I had to take the Yurikamome Line for twelve minutes, and at no point could I tell it was not driven by a person. Pretty neat!
Once arriving in Odaiba, there were tons of buildings and sites that I wanted to visit. The area itself was very interesting, and it was very similar to the atmosphere of a boardwalk. Odaiba additionally had the first habitable beach I have encountered while in Japan. There was even a surf shop where you could rent surfboards, though the waves did not seem very favorable for surfing. To my surprise, there were many people laying out on the beach with their towels either tanning or reading a book, while young children played in the sand or at the shoreline. It was a really nice experience with the Tokyo skyscrapers within sight across the bay.
The first landmark I visited was Tokyo’s Statue of Liberty. I’ve never actually visited the one in the United States, so visiting this one was pretty cool. Supposedly, it was a gift to Japan from France, but it was much smaller than the United States’. Next, I visited the Fuji Television Building which was designed by Kenzo Tange & Associates. It was built in 1996, but it was still a very modern and intriguing building. It was a bit too touristy for my liking, but I really enjoyed the 270 degree view from the observatory at the top. It cost me 500 yen, but it was worth it. The ceiling in the observatory was also very architecturally interesting since it exposed the gridded structure of the space. The observatory was actually a complete sphere constructed of titanium on the exterior. The sphere was suspended between a three-dimensional grid of column shafts and suspended walkways. It is something you have to see to completely understand. My next destination was the Odaiba’s Telecom Center by HOK. I was really interested to visit a project done abroad by HOK since that was the company I worked for last fall. It was a beautiful walk meandering my way to the Telecom Center which was the opposite direction from mainland Tokyo. Along the way, there were some other architecturally engaging structures which were either museums or Fuji Television secondary buildings. Once arriving at the Telecom Center, I was completely amazed. The building was a simple square with a large square void cut out of the center. Since the Haneda Airport runway was located directly behind the building, airplanes that were arriving or departing the airport were perfectly framed in-flight through the square void in the building. It was a perfect picture spot! I wonder if that’s why HOK originally made that design decision…
After the Telecom Center, there weren’t any outstanding buildings that I had to visit before leaving. Since I had plenty of time to kill however, I decided to finish walking the loop around Odaiba. I walked by the Odaiba rainbow ferris wheel and was able to walk across the Teleport Pedestrian Bridge. Both of these were very iconic in Tokyo. Lastly, I walked across the Nozomi Bridge to Ariake to quickly photograph the Ariake Clean Center Tower and Ariake Sports Center/Water Reclamation Building. These had both stood out as I had walked across the Teleport Bridge. This completed my visit to Odaiba since I had pretty much visited everything that was there. I caught the Yurikamome Line back to Shimbashi and took the subway back to Tokyo Station.
I did a bit more packing until my dinner plans at 5:00pm with Masaru and his two daughters, Tomoko and Hiroko. I had met them once before in the U.S., so I was very excited to see them again. I think the last time I saw them was when I was still in elementary school, but I still clearly remembered them. We met in my hotel lobby and walked a couple blocks to a restaurant that the girls had picked out. The restaurant was somewhat a tapas bar restaurant, so we ordered many small plates of food. We ordered a wide range from sushi, to shumei, to fried cartilage, to salad. Tomoko and Hiroko both spoke a little bit of English too, so we had a great time talking and laughing. We sat and talked and ate for a couple of hours, then left by 8:00pm so Tomoko could make the one and a half hour trip home to the Saitama Prefecture. They all talked about visiting the U.S. within the next year, so I’m hoping that becomes a reality.

19 June 2009

2009-06-19T11:28:00.000-07:00

Today was another lazy day. I woke-up at noon and got ready by 1:00pm. I had flipped through my two architectural guide books last night, so I had marked two projects that I was interested in seeing. The first project was the Tokyo Tatsumi International Swimming Center. It was a decent walk away from Tatsumi Station, but the Tatsumi area was surprisingly green. There was a nice path leading from the station directly to the swimming center, and it was lined with large green trees. The shade was greatly appreciated since it was really hot outside. The swimming center was huge, so it was very difficult to photograph. I noticed that people were swimming in the pool, so I inquired about going in to take a few photographs of the interior. Unfortunately, I wasn’t allowed to, so I made the long walk back to the station. My next stop was Kamiyacho to see the Great Buddha Hall. Supposedly it was a new type of religion in Tokyo, and the building frankly looked a bit intimidating. Since I was alone, I was too scared to go inside by myself. The building was completely black with no windows, and the façade consisted of a stepped system that created a diamond-shaped building. It was like the bases of two pyramids were placed together. Strange! The exterior photographs were sufficient enough for me!
It was really hot and humid outside, so I was exhausted from the heat. It was almost 5:00pm, and I had dinner plans with Uncle Masaru at 6:00pm. I caught the subway back to the Pearl Hotel and took a short nap. For dinner, Masaru and I walked to Tokyo Station. I am continually amazed by how many restaurants and shops are in there! Masaru wanted to get some sort of meat or steak, so I let him choose a place since he was going to pay. First we went to a restaurant that served only cow tongue, but it was already full. We ended up going to a Japanese steak and hamburg restaurant two doors down. I couldn’t read the menu, so Masaru ordered the same meal for both of us. It consisted of salad and sardine sashimi for an appetizer, squash soup, a 180g Japanese beef steak, and sherbet for dessert. Each of our courses cost 5,000 yen! Wow it was good, but it was definitely expensive as well. I fully enjoyed the meal, and I’m really grateful that Masaru had been so generous to me. We talked for a bit, then he walked me back to the hotel since it was close to 8:00pm. We have plans again tomorrow night with Tomoko and Hiroko too, so I’m really excited about that. The rest of the night I worked on my travel journal and began packing to assess how much space I actually have in my luggage.

18 June 2009

2009-06-18T10:51:00.001-07:00

This morning I slept in until my alarm went off at 11:30am. It felt nice to sleep in and not have to worry about doing anything during the day. I Skyped with my parents briefly, then planned out the rest of my day. I left the hotel a little after noon, and my first stop was Ginza. Ginza is located directly adjacent to the area I am staying at, so it was a short 15 minute walk. I stopped at the Tokyo International Forum to photograph the interior, but since there was a convention going on, I was limited in the areas I was able to access and photograph. Next, I did some final shopping at UniQlo, and many things were surprisingly on sale, which was a nice surprise. After Ginza, I caught two subway lines to Jimbocho, where I returned to the Nanyodo Architectural Bookstore. I took my time browsing through the vast array of books, and I ultimately decided on two more books to purchase. It is really hard to decide which books to buy since most of them cannot be purchased in the U.S., nor can they be mailed to the U.S. if purchased online. And the books that can be purchased online usually cost about double the list price, which is no good either. Oh well. Size and weight of the books also played a major role in my decisions since I am tight on space and weight with my luggage. It will be very interesting to see how well everything fits when I pack to leave.
By the time I finished shopping in Jimbocho, my skin was really sticky from the humidity. I returned to the Pearl Hotel to cool off a bit before grabbing dinner. During that time, I was able to Skype with Jenna and hear about what she had been up to recently. For dinner, I was craving tonkatsu over curry rice. I had seen a small vending machine restaurant yesterday, so I was determined to find it again for tonight’s dinner. This task turned out to be much harder than I imagined since there were numerous levels of restaurants and shops underneath Tokyo Station. During my journey to find dinner, I stumbled upon a section of shops that only sold [cute] character goods. It was the perfect section for me, but also very dangerous. I surprisingly didn’t buy anything, but I may return there later when I’m not starving for dinner. I ended up finding the place after wandering around for a good chunk of time. I ordered exactly what I was craving, and it hit the spot. Eating alone in Japan is always a bit strange to me since almost everyone eating alone is a businessman in a black suit. I must stand out immediately as a tourist! There was only one other woman in the restaurant that ate at tonight, but at least I wasn’t the only one!
Once I was ready to leave the station, I could not find the exit. It was so weird! I kept following signs, but the signs never seemed to lead to an exit. It was really confusing, and I kept going from floor to floor trying to find an exit. Eventually I found one, and it was such a relief! Geez, I must seriously be dumb! On the walk back to the hotel, I wandered around the surrounding area to see what was there. Most places were closed since it was past business hours, but I found a 7-11 to buy my evening snacks at. Once back at the hotel, I showered and worked on my travel journal until eventually going to sleep.

17 June 2009

2009-06-17T10:36:00.000-07:00

I got up at 8:00am this morning since I wanted to give myself plenty of time to get ready and finalize my packing. I was really sad to already be leaving Nagano since the time seemed to fly by way too quickly. A taxi came at 9:20am to take us to the train station. The limited express train we were taking to Tokyo was scheduled to depart at 9:36am. It came on-time, and we boarded for the two and a half hour train ride. I slept for part of the trip, but I was too excited to sleep for the entire time. I also wanted to spend as much time with Miyo and Toshio as I could, since I wouldn’t see them after today. Along the way, the train hit two unscheduled delays due to problems on the tracks ahead. We were delayed for a total of 30 minutes! Once arriving into Shinjuku Station, we still had to transfer onto the subway trains and take it to Tokyo Station. By the time we got off at Tokyo Station and walked to the Pearl Hotel, where I had reservations to stay for the next five days, all of my other relatives were waiting in the lobby. Today was basically a small family reunion of my grandma’s brothers and sisters. In attendance, there was my grandma’s brother Toshio (with his wife, Katsuko), my grandma’s brother Kunio (with his wife, Setsuko), my grandma’s brother Masaru, and my grandma’s sister Miyo (with her husband, Toshio). It was really a special and meaningful opportunity to finally meet some of my extended family members. Before leaving the hotel, I setup my laptop and used Skype to call the U.S. My grandma was already waiting patiently at my house with my parents and sister. We connected the call, and my grandma was able to see her brothers and sisters while additionally being able to talk with them. Everyone in Japan was also able to see what my parents and sister looked like too. It was really meaningful and was probably one of the highlights of my trip. Everyone was really happy to see each other, and since many of them don’t have computers, it was an otherwise unavailable opportunity to Skype. I’m so glad everything worked out!
After Skyping, we all went to late lunch within Tokyo Station. There were endless amounts of restaurants to choose from, but we ended up going to a Chinese restaurant since I’m assuming they all eat Japanese food everyday. We ordered family style, so everyone was able to eat a little bit of everything. It was really good. By the time we finished, it was already almost 4:00pm. Since all of the relatives had to do a bit of traveling on the trains to get home, they decided it was time to leave. I was able to convince everyone to take a few group photos before leaving since it was definitely a memory worth documenting. We said our final goodbyes, and Masaru and I waved to everyone as their passed through the train gates. I was full of mixed feelings: on one hand, I was really glad I was able to meet and spend time with everyone, but on the other hand, I was sad that it only lasted for a few hours. I hope I can someday make it back to Japan in order to see everyone again! Masaru walked me back to the Pearl Hotel so he could get his backpack out of my room, then he left to go home as well. After staying at Miyo’s house for a week exactly, it was kind of weird to be alone in my hotel room at the beginning. I was pretty tired from all of the activities earlier in the day though, so I used the rest of the evening to finish up my papers for Arch 420. Now that I have that done, I only have to finish my travel journal for Arch 480. Ugh. I’m almost there!

16 June 2009

2009-06-16T08:26:00.000-07:00

Today is my last full day in Suwa, Nagano with my relatives. I am so sad! After waking up late as usual, Miyo had mochi, fried rice, soup, vegetables, tsukemono, scallops, and leftover veggie rolls for brunch. It was very good, and she always recooks leftovers very well. Once we finished eating, Toshio drove Masaru and I to the Lake Suwa and Akahiko Museum which was designed by Toyo Ito. Toshio dropped us off, then left to take care of his own errands. The building itself was supposed to look like the bottom side of a boat, and it curved smoothly into the small grassy hillside. Its aesthetic was very sleek, and there was some beautiful about its slenderness against the surrounding buildings and landscape. The museum itself was much less impressive. It only cost 350 yen to get in, and the special exhibition gallery was closed. There were only two small permanent galleries upstairs, which didn’t really have anything of extreme significance. I almost felt kind of bad for the poor little museum. We were the only two people inside of it. After leaving the museum, we began to walk back to the house since we did not have a car. Walking along Suwa Lake was really refreshing, even though it was fairly windy. Dark clouds were rolling in overhead, since it was supposed to rain later that afternoon. We made a quick stop at Jusco so I could browse for any last minute gifts for some of my friends, then we made it back just in time to barely miss the beginning of the rain. It seems like no matter where I go in Japan, the weather is always variable and unpredictable.
The afternoon was a very lazy one since we didn’t have anything else planned for the day. We sat around and talked, and I also worked on some of my residual homework. For dinner, Miyo made chicken yaki tori, gyoza, soup, croquettes, tsukemono, and fresh fruit. It was so delicious! I will definitely miss her good home cooking! The rest of the evening we sat around and talked a lot. I think we are all surprised that the time passed so quickly. I am excited that we will all be going to Tokyo tomorrow, except for Mitsunori since he has to work. We Skyped with my parents so they could thank him for everything he did for me, and I said my final goodbyes to him before he went to sleep. I did my last minute packing, then went to sleep too since I have to get up early tomorrow morning to leave for Tokyo.

15 June 2009

2009-06-15T05:32:00.001-07:00

I slept in until noon as usual, and it felt especially good after staying up a bit later than I had originally planned since I got carried away with updating my blog and photos. For brunch, Miyo made ramen with lots of greens on top. It was a huge bowl, so I was very full by the time I finished it. After brunch, Toshio wanted to take me to Matsumoto City to visit the Yamabiko Dome. I had never heard of the structure, so I was curious to see what he was excited about. Matsumoto City was one city over from where Naoko, Toshio and Miyo’s daughter, lived. It took about 50 minutes to get to Matsumoto City, and once we were there, the dome was very easy to spot. It was homogenous in design all the way around, except for a wooden awning at the entrance. What made the dome architecturally interesting was the radial pleating constructed of wood. It had rained off and on during the drive over to Matsumoto, but once we got there, the clouds parted, and the sun shone through to illuminate the building. It was beautiful. Toshio wasn’t sure if I’d be able to see the beautiful interior since most places are closed on Mondays. He walked into the dome anyways, and the lady at the front window said it was alright. We were lucky once again! The inside of the dome was even more amazing than the outside. The interior was almost entirely made of wood, and the radial pleating was clearly accentuated. No events were going on either, so all of our photos were very clean. The versatility of the space was very intriguing as well since it could be used as multiple tennis courts, two playing fields, or one baseball diamond. What a concept! We finished taking pictures, and right after jumping back into the Prius, it began to rain again. Perfect timing!
Toshio didn’t have any other major buildings to show me, so we drove back to Suwa. Along the way, we stopped at a grocery store so I could buy my favorite candy to take back to the U.S. We also stopped at the train station to purchase our reserved train tickets back to Tokyo for this upcoming Wednesday, June 17th. I can’t believe I am already going to leave Nagano! Lastly, we stopped at a small camera store so I could print out some of my photos of me and the relatives to give to them before I leave. Masaru had printed a couple of his photos to give to me, so I returned the favor to him, Miyo, Toshio, and Mitsunori. I usually take most of the group photos with my camera anyways since I have a tripod. It has really come in handy during my stay in Nagano. I got the photos printed, and we returned home just in time for dinner.
For dinner, Miyo prepared some veggie roll things, scallops, lotus roots, tsukemono, rice, grilled vegetables, and fresh fruit. It was another filling meal. Mitsunori came home late as usual, and he surprised me with an architecture magazine he had picked up from the store on his way home. He is really thoughtful! The rest of the night we all looked through the magazine, and I had surprisingly visited a couple different places showcased in the articles. I shared a couple more of my architecture books with them and also showed them more of my photos. It was a fun night overall. I can’t believe tomorrow will be my last full day here in Suwa. I am going to be sad to leave. Tomorrow we will walk to a museum that is close to their house, since we saw it in the architectural magazine, and it is supposedly done by Toyo Ito. Other than that, I have no idea what we will be doing.

14 June 2009

2009-06-14T09:56:00.001-07:00

Sleeping in was really nice today since we had such a long day yesterday. Once I got up and going, Miyo already had brunch waiting on the table for me. Today’s brunch was huge, so I had to turn some of it down even before I sat down. There was a huge dish of yaki soba stir fry that probably could’ve fed three people, plus a piece of salmon with bowl of chestnut rice. Miyo was also going to make me some bread, but I told her not to. I took out about half of the yaki soba stir fly and left it on another dish since there was no way I was going to eat it all. I ate everything else but had to leave a little bit of the rice. I guess Miyo still hasn’t realized that I’m not a huge rice eater.
After eating, Mitsunori told me that he had a full day planned out for us. Toshio and Miyo were going to stay home, so Mitsunori, Masaru, and I jumped in the Prius to start our day. Our first stop was Takashima Castle in Suwa. It was a really small castle, especially in comparison to many of the other castles I have visited in Japan, but it still had a nice view over Suwa from the top. Next we drove for almost an hour to Yatsugatake Museum in Shinshu, Nagano. In plan, it was a very interestingly shaped building, with multiple domes and barrel vaults. The interior was interesting as well since the ceilings were somewhat screened with draped fabric. Mitsunori and Masaru didn’t even seemed interested in the exhibits, so it almost made me laugh since we were literally just walking through the building. Oh well.
The last stop Mitsunori had planned was an outdoor “mall” that he said had gained popularity and fame over the years. He wasn’t really sure what was there, but he assumed I might like the architecture. It was somewhere in the middle of the mountains where you could only get by car. I was a bit skeptical, but I hoped for the best. Upon arriving there, I realized that there were two famous projects grouped with the outdoor “mall”. The establishment was called Risonare, and it reminded me of Santana Row in San Jose, except with a large hotel. The two famous projects were both by Klein Dytham Architects, and I had actually met Astrid Klein during one of our firm visits with Don. The first one we looked at was Brillare, a wedding reception hall. It was long and narrow, and it looked just like the pictures I had seen of it. There was an event going on inside of it, so unfortunately I wasn’t able to get any interior photos. The second project, which is one of their most iconic projects, was the Leaf Chapel. It is basically a huge dome with half of the outer shell being operable. We were lucky that no weddings were currently going on inside of it, so one of the employees from the wedding salon let us tour the structure and its surroundings. Wow, it was so amazing and beautiful! All three of us were completely blown away! I still couldn’t believe that we had stumbled upon these projects completely accidentally. It was a fabulous way to end our outing.
On the way back, we got a call from Miyo saying her daughter Naoko and her husband had stopped by to visit. We were going to go out for dinner since we were all together. There was heavy traffic on the expressway on our way back home since there was road construction, but we still made it back by 6:00pm. For dinner, we went to Sunlake, a restaurant somewhat comparable to Denny’s in Japan. I ordered the cheese hamburg with eggplant and fries. It was really tasty. Naoko and her husband live about 50 minutes away from Suwa in a neighboring town. They didn’t speak any English, so I wasn’t able to directly talk with them at all. After dinner, they left to drive home, and we came back home. We had plans to Skype with my grandparents and family at 10:15pm our time, so we waited around until then. It was nice to Skype as a group again, but the quality was worse than last time. I still can’t quite figure out what the problem is, so it is frustrating. The main thing is that we were all still able to talk, so that was nice, and everyone was happy. I worked on my assignments a bit more then went to sleep to end a long day.

13 June 2009

2009-06-13T09:38:00.000-07:00

Today was our big outing since it was the beginning of the weekend, so all five of us piled into their Toyota Prius. Mitsunori drove since we were going quite a ways, and it was somewhat new territory. Our first stop was at the Rose Festa in Shinshu Nakano. It took over an hour to drive there, and the rain was just stopping when we arrived. We parked and then had to take a short bus ride in order to get to the gardens. Toshio, Miyo, and Mitsunori had all been there before, but the roses weren’t in full bloom anymore. The garden was still beautiful, and we enjoyed the nice weather as we wandered along the meandering paths. Toshio additionally bought everyone rose-flavored soft cream cones, but I only tasted rose very subtly. Our next stop was in Obuse, a small historic town that was known for its authentic old buildings and shops. On our way, we stopped at a sushi restaurant where everyone ate a quick bite of sushi. I was still very full from the huge breakfast Miyo had made me of ham, eggs, salad, cucumbers, tsukemono, soup, and bread, so I opted not to eat. Obuse was really nice, but it was also full of tourists. We went into a candle museum which was very interesting, and we otherwise just wandered around the small shops. Before leaving, Miyo purchased some chestnut rice to eat once we got home.
After Obuse, our last stop was Zenkoji Temple. It is one of the largest and most famous temples in Nagano, so it was a must that we visit it. After a little bit of difficulty finding it, we finally parked and walked onto the temple grounds. There was tons of people there, and they were also setting up for a concert later that night. I thought the idea of having a concert at such a famous temple was pretty sad, but I guess times must be hard these days. We walked in and around the temple, and Masaru showed me the proper way to do all of the “religious” routines. Mainly I was just supposed to make wishes for the future and think about things I wanted to be healed. It was nice to finally have someone explain the process to me.
We left Zenkoji Temple around 5:00pm, and it was time to head home. Since Miyo had not been able to cook all afternoon, they decided we would stop to eat at their favorite yaki niku restaurant. It was fairly close to their house, so I napped in the car until we got there. The yaki niku place was really busy, and we had to wait for a short while. Once seated, we ordered two plates of kalbi beef, two plates beef tongue, beef liver, beef roast steak, and pork roast steak. It also came with bean sprouts and cabbage to cook alongside it. It was a lot of food, but it was really really good. I think yaki niku is one of my favorite restaurants to eat at since you get to cook it yourself, and that in itself is pretty fun. We all got our fill, and for dessert, we got vanilla soft cream cones from the restaurant complimentarily. It was a good day.
We were all pretty tired by the time we got home. We talked until about midnight, then we all went to bed. I tried to work on some of my leftover Arch 420 assignments, but I was too tired. I figure it’s better to get some rest than be tired all the time. Tomorrow is supposed to be a rest day, but I’m sure someone will have something planned for me again.

12 June 2009

2009-06-12T08:05:00.001-07:00

We didn’t have plans until after noon today again, so everyone told me to sleep in. I think they can tell that I’m pretty tired from all of my school work and travelling, so I didn’t mind taking advantage of the extra sleeping time. I set my alarm for 11:30am, and that’s exactly when I woke-up. As always, Miyo had brunch ready for everyone when I came downstairs. Today’s brunch consisted of new combinations from last night’s leftovers. Miyo is just so creative! She added a few other items as well to make it more like breakfast, such as sausages, fresh fruit, and inari sushi. I definitely got my fill of the good foods!
Just like yesterday, Toshio and Masaru had plans to take me further around Nagano. Miyo stayed at home again, presumably to rest and take care of chores around the house. I don’t think she is really interested in a lot of the museums and such that we visit. The first museum we visited was the Kitazawa Museum of Art. The featured exhibit was on Emile Galle, who is known for his glass works. It was really amazing. Next, we stopped at the Taizi Harada Art Museum. It housed many pieces of artwork that made you feel closer to home in Japan. Lastly, we visited the Glass Artware Museum. There was an extensive collection from Daum and Lalique, and I probably enjoyed these the most. Downstairs in the museum, there was also a large gift shop and glass blowing shop. It was just nice to look at all of the nice pieces. By the time we finished looking around the glass shop, Toshio wanted to take a coffee break. We sat down in the museum café, and he ordered coffee and cake for everyone, except I chose to have water instead of coffee. I had no idea what he got for me since I couldn’t read the menu at all. I ended up getting three sample squares of three different cakes, which all turned out to be very good. After finishing up our snack, we got in the car to head home since I was almost 4:30pm, and Masaru had offered to cook dinner. On the way back home, Toshio stopped at Mister Donut since Masaru told him that all Americans eat donuts, cake, and pie for snack at night. That is obviously not true, but Masaru thought I was being polite. Anyways, Toshio ended up buying me three donuts of my choice since he wouldn’t take no for an answer. We drove home afterward, and Masaru prepared dinner.
For dinner, Masaru made pork shabu shabu with lettuce, daikon, green sprouts, and sauces. This was also complemented by Miyo’s grilled shitake mushrooms, pickles, tomatoes, and miso soup. We had quite the choice of foods. I ate until I was full, then we had cantaloupe and apples for dessert. It amazes me that they always eat so healthily. The rest of the evening, I showed them my house and other relatives’ houses on Google Maps using street view. I also showed them some of my past projects and tried to explain the concept of 3D modeling. I’m pretty sure everything was over their head, but at least I tried since they were all curious. The language barrier seems to be increasingly frustrating, but I’m trying to make the best of it. I ate my donut for snack and drank the Fanta grape soda Miyo had gotten for me at the grocery store. I can’t help but laugh since they think I am such a fatty at night with my snacks. Oh well. Tomorrow they have plans to take me to a rose garden and some historic town, so I have to get up early since we plan to leave by 8:30am. That should be interesting. I’m hoping Miyo will come along too though since she hasn’t joined us on any of our outings yet, and I think it’d be really nice to spend some quality time with her as well.

11 June 2009

2009-06-11T06:24:00.000-07:00

I slept-in until noon this morning, and it was really nice! I probably could’ve slept even longer since I’ve been so tired, but twelve hours of sleep was sufficient. Miyo had brunch ready when I went downstairs, so we had fried rice with tsukemono and other leftovers from last night’s dinner. It was quite a large meal, especially since it was the first one for the day for me. After finishing up with brunch, Toshio, Masaru, and I left in their Prius to visit a couple sites around their house. First we visited Suwa Shrine. It was pretty warm outside, so I hoped it wasn’t located up a steep mountainside or anything. Luckily it was situated close to the road, so the walk wasn’t bad at all. Next, we walked to the Music Box Museum. A lady gave us a short tour of the two-story museum and demonstrated multiple music boxes to our group. It was really neat since I had never really seen so many large scale music boxes. Music is a universal language as well, so I didn’t have to worry about the language barrier while listening to the music. Following the Music Box Museum, we walked a couple blocks to the Seiko Watch Museum. Behind the museum, there was a huge water-driven astrological clock. We were able to walk inside of the two-story structure, but it was very hot and stuffy inside. The water wheel was incredibly loud, but I guess it makes sense since the gadget was substantially old. The museum itself probably would’ve been much more interesting if I could’ve read Japanese. There were many hands-on gadgets to help you learn about how a clock works, but I couldn’t read the signs so I had no idea what I was supposed to do. Toshio and Masaru don’t take much time to walk through museums though, so at least I don’t have to feel bad about walking through them fairly quickly. Lastly, we visited the stone Buddha. We parked in front of another temple which was being renovated, and we walked for about 10 minutes along a dirt path to find it. We took some photos in front of it and headed home for dinner.
Miyo had been cooking for most of the day since she stayed at home while we were out. Dinner is always eaten at 6:00pm, so we made sure to get home by that time. For dinner, Miyo had made shumai, bamboo rice, grilled vegetables, tsukemono, and miso soup. It was once again a really good meal! I feel so lucky to have such good homemade meals everyday for every meal. Hopefully I don’t get too fat! Haha. The rest of the evening was very relaxing. We had plans to Skype with my parents and grandma at 10:30pm our time, so we all showered and waited for the exciting Skype call. As planned, my parents called at 10:30pm, and Miyo, Masaru, Toshio, Mitsunori, and I were all able to talk with my grandma and parents. It was such a special moment for everyone! Everyone talked for about 30 minutes until we finally said our goodbyes. The rest of the night, Masaru, Miyo, and Toshio were completely astounded by the possibilities of the internet. I don’t think they completely understand how Skype works yet, but hopefully we were able to do it again soon.

10 June 2009

2009-06-10T07:52:00.000-07:00

Today the Japan program ended. We had to check out of the NOMYC for the last time, so sheets were due at 9:00am, and keys were due by 10:00am. I already had plans to meet Masaru at 9:00am at the front gate of the NOMYC, so I was the first one to leave. Don happened to be walking through our rooms to make sure we were all up and getting ready, so I gave him my key and left. By the time I got to the front gate with all of my luggage, it was about 9:10am. Masaru was waiting there patiently, and once I arrived, we caught a taxi to Shinjuku Station. Masaru had already purchased tickets for the super express Azsua train to Nagano at 11:00am. Since we arrived to Shinjuku Station at 9:30am, he went to the JR office and switched the tickets for the train at 10:00am. We found our way to the platform and caught the train as scheduled. The ride to Nagano took 2 hours and 5 minutes. I slept for almost the entire way since I was really tired. Masaru slept a little bit too, so I didn’t feel as bad for being so tired.
When we pulled into the station in Nagano, Miyo was already waiting for us on the platform! I could tell she was really excited to see us. Her husband Toshio was waiting for us right outside of the gate, and he immediately helped me with my extremely heavy luggage. We walked to their car, which turned out to be a brand new silver Toyota Prius. We loaded my luggage into the back of the car, and it surprisingly fit with no problem. On the way back to their house, we stopped at a café restaurant to grab some lunch since it was just past noon. They helped me pick out something to order, so I ended up getting sliced beef with cabbage, potatoes, carrots, and bread. I think they thought I hadn’t eaten very much meat during my trip. It was really good, and the meat was amazingly tender. Afterwards, we drove to their house, which was still less than 10 minutes from the station. It was a two-story house with a decent sized backyard. All three bedrooms were upstairs, and the stairway was very narrow. I struggled with Miyo to get my large luggage upstairs, so I felt really bad. They were really excited to have me visiting them though, so we sat around and talked for the majority of the day. At one point, I was able to setup the wireless router and Skype with both my parents and Meddie and Yoshi. It was really neat.
For dinner, Miyo cooked a wonderful meal of shrimp fried with cracker crumbs, potato salad, many tsukemonos, rice, and lipton chicken noodle soup that she had gotten from my grandma in the mail. It was quite the combination of good foods! Communication was a bit rough since Masaru is our only form of communication, but it definitely makes things interesting. Hopefully one day I can at least speak conversational Japanese. Miyo and Toshio’s son Mitsunori came home from work late, so I met him later in the evening. He is in his thirties and doesn’t speak any English either. I can already tell it will be a very interesting 7 days here in Nagano. We were able to somewhat plan out our next couple of days too, so I will probably be visiting a lot of museums and shrines. Nagano is situated around a beautiful lake too, so I’m hoping the sky will clear up a bit so I can see Mount Fuji from my bedroom window. Overall, I am really exhausted, so I will get lots of sleep tonight and start tomorrow fresh.

9 June 2009

2009-06-09T06:04:00.000-07:00

We had our very last class meeting for the Japan Extended Field Trip this morning at 9:30am in room 108. It was kind of sad, but since I’m staying twelve days longer, it didn’t has as much of an impact on me compared to people who would be flying out tomorrow. Don briefly recapped all of the items that were still due and restated all of the extended deadlines. I think it is such a pain to still have to finish work even though the quarter is over! I guess that’s just how it goes. After class, Norio and I had plans to visit the GA Gallery in Shinjuku. It looked fairly close on the map, so we decided to walk since it was fairly nice outside. After getting lost a couple of times, we eventually happened upon it unexpectedly. Unfortunately, no exhibition was currently going on, so we could only look through the extensive GA bookstore. GA stands for Global Architecture, but its publications only come out of Japan. There was a really nice selection of books at the GA Gallery, but they were priced over the list price, so we didn’t buy anything. We must’ve spent a solid hour looking at books though, so it was a nice way to relax during our last full day. On the way back, we grabbed a late lunch at the Chinese restaurant across from the NOMYC. I ordered the fried rice and a side of gyoza for 1,000 yen. That place was probably my favorite Chinese restaurant that I found in Japan, so I’m glad I was able to eat there one last time before leaving. After lunch, we went back to rest before our finale group dinner tonight with Don.
Dinner was scheduled for 6:30pm at a restaurant four stops away on the Odakyu Line. Norio and I wanted to visit one of Shigeru Ban’s projects that was only two stops away, so we left at 4:45pm to make sure we wouldn’t be late. Using our guide book as our map, we navigated our way to where we thought the project should be. After talking to a few of the locals, we found out that the building was the same, but the paper tube structure that Ban is known for was taken out about three years ago. What a disappointment! The paper tubes were the only iconic element of the building, so we didn’t even take any pictures. A funny coincidence was that one of the ladies that we talked to actually owns a house in Walnut Creek, but she also lives in Japan, fluent in both Japanese and English. That was a nice surprise. We were disappointed nonetheless though, so we headed to the train station to head to dinner.
We got to the station a little bit early, so I decided to try pachinko. Norio wanted me to at least have the experience, so I decided I might as well try. I put in 1,000 yen and the little silver balls came out. All I had to do was turn the knob on the right and watch the balls come shooting out at the top of the machine. They all fell, and Norio said my goal was to get it into one opening at the bottom center. Every time a ball entered the slot, the digital slot machine in the center would spin. If any of the numbers lined up, I would win big money. Unfortunately, I didn’t become a millionaire that night, but it was still fun. I can definitely see how that could be addicting since it was more like a game than gambling.
We met the group at 6:30pm and headed to dinner. The restaurant Don chose was a drinking venue that also served dinner. It was very nice, and we got an area to ourselves. Don had already chosen a multi-course meal, since the program was going to cover the cost of the food. Some of the dishes we ate were salad, sashimi, oysters, amaebe (sweet shrimp) tempura, somen, and cake. It was a great meal to celebrate the end of our trip together! Afterwards, we stopped at an arcade to take group photos in one of the large photo booths. It was a lot of fun, and Don was even a bit tipsy. It was quite memorable, and we got some great photos. Some people wanted to stay out even later to do karaoke and drink in Shinjuku, but I decided to head back with the other half of the people since it was already 10:30pm. I still had to pack and finish up an assignment, so that ended my evening.

8 June 2009

2009-06-08T09:02:00.001-07:00

Don had an optional trip planned to Kamakura today, so I was definitely interested in taking part. Since Kamakura is past Yokohama however, it was going to get a longer and more complicated train ride to get there. We met at Shibuya Station at 11:20am in order to catch the 11:30am Tokyu Toyoko Line to Yokohama. From Yokohama, we took a JR Line to Kamakura, where we then transferred to the Kamakura local line to ultimately arrive at the Hase stop. Kamakura had the small town feel with the tourism influence. We grabbed a quick lunch for half an hour, so Norio, Derrick, and I got croquette on a stick from the local butcher. It was really good, especially for only 170 yen! For dessert, Derrick and I got milk-flavored soft serve ice cream for 300 yen since it was still hot and humid outside. We met back up with Don, and he led us to the Kamakura Daibutsu. The Daibutsu is the second largest Buddha in Japan, only second to the one we had seen earlier at Todaiji Temple in Nara. The Daibutsu was constructed of bronze, and we were even able to go inside of it for the meager 20 yen charge. It was interesting to see how the Buddha was actually constructed since that was one aspect that we hadn’t seen before. That was about it for the large Buddha viewing.
Don had some other sites planned out to visit, but they didn’t sound like anything special. I had already tentatively planned out the rest of my day in Tokyo, since we leave really soon, so I left the group on my own to head back to Tokyo. I was a bit nervous that I wouldn’t be able to remember my way back, but somehow, I was able to do it with no problem. What a relief! Once back in Tokyo, I headed straight to Tokyo Midtown in Roppongi to visit the 21/21 Design Sight Museum by Tadao Ando. There was an exhibit called Bones going on, and I had heard from some of my classmates that it was amazing. It cost 1,000 yen to get in, and the museum really was worth it. There were some really cool hands-on exhibits, along with some neat x-rays of objects and living organisms.
After visiting the Bones exhibit, it was still only about 5:30pm. It was supposed to rain today, but the sky was still dry, so I decided to embark on one more adventure for the evening. I jumped on the subway, transferred two different times, and got off at Gokokuji. Saint Mary’s Cathedral, which was a short 10 minute walk from Gokokuji Station, and it was designed by Kengo Tange. It was a really worthwhile trip, and even though I wasn’t able to see the inside since it was closed, the exterior form was still completely amazing. It didn’t rain the entire time I was out either, so I’m glad the day ended well. I took three different subway lines to get back to the NOMYC, and I grabbed a quick dinner at Matsuya with Seth before retiring for the night. The remainder of the evening I tried to catch-up on a few assignments for Arch 420, Skyped with the parentals, and caught up on my blogs and photos. Tomorrow we have our last class meeting at 9:30am, so the program will really feel like it’s coming to an end quickly.

7 June 2009

2009-06-07T07:18:00.000-07:00

Derrick and I both slept in this morning since we were up late enjoying the tv and internet. We left by 11:30am and once again stashed our bags in some lockers in Shinjuku Station. Check-in for the NOMYC was at 4pm, so we didn’t have much time to do too much. We hadn’t been to the Suntory Art Museum yet, so we hopped on the subway to Tokyo Midtown in Roppongi. The new exhibit at the Suntory Art Museum featured pieces of art and attire worn during the Edo Period and other parts of Japan’s history. There were many samurai outfits along with swords and guns as well. The museum itself was really beautiful inside, and I was especially surprised that it was located within the Tokyo Midtown Mall. By the time we finished up at the museum, it was time to head back to Shinjuku to get our stuff and return to the NOMYC to check-in.
Don arrived late to meet us, so our schedule was a bit delayed. Eventually we got our keys, sheets, and rooms for the last time. This time the girls got the smaller rooms on the inside of the building curve, and the guys got the larger ones. It sucks, but at least it will help me keep my stuff organized. No one really had plans for the rest of the night, but some of the guys scheduled a visit to the Ramen Museum in Shin-Yokohama with Don. Anyone interested was invited to go, and we additionally planned to get dinner there since you could try ramen from different areas of Japan there. I ended up being the only girl who went, which I found very amusing. It took a while on the train to get there, but it was well worth it. We had to take three different trains to get there, and Don even took us on the wrong train at one point. It was a crazy trip, and we were all starving by the time we arrived at the museum.
The inside of the museum was basically a fun house, similar to the one we had visited in Osaka. The interior was a mini mock-up of a small town in Japan, and the restaurants were located within the buildings. There were eight places to choose from, and I was set on at least trying two of them. At all the venues, we additionally had to option of a regular bowl and a mini bowl. The ramen was fairly expensive for what it was, so I always ordered the mini bowl for 550 yen. The two places I tried were really good, and I wish I had room in my stomach to have tried more! We split up once we were inside, so we were able to share our stories from the different ramens that we tried. By the time we started heading home, it was already around 10pm. I knew it was going to be another long night. On the train ride back, Zach and Scot both fell asleep on either side of me, so Don, Seth, and Derrick were getting a kick out of it. By the time we got back, we were all done for the night. I was beginning to get a headache since I had had such a long day, so I went straight back to the NOMYC, showered, and slept.

6 June 2009

2009-06-06T07:18:00.000-07:00

Today is officially the last day we will have to move in and out of the NOMYC. It is really exciting since everyone is tired of moving, but it also signifies that the trip is almost over. Since everyone seems to have different opinions about the trip coming to an end, it is interesting to see how much people either liked or disliked Japan.
The morning was the same as any other move out day. We folded and collected our sheets, then turned in our keys. Don planned to take the group to the National Art Center, Suntory Museum, and 21/21 Design Sight Museum, all of which are in Roppongi. Derrick, Norio, and I weren’t sure where we were going to be staying that night, so we decided to opted out of the museum day and instead figure out some accommodations for the night. Following our original plan, we went to Shinjuku in search of a large and cheap love hotel. We walked through an area called Kabukicho which is known as the love hotel area. As we suspected, check-in for staying at love hotels wasn’t until 10 or 11pm, so we decided to stash our stuff in some lockers at Shinjuku Station. Norio ended up getting a call from one of his friends, so we bailed on us and our plans to do his own thing. Derrick and I had plenty of time to kill before trying to check-in at a hotel, so we wandered around Shinjuku to do a bit of shopping, grabbed some tonkatsu for lunch, and then went to Akihabara for a second time. Akihabara is known at the electronic district, so we wandered through many stores and just browsed. It is always fun to try out new cameras, toys, and games. Once it got close to 9pm, we jumped on the subway and returned to Shinjuku. On the way back however, we saw Tokyo Dome, so we decided to stop quickly to wander around. There was a mini theme park there with a huge roller coaster, a log ride, a free fall, and a ferris wheel. It was a really neat atmosphere. We got dinner there since we saw a peppercorn garlic burger set on sale for 760 yen. It was really good. Afterwards, Baskin Robins had a line out the door since they were having a promotion called “Challenge the Triple”. For only 400 yen, you got a triple scoop. This was especially a deal in Japan since a single scoop usually costs 320 yen! Derrick and I were both ready for dessert, so I got chocolate mint, melon musk, and popping shower. It was delicious, and it was a great way to end our adventure.
Since Norio decided to stay out late with his friends, he decided to get a single room at a close-by Toyoko Inn. The only rooms available were smoking single rooms, so Derrick and I were out of luck. Wandering around Kabukicho looking for a love hotel was really difficult without Norio’s guidance. We tried to go to a few, but many wouldn’t accept people who did not speak fluent Japanese. It was really surprising! Finally, since we weren’t able to find any rooms that were reasonable and/or that included karaoke, game systems, etc. Derrick and I ended up resorting to a 24 hour internet café. It cost 3,360 yen for a cubicle with a couch, tv, and computer with internet for 12 hours. It was around 11:30pm when we checked in, so that allowed us until 11:30am to stay and sleep in. The drink bar was free, and it offered milk tea, oolong tea, juices, soda, energy drinks, and hot chocolate. It was kind of weird staying in a cubicle with Derrick in one next to me, but I’m glad I had the experience. I fully enjoyed the internet and tv at the same time and drank more than enough drinks throughout the night. Since I am short, I also easily fit on the couch and was able to get a good night’s rest.

5 June 2009

2009-06-05T10:09:00.000-07:00

I didn’t sleep at all last night except for a few really short 10-minute naps. We got our project done by noon when it was due, but I knew I was going to be completely wiped out for the rest of the day. It took about four hours for everyone to present, and by the end, everyone was ready for a nice long nap. Our presentation went alright, but it was hard for everyone to have a complete project in such a short amount of time. Don was still very impressed with the amount of work that everyone had, and he complimented us multiple times on working so hard while in Japan. After class ended, I went straight back to my room and took a nice long nap. I woke-up around 7pm and went to get dinner with Derrick since Norio and Seth had already eaten. We got McDonald’s since we had both been craving that for a day or two. I ordered my usual Filet-o-Fish meal set, and it was great as expected. Tomorrow we have to move out of the NOMYC for one day again, so I spent a good portion of the evening unpacking and repacking my luggage. I’m glad this will be the last time I have to move out and back into this place! I still have no idea where I’ll be staying tomorrow night, but Don gave us each 5,000 yen to pay for our accommodations. As of right now, Derrick, Seth, Norio, and I are thinking of staying at a Love Hotel. Many of our other classmates are planning to stay at one as well, but I don’t think anyone has made any definite plans. We are all pooped out, so we’ll see what happens tomorrow. I was mainly looking forward to a good night’s rest, so I went to be fairly early for a change.

4 June 2009

2009-06-04T10:10:00.000-07:00

I was up until 5am this morning, but luckily we didn’t have to meet with Don until 12:35pm in order to catch the 12:50pm Tokyu Train to Yokohama. I slept-in until 10am, which was a nice change from getting up early every day. We got into Yokohama around 2pm, and our first office visit was Koizumi Masao’s. Koizumi additionally teaches Master-level architecture courses at a local university, so he had four of his students there to tag along with us. Koizumi gave us a 30 minute presentation on some of his recent works, then he took us to two more firms. Koizumi was nice enough to plan our entire day in Yokohama for us, so we were really lucky to have such a prominent and well-known tour guide. The second office we visited was less than a block away, and it was the office of Mikan Gumi. Mikan is actually French, but he worked in Japan for 15 years. He didn’t have a presentation prepared, so we just walked around the office, and he talked about some of the large models they had constructed. Lastly, we visited Riken Yamamoto’s office. We were three for three on office that had English speakers, so it was nice that we didn’t have to listen to Don translating all the time. At Riken’s office, we were surprised to find out that they sometimes work 100 hours in a week with no days off. That is completely inconceivable, especially when compared to the American work ethic! Wow! It was really interesting to see how differently other countries perform work and to what standard they must meet.
After visiting Riken’s offfce, Mikan and Koizumi continued to lead us around. We visited the Osanbashi Yokohama International Passenger Terminal by Foreign Office Architects. It was my fourth time visiting the port since arriving in Japan, and I’m glad the weather was a little less hazy than usual. We then proceeded to walk around the New Port Opening, since the Zou-no-Hana Port Project was done by Koizumi himself. It was really neat to visit a prominent project with the architect who designed it. What a great opportunity! Finally, we made our way to the area showcasing Yokohama’s 150th Anniversary of the Port Opening. There were multiple exhibitions scattered throughout the area, but we specifically wanted to enter the Nissan Y+150 Forest of Beginners Exhibit since Mikan Gumi was the architect of the structure. He even brought along a few drawing sheets for each of us showing the plan and elevations of the temporary structure. We entered the exhibit after 6pm because the price is cut in half to 1,200 yen. I still can’t believe that it usually costs 2,400 yen to get in! There wasn’t even very much to look at once inside, but the main feature of this particular exhibit was the French “La Machine” mechanical spider. It was approximately 12m tall, and it required about eight people to operate it at any given time. We had to wait about 30 minutes to see the last demonstration, but it was totally worth it. It was almost scary to think that someone could create such a large and operable creature, and I felt like I was in a movie.
After the spider demonstration, we left the exhibit and said goodbye to Mikan. Koizumi had made reservations for us at a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown, so we started walking back to the Chinatown area. The Chinese restaurant was really small, and our large group filled up the entire thing. Koizumi had already ordered certain dishes for us, so in total, we had about eight plates of different foods come out. The meal was really good, and I was completely full. I’m glad the Cal Poly program paid for it because it turned out to be about 3,500 yen per person! By the time we finished up with dinner, it was already after 10pm. What a long day, and our final project was still due tomorrow! We thanked Koizumi and his students heavily and said our goodbyes. The train ride back to Tokyo went by fairly quickly, and we began working immediately after getting back to the NOMYC. I was pretty much done with my portion of the project, but I still stayed up all night helping everyone else in my group finish up their stuff. It was a really long night.

3 June 2009

2009-06-03T08:16:00.000-07:00

This morning we had an office visit scheduled at Jun Aoki’s office. He is another really prominent architect in Japan, so I was excited to see his office. We met as a class at the Yoyogi-koen Station and caught the 9:34am train. We made it to Aoki’s office by 10am for our appointment with him, and he fortunately spoke pretty good English. We listened to him discuss a couple of his recent projects, then we were free to look around. I continue to be surprised by the tight working quarters which are common in many of the offices we have visited so far in Japan. There were many polished models on display, so we were able to take many pictures and ask questions about what we saw. We were done with the office visit by 11am, and Don had nothing else planned for us. Norio and I wanted to visit the largest architecture bookstore in the Jimbocho Book District of Tokyo, so we took the subway to the Jimbocho Station. Derrick and Seth headed back to the NOMYC to work on our project. Once in Jimbocho, it was hard for even Norio to navigate his way around. I don’t think I have ever seen that many new and used bookstores before. We had been here one time before with Don, but nothing really looked familiar. Eventually we found Nanyodo Bookstore, and I bought the same boogazine as the Kengo Kuma one, except it was featuring Toyo Ito. I really like Ito’s projects, so I was excited to finally find this boogazine too.
After leaving Nanyodo, Norio was hungry, but I wasn’t. I instead wanted to go back to the Toto Bookstore to buy a book for my friend, so Norio went to get lunch, and I caught the train back to Nogizawa. Eventually we met back up at the NOMYC, and we worked heavily on our design project as a group. For dinner, I actually met up with my Uncle Masaru who lives in Tokyo. He met me at the gate of the NOMYC, and we took the subway to Kappabashi/Asakusa. Since I hadn’t been to Kappabashi before, he wanted to make sure I at least visit that area since it is known at Tokyo’s Food District. We wandered around, and there were many kitchen supply stores. Eventually we wandered into the Asakusa area and sat down at a tempura place. I thought it was really expensive, but he didn’t seem to mind at all. My meal came with a plate of tempura (jumbo prawns, squid, potato, green beans, and jalapeño pepper), rice, two types of tsukemono, miso soup, and green tea for 2,300 yen! It was really good, and the jumbo prawns were by far the largest ones I had ever seen in my life. I was completely full by the end of the meal! We walked around the markets outside of Asakusa Temple, but many of them were closing since it was after 6pm. Uncle Masaru really wanted to buy me some snacks for my room, so we eventually found a small store called Rusk. Rusk sold small baguette-like pieces of bread which were sweet and came in three different flavors. I tried one sample of each flavor, and they were all really good! He ended up buying me a 12-pack with all three flavors in it. I was so grateful! Since it was getting later and I had work to do, we headed back to the NOMYC on the subway. Once back at the NOMYC, I showed him my room and living accommodations, and he was additionally able to meet Norio. I walked him to the Sanjubashi Station, since he had to catch the subway back to his home near Ikebukuro. I grabbed some tea on the way back to my room, since it was going to be another late night of working.
I’m really glad I was able to meet up with Uncle Masaru today. I was somewhat worried about the language barrier being an issue, but his Japanese was pretty good and much better than his writing in emails. He is planning to meet me at the front gate on my last day at the NOMYC, so I now feel confident that we are both on the same page as well. This program is coming to an end really quickly, and I am really looking forward to meeting my Grandma’s other brothers and sister when I travel to Nagano next week.

2 June 2009

2009-06-02T08:05:00.000-07:00

I woke-up this morning at 9:00am to make sure I had enough time to get ready and turn in my sheet on-time. Don messed up on the schedule a bit, so we were actually supposed to have turned in our sheets two days ago, so we got a bit delayed on turning in our sheets. Afterwards, we walked as a group to the Yoyogi-koen Station and caught the 10:46am train to Nogizawa. We headed to Gallery Ma, one of the most prestigious architecture display galleries in Japan. Klein Dytham Architect’s work was being showcased in the gallery, and Astrid Klein actually met us there to talk about her and Mark Dytham’s work. The exhibit was two stories, and it was really interesting to see how successful foreigners could be in Japan. Both Astrid and Mark had graduated from college in Europe and immediately moved to Japan with no real plan in mind. They both attained jobs at Toyo Ito’s office, which is incredibly hard to do as a foreigner. They eventually started their own firm, and this exhibition in Gallery Ma was celebrating their 20th anniversary of architecture in Japan. After viewing the gallery and talking with Astrid, we went to the Toto Architecture Bookstore located one level below the gallery in the same building. I continue to love the architectural bookstores here since there are so many books that I cannot buy when I’m in the U.S. Many people bought many books, but I settled on one “boogazine”, which is a hybrid between a book and a magazine. It featured only recent works by Kengo Kuma, whose office we visited just last week. The cover had the model from the competition they won recently for an orchestra hall, and the project architect had actually discussed the project with us when we were at Kuma’s firm.
After finalizing our purchases, Don invited Norio, Derrick, and I to get some lunch with him. We found a very reasonable tonkatsu restaurant, and I ordered tonkatsu over rice and curry for 580 yen. It was really really good, especially for the price. I am really going to miss all of the good food for such cheap prices when I return to the U.S. We were all pretty tired after lunch, so we headed back to the NOMYC. Once back at the NOMYC, we couldn’t figure out what we wanted to do. It is supposed to rain the rest of the week, so I wanted to take advantage of the beautiful sunny weather. Derrick and Norio were too tired to even go out, so I decided to go out on my own to explore. I had been wanting to visit Nakano for quite some time now, and since no one else was really interested in going there, I decided today was a great opportunity. I hoped on the train without really knowing the best way of getting there, but I eventually got there just fine. The main attraction in Nakano is the shopping arcade, so I wandered through there. I went into a UniQlo, and the jeans I’ve been looking at were actually on sale. I’ve been waiting for the past month for the jeans to go on sale, and I had never seen them on sale anywhere, so I definitely bought them. The great thing about UniQlo too is that they hem your pants for free. I paid for them, and they said the pants would be ready in 20 minutes. How convenient! I wish all stores in the U.S. did that too. Nothing else really stood out as amazing in Nakano. I just took a lot of pictures of signs and buildings that said Nakano, and I enjoyed the nice weather. I picked-up my jeans on the way back to the station and got back to Sanjubashi Station around 7pm. I picked-up some somen at the convenient store and spent the rest of the evening working on my studio project.

1 June 2009

2009-06-01T10:55:00.001-07:00

Wow, today is already June 1st! That is so crazy, since time has just flown by! There are only ten official days of Cal Poly study abroad class left, and my final group project is due in four days. Everything is just coming to a close so quickly! My group met with Don at 9:30am this morning and discussed our project one last time before our final is due this upcoming Friday. He seemed really pleased with our progress, so I’m hoping it’s because he actually liked our design and not because he knows we don’t have time to change it, but whatever. It is what it is. After meeting with him, Norio and I walked to a small coffee shop across the street from the NOMYC. I tried an iced almond latte, and he got his usual coffee. We made plans to visit Shinjuku then Ginza that night to take photos, but we both wanted to take a nap before going out again. We walked back to the NOMYC and decided to meet back up around 3pm. I used the time to mainly catch-up on my blogs and emails, but I also found time to nap for about an hour. When I woke-up at 3pm, I went and woke-up Norio as well. Derrick had originally planned to go with us too, but he was too exhausted to go out. Instead, John asked to go with us, so the three of us headed out toward Shinjuku on foot.
It was slightly raining when we first left the NOMYC, but it stopped after about 10 minutes of walking. We first went up the observatory tower in the Tokyo Government Building by Kenzo Tange, then we went and explored the ground level of the Cocoon Tower, also designed by Kenzo Tange. Afterwards, we had originally planned to go straight to Ginza, but since it was still light outside, Norio wanted to go see an installation in one of the nearby subway stations. We hopped on the subway and got off at Iidabashi Station. The installation consisted of bright green pipes forming linear shapes based off of algorithmic formulas, and Norio said it was done by Makoto Watanabe Architects. It wrapped along the ceiling of the station as the escalators climbed higher and higher to finally reach ground level. The even better part was that we didn’t have to exit the subway gates since the installation was completely contained with the gated areas. Norio, John, and I used it as an opportunity to go somewhere else with the same prepaid ticket. John ended up getting a headache however, so he got off at Shinjuku, and Norio and I proceeded to go back to Roppongi. Norio wanted to photograph the Louis Vuitton store by Jun Aoki since the façade consisted of many clear tubes. I had already seen it, but I took a few photographs anyways. We grabbed a quick dinner at Wendy’s, and I ordered a cheeseburger, fries, and chili set for 690 yen. It was really good and really filling. After finishing dinner in Roppongi, we finally got on the subway to Ginza.
Once in Ginza, I was completely amazed by how beautiful the area was at night. The buildings all look completely different, and many of the less aesthetically pleasing buildings during the daytime were completely transformed at night. We walked around for a couple of hours taking photos, and I’m glad the weather was agreeable as well. By the time we finished, it was around 11pm, so most places were closed. Since we were both thirsty and didn’t want to return to the NOMYC, we took the subway to Shibuya so we could grabbed something to drink and eat at Saizeriya. I ordered the Chef’s Salad for 299 yen, along with a voucher for the unlimited drink bar for 180 yen. Norio ordered a bacon and sausage pizza and also got a voucher for the drink bar. That was the second time I went to the drink bar at Saizeriya, and I enjoy to its fullest every time since I love soda and tea so much. We lost track of time while talking so we didn’t end up leaving Saizeriya until around 1am. What a long day! We walked back to the NOMYC and went our separate ways. I took a shower then worked on organizing my photos from earlier. Tomorrow we meet with Klein Dytham Architects at their exhibition in Gallery Ma, so that should be interesting. We also get to change our sheets every week, so we have to turn in our sheets tomorrow morning at 10:15am and get a new set. What a hassle…

31 May 2009

2009-05-31T21:41:00.001-07:00

We slept in late again this morning, even though we tried to get up around 10am. I eventually rolled out of bed around noon, and I still had to wake Derrick up a couple of times. We stayed up late working on our project, so it was understandable that we were tired. I was afraid that Norio and his mom would be up and about, but they were still wandering around in their pajamas too. Norio’s mom didn’t have breakfast prepared for us since they had plans to take us out to eat at one of their favorite places. Once Norio’s dad got home from work, we jumped in their car and went to get some good food. The restaurant they took us to turned out to be about 30 minutes away, and it was an all-you-can-eat Japanese buffet. It was really busy, and we had to wait for about 20 minutes to get a table. The buffet itself was a lot nicer than any buffet I had visited in the U.S. All the food was consistently changed out with freshly made food, and the variety of foods offered kept changing as well. I had a couple plates of food and definitely got my fill for the day.
We drove back home and were all completely exhausted from eating so much. Norio’s dad went back to work the rest other four of us took a nap. It was such a lazy day! We woke up around 6pm and began working on our project again. Once Norio’s mom woke up, she prepared the bath for us so we could eat shower and bathe before returning to the NOMYC later that night. We packed all of our stuff back up, and once Norio’s dad got back, we loaded up the car and left around 11pm. We stopped by Mina’s house really quickly so I could return her hair supplies to her, and I once again thanked her many times for the kimono and obi. After saying our goodbyes, we still hadn’t eaten dinner, so Norio’s parents took us to one of their favorite ramen places. It was known for its special volcano ramen, so they were really excited to show it off to us. I ordered shoyu ramen, and everyone else got miso ramen. The ramen came out in a stone-like bowl, and when they poured the dashi in the bowl, it sizzled up and spilt everywhere. The restaurant had provided a sheet of paper to hold up in order to protect ourselves from getting burnt. It was really interesting. The meal also came with a bowl of rice, three pieces of gyoza, and anin dofu dessert. The process for eating the meal was a bit different as well since you were supposed to eat the ramen first, then dump the rice into the remaining dashi to eat it. I liked this process much better since I’m not a huge fan of plain rice, and anin dofu turns out to be one of my favorites. We all finished our meals, then jumped back in the car to sadly head back to Tokyo.
The drive to Tokyo takes about an hour and is about 120km. We made one rest stop, and it rained for the entire drive back. I was really sad to say bye to Norio’s parents, but I’m hoping I will be able to see them once more before I leave. It was a great experience overall, and I am truly grateful for their immense generosity. The rest of the night was spent working on our design project and presentation since we have another draft due tomorrow. I still can’t believe we will have everything finished up in a week and a couple days. It is such a crazy thought, but I am also getting excited to see my relatives.

30 May 2009

2009-05-30T20:32:00.000-07:00

We slept in this morning since we were all tired from the long day yesterday. By the time we got up and moving, it was already lunch time. Norio’s mom had prepared a soup-like meal in a pot with tofu, pork, mushrooms, and many greens. It was really good and complimented the plain bowl of rice very nicely. I ate until I was completely full, but I still wish I could’ve eaten more. It was so good! We already had plans for the evening since today was supposedly a special day of celebration for the welcoming of summer to Japan. There was going to be food vendors set-up along the river in Tochigi, and the city was going to set off fireworks if the weather permitted them to do so. It was steadily raining all day, so I hoped it would stop so we could go out and enjoy the festivities. The three of us worked on our studio design project for most of the day since the weather was poor anyways.
Norio’s mom’s friend Mina came over around 6pm, and she brought with her one of her old kimonos and hair styling supplies. Norio’s parents had additionally bought Derrick a new yukata from the store since he was too large to wear anyone else’s. Derrick, Norio, and I were going to dress up in celebration of the festivities tonight. Before getting dressed, Mina offered to do my hair since I did not know how to do it properly. I just assumed I could sport the pony tail, but I guess she wasn’t going to settle for something so casual. She gave me two different hairstyle options, and I decided on the bun since it seemed like the least amount of work. She put tons of hair product in my hair and pulled my hair back tighter than I’ve ever had it pulled back. I could feel the skin on my face become completely tight on my face. It was a weird feeling. After finishing my hair, which I liked a lot, Mina dressed me in the kimono she brought. It was a beautiful teal green with white butterflies on it. She even had a golden yellow obi with butterflies on it to match. It was the first time I had the complete look, and it was really neat. It turns out that the kimono and obi were ones that Mina had worn since she was a young girl, so it had even more meaning for me to be wearing it. I was completely overwhelmed by her generosity when she even told me I could keep it. It was instances like this one where I wish I could’ve spoken Japanese. I couldn’t possibly imagine taking something of her’s which she had had since she was a little girl, and especially a kimono and obi. Wow! I told Norio to tell her that I couldn’t except such a generous gift, but she already had her mind set. Norio said I was just lucky, and I eventually had to just accept the gift. I still wish I could’ve thanked her even more, but due to the language barrier, I just kept repeating the same phrase of arigato gozaimas. Norio’s mom dressed him and Derrick in their yukatas, and we were finally ready to go.
In order to get the best view of the fireworks, we had plans to go to Mina’s mom’s house since she lived right by the river where the vendors and fireworks were. Even though her mom only lived about 10 minutes away from Norio’s hosue, it took seemingly forever since traffic was so backed up. The three of us went in Mina’s car, and she was a crazy driver! Norio said she had gotten much better, but Derrick and I were definitely scared. We arrived safely though, and once inside, there was tons of good food already prepared. It felt very similar to when I go to my grandparents for any special occasion. We sat upstairs on the tatami, ate the great food, and enjoyed the view of the fireworks. For dinner, we had homemade udon, fried squid, maki sushi, inari sushi, cucumber rolls, and pickled veggies. It was a really filling meal. We walked around the river and vendors after eating, and it was only slightly raining. Many of the younger people were dressed similarly to us, but the older people were casually dressed in everyday clothes.
We spent the rest of the evening at Mina’s mom’s house playing the taiko Wii game with one of the grandchildren. It was so much fun! I wish they had that game for the U.S. Wii. We met many other extended family members during the night, then we finally headed home around 11pm. We took our shower and bathes again, then stayed up late working on our project. I will definitely be really sad to go back to Tokyo tomorrow because I am having so much fun here in Tochigi.

29 May 2009

2009-05-29T10:26:00.000-07:00

I woke-up at 8:15am this morning and got ready to visit Kengo Kuma’s office. I met up with Shae around 9:20am, and we walked to the Yoyogi-koen Station together in order to catch the 9:39am train. Our appointment at Kengo Kuma’s office was at 10am, and of course, it was raining. The office was very close the station that we got off at, but the tour itself turned out to be very unorganized. People don’t even show up to the office until at least 10am, so not many people were there when we walked through. A lady just took us to each floor, but she didn’t tell us much about the firm. One project manager showed us an orchestra hall that had won a competition recently, but that was the only project we were shown. Supposedly many of their projects are confidential, but not seeing or hearing anything about the office made for a dry tour that didn’t last very long.
After the office visit, we were on our own. Since the tour was at 10am, it was nice to be done before 11am. Derrick, Norio, and I headed to Shibuya to get some lunch and relax. Since Norio planned to take Derrick and I home with him to Tochigi, I tried to buy something to take to his house for his parents, but Norio got mad. He said I could take something if it was American, but otherwise, his parents buy whatever they want. That ended that discussion, so I decided I would just mail them something later. We got lunch at Saizeriya, and I ordered a mozzarella cheese pizza for 399 yen, plus unlimited drinks at the drink bar for 180 yen. I was really thirsty, so I ended up drinking a glass of melon soda, pepsi, oolong tea, milk tea, cappuccino, and jasmine tea. Considering that one soda at a restaurant usually cost upwards of 400 yen, the 180 yen price was a great deal. We walked through a few stores, then walked back to the NOMYC in the rain. Once back at the NOMYC, we packed and waited for Norio’s dad to call him.
Norio’s dad eventually picked us up at the NOMYC around 6pm. There was an accident on the expressway, so he was delayed about an hour. Traffic was heavy on our drive to Tochigi as well, so it ended up taking us over an hour to get there. When we got to Norio’s house, I was surprised at the small town feel of his city. His house was in a nice neighborhood situated between small alley-like streets. His house was two stories, with a living room, family room, kitchen, tatami room, three bathrooms, a bath room, and two bedrooms. Norio’s room is really large, and it even has a loft in it. There was definitely plenty of space for us to sleep and leave our stuff. For dinner, Norio’s parents had already made reservations at one of their friend’s restaurant. We swung by a dessert bakery and grocery store before going to eat since our reservations weren’t until 9pm. At the dessert shop, we each had to pick out two desserts. Everything looked amazing, but I finally decided on two things I had never tried before: a chestnut cake with frosting and a chocolate-covered banana thing. We dropped off the desserts and groceries at the house, then headed to the restaurant. We met one of their good friends there, and they took care of all the ordering. It was yakiniku, which is Japanese-style BBQ. We got kimchi, pickled greens, beef tongue, thin-sliced kalbi beef, kalbi steak, spicy soup, rice, and lychee for dessert. To drink, they ordered me a melon ice cream float. Everything was extremely good, and I think the kalbi beef was the best meat I have ever eaten in my life. I know the meal wasn’t cheap either since there was eight of us total, but Norio’s parents paid for it with no problem. I asked Norio later how much the kalbi beef costed approximately, and when he asked his mom, she had no idea since she didn’t even look at the total price before she paid. That surprised me a lot, but it proved how well-off they must be financially.
Following our huge dinner, we went to Norio’s mom’s best friend’s house. It was literally behind their house on the next block over. I could tell by their house that they were really well-off too. We hung out and talked a bit, then called it a night. Once back at Norio’s house, we ate the desserts we have gotten earlier, took showers and bathes, and went to sleep. My dessert was a chestnut cake thing, and it was really tasty. Norio’s mom prepared a bubble bath for me, so after showering, I relaxed in the tub for a while. I remembered that you aren’t supposed to drain the tub after a shower, but at Norio’s house, it is different. Since money doesn’t seem to be a problem, everyone got their own bath water with their own scent of bubble bath. It was really funny. This will definitely turn out to be a really interesting weekend.

28 May 2009

2009-05-28T00:03:00.000-07:00

My group had the earlier meeting session with Don this morning, so we met at 9:45am in one of the NOMYC classrooms. There were three other groups there as well. The second group met at 11:15am, then we had to meet at Yoyogi-koen Station to catch the 12:40pm train. We had a 1:30pm appointment to visit Fujimoto Sou’s office in Tokyo, even though Fujimoto himself is currently in the Netherlands for a project. The guy that met with us spoke very good English since he had lived in Australia for a while. I always find it a bit strange when Asians have a non-Asian accent. We got a tour of the office, and I was especially impressed with Fujimoto’s office because they design purely through physical models. It was very similar to the school studio setup, and I had never seen so many models at one time in my life. It was so astounding! It definitely looked like a cool place to work! At the end, we were each given an autographed copy of Fujimoto’s more recent book, and we were all thrilled. What a great experience overall!
From Fujimoto’s office, we all headed back to the NOMYC. We grabbed lunch at Matsuya, and Derrick paid for my meal since I had cut his hair. I tried the new item which was tuna sashimi, potato, and ginger over rice for 490 yen. It was really good, so I will probably be buying that again. By the time we returned to the NOMYC, we were all ready for a nap. I only meant to nap for about an hour, but it turned into a much later nap. I woke-up around 7pm and worked vigorously on finishing up my scholarship application. The deadline is May 29th, so I wanted to make sure I got it done with a day to spare or so just in case I hit any problems. I finished it around 11pm and submitted it via email. I then Skyped and hung out in the guys’ lounge since the girls’ side had no more internet. Four of my classmates came back very drunk later, so I was very amused by their drunkenness. Shae, Derrick, Jeff, Karen, and I just hung out and watched the Dan, John, Scot, and Zach humiliate themselves. It was really funny.
Tomorrow we have another office visit scheduled for 10am at Kengo Kuma’s office. Kuma is out of the office as well, but I’m excited to see his office since he is really famous as well.

27 May 2009

2009-05-27T00:03:00.000-07:00

We had Arch 480/420 lecture with Don this morning from 10am-noon, then the rest of the day was our’s. Almost everyone was completely exhausted from the past couple days, so no one wanted to go out. It was warm and humid outside, but it was a little bit less intense than usual. Since I’m planning to go to Norio’s parent’s house in Tochigi this weekend, I wanted to visit the two museums that Don has plans to visit on Sunday. I went by myself since everyone else was too tired. I hopped on the subway at Yoyogi-koen Station and got off at the National Art Center Tokyo stop. The façade and main interior space of the National Art Center Tokyo is really neat since it consists of a huge glass undulating façade with upward opening cones on the interior. It was nice being able to take my time and photograph at my own pace. The strange thing I realized about the museum was that, due to its large size, you had to pay for each gallery separately since they all had different exhibits in them. Don said the program would pay for the admission, but I wasn’t sure how many. I found one exhibit that I was interested in seeing, and I paid 1,000 yen to get in. It was the Hitoshi Nomura exhibit on the changes in time, perception, and field. I really enjoyed the exhibit, and I’m glad I was by myself since museums are meant to be experience at your own pace.
After the National Art Center Tokyo, I made the short walk to Tokyo Midtown where the Suntory Art Museum was located. When I got up to the museum, I found out it was closed until May 30th since they were in the process of changing the exhibits. It didn’t really look like something I was interested in anyways, but maybe I’ll go back at a later date. By then I was pretty tired, so I caught the subway back to the NOMYC and took a nap. For dinner, Derrick wanted to try a new burger joint that just opened called De Mode Burger. Dan and John had tried it earlier and said the burgers were decently sized. Blake came with us too, so that made three of us. I ordered the standard burger and added cheese for 790 yen. When the burger finally came out, it was huge! It also came with some big potato wedge fries, and I was completely stuffed by the end of the meal. Since it was new, they also encouraged us to write on the walls, so I wrote “05.27.09 Cal Poly – San Luis Obispo KENCHIKU”, and we all signed our names below it. [Kenchiku means architecture in Japanese.] It was really cool.
We went back and basically worked on our project until very early in the morning. Tomorrow we have to present to the class, so everyone was trying a little bit harder than usual. I’ll just be glad when we’re all done with the project, and I can hopefully get a little more sleep every night.

26 May 2009

2009-05-26T00:02:00.000-07:00

Our appointment to meet with Don this morning was at 9:30am. It was difficult to get out of bed, especially since we were the first group to go. I was jealous of everyone who got to sleep in. Don liked the progress we had made on our project and told us just to continue developing it. We had an appointment to meet with Shigeru Namba at 1:30pm, so I was able to take a quick nap between the time we finished up with Don and noon when we had to meet at the gate. Power naps really help get me through the day sometime. We caught the subway from Yoyogi-koen Station and took it to Tokyo University where Namba sensei teaches. Don got us there a bit early so that we could get lunch at the university cafeteria. I wasn’t really hungry, so Shae and I decided to share a meal. All of the food offered by the cafeteria looked really good, and it was very reasonably priced as well. The ordering process was a bit strange, since there was a glass case displaying all of the meals they served, then you bought the meal ticket from a vending machine. From the vending machine, you proceeded down to the cafeteria level and went to the correct window to get your food with your ticket. Once I figured it out, it was fine, but it was a very confusing process in the beginning, and it was really funny to walk around a glass case looking at all of the plastic fake food. Shae and I ended up splitting an order of fried chicken with mushroom cream sauce, salad, miso soup, and rice. Mugicha tea was free, so I drank a couple glasses of that as well. The meal was really delicious, and I wish campus food at Cal Poly was as reasonable and tasty as it is here in Japan.
A little before 1:30pm, we made our way through the campus to Namba sensei’s building. We met him in a small lecture hall, and he proceeded to give a presentation on his Box House series of works. It was really interesting, and I was glad that he was able to present in English. He already had plans for after the presentation, so we finished up, and we went our separate ways. On our way out, Don walked us through one of the architecture studios at Tokyo University, and it was a lot like Cal Poly’s studios except with much more people in one room. I assumed that we would head back after the meeting, but Don wanted to take us to the book district to visit a couple used bookstores. It took us a good 15-20 minutes to get to the district, but once there, we were on our own. Don pointed out one really good used architecture book store, but that was about it. Rather than all crowd into the bookstore at once, Norio, Derrick, and I went to a coffee shop just to relax. I ordered a small iced café mocha, and it was better than any café mocha I’ve had in the States. What a treat! After resting for a bit, we went to a couple bookstores, but only Norio bought some books.
From where we were, we decided to take the subway back to Shibuya, then walk back to the NOMYC from there. In Shibuya, we stopped and did a little bit of shopping, and Derrick bought more t-shirts at Uni-Qlo. For dinner, the three of us tried a Chinese restaurant across the expressway from the NOMYC. It was really really good, and I ordered fried rice that came with a cup of soup. It cost 680 yen, and the portions were pretty big. I am definitely going to eat there again in the near future. The rest of the night, I worked on my studio project and worked on my submission for a scholarship. I was really tired from staying up the night before, so I made sure to go to bed a little bit earlier.

25 May 2009

2009-05-25T08:22:00.000-07:00

Getting up this morning was difficult as I had predicted. I slowly got ready and met the group at 8:50am as scheduled. Since we were planning to meet with Terunobu Fujimori this morning, I bought my gift to give to him, along with three other people. We made the 30 minute walk to Shinjuku Station, then caught the Chuo Line subway for 20 minutes. We were still in Tokyo but just more on the outskirts. We arrived to the station a bit early, so we had a chance to grab a bite to eat for breakfast. Shae and I went to a bakery we found in the station, and I bought a custard-filled pastry for breakfast and a chicken pita sandwich for later. The custard pastry was absolutely amazing, and I wish I could’ve bought more of them to bring back with me to the NOMYC. Anyways, after finishing up my breakfast, Fujimori Sensei showed up and walked us to one of his nearby projects. The project was a residential house that was nearly complete, except for the landscaping. The clients were already living in the house, but since the owner was on-site at the time of our arrival, we were able to go inside the house as well. The house had a very interesting copper shingled exterior, and the interior was very primal and natural. Though Fujimori nor the owner spoke any English, we were still able to learn a lot about the house and the architect-client relationship through Don and Norio’s translations. We gave two of gifts to the owner for being so generous in allowing us to visit his home, then we followed Fujimori to his own residence. Fujimori’s residence was a very interesting one. The exterior was all wood, and he had plants and flowers growing up the vertical surfaces and on the roof. The wood slats were designed so there were basically planters built-in to the walls. It gave the house a very interesting aesthetic. Fujimori invited us into his home, and we met his wife once inside. He took us up to the roof of his home so we could more closely see the interesting plants growing out of his house and enjoy the beautiful view from above. When we went back inside, Fujimori and his wife offered us lunch since they had already ordered sushi bento boxes from a nearby sushi restaurant. Good thing Fujimori is a very well-known and wealthy architect because those sushi bento boxes must have been really expensive. The sushi and sashimi was probably the highest quality of fish I have ever eaten, and it was just so good! I can’t even put into words how much I enjoyed that meal. There was a lot of sushi and sashimi in the box too, so I was barely able to finish it all. After lunch, we all gathered in Fujimori’s tea room, and his wife performed the act of serving tea to four people in our group. She properly made and served some matcha green tea, then she quickly made enough for the rest of us as well. The matcha was really good as well, and they also served chocolates immediately before to counter the bitterness of the matcha. It was an overall great experience. Before leaving, I gave my gift (a wooden Cal Poly pen) along with Zach’s candy gift to Fujimori’s sensei to show our appreciation.
Fujimori sensei led us back to the main road, and we said our farewells. He is a very famous and well-known architect in Japan, so I’m really glad I had the opportunity to meet him and see some of his projects. We took the train back to the NOMYC and almost everyone was tired by then. I took a short nap and woke up around 6pm. The rest of the night, I worked on my studio design project with my group. Norio, Shae, and I grabbed take-out at the Himalayan Curry House and brought it back to the NOMYC to eat. I got the spinach vegetable curry with plain nan since last time the chicken curry upset my stomach. The nan at that restaurant is definitely one of my favorites! We are scheduled to meet with Don in our individual groups tomorrow, and my group’s appointment is at 9:30am. I ended up not going to sleep until 4:30am, but I was on a roll and was able to get a lot done on my part of the project.

24 May 2009

2009-05-24T08:53:00.001-07:00

The four of us girls woke-up at 9am this morning when Don knocked on our shoji screen door. He said it was time for breakfast, so we hastily got up and went downstairs. Luckily breakfast was much smaller than the meal we were served for dinner last night, but I still had to force myself to eat most of it since I’m not usually a big breakfast eater. It was once again very tasty and was composed of many small dishes. After breakfast, I met up with Norio, and we walked to the washi paper making factory located about 15 minutes away down the mountain. Gokayama is known for its washi paper, so I was really interested to see the process which goes into making it. The factory turned out to be more of a workshop, and there were only two people working in it. It was so cool being able to watch them manually make every single sheet of paper. I had blindly assumed that a machine did most of the work, but I was completely wrong. Even some of the tools that they were using were quite historic looking, so it was a great experience overall. We ended up running into over half of the class while there as well since it was something very different than anything we would ever see in the U.S.
After visiting the washi paper making factory, Norio, Matt, and I walked back to our village. It was overcast outside but still extremely humid. By the time we made it back to our village, it started to rain, and the rain continually got heavier as it moved closer to our departure time. It was really calming to sit under the covered veranda of the Gassho Style Houses and listen to the rain hit the roofs and rice paddies. I sat outside enjoying the weather for the two hours before we had to catch the bus at 1:58pm. By the time we have to make the 10 minute walk to the bus stop with all of our stuff, it was completely pouring. It was such a miserable and surprisingly cold walk, and the short wait didn’t help matters.
After catching the local bus, we took it all the way back to the local train station. We waited an hour for the train to arrive, then we took it for 57 minutes to Takaoka Station. Once arriving in Takaoka, we had another 45 minute layover. I took this time as an opportunity to get some food, and everyone ended up having the same idea. We all ended up going to McDonald’s since it was quickest and most convenient. Since I was getting low on money again, I only got two Shaka Shaka Chickens for 200 yen total. It was enough to hold me over since I still had a pack of two peanut butter sandwiches in my backpack. From Takaoka Station, we caught the Hakutaka to Echigoyuzawa for 2 hours and 8 minutes. With the help of my iPod, I was able to sleep for more than half of that long train ride. When we got into Echigoyuzawa, we had to run to the Shinkansen platform since we only had 8 minutes to make it from one train to the next. We barely caught the Shinkansen in time, and we rode that back to Tokyo for an hour and 12 minutes. From Tokyo Station, we hoped onto the Yamanote subway line and rode that for about half an hour to get to Shinjuku Station. From Shinjuku Station, we switched to the Odakyu Line and finally got off at Sanjubashi Station, which is the closet station to the NOMYC. That completed a day with over seven hours of travelling! We stopped by 7-11 so all of us could get more cash out, then we bought stuff at the convenience store and got dinner at Matsuya.
We checked-in at the NOMYC a little after 9:30pm, picked-up our sheets, and got our room assignments. We surprisingly got the same rooms that we had last time, so that was convenient. I took a shower, Skyped, then went to bed since I was so tired. Tomorrow we have plans to meet with an architect named Fujimori, and he was actually Don’s old professor. It should be interesting, but we have to meet at 8:50am. Hopefully one of these days I’ll be able to sleep in. Haha…

23 May 2009

2009-05-23T08:33:00.000-07:00

I woke-up at 6:30am this morning since we had to meet at 8am in order to safely catch the 8:20am Hakutaka train to Takaoka. I packed up all of my stuff and enjoyed the complimentary breakfast for one last time at the Toyoko Inn. It is somewhat sad to think this was my last time staying at one for the rest of my trip. I wanted to photograph Kanazawa Station before leaving today as well, so Norio and I left at 7:45am to allow adequate time to photograph. Luckily, it wasn’t raining, but the weather was still very overcast. As a group, we successfully caught the 8:20am train, then transferred to a local train line at 9am. We rode the local train for almost an hour, then had an hour layover to wait for the local bus in Takaoka to take us to Gokayama. Since Gokayama is such a rural town, we only had a minimal number of opportunities to actually make it to the city. During the downtime while waiting for the bus, I walked to the closest Lawson convenience store to stock up on some snacks during our stay in Gokayama. No one knew what types of facilities the small town would have, so I figured it would be better to be safe than sorry. I bought a pack of peanut butter sandwiches and a couple potato veggie stick snacks.
We boarded the bus at 10:47am as scheduled, and it took about 20 minutes to arrive in Gokayama. Once in Gokayama, I was completely surprised by the appearance of the town. Almost all of the structures are Gassho Style Houses, which are basically a steep peaked roof made of dried grasses and plants. They give the town a very historic aesthetic, but surprisingly, the town had great facilities, and I even had perfect internet connectivity on my Blackberry. I never would’ve guessed that my Blackberry would be able to connect to the 3G network while I was in the mountainous town of Gokayama. It was a pleasant surprise. We wandered around upon our arrival, then took the bus to two neighboring villages still composing Gokayama. These two similar villages had all Gassho Style Houses as well, so it was very relaxing to walk around in such a natural environment. We took the bus between cities, but we made the 30 minute walk back from the last village to the village we were staying in.
Once arriving back at our village, the two groups went to their respective houses for dinner. For dinner, they were cooking whole fish skewed around a fire. The skewer went through the tail and out the mouth. It was really really scary, and I definitely knew I wasn’t going to be able to eat it. Derrick had already requested that he didn’t get any fish since he is allergic to seafood, but Don asked about my dinner as well. When I ended up getting my dinner, they somewhat misunderstood what Don requested, so they still served me fish, except without the head and tail. The mid section of the body was still completely intact, fins and all, so I was still scared of my dinner. Luckily, there were a million other items served with the fish. It took me 30 minutes to even touch the piece of fish in order to flip it over so I didn’t have to look at the fins. It was so sad. I decided I would eat everything else on my tray first, then I would try to eat the fish. I wanted to make sure that my phobia of fish didn’t make me sick before having a chance to enjoying the rest of the good food. I ended up eating everything and even most of the meat on the inside of the fish. It was a very filling meal.
After dinner, Norio, Derrick, Seth, Blake, Jeff, Shae, and I made the 5 minute hike up the hillside in order to photograph the village at night. Most of the Gassho Style Houses were illuminated from the inside, so we got a few good night shots from above. It was pretty scary being out in the wild when it was pitch black, and even some of the guys were getting creped out. It was funny now that I look back on it. The rest of the evening we hung out and talked. The room that Shae, Karen, Katie, and I were sharing was the largest, so our whole group hung out in there. The sound insulation is non-existent in the Gassho Style Houses however, so we called it an early night and went to bed by 11pm.

22 May 2009

2009-05-22T04:01:00.000-07:00

I woke-up around 8am this morning to make sure I was able to take advantage of the complimentary breakfast before we met with Don at 9:30am. This Toyoko Inn served plain rice, daikon salad, tsukemono, fish cake in scrambled eggs, sausage, miso soup, three types of rolls, plain yogurt, and vegetable fruit juice. It was really filling so I was glad it was going to hold me over for the majority of the morning. Once meeting with Don at 9:30am, we walked as a group to Kenrokuen Garden. Kenrokuen Garden is one of the three most famous gardens in Japan, so it was really large and beautiful. Don paid for our admission, and we were free to wander at our own pace. I wandered around with Derrick and Blake, since Norio had to complete a group project while within the garden area. It took us a little over an hour to make it through the garden, then we walked to the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa by SANAA (Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa). Not only did the museum have some of the coolest exhibits I have ever seen, but it also had another one of James Turrell’s works. This one didn’t seem as impressive after having the opportunity to stay in the House of Light, but I still enjoyed it. The design of the structure itself was also very impressive, and I’m really glad I was able to visit it today.
Unfortunately after leaving the museum, it had begun to rain. The weather was no longer hot, and it was surprisingly cold and windy. By the time we left the museum, our group had grown to include Norio, John, and Scot. All of us did not have a jacket and were not really prepared for rain. Luckily I had my umbrella, but that was about it. We miserably made our way back towards the hotel in hopes of finding reasonable food somewhere. We ultimately decided to eat at a ramen and gyoza place within Kanazawa Station, but we made a quick snack stop at Mister Donut on our way since we were all starving. I tried the new honey tofu donut, and it was really good. Once arriving at the station, I ordered the ramen and eight piece gyoza set for 720 yen. I was really hungry, and I finished all of it. Scot was so hungry that he ate 32 pieces of gyoza, so that was really impressive.
We originally had plans to visit other parts of the city today, but since the weather was so miserable, we decided against it and instead headed back to the hotel. I got back just in time to Skype with Jenna, so that was really nice. It was only the second time I’ve been able to talk with her since arriving in Japan, so we had lots of catching up to do. Other than that, I rested and tried to catch up on my photos and blog. Dinner was provided by Toyoko Inn again, and tonight it was ¬¬¬¬¬¬¬Japanese curry with rice. The portion was small again, but since both Scot and Zach didn’t want their meals, they gave their plates to Seth and I. I therefore got to eat two plates of curry instead of just one, and I saved money by not having to buy a second dinner. The rest of the night was a lazy one for me. I worked on my Arch 420 assignments, Arch 480 travel journal, student blog for the class website, and on my Arch 453 design project. There is a lot to do. Tomorrow we have to get up early in order to catch the train at 8:20am, so I made sure to be all packed before going to bed. The rain continued for the rest of the night, so I’m hoping that tomorrow will be dry when we’re moving.

21 May 2009

2009-05-21T02:51:00.000-07:00

The second “Light Show” of the Turrell House of Light was scheduled for 3:15am, so I woke-up to my phone alarm at 3:10am. Most people’s alarms went off, but only Shae, Jeff, Trent, and I actually stayed awake. Shae and I were the only ones who were awake for the entire hour of the show, but it was basically the opposite of the show at sunset. We watched and photographed from 3:15am to 4:15am as the sky changed from black to light blue again. It was really tranquil, and afterwards, we went back to sleep. I woke-up to my alarm again at 8:30am since we had to be ready to leave by 9:30am. Two representatives from the House of Light arrived to meet us at 9:45am, and taxis were waiting in the driveway for us at 10am. The taxis cost 2,840 yen again, and we split it three ways. Hopefully Don will be reimbursing us for the taxi fares, but I’ll have to inquire about that later. Once at the station, Norio checked to see if there was an earlier train we could take to get to Kanazawa, but the one we had reserved for at noon was the earliest. This meant we had two hours to kill, so most of us just sat around and relaxed at the station. There was only one small hole-in-the-wall place to eat at within the station too, so I ordered tempura soba for 390 yen. It was made by a little lady in a really small booth, and it tasted really good! I always love the small places that served home-cooked meals!
At noon, we boarded the Shinkansen headed to Kanazawa. Since I reserved my seat separately from everyone else, I was in car #4, Norio was in car #2 (the smoking car), and everyone else was in car #8 or #9. I always enjoy sitting by myself since it is much more peaceful, and it is one of the few opportunities I have to escape from everyone. The train ride was two hours and eighteen minutes long, so I set my alarm for two hours. I realized that was phone battery was going to die very soon though, so I ended up having to figure out how to set the alarm on my iPod instead. Luckily it worked out just fine, and I was able to sleep for a good two hours on the train. Once arriving in Kanazawa, everyone from both groups got off of the train. We all met up on the platform and followed Don to our Toyoko Inn which was about four blocks from the station. I was so glad to find out that we eat got our own rooms at this Toyoko Inn, plus they provided complimentary breakfast and dinner, along with free wifi. This was the best Toyoko Inn yet!
I took advantage of the down time to rest for the remainder of the night. The complimentary dinner for the night was stew over rice, but the portion was a bit small. Seth and I ended up going to the convenience store immediately after to grab a few snacks and drinks for the night. It was another really hot and humid day, so all of us have continually been very thirsty. I was able to Skype with my parents and finish up a few more assignments that I was behind on. Lastly, I helped Norio study a bit of LEED before finally going to sleep.

20 May 2009

2009-05-20T07:26:00.000-07:00

We woke-up around 9am this morning and decided as a group to go up the Echigoyuzawa Ropeway. For breakfast, we grabbed something quick at 7-11, then made the short walk to the Ropeway. It cost 1,300 yen to make the round trip. It was expensive, but there was supposedly some cool stuff at the top. The Echigoyuzawa Ropeway is additionally the largest ropeway in Japan, so that was really cool. Once at the top of the ropeway, there was a summer bobsleigh and rock garden. The summer bobsleigh cost 600 yen and was totally worth it! It was basically a metal loge track running down the hillside, and we individually rode down the track on sleds with wheels. It was so much fun, and the sleds went surprisingly fast. I almost flipped over on one of the banked turns since I was going so fast! The end of the summer bobsleigh took us directly to the rock garden. It was a very peaceful garden, and there were a lot of families and older couples enjoying the hot day. The terrain was pretty hilly, so walking around was very difficult since the air was so thin. I took my inhaler a couple times, but it didn’t really help very much.
After going down the mountain on the gondola, we went directly to the Echigoyuzawa Station. We caught the local train to Matsudai and ended up running into the other group. We didn’t have much time to mingle since we were on a strict schedule due to the limited train times. Don provided us with a map, and we made the quick 45 minute walk to see multiple art pieces located throughout the city. The most interesting building we saw was the Snow-Land Agrarian Culture Center, which was located directly next to the train tracks. We photographed that last then we waited on the platform for the train. It turns out that the trains stay on the same side of the track the entire day, so we ended up having to run down under the tracks to get to the other side before the train left. It was crazy.
We arrived in Matsudai around 5pm then we walked over to 7-11 to get some food for dinner and breakfast. Since James Turrell’s House of Light was located pretty far from the station, we took three taxis to the house. It took about 20 minutes of driving, and it cost 2,840 yen per taxi. Once at the house, a representative gave us a short orientation about the house then showed us around. Since the house is considered a piece of art, there were many rules that we had to abide by. The main feature of the house was the operable roof that opened up to the sky. There was a “Light Show” scheduled for 6:50pm and 3:15am, for sunset and sunrise. We all gathered in the main room at 6:50pm and watched the sky change color from blue to black for the hour of transition time. It was really neat, and the rest of night, we enjoyed looking at the stars through the roof.

19 May 2009

2009-05-19T10:22:00.000-07:00

Checkout from the Toyoko Inn was at 10am as usual, but I made sure to take advantage of the complimentary breakfast beforehand. I went downstairs at 9am with Seth, and Derrick caught up with us later. This Toyoko Inn had the largest breakfast selection out of any one we have stayed at thus far. They had green salad, three types of tsukemono, four types of nigiri, bamboo shoots, kamaboko, toast, scrambled eggs, sausage, and teriyaki meatballs. They also had a drink machine that made cappuccinos, café au lauts, and plain coffee, along with hot tea and water. I was so full after finishing my meal, but it was so good!
We met with Don at 10am, and he planned to take us to see one more of Hitoshi Abe’s projects and return back to Sendai Mediatheque to visit the two library levels that were closed last night. We departed on foot to visit the Sasaki Office Factory for Prosthetics and Orthodics by Hitoshi Abe, but Norio, Shae, Derrick, and I got separated from the group and got a bit lost early on. Luckily, Norio was finally able to find directions to the building, and we took a bus for 180 yen to get to it. From the outside, the Sasaki Office Factory was not very impressive, but we went inside to get a short tour, and the interior of the building was much nicer. It was really hot and humid outside again today, so it was a nice break to be inside as well. After visiting the Sasaki Office Factory, we walked to the Sendai Mediatheque to meet the rest of the group. It was almost noon, so we had to start heading back to the hotel if we wanted to catch our 1:44am Shinkansen to Omiya then Echigoyuzawa. Norio and I, on the other hand, had plans to possibly visit another one of Hitoshi Abe’s interior design projects, Aoba-Tei. It was less than a block from the Sendai Mediatheque, but since it was highly exclusive, we couldn’t get into the building until 4pm. It was a major decision as to whether or not we would be able to visit it, but it was pretty much a once in a lifetime opportunity. We were split into two groups to separately visit the next two areas, so the other group didn’t even have the option of staying since the train schedule didn’t allow for them to leave any later. Norio and I, however, decided we would probably stay to get the exclusive tour. We went back to the Toyoko Inn to make sure no one else had changed their mind, and surprisingly, five people from our group wanted to stay and go with us. We hung around the hotel for a couple of hours, then walked back to Aoba-Tei to meet with one of the workers at that time.
Visiting the Aoba-Tei restaurant and being able to see the interior was absolutely amazing! I can’t even put the experience into words, but as a whole, I’m completely glad that I went. From talking with one of the workers, Norio found out that only the owner’s friends and friends of friends were allowed to eat at the restaurant, and reservations had to be made in advance in order to visit and eat at the restaurant. It was extremely high class, and I still can’t believe we were allowed to go in there and photograph the space. Wow! We got done around 4:45pm, then happily walked back to the Toyoko Inn to pick-up our luggage and catch the next Shinkansen to Omiya. We grabbed some snacks in the station to hold us over, since we didn’t have time to eat dinner. The total trip time from Sendai to Omiya was about an hour and a half, and I slept for the majority of it. The next train ride from Omiya to Echigoyuzawa was about an hour, and I didn’t sleep at all on this shorter trip.
We arrived in Echigoyuzawa around 8pm and experienced some difficulty in finding our onsen. It was up a hill and down some smaller streets, so Norio ended up having to call the onsen in order for them to come find us. The guy from the onsen ended up giving us a ride back to the accommodations, so that was really nice after a long day of travel. The rest of the night, Shae and I enjoyed the hot spring public bath and relaxed in our room. The room is similar to the one we stayed in at the ryokan in Miyajima, so it has so far been a very pleasant experience. There is no internet here, but luckily I have full service on my phone. Once again, I am very glad that I have it. Tomorrow, checkout is theoretically at 10am, but since the other group will be staying in our rooms tomorrow night, we don’t actually have to leave at any specific time if we don’t want to. Japan’s largest ropeway is supposedly a few blocks away from here, so we might go check that our in the morning. I looked it up on my phone, and it doesn’t open until 10am and it only costs 300 yen. What a deal! Hopefully that works out, and then we will head to Tokamachi to stay at James Turrell’s House of Light tomorrow night. I am definitely really excited about that since I am a huge fan of James Turrell……

18 May 2009

2009-05-18T10:21:00.000-07:00

Since today was move out day again, I woke-up at 6am. We had to be completely moved out and turn in our sheets by 7:15am. We then waited in front of the luggage check-in and drop-off location until it opened at 7:30am. Don paid for each of us to leave one piece of luggage for 300 yen a day, which totaled 2,100 yen for the week of travel we will be doing during the next seven days. After everyone had dropped off their luggage, we departed on foot to the Yoyogi JR Station. I was carrying my new backpack and my messenger bag, and it already made a huge difference in the ease of my travels. Usually I carry my regular backpack, messenger bag, and other shoulder bag. Using just the backpack and my messenger bag, my hands were both free to carry food on-the-go and to easily take my JR Rail Pass in and out of my bag every time we went in and out of a station. Even Norio was raving about how great his new backpack was, so I’m glad he was satisfied with his purchase too. After making the 30 minute walk to the station, we were all completely tired and sweaty. It was only around 8am, but it was already hot and humid. When we got on the train at Yoyogi Station, it was additionally rush hour, so we had to push our way onto the trains with all of our luggage. It was not a pretty sight, but we were able to make it. We had to go to Tokyo Station in order to catch the correct Shinkansen, and this meant riding the Yamanote Subway line for over 30 minutes in heavy traffic. I’m just glad I didn’t get motion sick for the long ride. Once arriving to Tokyo Station, we caught the Max Yamabiko Shinkansen at 9am. We took the Shinkansen to the city of Utsunomiya and got off to visit the Sumika Project before going all the way to Sendai. The Sumika Project is a series of four different projects by four different Japanese architects. It is sponsored by Tokyo Gas, and representatives from the company gave us a tour of all four structures. We saw the Sumika Pavilion by Toyo Ito, House by Terunobu Fujimori, House Before House by Sou Fujimoto, and Coal House by Taira Nishizawa. They were all really intriguing in different ways, and the explorations taken in each of the projects was really astounding. Since each of the structures was scattered throughout Sendai, Tokyo Gas actually provided a bus to drive us around. It was really convenient and interesting in concept.
Once finishing up at the Sumika Project, we were dropped off at Tokyo Station by the Tokyo Gas bus. We gave the two representatives/tour guides a bottle of Cal Poly wine to show our appreciation before they left. The next Shinkansen on our itinerary left at 11:59am, so we had about 20 minutes to grab some food for lunch and make it onto our train. Shae, Norio, and I decided to get McDonald’s since it was quick and convenient. As always, I ordered the filet-o-fish meal to go. We had reserved seats again for the Shinkansen ride to Sendai, and I was all by myself since we all made reservations at different times. I didn’t mind the alone time since it is very rare to have time to ourselves when traveling in such a large group. Even though Sendai was the end terminal for our particular train and it was over an hour away on the Shinkansen, I opted not to sleep since I did not want to chance the possibility of being left behind. Instead, I passed the time by catching up on emails on my Blackberry, watching videos, and listening to music on my iPod.
We arrived safely in Sendai around 1:17pm, and we immediately walked to our Toyoko Inn hotel. Check-in wasn’t until 3pm, so we left our luggage at the front desk, and Don took us to see a Hitoshi Abe building that was recently built in Sendai. It wasn’t very impressive, especially on the inside, so we still had time to kill afterwards. Shae and I decided to go to the Loft since it was right next to the Sendai train station. At 4pm, we returned to the Toyoko Inn to get our rooms and key. We met up again at 4:15pm to go visit the Sendai Mediatheque by Toyo Ito. It was about a 30 minute walk to the building, but I was really excited to see such a famous project. Norio and I photographed the interior and exterior of the building, but unfortunately the third and fourth levels of the mediatheque were closed. All in all, the project was very nice, but it also didn’t quite meet my expectations for such a renowned and well-known building.
For dinner, Norio and I went in search of Toyo Ito’s project, Aoba-Tei Restaurant. Norio asked a woman in the convenience store, and she gave us directions to where she thought it was. Upon arriving there however, it was only a branch of the main building we wanted to see. The workers helped us find the actual location of the building we wanted, but since it was late, we elected to just eat at the informal Aoba-Tei. Since Sendai is known for its beef tongue, I ordered a beef tongue steak that came with a huge salad, rice, and tongue soup for 880 yen. It seemed really reasonable in price. Norio ordered the tongue steak special which cost about 1,550 yen, but I wasn’t willing to spend that much on one meal. The beef tongue was really tasty, and I would definitely order it again. It wasn’t gross at all.
The rest of the night I did laundry and uploaded photos to my Picasa. I was completely exhausted from moving and traveling practically all day, so it felt nice to take a hot shower, relax, and go to bed. Tomorrow we have to checkout at 10am, so I still haven’t decided what I want to do between eating the complimentary breakfast and catching the Shinkansen around 1pm. Tomorrow will probably be another travel intensive day, so we’ll see how that goes.

17 May 2009

2009-05-17T10:29:00.001-07:00

I woke-up at 9am this morning as planned and let some of the guys put their luggage in my room to store until 3pm check-in. Since I had cleaned my room, there was probably enough room to put everyone’s luggage, but many of the guys didn’t care about the security of their luggage and just left it in the lounge. After all the guys had moved their luggage into our wing, I got ready and headed to breakfast with Jeff, Derrick, and Blake. Jeff felt like eating the Turkish kabob pitas that we had gotten once before in Harajuku, so we walked through Yoyogi Park in order to reach Harajuku. All four of us ordered the chicken kabob pita with mixed sauce and extra meat for 600 yen. It was a really filling meal and the heavy amount of meat really hit the spot.
After breakfast, the three guys went back to the NOMYC to relax, but I decided to explore the Harajuku area on my own and possibly do some shopping. I also remembered that I still wanted to photograph the interior of the gymnasium 1 at Yoyogi National Stadium, so that was a short five minute walk from Harajuku. There was an International Asian Cheerleading Championship going on in t gymnasium 1, so it would’ve cost 3,500 yen to get in! What a rip off for something that I don’t even want to see, so I refused to pay the price of admission. I instead attempted to talk with the four girls in the ticket booth, but none of them spoke any English. With only my minimal knowledge of Japanese and my small Japanese guidebook, I was able to figure out that the gym was never open for free, and it was only accessible during scheduled events. They did not have a schedule to give me, and they wouldn’t let me run in really quickly to snap a few photos. It was really frustrating to have such a strong language barrier, but in the end, I was at least able to get a phone number to call to hopefully make reservations to tour the interior. I plan on giving it to Norio so maybe just the two of us can check out the building. Overall, I was really proud of myself for even being able to figure out that much information, especially since I was barely only able to put together a couple of sentences. The girls probably made fun of me after I left, but oh well.
Next I walked to Shibuya to do some more browsing in all of my favorite stores. I went to Uni Qlo, The Loft, Gap, and Tokyu Hands. I ended up emailing with Norio on my phone, since he was also in Shibuya, and we met up at Tokyu Hands. We were both looking to purchase larger backpacks to make traveling much easier, so we shopped together at Tokyu Hands. According to Norio, this was the cheapest store to buy nice items. I was looking for something reasonable, but Norio, of course, was looking for anything cute. He didn’t really have much of a cutoff in terms of price, so that was interesting. He was incredibly indecisive, but in the end, we both got backpacks. Mine is a Berghaus that holds 35 liters, and it cost 12,600 yen. Norio bought a North Face hiking backpack that holds 40 liters, and it cost 19,950 yen. I am very satisfied with my purchase since I can use it for our one week trip that starts tomorrow, and I can use it as a carry-on. It is also a very versatile size which I can use many times in the future. Norio almost bought a Porter large duffle bag instead for 28,750 yen, but I convinced him not to since he really only wanted it for the name brand. He is so funny sometimes. After completing our purchases, Norio and I grabbed dinner at the Denny’s in Shibuya. I ordered a side salad for 150 yen and a grilled beef platter with fries for 880 yen. It was so good! I love Denny’s in Japan! Norio got French onion soup and a bowl of somen noodles.
The rest of the evening, I Skyped with my parents and packed for my weeklong trip which starts tomorrow. Tomorrow we will be heading to Sendai, so I am really excited to see the Sendai Mediatheque. It is probably one of my favorite projects (without actually having seen it). With my new backpack, I only have to take that and my messenger bag. It will be so nice to travel with less baggage. Don is additionally paying for us to leave one bag each at the NOMYC for the 300 yen per day charge. I just hope the weeklong trip isn’t too intense, and hopefully I can catch up on some sleep too.

16 May 2009

2009-05-16T10:58:00.001-07:00

I had to register for fall classes at 6am this morning, which is 2pm U.S. time, and I completely overslept. Norio ended up waking me up at 11:30am when he knocked on my door. Luckily registering later made no difference in my options for classes so I still got everything that I expected to, and I waitlisted for the classes that were already full. I didn’t have anything pressing to do today, so I just got up and took my time. We leave for our second weeklong trip on Monday morning, so the most immediate order of business for this weekend was to exchange my voucher for my second Japan Rail Pass and make seat reservations for eight different Shinkansens for my travels during the next week. Many people had left to take care of it earlier this morning, so I found Seth and Blake, who also didn’t go this morning, and we jumped on the train to Shibuya. Our two choices of stations were Shibuya and Shinjuku, but Shinjuku is the #1 busiest station in Tokyo, and Shibuya is #3. Once at Shibuya, we navigated our way to the nearest JR Information booth. The lady spoke almost perfect English and barely even had an accent, and she was still clearly Japanese. She exchanged our rail passes for us and directed us to the nearest location to reserve our seats. We waited in line to reserve seats, but once we got the front, the lady we got spoke no English. Instead of being helpful, like most other people are in Japan, she was rude and refused to even try to help us. She told us to go back to the information booth where the lady spoke English, but we told her we couldn’t make reservations there. She just kept interrupting our sentences with the word “NO”, and she wasn’t even trying to figure out what we were trying to say. It was really frustrating. We went back to the information booth and explained the situation to the lady. I could tell it was a bit frustrating on her as well, but she began figuring out what we needed to reserve. She ended up having to call for a second person to help her since our needs were going to take a while. The second lady spoke fairly good English too, and together they slowly worked to figure out our reservations. It was additionally unfortunate because they were not equipped with the proper computers to look up the reservation information, so instead, they had to use huge schedule books for all of the JR lines to figure out which trains to book. The entire process ended up taking over an hour, and from the start, we could already tell it was going to take a while. As a result, I stepped away for about ten minutes to go buy a nice box of chocolates to show our appreciation towards their helpfulness. We gave it to them at the end, and they were really surprised at our generosity. We still felt really bad, but at least we felt like we did something.
By the time we finished up making our reservations, it was already past 3pm. All of the guys had to move out of their rooms today to a different part of the NOMYC complex, so their check-in time for the new place was 3pm. Seth and Blake resultantly had to rush back to the NOMYC to get their stuff and find the new room. It was 3:45pm by the time we got back, and the three of us still hadn’t eaten anything. I was starving, but I waited for Blake to get done moving his stuff so we could go get McDonald’s. I had been craving McDonald’s since yesterday afternoon, so I decided I would go to the one across the street from the NOMYC. While waiting for Blake, I ran into Derrick and Jeff, who also ended up coming with us to McDonald’s. I ordered the filet-o-fish meal set as usual with a Qoo soda. It cost 590 yen. My favorite thing about the filet-o-fish sandwich here in Japan is that they always make it for you fresh, so even though I always have to wait three minutes for them to prepare it, it is always better than the ones I get in the U.S.
After my late lunch, I was tired again from all the hassles associated with getting my rail pass and reserved seats. I ended up going back to my room and napping for about four hours! It was a longer nap than I wanted to take, but it was definitely much needed. I felt much better after my nap, so I worked on my blog and uploaded more photos. Shae, Derrick, and Norio all stopped by my room at different times, and we all ended up hanging out for a while. After Shae left, Norio decided to take a nap on the couch in my wing’s lounge, and Derrick actually asked me to give him a haircut. The thing about haircuts in Japan is that they are really expensive and seemingly overpriced when compared to the U.S. Since Derrick only have short-ish hair, he figured it’d be much cheaper to ask me to cut it rather than pay at least 3,000 yen at the cheapest place. He gave me a few photos of what he wanted it to look like, and it took me almost an hour to cut it al since I was only using scissors. If someone had had an electric razor with a longer tip on the end, it would’ve only taken ten minutes but oh well. I think I surprised both myself and Derrick because the haircut came out pretty much exactly how he wanted it. The true test will be when he styles it tomorrow, but the rest of the night, he was really content about it.
Even though it was a little after 11pm when I finished the haircut, both Derrick and I were really hungry. McDonald’s was the only meal I had had all day, so we decided to go to Matsuya for a late night dinner. Matsuya is open 24 hours a day, so that is always convenient. I ordered the kalbi beef and kimchi rice bowl for 490 yen. Norio had ordered it the last time we went there, and it looked really good. I figured I’d try it this time, and it was definitely a good choice. The rest of the night, Derrick Skyped with his parents and girlfriend, and Norio continued to nap. Tomorrow the guys of the group have to move out again and move into another building at 3pm, so I am letting whoever is interested store their luggage in my room until check-in. Most of the other girls said no when the guys asked to do that today, and I was the only person who offered to help them out. Norio was the only one who stored his stuff in my room today, but many people have already asked me to store their stuff for them tomorrow. Since checkout is at 10am, I will probably wake-up around 9am to make sure I’m up before people start bringing over their luggage. After that, I have no idea what I’ll be doing with the rest of my day.

15 May 2009

2009-05-15T05:51:00.000-07:00

This morning we had individual meeting times scheduled with Don, so my group’s was the last one at 11:25am. It was nice since this allowed us to sleep in a bit longer than all of the other groups. I actually thought I was supposed to register for my classes this morning at 6am, but once waking up at 5:30am and unsuccessfully attempting to register for fall classes, I realized that I was a day early since Japan is a day ahead of the U.S. What a silly mistake I made! I’ll just have to make sure to wake-up at the same time tomorrow morning so I can successfully register for classes. Haha. After meeting with Don, we decided as a group to visit our project site again, then afterwards, we did some shopping with Norio. He had to buy a few things, so I just tagged along to browse.
This evening, Don had a meeting scheduled with Henri de Hahn, the head of the architecture department at Cal Poly. Henri is visiting Japan as a quick vacation with his wife, and he wanted us to visit the Park Hyatt Hotel which he was staying at. It was located on the 41st floor in a high rise building in Shinjuku. We walked there as a class and arrived around 6pm. Henri and his wife gave us a short tour of the high scale hotel, then we had two tours scheduled for the two types of suites they offered to their guests. The Hyatt was nice, but it still seemed a bit over-the-top for the amount a room probably cost, and there were plenty of amenities in the rooms which I would consider unnecessary. I think living in Japan has made me into more of a minimalist, so the excessive living arrangement in the Hyatt was almost distasteful and financially unpractical. Henri and his wife were also very showy with their status and money, which also turned many of us off. They kept trying to get fees waved or just walked into formal dining areas without asking, so I was almost embarrassed to be associated with the group. The employees and other guests obviously weren’t happy about our presence, so a small group of us just stood in the lobby until Henri was done showing off.
Since the bar at the Hyatt had a cover charge per person, Henri decided he would take us out on the town to tour the Shinjuku area. By then, we were really unhappy, since we had obviously already visited this area many times. We did not need to have the head of the architecture department give us a tour of a place in Japan, especially since we had already been there. About half of the students were completely trying to suck up to Henri, and the rest of us just kept to ourselves. Don ended up leading us to a drinking restaurant in Shinjuku, where there was a 300 yen cover charge per person. I ordered chicken brisket yakitori and cheese wontons, along with a coke since there was a one drink, one food minimum. Don ended up paying for the meal since he figured he owed us for some stuff anyways, so I was glad that I ordered more than one food item.
After dinner, Henri returned to the Hyatt, and Don left us on our own. I headed back to the NOMYC on the local train with Jeff, Blake, Derrick, and Shae. Once getting off at the Sangu-bashi station, I stopped by the SunKus convenience store and bought a huge Coca-Cola can for 100 yen. Once back at the NOMYC, I took a shower and went to bed. I have to register for class tomorrow, so I wanted to make sure I got plenty of rest beforehand.

14 May 2009

2009-05-14T10:40:00.000-07:00

Today is my 22nd birthday, but it really doesn’t feel any different than any other day. It is still only the 13th in the U.S., but I will fully enjoy my two days of celebration. Seth was the first person to wish me a happy birthday, and he gave me some Hichu strawberry candy. I had class in the morning with Don, and we additionally found out that Zach, Scot, and Trent were successful at getting tickets to the sumo tournament this evening. I was a little skeptical about how well sumo wrestling would maintain my attention, but the idea of going to a sumo tournament to celebrate my birthday was completely ridiculous and amazing at the same time. After class, Jeff, Shae, Derrick, Seth, Norio, and I quickly packed up our stuff and headed to the train station to make the 45 minute trip to Ryoguku. The Edo Tokyo Museum was located directly adjacent to the sumo wrestling hall in Ryoguku, so we ended up going there first to photograph the museum and look at the historic exhibits which documented Tokyo’s progression through time. It cost 600 yen to get into the museum, but we made sure to get receipts since Don said he’d reimburse anyone who visited the historically significant Edo Tokyo Museum. The museum was surprisingly very interesting, and I really feel like I got a lot out of that experience.
From the Edo Tokyo Museum, we walked to the sumo hall. The non-reserved cheap seats were already sold out, so it was a good thing the boys purchased them in the morning. Our 2,100 yen tickets were located as high in the hall as we could go, but the view was still surprisingly good. The matches went from 12:30-5:30pm, and the level of competition ranged from intermediate levels to pros. We were all hungry too, so I bought a hot dog and fries for 600 yen. The food prices surprisingly weren’t too overpriced at all, and we all got a decent amount of food for the amount we paid. Throughout the entire sumo match, I took a lot of photographs and even recorded some videos of the wrestling. I became increasingly intrigued with the sport, and by the end, I was completely into the matches. It was so much fun, and it was a very awesome way to celebrate my birthday.
Once the sumo matches ended for the day, we took the train back to our Yoyogi-Koen station and walked in search of a place to eat for dinner. We found a Korean restaurant that many of our classmates had raved about, so we decided to try it for a change. Derrick, Seth, and I ordered chop chae noodles, kimichi Korean mochi, and clam hot pot to share. All of the dishes tasted amazing, and I never quite realized how much I like Korean food. Everyone ended up paying for my portion of the meal as well, so that was very nice of them. The rest of the night was spent working on our studio project which has another presentation due tomorrow. As always, I stayed up late and contemplated the selections for my schedule next fall. I register for fall classes at school tomorrow, so hopefully I can get that figured out asap. Overall, I had a really enjoyable and exciting birthday, so I am very fortunate about that. Jeff and Shae even gave me a small tiramisu cup, some Hello Kitty muffins, and a Hello Kitty flat tin. Norio also gave me a crepe dessert, a hair tie, and another Hello Kitty tin. It was really thoughtful of people to remember.

13 May 2009

2009-05-13T10:41:00.000-07:00

I woke-up this morning and took advantage of the complimentary breakfast at the Toyoko Inn. They had a larger variety of nigiri, but that was about it. I ate two salmon nigiri with miso soup and takuan. Checkout was at 10am, as always, so we packed up and left by that time. Luckily, it wasn’t raining, so that was a very pleasant surprise. It was still very hazy and extremely humid, but the temperature wasn’t too extremely hot. To get back to the NOMYC, we took three different train lines and transferred twice. It was over an hour of traveling by train and subway. We got back to the NOMYC around noon, which allowed us enough time to work on our design project until 2pm when we had to present. Norio, Derrick, Seth, and I were able to get a decent amount of work done in the two hours before class, so it was nice to feel productive. Since our class is split into two groups again, my session went from 2pm-3:30pm, and the second session went from 3:30pm-5pm. During my break, I went to Matsuya with Seth and Norio to get a late lunch. I’ve recently been craving curry a lot, so I once again got curry with a side salad for 440 yen. It was delicious!
At 5pm, we met back with Don in our classroom at the NOMYC and went as a group to get the keys to our rooms. We were in the same building but on a different floor. Since the building is C-shaped, the rooms on the exterior face off the C are much larger than the ones on the inner face of the C. Last time I had a small, narrow room, so I was really excited to find out that I had a substantially larger room on the outside of the C this time. Besides that, everything else is about the same. For some reason, the internet has also been free ever since we arrived. Jeff plugged-in the wireless router, and everyone has been able to access it since we moved in. No one knows how long it will last, but for the time being, everyone is taking full advantage of the free internet, including myself.
The rest of the night was very chill and uneventful. Since I wasn’t able to use the internet at the Toyoko Inn we stayed at in Yokohama, I took the time to catch-up on uploading photos and writing some papers that I continue to put off. Today Don announced that he is additionally reducing the number of papers that we have to write since he realizes how busy we are, and he is even more behind on reading the papers than we are with writing them. Either way, I’m glad the workload will hopefully lighten a bit. After I caught up on my blog and photos once again, I grabbed a late dinner around 10:30pm with Derrick, Seth, and Shae. We went to the Himalayan curry restaurant again and got take-out. I ordered the mild chicken curry with nan for 680 yen. It was so good! Including the four of us, I think at least seven of us got curry for dinner today. It is that good I guess. Haha. Late tonight, Zach came and told us there was a sumo competition going on from now until May 24. A group of my classmates are planning on going to watch tomorrow afternoon after class, so we were all invited to go. It costs 2,100 yen. Tomorrow is my birthday, and I figure it’ll be really cool to see sumo wrestling on my birthday. It sounds like a pretty unique and special experience to me, so I might as well watch it once while I’m here. Zach, Scot, and Trent will go try to buy tickets around 7am tomorrow morning, so hopefully they can get some. Tomorrow night, I would still like to go to Ginza to photograph the buildings at night, so we’ll see if I can squeeze that in as well.

12 May 2009

2009-05-12T02:19:00.000-07:00

Since we were up so late last night, we slept in really late and didn’t even take advantage of the free breakfast. We all finally got up around noon, and it was nice to feel well-rested. We picked up brunch at the convenience store, and I got a nikomon (steamed pork bun) for 105 yen. It was already very hot and humid outside, so that is probably one of my least favorite things about Japan. We still hadn’t taken photos of Osanbashi Yokohama International Port Terminal, so we went there first. We ran into four of our classmates who were also photographing the famous port, and we tried to finish quickly in order to visit other nearby sites. First, we took the train to Shonandai to see Keio University. There were multiple architecturally interesting buildings on this campus by Fumihiko Maki and Associates, Shoei Yoh + Architects, Yoshio Taniguchi and Associates, and Yasushi Ikeda. During our long walk to the campus from the train station, we stopped at the Fujisawa Municipal Gymnasium by Fumihiko Maki and Associates. They were all very decent projects, and I’m glad we were able to find all of them since the architectural guidebook isn’t always really clear with directions. After Shonandai, it was already 5pm. We still had plans to visit Toin Gakuen, which had the Toin Gakuen High School and Memorial Hall. The buildings were designed by Kenzo Tange Associates, Jiro Inazuka and Associates, and Akira Kuryu and Associates. Even though we were photographing at night, I was able to use my tripod again and get some really great shots. Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to shoot photos indoors, and since it was night, some teachers told us we could only shoot photos from street level. It was a bummer, but we still wandered around the outskirts of the campus and viewed the buildings from the road.
By the time we finished up at the Toin Gakuen High School and Memorial Hall, it was around 10pm. I can’t believe we had another late day. We took the bus for 210 yen to the Nakayama JR Station and had dinner at Nakau. I got curry with beef for 490 yen, then we took the train back to the Yokohama Kannai Station. It was after 11pm by the time we got back to the hotel, so we did a little bit of work on our project for tomorrow then went to bed. Tomorrow we have class at 2pm at the NOMYC, so our plan is to enjoy the complimentary breakfast, checkout by 10am, then head back to the NOMYC for class with Don. This will be the second to last time we have to move, so I am really glad about that. It began to rain lightly tonight however, so moving in the rain will not be fun.

11 May 2009

2009-05-11T02:14:00.000-07:00

Today was an early morning since we had to move out of the NOYMC by 9am. I woke-up at 7:30am, and luckily I had packed almost everything the night before. We finished up our packing, turned in our neatly folded sheets, and left the NOMYC. Derrick, Seth, and I headed for Yokohama since that’s where we had made reservations at a Toyoko Inn. It took us a couple of train lines to get there, but we finally got there after about an hour. We left our stuff at the Toyoko Inn since check-in wasn’t until 4pm, and we went out to explore. I had bought an architectural guide book for the Yokohama prefecture, so we used that to find interesting buildings and architecture. We ultimately found many old and new buildings, all of which were fairly modern. We walked all over the city of Yokohama, even finding a small theme park along the water. I really enjoyed the atmosphere of the city, even though it was extremely hot and humid. My skin has never gotten so sticky from the humidity in such a short amount of time. We returned to the hotel around 4:30pm to check-in, then took the train to the city center of Yokohama. We enjoyed the bright city lights at night, and I also purchased a tripod for my camera to shoot night photos. I bought it from Bic Camera, a large chain store, and it only cost 980 yen. Once opening it, the tag on the actual tripod said 8,190 yen as the retail value. I got a really good deal, so that was exciting! Around 8pm, we got dinner at Saizeriya, a really reasonable restaurant. I ordered meat spaghetti and garlic bread for 548 yen. It was a really good meal for a great price!
After taking the train back to our area of Yokohama, we decided to go back to the Osanbashi Yokohama International Port Terminal to retake our night photos from the previous night with Norio. Since I had my tripod this time, the pictures came out a million times better, so my purchase was already being put to good use. We arrived at the port around 10pm and surprisingly didn’t leave until around 1am. It was unbelievable how long we stayed there just taking pictures! Once arriving back at the hotel, we still had to do our laundry as well. Since the laundry facilities are so expensive at the NOMYC, we all brought all of our laundry to the Toyoko Inn where it is much more reasonable. Washing and drying the laundry takes about two hours, so we were all up until almost 4am. What a long day!

10 May 2009

2009-05-10T06:57:00.001-07:00

I stayed up fairly late last night, so I decided to sleep-in a bit this morning. Don had an optional trip to Ginza planned for 10am, but Derrick, Seth, and I decided to meet there at 1pm instead. Seth is Mormon, so he went to the morning service from 9am-noon, then met us at 1pm. It was another really hot and humid day, which makes outdoor sightseeing really uncomfortable. We didn’t have a set itinerary of things to see, so we just walked along the main streets of Ginza and wandered down smaller streets that seemingly had interesting buildings too. There were a lot more modern and well-known structures in Ginza than I had previously realized, and I was able to see many buildings that I never would’ve dreamed of seeing while in Japan. It was so cool! We walked around for about four hours, and we were able to see everything that we wanted to during that time. Derrick and Seth needed to get back to the NOMYC to Skype, but I opted to stay a little while longer and explore some of the stores. I wasn’t intending to buy anything; I was merely curious to see how American stores are in Japan. I went into Uni Qlo first, since they were having a sale, then I went into H&M. H&M is one of my favorite stores in the U.S. so it was interesting to visit one while in Japan. The store façade was much more elaborate than those in the U.S., but the merchandise inside was pretty much the same. That seems to be the case with most American stores I find here. After that, I wandered around Muji then headed back before it got dark.
For dinner, Derrick, Seth, and I went to Matsuya as usual. Seth and I split the cheese hamburger set, which came with a cheese-filled hamburger, salad, miso soup, and rice for 630 yen. It was so good, and since we split the order, it was only 315 yen each! Tomorrow we have to move out of the NOMYC by 9am, since they are closed on Monday and Tuesday for reasons I am unaware of. Once back in our rooms, Seth, Derrick, and I made reservations at a Toyoko Inn in Yokohama. After visiting that area with Norio and his dad last night, we really want to explore it further. The three of us will share a two bed room, since Seth is willing to sleep on the floor. It costs 8,300 yen a night, so for two nights, that totals out to 16,600 yen, or 5,533 yen each. We are each allotted 10,000 yen for the two days, so the remaining money can be spent on food, transportation, etc. I think all three of us are really glad we’ll be able to save that much money and divert it to other areas. With 1,600 yen of my 10,000 yen, I bought the architectural guide book for Yokohama, and Derrick bought a bilingual atlas of Tokyo for when we return. We figure we can all share the books, so hopefully they will both be very helpful.
The rest of the night I spent cleaning my room. The users of the rooms are required to clean the rooms thoroughly before leaving because I don’t think anyone actually comes into the rooms to clean them before new people move it. That probably explains why they are so gross to begin with, but oh well. I also packed my smaller bag with necessities for two days of travel, along with my laundry and detergent. My large rolling luggage will be stored at the NOMYC for 300 yen per day. That is a way better deal than having to lug the huge and heavy bag around. So tomorrow should be very interesting, and I’m really excited to stay in Yokohama. I will additionally have “free” internet access there, so I think we are all looking forward to that as well.

9 May 2009

2009-05-09T10:31:00.000-07:00

Today I awoke to the sun beaming in through my window, and it felt like my body was on fire. This was the first time the sun has shone through clear skies since we arrived in Tokyo, and boy was it a surprise. This was at 7am, and I didn’t have to wake-up until 9am. I sleepily closed the curtain in my room and went back to sleep. When I finally woke-up at 9am, I could already tell it was going to be a very hot day. I grabbed a blueberry cranberry bagel from the convenience store for 147 yen and met Don and the class as scheduled. Our first destination was Asakusa, and it was a very long train ride to get there. I still cannot grasp the immense size of Tokyo and all of its districts. The completely travel time to get to Asakusa was probably a little over an hour, but it gave me a chance to nap on the train as usual. Napping is probably one of my favorite activities. Haha! Once in Asakusa, we first visited the Asahi Super Dry Hall Headquarters, then one of the most famous temples in Asakusa. Unfortunately, the temple was undergoing some major renovation, so we couldn’t even see the outside at all. What a disappointment after traveling so far to get there! That was all Don had planned for us to see there, so we hopped back on the train to Ueno.
In Ueno, we first grabbed lunch since it was noon. I was seeking something cheap, so a group of us ended up finding a quick noodle and rice bowl place. I ordered hot udon with a potato croquette on top for 390 yen. It was really hot outside, but the udon tasted really good. It was the first standing restaurant I’ve been to in Japan, so that was also interesting. I kind of wished we had been able to sit down, since my feet are always tired after a long day of walking, but it was tolerable nonetheless. After lunch, Don walked us through parts of Ueno Park and ultimately brought us to the entrance the Tokyo National Museum, located within the park. He had to get back to his place in order to finish writing an article for a magazine, so he paid for our admission and left us on our own. I was in a group with Derrick, Seth, Blake, Jeff, and Shae. Within the complex of Tokyo National Museum, there were five separate museums. We didn’t have the desire to visit all of the five museums, but there were two major ones that Don highly suggested we visit. We visited both of them, and they were both pretty cool. Norio emailed me while we were there, and he inquired about what we were up to since he didn’t go with us. He was leaving to go home to Tochigi tonight, and his dad was going to drive and pick him up. He asked if Derrick, Seth, and I would be interested in meeting his dad and joining them for dinner around 6pm. Of course we were interested, so we left Tokyo National Museum around 4pm in order to get back by 5:30pm.
Norio packed up all of his stuff, and we jumped in the car with his dad. His dad just goes by the name Papa, and he was really cute! He didn’t look old at all either, which was surprising since Norio is 30 years old now. Papa drove us to Tokyo Midtown and treated us to tonkatsu at a nice restaurant. It was 1,700 yen for each plate, which was pretty expensive but definitely worth it since the food and portions were amazing. Tokyo Midtown is already a high-end establishment, so it was such a privilege to be able to eat at such a nice restaurant. Afterwards, Norio and Papa went to an expensive chocolate store to by Norio’s mom a Mother’s Day gift. Everything looked so delicious, but it was also fairly expensive; in comparison to other chocolate places in Tokyo Midtown however, it was decently priced. Then Norio and Papa wanted Starbucks, so Papa insisted on treating everyone to Starbucks. We were all super full, so I ended up just splitting a strawberry frapaccino with Seth. It was really good, but Starbucks is also much more expensive in Japan than in the U.S.
Following our visit to Tokyo Midtown, Papa wanted to drive us around Tokyo and show us different areas. It was already dark outside, but we were glad to go along since we almost never have the opportunity to view the city by car. We drove through Roppongi, Central Tokyo, Tokyo Tower, Odaiba, and Ginza. It was really cool being able to drive on the expressways as well since they are all elevated and offer great views of the city. The one surprisingly thing about the expressways is that they all cost money, and it definitely adds up quickly. I now understand why it can be so costly to drive here in Japan! After driving around Tokyo, I assumed Papa would take us home, but he still wanted to show us more of the area. We ended up getting on an expressway and driving all the way to Kawasaki and Yokohama, completely different cities than Tokyo. We drove around on many streets seeing different areas and sites, and we finished our journey by stopping at Osanbashi, the port structure in Yokohama by Foreign Office Architects. This is one of the most famous and iconic buildings in architecture, and it was such a special opportunity to visit it in person at night. Norio’s dad had never been there either, so I was really glad that it was a new place for all of us. We took tons of pictures and walked around to enjoy the space. We will definitely be going back there to take photos in the daytime since the feeling of the building is completely different during day and night.
This was by far the best night I have had in Japan, and my stomach still hurts from laughing so much. It was just a great night all around. Papa dropped us off at the NOMYC, and we thanked him tremendously. He told Norio to tell us that we definitely had to come stay at their house in Tochigi before leaving. Norio left to go back to Tochigi with his dad, and the rest of us were completely exhausted. Tomorrow there is an optional trip to visit Ginza with Don, but Derrick, Seth, and I are considering going on our own and being able to sleep in.

8 May 2009

2009-05-08T10:31:00.000-07:00

I had class as usual this morning, and nothing exciting happened. After class, the rest of the day was free for us to do as we pleased. Norio, Derrick, Seth, and I had a short group meeting to discuss the next step for our project. It is really nice having four people in a group since we are able to develop elements in our project in much more depth than we would usually be able to do in pairs. Following our group meeting, Norio, Derrick, Seth, John, and I went to Tokyo Midtown, which is located in the Roppongi District. The Roppongi District has been known as the tourist area, but they recently developed Tokyo Midtown as a mixed-use mall and high-rise residential. It is a really rich area, so everything was really nice and extremely unaffordable. The space itself was amazing, and we all took a lot of photos. We are using this project as a precedent study for our final project, so we examined it very closely. Norio left early to hang out with a friend, so the remaining four of us also visited Tadao Ando’s gallery on-site called Design Intent.
After finishing up at Tokyo Midtown, we went to lunch at an affordable restaurant a little ways down the street from Tokyo Midtown. Seth wanted to go visit Yoyogi National Stadium before it got too late, so he headed off on his own. I was really hungry, so I ordered a bowl of miso ramen and a dish of gyoza (5 pieces) for a total of 600 yen. It was a great deal, and the food was really good. If I am ever in that area again, I will definitely go back for a second time. The gyoza was by far the best gyoza I have had since arriving in Japan! After lunch, John, Derrick, and I decided to check out Roppongi Hills, another fairly new mixed-use development just a few blocks away from Tokyo Midtown. This project was even larger than Tokyo Midtown, and it had multiple residential towers piercing the skyline. There was additionally a really neat staircase, museum, and outdoor auditorium which were all very photogenic. The rain was off and on, so we photographed when weather permitted us to do so.
We debated whether or not we should head back to the NOMYC after visiting Roppongi Hills, but it was still fairly early. We could see Tokyo Tower seemingly within walking distance, so we headed off on foot to find it. None of the Tokyo’s streets are truly laid out on a grid, so navigating our way based solely on our view of the tower was a bit cumbersome. After walking for about 30 minutes, we surprisingly hit the base of the tower. Tokyo Tower was designed and built mimicking the Eiffel Tower, and it is slightly taller in height. We wandered inside, and it cost 820 yen to ride the elevator to the top. We paid the steep fee, and it was totally worth it once we got to the top. It was practically sunset, so we got some awesome shots of the city during that time. We stayed up in the tower until it got completely dark outside and shot more photos of the city lights. It was still consistently raining outside, but we additionally took exterior photographs of the tower illuminated at night. It was definitely a wonderful sight.
I asked for directions on how to find the nearest subway line, and we headed back to Yoyogi-koen via two subway lines. It took a total of 27 minutes, but it never feels that long while we are in-transit. Once back at the NOMYC, Derrick, Seth, and I went and grabbed a late dinner at Matsuya. I wasn’t too hungry so I just got a salad for 200 yen. I always have to remind myself to eat vegetables since almost all of the dishes here are starch only. We were all very exhausted from another day of walking, so we went to bed fairly early. Tomorrow we will be visiting Asakusa and Ueno Park with Don. Ueno Park is supposed to have some pretty cool museums, so I am really excited to see those. The weather is also supposed to clear up, so I will hope for the best.

7 May 2009

2009-05-07T10:30:00.000-07:00

Having class every morning is really exhausting, since technically we only hold daily sessions since it is required by the NOMYC. Today Don gave a two hour lecture on the history of Tokyo. It was very long and boring, so I had a hard time staying awake along with everyone else. After class, Don planned an optional trip to Shinjuku to wander around and explore a new place. I had already been there with Norio, Derrick, Seth, and Misato, so all of us opted not to go. Seth had to go figure out how to transfer money at a Citi Bank, and Norio had to catch-up on many of our Arch 420 written assignments. Derrick and I were the only ones left, so I decided that I wanted to go to Ebisu and Hiroo. Following the directions and maps in our Japanese architectural handbooks, we walked for the rest of the day looking at various buildings. We stopped to have a late lunch at Wendy’s, and I ordered a hamburger, chili, and vanilla frosty (all off the 99 yen menu). The food tasted very similar, but the portions were tiny! I still can’t even believe how small the small chili was! I think I will definitely appreciate the American-sized portions when I return to the U.S. Overall though, Wendy’s served a very good meal, and I definitely plan to go there again. After lunch, we saw everything from contemporary to historic buildings, and we even got to see a few modern houses. It was raining off and on all day, so that made photographing very quick and minimal as always. I am really tired of the consistent rain.
To get back to the NOMYC, it is always difficult since there are so many different subway and train lines. Sometimes you can transfer from one to another, and sometimes you can’t without buying a completely separate ticket. Derrick and I ended our exploring in Hiroo, so we must’ve stood in front of the fare chart for at least 10 minutes straight. It was ridiculous. Then we remembered that Seth had eaten Mexican food in Hiroo, so I used my Blackberry to search for Mexican restaurants. I found out that the best one in Tokyo was only a block away, so we went to check out the menu. Everything there was ridiculously expensive, and they didn’t even have burritos, so we didn’t eat there. It was very sad, but we both knew it wasn’t worth it. A taco alone with 1,300 yen, and two enchiladas cost 2,100 yen. I sure miss cheap Mexican food in the U.S.! We sadly walked back to the station and decided to take a chance and buy a transfer ticket in order to take two lines. Surprisingly, it ended up working perfectly, and we got off at Yoyoji Metro Station. We had no idea which way to go, so we used our best judgment and wandered onward. I think we were both thrown off a bit since we expected to come up next to Yoyogi Park, but instead, we were in the middle of high-rise buildings. It was starting to get dark, but somehow, we miraculously found our way home on our first try. What a relief that was!
For dinner, we had Masuya again. Norio, Seth, and Blake joined us to make a total of five. I ordered the same thing as last time: pork rice bowl with miso soup for only 320 yen. The rest of the night we worked on our group project. Don already sent out plans for the weekend, but I have no idea what he has planned for tomorrow. All I know is that I hope it stops raining!

6 May 2009

2009-05-06T10:30:00.000-07:00

We didn’t have class until 10am this morning, so I fully took advantage of my opportunity to sleep in until 9am. During class, Don documented who was in working with who for the final project, then setup appointment times with each group to talk about what they were planning on to work on. Norio and I were partners, and Derrick and Seth were partners, but we asked Don if we could take on a larger project and work in a group of four since we all wanted to explore similar things. Don was fine with it, and we decided upon an appropriate site to work with. After we were done with class, Derrick, Norio, Seth, and I embarked on the 40 minute walk to our site in Shibuya. The skies were very overcast, but it wasn’t raining yet. Once we were about halfway, it started raining. We stopped at a Lawson convenience store to grab a quick meal for lunch. I got a corn dog and tea for 231 yen, and the corn dog was so good! By then, it was raining really hard, but we walked over to our urban site to investigate and analyze it anyways. I took pictures of the site since I was the only one with a “cheap”, non-SLR camera. Haha.
After investigating the site, we didn’t want to head back to the NOMYC because there is nothing to do there. Instead, I wanted to wander around and check out the stores in the area. Norio went off on his own to do some shopping, and Derrick and Seth followed me. First we went to Uni Qlo, a store that I think is very comparable to American Apparel in the U.S. I was looking to buy a cheap pair of shorts, or something for warmer days, but I ended up finding a pair of skinny flood pant jeans on sale for only 1,490 yen. It was such a good deal, and I also got a pair of everyday sweat pants for 1,000 yen. They were both really good deals. Derrick also bought three shirts and a pair of slippers, and we ran into our friend John who was buying jeans. One really cool thing that I found out that Uni Qlo does is that they will alter/hem anything for you for free when you buy it. John had this done to his jeans since he is really short, and the alteration was really clean and quick. I was really impressed. Next, we went to Tokyu Hands. This is somewhat like a department store but much less formal. It kind of reminds me of a Target combined with a hardware store. Derrick and I both ended up buying pads for our shoulder strap on our bags since our shoulders are beginning to hurt from walking all the time. I paid a little bit more to get the pad with the rubber grid rather than the foam since the foam will definitely flatten over time, and I can already tell it makes a huge difference. I figure since I saved so much on the cost of my messenger bag originally since I got it at a second hand store in SF, I can afford to pay the extra 1,980 for the shoulder strap pad. Finally, we went to the Loft just to browse around. The Loft is always a store that I find fun and exciting.
I began to get hungry, so I wanted to try out the Kentucky Fried Chicken here. I ordered off of the Colonel’s Value Meal and got the small combo set. The small set came with two pieces of fried chicken, small fries, and a small drink. I think the KFC in the states is better, especially since I really enjoy the mashed potatoes and coleslaw, but it was still a nice change. The fried chicken was extremely greasy though, so that was probably the grossest part. We had already spent enough money, so we decided to endure the long walk back to the NOMYC. It was raining very hard and very consistently, so by the time we got back, my shoes were soaked all the way through. It was pretty miserable, but due to the humidity, the air wasn’t cold outside. It was a good thing I was wearing my rain jacket and had my umbrella. Once we got back to the NOMYC, I worked on my blog and Arch 420 assignments since I am still behind. It is really hard to stay entertained with no internet though. I’m just glad that my phone seems to be working because this is the time that the $70/month is really worth every penny!
For dinner, Seth, Derrick, and I went to Matsuya. It is a place similar to Nakau, but it actually gives slightly larger portions. It took us the usual 10 minute walk to get there, since everything is located by the train station, and it was still raining. The pork rice bowl was on sale for 320 yen, so all three of us ordered that. Derrick and Seth additionally had coupons for one free side dish, so we each got either salad or kimchi, along with the bowl of miso that was included. For 320 yen, it was a really great meal and deal! The rest of the night we hung out in my room and worked some more on our Arch 420 assignments. I am pretty much caught up now, so that is a big relief. I think the rainy weather and lack of internet is the main driving factor behind everyone’s newfound dedication to work on school stuff. Tomorrow, we once again have class at 10am, and no one knows what else Don has planned for the rest of the day. All I know is that the consistent rainy weather really sucks and prevents us from really seeing anything in Tokyo without getting soaked and having horrible photos due to the rain. Bleh. Hopefully by the weekend, things will clear up, and everyone’s spirits will be raised.

5 May 2009

2009-05-05T10:29:00.000-07:00

Once again, checkout was at 10am this morning, so I enjoyed the complimentary breakfast one last time at Toyoko Inn and met in the lobby with all of my stuff at 10am. Don said we would leave with our luggage at 1pm to head to the National Olympic Memorial Youth Center, and we were free to do whatever we wanted until that time. Since it was raining very consistently today, none of us felt like doing anything too involved, so Norio, Derrick, and I ended up just taking the train to the site of our final project for architecture studio. It was at the Shibuya Station, the area famous for having “The Scramble”. It gets the nickname of “The Scramble” since it has one of the largest and most crowded intersections where everyone scrambles to cross in every which direction when the lights turn red. It actually wasn’t too busy today, but it was still very intriguing. For our final project, we get to choose a site within a designated area, so the Shibuya area is very difficult on many levels. The three of us wandered around, and I took pictures of everything that we passed by. The buildings seemed to be a large compilation of unorganized mismatched structures, which fit with the high density and volume of the pedestrians and vehicular traffic. There were quite a few good stores in the area of our site, so we additionally did some browsing while wandering around.
Around noon, we decided we should head back to the Toyoko Inn to pick-up our luggage and head to the National Olympic Memorial Youth Center early. The number of the people on the train was slowly growing, and since it was raining, we knew it would be easier to travel in small groups. We ran into a few more people who were leaving the hotel early, so five of us ended up catching the train towards NOMYC. Upon arriving at NOMYC, we met in our reserved classroom with Don and were thoroughly disappointed with the accommodations. I don’t mind the facilities, but there is no free internet anywhere within the complex. The bathrooms are shared, similar to dorm-style, and the showers are shared as well. Luckily we get our own rooms, but they are extremely small and not as clean as I would expect. There is dust everywhere, and I’m pretty sure the place hasn’t been cleaned in quite some time. We picked-up our sheets from a different buildings and had to make the beds ourselves. The comforter on top of the bed is so filthy looking that I might throw it in the dryer for 100 yen to freshen it up. We’ll see. Overall though, I am sure I can survive here. There is an 11pm curfew, and there is no eating or drinking allowed within the buildings. That is definitely one of the rules that I will be breaking. Tonight, Shae and I showered together, and it really wasn’t that bad. If you just look your own separate ways, there is never a problem. There is also one bathtub in the bathing area, and the sign above it was too hilarious and gross not to share. It basically said that to conserve the use of water in the complex, the tub can only be filled up one time, and everyone has to share the same water if they wish to soak in the tub. Ewww!!! Oh, and we are only allowed to shower between 5pm-11:30pm. Isn’t that weird?!? So, this place is turning out to have way more rules than even Don predicted. Currently, everyone is making a huge fuss over the internet, but I think this place is totally livable. I’m sure I’ll get increasingly used to this environment as I stay here longer.
For dinner, we had to walk about 10 minutes to get to an area with food. The NOMYC is somewhat in the middle of nowhere, so we always have to walk to get food or do anything else. Shae and I watched the movie Ironman on her computer, then went to get dinner around 8pm. She felt like curry, so we ended up going to a Himalayan curry place. I ordered the potato and eggplant curry with nan for 680 yen. It was really good and also very spicy. The rest of the night, everyone complained about the lack of internet and just hung out in our lounge. We are split into a wing of girls and a wing of guys, which is also strange. We are scheduled to have class every morning from 10am-noon, so I just finished up an assignment due tomorrow and went to sleep.

4 May 2009

2009-05-04T10:46:00.001-07:00

I enjoyed the complimentary breakfast again this morning, along with Norio, Jeff, Derrick, and Bianca. Today, they served tuna sandwiches, nigiris, and miso soup. They had the fruit/vegetable juice this morning, but it was all gone by the time I got down there. Since class was technically supposed to start today, everyone met with Don in the lobby at 10am. He talked only briefly about what to expect for our move tomorrow and about upcoming assignments, then he gave us the rest of the day to explore on our own. Shae already had plans to meet with family friends in Tokyo, so Norio, Jeff, Derrick, Seth, Misato, and I decided to check out Shinjuku. We took the train there, and it was very convenient having both Norio and Misato with us since they are both fluent in Japanese.
Shinjuku wasn’t too exciting during the day since the area is only well-known for its nightlife and clubs. Since I have no desire to go there at night, it was nice to visit it during the day when things were quiet and calm. We photographed a few cool buildings, but that was about it. Next, Norio suggested that we visit Akihabara. Akihabara is known as Electric Town since it is famous for its abundance in electronics and manga (anime). I didn’t find this area too appealing either since I’m not very interested in electronics. The buildings weren’t too exciting, but we ended up going to a performance by one of Misato’s friends. I don’t even know what his name was, but he made balloon animals, could do a Rubix Cube in 15 seconds, could juggle, and balance on a skateboard deck on top of crazy things. After the performance, we ate a late lunch at a noodle and rice shop. I ordered the curry don for 480 yen, and it was really good. After lunch, we ended up hanging out with Misato’s friend for about an hour before he had to catch the train. During that time, he made us each a balloon item. I got a flower bracelet, Jeff got Snoopy, Misato got Mario, Seth got Elmo, and Derrick got Spiderman. Norio didn’t want anything since Misato’s friend had already made so many things from balloons. He was seriously impressively good at making balloon characters though.
After Akihabara, we headed back to the hotel. I think the humid warm weather makes me tired, so I took a one hour nap. Later that night, we went out to Tenkaippin, a restaurant famous for its trademark Kotteri ramen. Kotteri is a thick chicken-based soup that should be tried by all ramen-lovers. It was super thick, but I actually really enjoyed it. Don had sent out an email telling everyone to try it, so we did. I just got the regular size bowl of kotteri, and it cost 700 yen. It was surprisingly more filling than the conventional ramens since the soup was so thick. The rest of the night I worked on my studio design project and Arch 420 papers. Everyone is behind due to the weeklong trip, so I finished two whole papers and supplementary readings. Tomorrow we have to checkout at 10am, but we won’t leave for the National Olympic Memorial Youth Center until 1pm. I’m not sure what we’ll be doing between 10am and 1pm, but hopefully the move won’t be too bad. I can’t believe this is the final move we will be doing for this trip, besides the second weeklong trip. Time is just flying by…

3 May 2009

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

There were no peanut butter sandwiches at breakfast this morning, so that was a bummer. Instead, there was bread with smooth red bean paste and another type of roll, along with the usual miso soup and nigiris. Derrick and I were the only people from our class that we saw this morning at breakfast. I guess we are the only two people who are highly driven by food. Haha. After breakfast, we met up with Jeff and Don to discuss places to visit today. We were already thinking about visiting the Harajuku District, so Don provided us with some suggestions on where to go. Most of his suggestions were from his Tokyo architectural guide book, so we ended up going to a bookstore with him so we could each buy our own copy. Since Tokyo is so large, there ended up being two books we had to buy since there was a part I and part II. They were 1,000 yen each, so that made a total of 2,000 yen. I can already tell that I’m going to be very satisfied with my purchase. We split paths with Don and went down to the JR train line. All of the signs for the ticket machines were in Japanese, so we had no idea how much it would cost us to get to the Harajuku stop. We ended up having to ask a worker, and it was 160 yen. The train and subway system here is already much larger and more confusing than anywhere else we have visited, but I seem to be learning quickly since I have been submerged in this environment for over a month now. The train was crowded, as expected, and we made it to Harajuku with no problem.
Once in Harajuku, we had no idea where we were going, so we just began wandering around. We began by walking through a small street market, and it was SO incredibly crowded. We were like a huge herd of cows just slowly pushing our way through one another. It reminded me a lot of Taiwan when I visited the city of Taipei. After getting through that crowded street, we poured onto the sidewalks of the Harajuku District, which were equally crowded and chaotic. Since it is Golden Week, it is directly affecting the number of people on the streets, and there are still a large number of tourists as well. We shuffled our way through the masses and walked for the majority of the day, just photographing any buildings that looked cool and wandering into any stores that caught our eye. It was crazy how busy some places were. Apparently, a Forever 21 store just opened in central Harajuku, and the line to get in was down the block! It was almost unreal to see so many people waiting in line to go into a store that is only considered mediocre in the U.S. The H&M also had a huge line, so I wasn’t able to go in there either. Since our final set of accommodations is directly by Yoyogi Park and the Harajuku District, I’m sure I will have plenty more opportunities to visit those stores again when they are less busy. So, during our wandering, we were able to find the Prada Building, Tod’s Building, Audi Showcase Building, a Tadao Ando building, and Yoyogi Park. In Yoyogi Park, there was a Flower Festival going on as well, so there were concerts and street vendors everywhere. It was a really cool and lively atmosphere. For lunch, we actually found a chicken kebab place where they had the huge chunks of sliced chicken rotating vertically on a rotisserie, and they sliced it off to mix with sauce and cabbage in a pita. It only cost 500 yen, and it tasted amazing! For dinner, we were originally planning to eat at a ramen place by our hotel that Don suggested, but we couldn’t wait, so we instead went to Shakey’s Pizza. I find it amusing that Shakey’s Pizza is an American pizzeria, yet none of us had ever been to one in the U.S. We ordered a whole pepperoni pizza and split it three ways. Since it was a thin crust pizza, it ended up being the perfect amount of food for me, and it surprisingly tasted the same as pizza I’ve had in the U.S. Boy did it taste good!
To avoid being out too late, we left Harajuku a little past 7pm. It was a long day of walking, and my knee was beginning to bug me again. Resting and icing it last night really helped, so I did the same thing the rest of the night. I also did some laundry while in the hotel, so that pretty much finished out my night. Tomorrow we start “class” again, so we will meet Don in the lobby at 10am. I’m not sure what he has planned for us, but hopefully he’ll give us more time to explore before we move to our next place on Wednesday.

2 May 2009

2009-05-02T07:26:00.001-07:00

I woke-up to Derrick knocking on my door this morning, since the complimentary breakfast was almost over. I figured I could go downstairs, enjoy the free food, then come back upstairs to sleep in. The breakfast at this Toyoko Inn was slightly different than all of the other ones I have stayed at so far. Instead of serving the usual Japanese items, this one had peanut butter sandwiches, rolls, nigiri, miso soup, and American soup. It was very strange. I really liked the peanut butter sandwiches, since the peanut butter here is more buttery than in the U.S. They also had a juice that was similar to V8, with lots of fruits and vegetables all in it. There ended up being four of us down at breakfast: me, Derrick, Trent, and Bianca. After breakfast, I wasn’t too tired so I took the extra time as an opportunity to Skype and upload photos.
Around noon, Jeff came knocking on my door, and I went out exploring with him and Shae. Derrick was still sleeping, and Seth was out with a friend that was visiting him from Kyoto. My first stop was at a small drug store to get a sleeve brace for my knee. It is still sore today, so I figure it is easier to have something reusable than having to tape it up every morning before I go out. It cost 680 yen, and it turned out to be the cheapest price I found all day. What good luck! After that, we just wandered around the area around our hotel. I didn’t feel like doing anything too involved since I want my knee to rest and get better. Shae’s feet and ankle are also having some major issues, so I think we are in the same boat. We didn’t find anything too exciting or new, but I was surprised by the difference in volume and appearance of people. There are definitely way more people here in Tokyo than I ever saw in Kyoto, and I think Tokyo reminds me a lot of Osaka in terms of city aesthetic and characteristics. Something else that was strangely noticeable to all of us was the different in weight of the women and girls. In Kyoto, almost every girl and woman we saw was extremely thin and model-like. Here in Tokyo, the women more closely resemble the figures of women in the U.S. I thought I was being critical when I noticed that, but almost everyone has made the exact same comment at one point or another. It is just a completely different world here compared to the other areas of Japan I have been to so far but not necessarily in a bad. It is just interesting and creates a richer cultural experience.
For lunch, we found a small ramen and gyoza place. The prices were amazingly cheap, and I was able to get a huge bowl of pork ramen for only 380 yen! That’s about half the usual price for a bowl, and it was larger than the typical size. What a deal! I will probably eat there everyday while I’m staying in this area of Tokyo. The rest of the afternoon, we wandered around and browsed in some of the large shopping areas. I realized it is really difficult to find anything on sale in a lot of mainstream stores. I’m not sure why that is, but I guess it’s a good thing since it prevents me from buying anything. It is additionally Golden Week until Tuesday, so everyone is out and about since most businesses are closed to acknowledge the holiday. I’m not even sure exactly what Golden Week is, but I enjoy all of the markdowns and extra people on the streets.
When we came back to the hotel, Seth told us about the Denny’s that he found while wandering around. Denny’s is one of the places that I was determined to try while here in Japan, and it definitely did not disappoint. Jeff, Derrick, Shae, and I went there for dinner, and it was absolutely amazing! A bunch of random things sounded really good, so I just ordered them all. I got fries, French toast, and a side salad for a grand total of 890 yen. It was the cheapest meal out of our four meals, since Denny’s is actually somewhat medium-range in terms of price since the food is really good. They seem to be everywhere in Tokyo, so hopefully there is one near the next place we are staying.
The rest of the night, I relaxed and iced my knee. Everyone is behind on their travel journal since we have been so busy with classes and traveling. I decided to catch-up on episodes of The Office and work on my travel journal a bit. I talked to some other people in my class, and I’m hoping to go explore a bit further tomorrow, assuming my knee will allow me to do so. I can’t believe I am already halfway through this Japan study abroad program!

1 May 2009

2009-05-01T02:53:00.000-07:00

Since checkout for Toyoko Inn was at 10am, we met at this time in the lobby to walk to Himeji Castle together. The walk took about 15-20 minutes, so it wasn’t bad at all. Since my knee was still strained on the outer side, I had my friend Jeff tape it for me to provide extra support. Once we arrived to the Himeji Castle gates, Don paid for our tickets, then we were free to explore at our own leisure. Himeji Castle was really tall, and we were able to go all the way to the top. This involved many flights of very steep, wooden stairs; this wasn’t the best thing for my knee, but I wasn’t going to miss out on this opportunity because of such a slight injury. I mainly stuck with Blake, and we made our way to the very top and enjoyed the view over the city of Himeji. After walking all the way back down to the bottom of the castle, we proceeded to our next stop: Kokoen Garden. It was a three minute walk west of the castle but still on the same parcel of land. Kokoen Garden was composed of multiple smaller gardens within its walls. The gardens that I visited were Oyahiki-no-niwa (garden of the lord’s house), Nae-no-niwa (garden of seedlings), Cha-no-niwa (tea ceremony garden), Nagare-no-hira-niwa (flatly landscaped garden), Natsuki-no-niwa (garden of summer trees), Matsu-no-niwa (garden of pine trees), Hana-no-niwa (garden of flowers), Tsukiyama-chisen-no-niwa (garden with a hill and pond), and Take-no-niwa (garden of bamboo). It was really interesting to walk through so many different types of gardens in the sequential way in which I did. Some of the ponds also held the biggest koi fish I have ever seen! It was unbelievable.
After finishing up at Kokoen Garden, Blake and I walked about 15 minutes to the Himeji City Museum of Literature. The museum consisted of two buildings, Literature I and Literature II, both of which were designed by Tadao Ando. Upon arriving at the museum, we ran into Norio, Derrick, Scot, and Zach. Blake and I weren’t originally planning on entering the museum, but Norio talked to one of the workers and found out it only cost 200 yen to enter both galleries, and we were allowed to take architectural photographs of the interior. We rarely get the opportunity to take interior photographs of famous buildings, so 200 yen was quite the deal. After walking through both buildings, we continued onward to the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of History, which was designed by Kenzo Tange. We weren’t interested in going inside, since the exterior of the building was just so-so, but it was nice to see another one of Tange’s projects.
We had originally planned on going to Osaka if time permitted us to do so, but it was a little too late, and we didn’t want to risk missing our Shinkansen from Kyoto to Tokyo at 7:56pm. Instead, Norio, Derrick, Blake, and I took a taxi back toward our hotel. Norio got off at the hotel, but we continued to ride the taxi to a small Endo Shuhei project located south of our hotel. We weren’t quite sure where the building was, since it was really small, and our taxi driver didn’t seem to know either. Surprisingly, we found it fairly easily, and it only cost us 373 yen each when we ended up splitting the cost. The building was the Piping Workers Center, and the aesthetic fit Endo’s style of architecture. The interior looked even nicer than the outside, but we didn’t dare to go inside since we couldn’t speak Japanese to even ask if it was ok. Oh well. We still had some extra time, so we decided to make the 30 minute walk back to the hotel. My knee hurt, but I still wanted to walk rather than pay the fare of a taxi again. We stopped along the way to get McDonalds. Blake and Derrick both got meals, and I just enjoyed a small Coca-Cola for 100 yen.
When we finally got back to our hotel, we were still an hour early before Don planned to leave with the group. We decided we would leave Himeji on the Shinkansen an hour earlier, since Derrick wanted to go back to one store in Kyoto. The three of us got our stuff and caught the 4:44pm Shinkansen to Kyoto Station. Once in Kyoto, Blake stayed in the weekly mansion to pack his stuff, and I accompanied Derrick to the store. We made it back to the weekly mansion just in time to see Don, get our luggage, pick-up McDonalds to eat on the Shinkansen, and board the Nozomi bullet train at 7:56pm. The ride to Tokyo from Kyoto was a little over 2 hours on the Shinkansen. I pretty much slept the entire time. Once in Tokyo, we boarded a separate local train to get to our hotel. We are staying at the Toyoko Inn again, and this time we have our own rooms again. It is really nice. We didn’t get checked-in until after 11pm, so today proved to be a really long day. Since tomorrow starts the weekend, I will definitely be sleeping in late.

30 April 2009

2009-04-30T10:13:00.001-07:00

Checkout was at 11am, so I was up and ready by 10:30am. I got a really good night’s rest last night since the bed was big and comfortable. We met in the lobby but were held up a bit since an incident happened last night with some of my classmates. Basically, we were hanging out in two different groups: eleven people were up in the Oval Building drinking and the other seven people were in my room watching movies and just hanging out. Supposedly, the eleven drunk people broke into the hot tub at the hotel and ended up getting caught. Since the hotel is also a museum, the hot tub and surrounding area require reservations and is considered a piece of artwork. Basically, Norio and Don had a lot of explaining and apologizing to do, but the hotel has thus far taken no action against anyone. It really made the dynamic of our group really awkward since the seven of us who weren’t drinking or involved were still classified with everyone who was. After leaving the hotel, we went as a group to the Chichu Art Museum. I’m really glad that we were still able to at least go to that museum since it turned out to be the best museum I have ever been to so far in my life. The building itself was done by Tadao Ando, and the spaces were absolutely amazing. Within the museum, there were four Claude Monet pieces: Water-Lily Pond 1915-26, Water Lilies, Water-Lily Pond 1917-19, and Water Lilies Reflections of Weeping Willows. They were breathtaking, and I absolutely love Monet’s works. On top of that, there were three installations by James Turrell, a master of manipulation of light and illusion. There was the Afrum Pale Blue, Open Field, and Open Sky. Afrum Pale Blue is one of my all-time favorites, and I still can’t believe I was able to see it in person! Finally, there was an installation by Walter De Maria call “Time/Timeless/No Time”. This took up an entire room and was really cool to walk through.
After finishing up with the Chichu Art Museum, Don asked the eleven people who were involved with the incident last night to leave the island and head to our next destination in Himeji. The remaining seven of us, eight including Don, grabbed some lunch at a small vegetarian restaurant. I ordered somen, and it was really good, especially since all of the noodle dishes I have had so far have been hot. Afterwards, we rushed to see the six Art Houses located on the island. Art Houses are basically houses that have been restored and transformed into works of art by artists. The six we visited were Kadoya by Tatsuo Miyajima, Minamidera by James Turrell and Tadao Ando, Go’o Shrine by Hiroshi Sugimoto, Ishibashi by Hiroshi Senju, Gokaisho by Yoshihiro Suda, and Haisha by Shinro Ohtake. Each of the Art Houses were completely different and really interesting. Minamidera was probably my favorite one out of the six houses since it was done by two of my favorite designers.
By the time we were done with the Art Houses, it was almost 5:00pm. We took the Benesse House shuttle back to the Park Building to get our bags, then took the shuttle to the port to hop on the ferry. Once we docked in Uno, we had about an hour to kill before our train would leave for Okayama. We all split up for food since it was the most time efficient. Derrick and I decided to go to a ramen place since we both like it a lot. The place only had bar seating, and their menu was hung above the seats. Nothing was written in English, and there were no pictures. Basically, Derrick and I ended up just pointing to a ramen dish that someone else already had. It was pretty hilarious. We had no idea what we were getting, but in the end, it turned out to be really really good. We didn’t even know how much it cost, so since we both got the same dish, we both put in 1,000 yen and split the change. The bowl of ramen ended up being only 630 yen. It was a good price. We caught the train for an hour back to Okayama, then jumped on the Shinkansen for one stop to arrive safely in Himeji. We checked into the Toyoko Inn, and the rest of the night we relaxed. My right knee is kind of sore from all the walking and hiking I have done recently, so I hope the rest will allow it to heal so it won’t be so painful to walk tomorrow.

29 April 2009

2009-04-29T07:19:00.000-07:00

I woke-up at 8:00am this morning, since Derrick and I planned on taking advantage of the complimentary breakfast offered by the hotel at 8:30am. We went downstairs together and enjoyed everything they had. I had two types of nigiri, miso soup, cabbage salad, tsukemono, sliced bread, and a buttered roll. It was very good, and I’m glad I was able to save some money by not having to spend money on breakfast. We met in the lobby at 9:30am and left for our next destination: Naoshima. We took two trains and a ferry to get there. I am continually surprised by how calm the waters are and how smooth the ferry rides are. The ferry ride was much longer than the one to get to Miyajima, but it was a nice change from riding the trains and subway. Upon arriving at the dock in Naoshima, I could already tell that that city was going to be unlike anything I have seen and experienced so far. It was completely small, historic, and somewhat desolate. I couldn’t differentiate a house, from a restaurant, from a store. It was really strange. I honestly have no idea how people are able to live there. We took the Benesse House shuttle bus to our hotel, which is ironically located above the Benesse House Museum. The hotel is technically composed of three different areas, so we were split amongst all of the buildings in order to see all of them. I was set to room with Shae, Trudy, and Karen in the only quadruple room. We were in the rooms located directly over the museum. Our room is by far the largest room out of everyone’s, and it is by far the nicest place I have EVER stayed it. Oh my gosh, I can’t even put it into words! We have a beautiful wall of windows overlooking the ocean, along with a living room, kitchen, huge bathroom, and four beds. It is amazing! There isn’t really anything else to do on this island, but this Tadao Ando project is by far the best project we have seen so far. The rooms are amazing. I took the time to go visit everyone else’s rooms, and they are pretty cool too. The Oval Building, which is probably the most famous of the three buildings here, is located on top of the mountain above the museum. You actually have to take a monorail to the top, but there is also the option of stairs if you want. The monorail is really slow, so I actually prefer the stairs. The Oval Building was definitely very cool, but I still prefer my location at the bottom of the hill. The views from every room are definitely amazing nonetheless. The third building is the Park Building. It is located even below the Benesse House Museum, and only Don, Derrick, and Blake are staying in those rooms. I really liked that building by Ando since it combined the use of natural wood with his usual use of concrete.
For lunch, we once again took the shuttle bus back to the Naoshima Port area. If I wasn’t with Don and Norio, I would’ve never found a place to eat at since they just look like ordinary houses. None of the restaurants could hold more that a couple of us, so we all had to split up. I ended up going to a small restaurant with Don, Derrick, Seth, and Jeff. I have no idea how anyone else was able to order since none of the restaurants seemed to have pictures or English. The restaurant we chose only had two tables and could seat a maximum of nine people. My bedroom at home is easily larger than the size of that restaurant, and it was truly a home-cooked meal that we received. Since I am totally in love with ramen, I ordered the regular ramen for 550 yen. It was so delicious, and I wish we were staying here longer so I could enjoy it again.
After lunch, we all met up again at a central point and proceeded to follow Don to probably the only grocery store on the island. There is literally nothing around our hotel, so Don suggested that we buy food and snacks to hold us over in the hotel. The groceries were priced fairly reasonably, so I got two bananas, bottled tea, a bento box for dinner, and some sembei for snack. It was less than 900 yen for all of it. We took the shuttle bus back to the hotel and basically stayed there for the rest of the evening. It is really weird to not have anything to explore in the direct vicinity of the hotel. A small group of us hung out on my room’s balcony and watched the sunset. It was really pretty, but it would’ve been even better if the sky wasn’t so hazy. Shae, Derrick, Seth, and I watched movies and tv shows for the remainder of the evening in my living room. Everyone else was drinking, so we weren’t interested in hanging out with them. Tomorrow we won’t be leaving Naoshima until around 7pm, so I plan to spend the day visiting the Benesse House Museum, the Art House, and a James Turrell project. Our next destination is Himeji, so I’m sure new adventures will await me there as well.

28 April 2009

2009-04-28T07:19:00.000-07:00

I decided to sleep in this morning, and it was one of the best things I could’ve done. Traveling during this week-long trip has been really great, but it has also been really tiresome since we are constantly moving. Today, after sleeping in, Shae, Jeff, Derrick, and I took the local train to Kurashiki. The weather was really weird; it was raining, then sunny, then windy, then hot. Good thing I took my umbrella and jacket! Our first stop was the City Art Museum by Kenzo Tange. It was a large concrete structure, but it was poorly executed. The lack of quality in construction directed the attention away from the good features of the building and instead created focus around the less favorable ones. So far, I definitely haven’t been impressed by any of Kenzo Tange’s projects, but hopefully I will see better pieces of work in the future. The next place we visited in Kurashiki was the Oyama Memorial Museum. It was raining, so we didn’t spend long looking at that building. Next, on our way to the Ivy Academic Hall, we stopped to enjoy the atmosphere of the Historic Avenue of Kurashiki. It was really small and very historic, which created a really interesting area. The Ivy Academic Hall, which was just a few blocks away, was very strange. It consisted of a huge red brick wall on three sides, with only one arched opening on one side. Once inside the courtyard, the feeling of the space changed completely and was actually very pleasant. It wasn’t the most interesting space, but the use of ivy growing on the brick walls was really beautiful with the contrast of colors. The weather began to clear up, so we decided to continue to explore Kurashiki. We walked back across the small river running through the city and walked by the Ohara Museum of Art and Museum of Architecture and Found Objects. The buildings were nice, but we didn’t have time to explore the inside. There was just too much to see in such a little amount of time. Right across the street from the museums was the Ohara House. This, too, was a historic building with very nice wood detailing that I wish we would’ve had more time to look at on the inside. Lastly, we visited Achi Shrine and Honeiji Temple. Achi Shrine reminded me a lot of Ise Shrine, and it was at the top of a very steep hill. We were already sore from the long hike yesterday at Mount Misen, so doing more stairs was nice to help get blood flowing to all of my muscles.
After finishing up at Kurashiki, we jumped back on the same local train we took to get there and rode it back to Okayama. Once we got back to Okayama, we walked for 30 minutes to Korakuen Garden. It was a huge garden that was alongside the river, and it cost 550 yen to get in. It was one of the largest garden I’ve been in so far, and it was absolutely lovely. When we first got there, it was raining pretty hard, but after about 10 minutes, it cleared up to be bright and sunny. The garden was really peaceful, and there were lots of areas with different types of greenery and plants. From within the garden, we were additionally able to see the top of Okayamajo Castle. We had no idea that it was even nearby, so we ventured over to the castle after we were done exploring Korakuen Garden. Since it was almost 6pm, we figured that we wouldn’t be able to get within the castle grounds in order to even photograph it. Luckily, we were wrong, and the castle grounds were completely open. We obviously couldn’t get within the castle itself, but being able to walk up to the castle exterior was impressive enough (and free)! By the end of walking around Okayamajo Castle, we were all completely done for the day. We walked for 30 minutes to get back to our hotel and got ramen in Okayama Station before retiring to our hotel for the night.
Tomorrow, we will move again, and this time, it will be to Naoshima. Naoshima is another one of Japan’s islands, so we will have two train rides and a ferry ride to get there. We will leave at 9:30am in order to get to the island somewhat early. We will be staying at the Benesse House, which was designed by Tadao Ando. I had no idea what to expect, but I am really excited to finally have the opportunity to stay in one of Ando’s projects!

27 April 2009

2009-04-27T09:36:00.000-07:00

Jeff, Shae, and I woke-up early this morning to begin our trip through Miyajima. We had breakfast that was provided by the Ryokan, and it was really good. I had the Japanese-style breakfast, and everyone else had the American-style breakfast. The Japanese-style breakfast actually turned out to be a lot more food (and better) than the Amercian-style breakfast, so I was glad that I made that selection. After finishing, we departed the Ryokan around 8am to begin our long day. We began by walking to the Ropeway, which was a gondola that took us up the majority of Mount Misen. The elevation to the very top of Mount Misen was 1,700 feet. We stopped on the way at a small vendor to get snow cones since the weather was already getting warm, and the old lady who served us was really cute! As we sat and enjoyed the nice weather, Derrick and Seth randomly ran into us. The Ropeway was a lot of fun, but it was scary as we descended higher and higher up the mountain with seemingly nothing below us. It cost us each 1,000 yen, but it was worth every bit of it since the hike probably would’ve killed me. Once at the top of the gondola route, we were at a secondary viewpoint of the opposite side of Miyajima, and there was a monkey park. We took lots of photos of the view and monkeys. It reminded me a lot of the monkey park we visited while staying in Kyoto.
After photographing the monkeys for a really long time, we proceeded to hike up to the peak of Mount Misen where there was an observatory. The weather was warm, and the hike took about half an hour. It was intense but very much worth it. The top was very simple and had only some large natural boulders and a three level observation platform. The view around the island was clear for all 360 degrees. We even ran into our classmate Blake while up at the top, but he was traveling around the mountain the opposite way. After many more photographs, we descended the mountain the opposite way we ascended it. It was all very steep downhill traveling, and it was hard on all of our knees and feet. We stopped at a stone dam and took some really cool photos and also saw some deer on the mountainside. It took us over an hour to descend the mountain, and we were completely exhausted by the end of it. At the base of the mountain, we stopped to visit Daisho-in Temple. It was located on the mountainside, so that involved a lot of stairs as well.
For lunch, we ended up running into Don while in the downtown area of Miyajima. We invited him to join us for lunch since he usually has no one to eat with. We went to a simple noodle and rice place, and I ordered oyster udon. Miyajima is famous for its oysters, so I had to try them. They were absolutely huge, but I really enjoyed them. Oysters have never been one of my favorites, but they were definitely very tasty, and I would recommend them to everyone. After lunch, we explored the shopping arcade area and just hung out. We had to conserve energy in order to make it through the rest of the day. The group was scheduled to leave the island at 4:40pm, but Don gave us the option of staying later if we wanted to. Jeff, Shae, Derrick, and I all decided we would stay a little bit longer in order to visit Senjokaku Temple. Senjokaku Temple is famous for its 1000 tatami mats that define its floor.
At around 6pm, we grabbed our luggage from the Ryokan and returned to Japan’s mainland via the JR ferry. From there, we caught the local train, then transferred to the Shinkansen to get to Okayama. We ended up missing the correct transfer point for the Shinkansen, so we lost a bit of time in finding the next transfer station, but in the end, it all worked out. We arrived in Okayama around 9pm and checked-in at the Toyoko Inn. This time, we had shared rooms again, so I was with Trudy as usual. Since we got in later, Jeff, Shae, Derrick, and I went to get dinner and ended up just settling for McDonald’s since we were unfamiliar with the area. Norio joined us since he wanted to take a break from his roommate. The rest of the night the five of us hung out in Jeff and Shae’s room since most other people were already doing other stuff. Tomorrow we are supposed to visit Kurashiki and a garden in Okayama. Don is taking a group at 10am, but he told us we can do stuff at our own pace if we want since this week-long trip is technically our “vacation” time and break from school. Jeff, Shae, Derrick, and I plan on sleeping in until around 10am, then leave around 11am since we haven’t had the chance to sleep-in in a really long time. We are all completely exhausted, so a long and good night’s rest will benefit all of us.

26 April 2009

2009-04-26T04:38:00.000-07:00

Even though I went to bed somewhat early last night, I still overslept a bit this morning. I was planning to get up around 8am to get complementary breakfast in the hotel with Norio and Derrick at 8:30am. I woke-up at 9am however and ended up having to wake-up Derrick, who had overslept, as well. Since breakfast ended at 9:30am, we rushed downstairs after getting dressed and brushing our teeth. Breakfast consisted of toast, miso soup, nigiri, pickled vegetables, water, orange juice, tea, and coffee. I tried everything, and it was all very good. Afterwards, we packed up our stuff and met in the lobby at 10:30am. We left our luggage at the hotel in the lobby and embarked on our way to the A-Bomb site. Once at the site, we visited the Genbaku Dome (A-Bomb Dome) and the Memorial Museum. Seeing Genbaku Dome was a very moving and emotional experience. In a sense, it was almost surreal, and it was just really sad to think of all the suffering the bomb inflicted upon innocent bystander. The museum was really intense as well. For lunch, I got some yakitori and milk tea from the basement of a department store.
We all met back up at the hotel in Hiroshima, got our luggage, then proceeded to take the Shinkansen to Miyajima. We took the JR train line to get there since it wasn’t too far. After getting to the Miyajima subway station, we took the JR ferry boat to the actual island of Miyajima. All of this travel was, of course, free with our Japan Rail Passes.
When we got to Miyajima, we dragged our luggage to the Morinoyado Ryokan. The city had a completely different feel to it, but I definitely enjoyed it. We decided to have dinner at 6:30pm, so Jeff, Shae, and I ventured out to explore. We saw the famous tori gate in the water when the tide was low, so the entire bottom of the tori was exposed. It was really cool. For dinner, we had to wear our given ukatas and sit on the floor to eat. The Japanese dinner had some of the best food items I had ever eaten. I wish we were staying there longer. Since the hotel was technically a ryokan, Shae and I tried out the public bath together. It was an interesting experience to share with people that you know since you have to wash together in an open atmosphere and sit in the hot bath naked together. I really liked the relaxing nature of it, but it was still a bit awkward to do with friends.
The rest of my night was spent hanging out in Jeff, Derrick, Seth, and Blake’s room. It was Jeff’s 22nd birthday so we were all just hanging out and having a good time. Tomorrow we will have a full day of self-exploration in Miyajima, so I’m excited to see how that turns out.

25 April 2009

2009-04-25T04:38:00.000-07:00

This morning was once again moving day. We had to be moved out of the weekly mansion by 11am, so I had to pack and clean all morning. We will continue to rent out one of the weekly mansion rooms for this upcoming week, so we can take only what we need for the week long trip. The designated room was Norio and Blake’s, so everyone moved their luggage into their small room. There was so much luggage that we could barely walk around in there. We weren’t scheduled to take the Shinkansen bullet train to Hiroshima until 3:49pm, so I wanted to visit one more site before leaving. It was horribly raining, but I decided upon Momoyama Castle. It was about five or six stops south from Kyoto Station on the JR Line, but I figured we had plenty of time. Jeff, Shae, and Derrick joined me for the journey.
I had initially seen Momoyama Castle from the top of Kyoto Tower, and I have wanted to visit it. I had researched that the actual castle was no longer open for viewing, but the castle grounds were supposedly very beautiful. Even though it was raining, the train ride would be free once I redeemed by first Japan Rail Pass. We walked to that station and grabbed a quick bite to eat at McDonalds. I had already had a small breakfast, so I instead tried the green tea and Oreo McFlurry. It was so good, and I definitely can’t get there in America! After finishing our meal, we went to the JR office in Kyoto Station to redeem our rail passes. It took about 15 minutes of long waiting to get it, but once we got them, we left for Momoyama.
It was a really good thing that I had my Blackberry with me because we heavily utilized the map feature on it to find out way to Momoyama Castle. It was raining, but the walk wasn’t too bad once we made the correct turns on the correct streets. The castle was really large in scale, and it was really beautiful. We didn’t have too much time to photograph it, but it was enough since it was raining. We made it back to the weekly mansion in order to pick-up our luggage for our week long trip, then headed to the station. The ride on the Shinkansen was so cool. It was really fast and really smooth. The closest thing I can compare it to is a ride on an airplane. We had to transfer once, so the total travel time to Hiroshima was about an hour and half.
We arrived in Hiroshima just in time for dinner. We checked into the hotel and surprisingly got single occupancy rooms. It was such a relief since most of us have been getting sick of always being stuck with the same people. The bed was large, and the room was average size. I was starving, so for dinner, I went to a noodle shop with Norio, Blake, and Derrick. I got udon, and it was the best udon I’ve ever had. We later realized that Hiroshima is known for its okonomiyaki, but it was ok. Okonomiyaki was pretty expensive, at least in our area of town, so the cheaper choice of noodles was one I was satisfied with.
The rest of the night, I hung out with Derrick and we watched a Japanese movie on tv while uploading photos and blogs. It was a relaxing night, and I was able to get a very good night’s sleep for our big day of exploring Hiroshima and moving to Miyajima tomorrow.

24 April 2009

2009-04-24T08:33:00.000-07:00

Today was the last day of Japanese language class. I felt bad since we were all so tired from staying up to work on our final projects, but Watanabe sensei seemed to understand. As a class, we gave him some olive oil and vinegar from California, plus chocolate covered cranberries, dried apricots, and cards with pictures of San Luis Obispo. He was really grateful for our thoughtfulness. Since a couple of us were interested in continuing our Japanese, we bought the next book level from him for 2,500 yen. I’m hoping I will be motivated to continue my studies in Japanese language.
To celebrate our last day of class in Kyoto, everyone in our language class went out to lunch together. We went to the same restaurant that Zach, Trudy, Shae, and I had just gone to recently. I ordered one of the lunch specials which came with cabbage salad, potato katsu, lemon chicken, gohan, tsukemono, and miso soup. It was really really good, but it also made me unbelievably full. Studio presentations went very well, and Don was very surprised that we were able to complete so much work in such a short amount of time. At least he seems to appreciate all of the hard work we do, even though he isn’t always reasonable about time allocations.
I was so tired after class that I went back to take a nap. I napped until about 7pm, then forced myself to wake-up since it was getting late. Jeff, Shae, and I had planned earlier that we were going to do karaoke tonight as a celebration of our last night in Kyoto. I got a quick bite to eat at McDonalds, and we went to a karaoke place only two blocks from our accommodations. Blake ended up coming as well since Norio hadn’t returned from shopping yet. Karaoke was so much fun, and I can’t wait to do it again! It was a nice way to unwind and release all of the built-up stress from our earlier project. After returning from karaoke, it was already past midnight. Since we move out tomorrow morning from our weekly mansion, I had to quickly pack and do a small load of laundry. It is a lot of work to repack and clean, but I am very excited to see Hiroshima tomorrow!

23 April 2009

2009-04-23T07:44:00.000-07:00

Our day trip today, which was planned for Kobe and Ibaraki/Osaka, began at 9am. We met Don at Kyoto Station in order to take the JR Line to Kobe. It took about 45 minutes to get there. Once in Kobe, we began our trip at the Hyogo Prefecture Art Museum. This was done by Tadao Ando. We also paid the admission fee to go into the museum and experience the space as it was meant to be experienced. It was strange, but we were allowed to take photographs of anything in the permanent exhibit. There were some really cool sketches and models from Ando’s office, so most of us hung out in that area of the museum mainly. After visiting the museum, we walked through Nagisa Park to get to our next destination. We stopped briefly to look at an Ando-designed restroom, and the walk was very peaceful and scenic along the water.
The highlight of today’s trip was visiting Tadao Ando’s Church of the Light and attendant Sunday school building in Ibaraki. It is probably one of the most famous churches in the architecture world, and I never would’ve guessed in a million years that I would have to opportunity to visit it. It was truly a moving experience, yet it was still different from how I thought it would be. I don’t think pictures can ever actually depict the true feeling and atmosphere of that space. After heavily photographing the Church of the Light, we headed back to Kyoto since our final project is due tomorrow, and most of us have a lot of work to do. Trudy and I ended up working on our final project until 6:30am. We got about 2 hours of sleep, but it definitely wasn’t enough. I am satisfied overall with the way it turned out though, so hopefully Don will like it as well when we present tomorrow in class.

22 April 2009

2009-04-22T05:46:00.000-07:00

I was really tired when I woke up this morning. Our late night out in Osaka last night really wore everyone out. It was hard to concentrate in Japanese language class, but some people were really out of it. I think sensei could tell that everyone was tired, so we did a lot of review with less new stuff. After language class, Shae, Trudy, and I got lunch at Lipton. It was very American, and I ordered an egg salad sandwich. It was different than egg salad sandwiches in the U.S., but I actually liked it more. It wasn’t as pasty, and there was a lot of egg. Yummy!
For studio today, we talked with Don one-on-one to finalize most of the design and output for our final project. Since it is due on Friday, he didn’t really have much to say to anyone since it would be too late to make any majors changes anyways. After class, I went with Shae back to the Kyoto Handicraft Center. She wanted to buy two Japanese swords and have them mailed back to the U.S. I helped her pick out two, and then we took the subway back to Kyoto Station. In Kyoto Station, we went to Lipton again for dessert. I ordered a five berry tart, and she ordered a caramel mocha chocolate cake. Afterwards, we wandered around the Avanti shopping mall across from our weekly mansion, then retired to our own rooms. I had to write another paper that is due to Don tomorrow and the rest of my time was spent on continuing to work on Trudy and my final project.

21 April 2009

2009-04-21T05:45:00.000-07:00

I woke up around 6am this morning so Jeff and I could get a jump start on the flea market held at Toji Temple. It technically started at 5am, but the website said most of the booths wouldn’t be ready until 9am. Since it is regarded as the largest flea market in Kyoto, we figured we could get there early and possibly have enough time to pass through it twice. It was only a short 10 minute walk away from our weekly mansion, but the weather was on the verge of rain. It was gloomy, but the humidity keeps the air fairly warm. We arrived at the flea market, and it seemed to go on for a long ways. We leisurely wandered through the maze of booths, but it was much different than flea markets I have been to in the U.S. Most of the booths actually had new stuff, but the items were very characteristic to Kyoto. There were very few booths actually selling used items, and the prices were in the middle range. I bought a few small items for friends, but I didn’t find any spectacular buys. Jeff found a lot of Japanese fabrics to buy for his mother since she sews. I really had a good time browsing, and it was interesting to see how many other tourists were there as well.
After the flea market, we were scheduled to meet up with Don at 1pm. We had an appointment to visit Endo Shuhei’s office in Osaka at 6pm, so Don wanted us to leave earlier in order for us to see a few of his projects before meeting him in person. We took the train and got off at Osaka Castle. On the Osaka Castle grounds, there were three very small Shuhei projects: two public restrooms and one café. Shuhei is well-known for his simplicity and experimentation in architecture, but the scale was a bit small to get an overall feel for his work. It was raining very hard for most of the time we were walking too, so all of us were soaking wet by the end. We took another subway line to get to Shuhei’s office. We arrived 15 minutes early, but he was with a client, and we ended up having to wait for about an hour for him to finish up. By then, most of us were very tired and extremely hungry. Once entering his office, we quickly realized he did not speak English. Don translated the entire time he was talking, but everyone could tell a lot of information was lost in translation. After his presentation, we weren’t even allowed to see his office. It was kind of lame, but I’m assuming it was just really small.
By the end of his presentation, everyone was completely exhausted. One of Shuhei’s coworkers walked us to a very good Chinese restaurant. I ordered a Chinese ramen, and it was really good. It was also very oily and greasy, so that’s probably why it tasted so good. Haha. After dinner, it was already after 9pm. We still had an hour long train ride to look forward to in order to get back home to Kyoto. I completely passed out on the ride back, and I wrote a paper for my architectural theory class before going to sleep.

20 April 2009

2009-04-20T19:27:00.001-07:00

Today was the second to last Japanese language class for me. It is hard to believe I have been in Kyoto for almost four weeks already. I will definitely be sad to leave. Class was pretty intense since Watanabi Sensei is trying to go through even more material since we have such little time left, but it is good. By now, most people are having a very difficult time keeping up since they never fully understood the basics we learned in the beginning. I’d say I’m doing alright and hopefully a bit above average. I am still nowhere close to being conversational, so learning the language will be frustrating until I can build a foundation to work with. After language class, Shae, Trudy, and I went to Starbucks in order to use our computers. Don planned to meet us after language class in the same building to do individual group project critiques. Trudy and mine was at 12:30. We just had to finish compiling our images and digital model to show Don. It was interesting while at Starbucks though. We had our computers plugged into the wall outlet, and we had each ordered food and/or drinks. The employees, however, would not let us use the outlets for power for some reason once they noticed that we were plugged into the wall. That is pretty disappointing since it’s Starbucks of all places! We were able to finish anyways, and Don was pretty satisfied with our progress once again.
After meeting with Don, Trudy and I went our separate ways. She was looking for a graduation gift for her brother, and I just wanted to wander around. I ended up going to a small department store called Muji; it is basically considered the “no name” brand. I thought it was an interesting concept, so I decided to check it out. The store was seven levels, and it carried everything from stationary to shoes to clothes to furniture to books. They had the largest architecture book selection I have ever seen, and there were three levels of books alone in Muji! After Muji, I wandered down Shijo-dori towards the subway station at Shijo-dori and Karasuma-dori. Along the way, I stopped at the Lipton Tea Shop and bought Norio a slice of custard topped with fresh fruit for his birthday which was today. I figured he didn’t really need anything, so sweets are always the next best thing. I returned to my apartment right after that since it had to be refrigerated. The rest of my time was mainly spent in the apartment complex. I jumped from my room, to Derrick and Seth’s room, to Norio and Blake’s room. Norio loved the slice of fruit custard too, so that was a relief. For dinner, Derrick, Jeff, and I went to Jeff’s favorite Chinese restaurant again. I ordered a bowl of ramen and a side of gyoza for a total of 700 yen. I ate so much food, but I was also very hungry so it made for a great meal.
I hung out the rest of the night with Derrick and Seth just doing homework. Tomorrow is the flea market at Toji Temple which is held on the 21st of every month, and it is the largest flea market in Kyoto! I don’t really know what to expect, but Jeff and I are planning to leave at 7am to get there. Woo!

19 April 2009

2009-04-19T05:39:00.001-07:00

I woke up at 8am this morning and already had a full day of traveling planned out. Trudy, Derrick, and I left our apartments at 9am to head to Inari. Inari is located south-east of Kyoto Station, three stops away on the JR Nara Line. The train cost 140 yen. We arrived at Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine, also known as the tori gate shrine. To get to the main shrine at the top, we had to do an intense uphill hike and pass through about 30,000 tori gates. It was really nice since we went in the morning, and it wasn’t too hot yet. The immense number of tori gates was inconceivable, and the hike ended up being better than we had imagined. On our way out of Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine, there was a huge ceremonial service going on since they were supposedly moving many of the holy relics to other sites. There was a huge crowd, and we were able to watch for a while as well. It was unlike anything I had ever seen, so it was really cool to see something new.
Next, we took the train to Tofukuji to visit Tofukuji Temple. We had to pay 400 yen to get admission into the temple and then another 400 yen to see the garden. The temple had two really nice zen rock gardens, and the garden itself had some nice zen gardens and plants. I’m not sure if it was worth the 800 yen total admission cost, but it is an experience I can cross off of my list, and it was a beautiful day to visit a natural site.
Lastly, we took the train from Tofukuji to Shijo Station, which cost another 140 yen. From Shijo-dori, we walked to Ryozen Temple and Kodai-ji Temple. Ryozen Temple was a memorial for the unknown soldiers of World War II, and it had a huge statue of Kannon on top of the small building. It only cost 200 yen to enter, so we gladly paid the cheap fare and additionally received a stick of incense to place in front of the statue as an offering of remembrance. It was really cool, and it is still hard to describe the sheer scale of the statue. The reason I found this building in the first place was because I could see the statue from Kyoto Tower, and it stood above the trees against the hill. I’m glad I was able to find it and finally visit it today. After Ryozen Temple, we found Kodai-ji Temple almost immediately next to it. Kodai-ji Temple cost 600 yen to get in, and we were a bit skeptical as to whether or not it was worth the steep cost. As I always figure, however, I reasoned that we should pay the cost to get in since most of us will never visit that site again. It turns out that we were glad that we did. It was a very large garden with many assorted structures along the way.
It was extremely hot outside today, so we were really tired and sweaty by the end of it all. We took the subway back to our apartment, and I immediately took some allergy medication since my allergies have been really bad from all of the pollen in the air. I wish there were more people handing out the free small tissue packs with the advertisements on them. I could really use them right about now. So the allergy medication made me really tired, so I took a nap before dinner. Trudy, Shae, and I finally got dinner around 8:15pm. We had a lot of homework to do, so we decided to go to Nakau. The small bowl of tanuki went on sale recently and is now only 100 yen. It is so great! I ordered that, along with a small salad, for a grand total of 200 yen. I figure it balances out anyways since I had to pay so many admission fees to get into temples today.
So, the rest of my night was spent doing Japanese language homework and working on my studio architecture project. I had to swing by the convenient store on my way back from dinner to get a 100 yen large Coca-Cola since I was so tired from my long day of walking, along with the side effects of the allergy medication. This is my last week in Kyoto, so hopefully I can make the most of it and get all of my work done.

18 April 2009

2009-04-18T07:40:00.000-07:00

So, Trudy and I woke up today to meet Don for another field trip. We thought we were supposed to meet him at the Kyoto Bus Station, but upon rechecking our email, we realized that he actually said to meet him at the temple site. It was 9am when we realized this, and we were supposed to meet at 9:30am. The bus ride would take at least 45 minutes, so we decided to go back to sleep instead. It was really nice to sleep in, and I caught up on some much needed sleep. We finally got up around 11am and decided we would visit the two temples and one garden directly north of Kyoto Station. Today was another bright and sunny day, so it was perfect for photographing.
First, we started at Nishi Honganji Temple. This one was the farthest west of the three. Upon arriving at the temple, I found out it was the mother temple of Jodo-Shinshu Buddhism so it was really cool to finally visit a temple that looked familiar to me. It was immense in size, and for some reason, it was more meaningful than any other temple I’ve visited. Since it is so close to where we are staying, I will probably go back there once more before we leave. Next, we visited Higashi-Honganji Temple, which is the one directly north of Kyoto Station. This one was undergoing some major renovations, and the main Amida Hall was completely covered in scaffolding and whatnot. We couldn’t even view the building as a whole. This complex was extremely large however, and luckily we were still able to go into most of the structures. This, too, was a Buddhist temple, but it was a different sect than Jodo-Shinshu. Lastly, we visited the Shosei-en Garden, also referred to as Kikokutei. The garden looked much larger on the map than it actually was, and it cost us 500 yen to get in. Personally, I think it was overpriced for how little you were able to see, but they also gave you your choice of one information booklet to keep. I had the choice of the overall garden pamphlet or a pamphlet on the flowers found in the garden. Since my background is purely architectural, I chose the garden one. It has some really great images in it, but I still think it was overpriced.
It was really hot outside, and we didn’t want to carry around the booklets, so Trudy and I decided to come back to the apartment to take a break. At 6pm, we decided to just wander around the mall below and above Kyoto Station. It is huge and has endless amounts of stores, so we figured it would keep us occupied for the rest of the night, and we could get food there for dinner. Jeff happened to stop by our room before we left, so he joined us as well. I felt like ramen, so we decided to eat on the 10th floor of Kyoto Station, which the ramen floor. I ordered ramen with won ton for 850 yen. It was a huge bowl, and I was still able to eat it all. By the time I got home, I was completely tired. I just hung around the room with Norio, Jeff, and Trudy and also was able to Skype with my parents. That was about it, and I went to bed fairly early since I will get up around 8am tomorrow morning to visit more temples.

17 April 2009

2009-04-18T01:49:00.001-07:00

Today was the most tired I have been since being in Japan. I’m guessing that all of the walking and traveling I am doing, plus all of the school work, is finally catching up to me. After language class, I got lunch with Shae, Trudy, and Zach. I ordered shrimp tempura-don for 750 yen, and it was very delicious. That was the first time I have had non-convenient store tempura since being in Japan, so I’m glad it didn’t disappoint. Studio was the same as every other day, and we planned out our activities for the remaining week we have in Kyoto. After class, most people decided to go to the Kyoto Handicraft Center, and since I was the one who originally found it, I gave directions. Once again, I was on my own, and I had a hard time deciding what I was going to do. I ended up settling on taking the subway to Karasuma Oike to visit another craft gallery. Don had suggested this craft gallery, but upon getting there, I realized it was going to cost me 300 yen. I wasn’t that interested in seeing the art, so I decided to start walking down Karasuma Oike back toward my apartment. Along the way, I stopped at a couple bookstores and anything else that looked interesting. After walking all the way to Kyoto Station, I decided that I would explore the mini mall beneath Kyoto Tower and actually pay to take advantage of the great views from the top of Kyoto Tower. It cost 770 yen to take the elevator to the top, but overall, it was worth it (although I still think it’s way overpriced). It was a clear day, so I could see very far in all directions with the telescope binoculars. I stayed up there for quite some time, especially since I wanted to get my money’s worth! Haha. When I came back down, it was time to head back to my apartment since I had dinner plans.
Earlier in studio, Don had given us directions to the restaurant that serves horse sashimi. Tonight, Jeff and I wanted to try it. Don said he was interested in coming too, so I sent him an email telling him to meet us at 7pm there. Jeff and I took the subway back to Karasuma Oike and met Don for dinner. Six of our other classmates were already there trying the raw horse too. Since the place was a bit pricey, Jeff and I decided to share two items, and we would get cheaper food afterwards. We decided upon horse sashimi (of course) and takoyaki double cheese pizza. They both turned out to be amazingly tasty, and I think that horse sashimi is one of the best things I have had this trip! I will definitely go back there before I leave Kyoto. It was 500 yen for the plate of four pieces, but it was very lean and flavorful. The total cost for our two dishes was a little over 1,000 yen, so we each just paid Don 500 yen.
After dinner, we explored a small renovated internalized outdoor mall across the street. It was pretty quiet, since it was getting late, but it was a nice peaceful atmosphere. Don left to go home afterwards, and Jeff and I decided we would walk back to Kyoto Station rather than pay 210 yen for the subway. Right before getting to Kyoto Station, we stopped at Jeff’s favorite Chinese restaurant since he was craving gyoza. I felt like ramen, so I ordered the regular ramen for 680 yen. Both dishes were again very good. By the time I got home, I was ready for bed. Tomorrow, Don is taking the group to places Trudy and I have already been to, so we will have to decide where we want to go during that time.

16 April 2009

2009-04-16T10:16:00.001-07:00

Today was a very intense travel day. We started by meeting at the Kyoto Station bus terminal at 10am. It was nice to sleep in for a change. We took the express bus for at least 30 minutes to get to the western side of Kyoto. As always, we were touring more temples and Zen gardens. We split into two groups so that we wouldn’t overwhelm any one temple or garden. My group consisted of 9 of us, and we began by visiting Daisen Temple. It was a beautiful Zen garden surrounded by a series of wooden structures. We enjoyed this area for a very long time and sat on the engawa (veranda) with our feet swinging below us. It was a cloudy day, but the humidity kept the air fairly warm. Our next stop was the Obaiin temple. This was also a very nice temple with a beautiful Zen garden. Next, we visited the Korin Temple, and it was once again another Zen garden. Each garden and temple had a different feel and presented itself differently upon the users. It was really cool. After Korin, we visited Daitokuji Temple. This garden was very nice, and most of the monks spoke very good English. It was a single small structure that we walked around, but we had a storyboard to follow as we walked. It was really neat to hear the story behind the placement of the rocks in the garden. Ryokuonji Temple was next, and it is also known as the Gold Pavilion. This was probably one of the most iconic and amazing buildings I have seen during my recent travels. It was so beautiful, and since the building is completely leafed in gold, it shone very brightly as the sunlight bounced off of it. It was a form of beauty that I will never forget.
It was about 2pm when we finished walking through these temples, so it was lunchtime. About half of us ended up going to a convenience store to just purchase some cheap bento boxes. Mine had 6 small onigiris, fried potato, one dumpling, spaghetti, and shrimp tempura. It only cost 450 yen, so it was an amazing deal! After lunch, we lastly visited Ryoanji Temple and garden. The rock garden is easily one of the most famous ones in Japan, but it was sadly in the midst of renovation. Part of the rock garden was covered up, and there was scaffolding and construction materials everywhere around the building. To be perfectly honest, it was a huge disappointment. It was a horrible way to end our long day of travelling, and everyone was equally upset. I guess that just gives me another reason to return to Japan in the near future. Haha!
On the walk back to the bus, we came upon a cherry blossom garden. Many of the petals have begun to fall, and the garden looked like it had been snowed on since there were so many petals on the grass and path. What a mystical feeling the park had! After wandering around for a descent amount of time, we wandered back to the bus stop and caught the local bus back to Kyoto Station. Once we were back at the station, I got some Chinese food for dinner with Norio, Blake, Seth, Derrick, and Jeff. I got six gyoza, fried rice, fried chicken, and soup for 720 yen. It was really good and extremely filling. I wanted to make sure I was really full since the rest of my night was spent doing homework and readings for tomorrow’s class. Everyone is becoming increasingly busy, so I hope that we can still enjoy our last weekend in Kyoto since we already leave next week!

15 April 2009

2009-04-15T09:26:00.001-07:00

It wasn’t raining this morning when I woke-up, so it was a nice way to start off my morning. Japanese language class this morning was the same as always. I realized that we only have four class sessions left, so that makes me very sad. I hope I will still be motivated enough to continue studying Japanese on my own so I can at least learn to get by. After class, I got lunch with Shae and Trudy at a cheap noodle and rice bowl place on Snajo-dori. For 440 yen, I got miso soup, salad, and a beef rice bowl with raw egg. It was very good, and it was actually too much food for any of us to finish. I think this was the first time since I’ve been in Japan that I haven’t been able to completely finish a meal. It’s pretty crazy to think how much food that was! After lunch, we did the long walk to the Kyoto Community Center for our studio class. Since we got there early, I was even able to finish one page of my Japanese language homework before studio started. During class, we presented our project design, and it seemed to be well-received. Hopefully Trudy and I won’t have to do too much more work on it to finish it for the deadline next week.
Everyone seemed to be really tired today from our intense travelling yesterday, so no one wanted to go do anything after class. I felt energetic enough to check out a few places, so I ended up spending the rest of the afternoon and early evening doing stuff by myself. It is always so refreshing to travel alone, so today was a very good day. First, I decided to check out the Kyoto Handicraft Center. It was about a 15 minute walk from the Kyoto Community Center, and luckily it was still a descent day outside. Nadine McCarty had told me about the Kyoto Community Center, and I’m really glad she told me about it. It was a seven story building with multiple shops within. There was everything from kimonos to swords to paintings to dolls to jewelry to souvenirs in the building, and it was full of tourists. Even all of the employees spoke very good English. I was definitely impressed. I didn’t find anything that I couldn’t live without, but it was a nice place, and I wandered around there for about an hour. Afterwards, I wanted to check out the headquarters store of Raak, a popular textile shop in Kyoto. Don had sent us directions via email, so I was able to use my phone to follow the directions. I had to walk across town to get there, but it was better than spending 420 yen on the subway. It was nice outside, so I enjoyed the long walk. I also found a grocery store along my walk, so I bought six bananas for 198 yen and a bag of tangerines for 350 yen.
Raak was very cool, and I loved everything in the store. I had already been in about six different branches of the store during my visit here thus far, but this one had everything. I was specifically looking for a 1 meter squared handkerchief in a pattern that I liked, since they can be folded into three different styles of purses. After talking with one of the sales women for quite some time and looking at practically all of the fabrics, I found on that I liked and bought it for 2650 yen. At all of the other branches of Raak, the employees will not fold the purse for you (I know this because Shae bought one and had to fold it herself). Here, however, the two ladies collaborated to perfectly fold my purse for me. I was so excited! I even got a pamphlet on how to fold the three styles of purses. I can’t wait to start using it!
After my long adventure at Raak, I decided it was time to head back home. Since the Cocon Karasuma Building was on my way home, I decided to walk for another 10 minutes to go photograph the building, rather than jump on the subway and miss it. The interior of the mini mall was done by Kengo Kuma, so I figured I would photograph it and be able to shop around a bit. The interior was not very impressive, and I have resultantly been fairly disappointed with a lot of his work thus far. The mini mall was cool though, and window shopping was fun. Finally, I caught the subway and went home. I made pasta for dinner and put pink fish sauce with nori on it. It was really good and was way cheaper than going out. The rest of the night was spent hanging out with Trudy and Jeff, and I also did some homework. Overall, today was a great day with lots of exercise and excitement.

14 April 2009

2009-04-15T07:25:00.001-07:00

I woke up to the sound of rain today, so I was unenthused about the thought of our day trip to Shugakuin Villa in the wet weather. Nonetheless, my group of four had an appointment to tour the Imperial Villa at 1:30pm, so we were meeting Don at 10am to tour the area around the Villa beforehand. First, we visited Manshuin Monzeki. It was a very peaceful teahouse and shrine with a beautiful Zen garden. We ended up running into another group from our class, since they had the 9am appointment at Shugakuin Imperial Villa. Next, we visited Shisen-do, and this was a short walk away from Manshuin Monzeki. This was a hybrid between Buddhist and Zen architecture and landscape. Similar to what we saw at Manshuin Monzeki, there was a beautiful and peaceful Zen garden. The rain made outdoor photographing very difficult, but the indoor space was equally enjoyable. It was very calming to sit on the veranda of the building, beneath the roof overhang, and listen to the rain falling in the garden. In order to make sure we arrived at Shugakuin Imperial Villa early, we left Shisen-do at noon. We picked up lunch at a to-go bento box place, and it was an amazing deal. My bento box had cabbage salad, potato salad, tsukemono, rice, and tempura for only 480 yen!
We arrived at Shugakuin Imperial Villa 15 minutes early as planned and once again received the really stylish audio headsets to hear the tour in English. It was raining fairly decently, and walking down the narrow paths with a bunch of other people with umbrellas made things very complicated. There were three villas within the overall Shugakuin Imperial Villa, and they were each very nice. They were separated from each other however, so the walk in between the Villas was less pleasant since it was normal farmland and whatnot. By the end of the tour, my feet and jeans were completely soaking wet.
The last stop on our day trip was a visit to the Kyoto University of Art and Design. It was a long walk to the university, but we saved the cost of catching the bus; most of the sites we now visit are not easily accessible from the subway or train since they tend to be more rural sites. It was a long rainy walk, but we were going to see a building done by Kengo Kuma. The building was the art and design building in the heart of the campus, and the exterior was quite monumental in scale. It was built on a very steep site, and we had to walk up a straight flight of stairs to reach each level. It additionally had a green roof which I really liked. The interior, on the other hand, was less than appealing. The interior of each floor was painted a different shade of pastel, and it looked and felt absolutely flat and stark. It was such a disappointment when contrasted with the façade. To get back to Kyoto Station to get back to our weekly mansion, we opted to take the bus since it would cut the cost of transportation by at least 75% compared to the subway. The bus was extremely crowded, and we rode it for 45 minutes. It only cost us 270 yen though, so it was definitely worth it.
Today was also Trudy’s birthday, so we five of us went out to dinner at a Korean grill. Basically, we each ordered a meat dish, it came out raw on a plate, and we each got to cook it ourselves on a gas grill at our table. Jeff and I are both adventurous with food, so we decided we would each order a dish and share in order to try more things. We decided upon one safe dish and one new dish: beef brisket and beef windpipe. They both turned out to be very delicious! The windpipe had a very hard and rubbery texture, but the sauce that it was sautéed in really made the difference in taste. Next time, I am already planning on trying beef intestines, since I already know from my trip to Taiwan that I like pork intestines. I still haven’t had the opportunity to each raw horse either, so I will have to do that before I leave Kyoto as well.
The rest of my night was spent working on my architecture studio project with Trudy and doing laundry. It is really convenient to have the washing machine in our own rooms, and my laundry dried within an hour and a half in the shower with the clothes drying setting on. We have another project presentation due tomorrow, so we were able to get that done by 1am. I just hope it will stop raining so we don’t have to walk to language class and then studio in the rain tomorrow.

13 April 2009

2009-04-15T06:00:00.000-07:00

Today started yet another week in Kyoto and leaves only two more weeks of staying in this area. It sounds like such a short amount of time when I think of it like that, but I have been seeing a lot of sites, so it’ll be exciting to start all over again in a new location. I had Japanese language class this morning, as usual, and we met with Don immediately afterwards for Arch 480. Since the Kyoto Community Center isn’t open on Monday, we were very fortunate to be able to use our language sensei’s extra classroom to study in with Don. We presented our conceptual designs for our next studio project, and that was it. Tomorrow we have appointments to visit and tour Shugakuin Imperial Palace in groups of four, similar to when we visited Katsura Detached Palace. That should be really exciting. In the morning, we will visit the Gold and Silver Pavilions with Don, then my group’s tour time is at 1:30pm.
So after class with Don today, most people were going to visit Tadao Ando’s Garden of Fine Arts in Kyoto, but I had already seen at the end of last week. Instead, Trudy and I went to see Sanjusangendo Temple located north-east of our apartment. The great hall houses 1,001 life-sized wooden statues of Kannon plated in gold flake, and the hall itself was the longest wooden structure at 394 feet long. Walking into the hall initially and viewing the statues for the first time was so incredible; it cannot even be quantified into words. I was literally speechless. It was just unbelievable. It made the 600 yen entrance fee totally worth the cost! The rest of the temple grounds were very meager, and there wasn’t really anything else to see within the temple grounds except the statues. If I ever visit Kyoto in the future, I want to go visit Sanjusangendo again!
After Sanjusangendo Temple, I don’t think anything could’ve rivaled its magnificence. We visited Toyokuni Shrine, Chishakuin Temple, and Myohoin Temple. These were all much smaller then Sanjusangendo, and almost no people were at these ones. I think everyone was at Sanjusangendo! It was hot outside again, so we decided to walk back to our apartment since there was no direct route from our location at the temples to our apartment. It took about 45 minutes to walk back, but it was a nice walk. It was actually very eye-opening since we saw areas that weren’t as new and populated as the area we had lived in before. It wasn’t unsafe or dirty, but it was just different. Trudy didn’t like it at all, but I found it very interesting since it was a different aspect of the city that neither of us had seen up until that moment.

12 April 2009

2009-04-13T00:35:00.000-07:00

I woke up at 8am this morning, and it sure was hard to get out of bed. I think everyone is pretty tired out, but it is always because we are too excited to see new things than lose out by sleeping in. Since we have preliminary project designs due tomorrow for studio, Trudy and I decided to visit the project site before meeting the class at 11am at Nijo Castle. We were a bit turned around directionally when we came out of the subway, so we ended up getting lost. We asked for directions at a Family Mart convenience store, and we restarted our journey. Luckily, we found the site and were able to photograph it quickly before taking the subway to Nijo Castle. We ended up getting there about 15 minutes late, but we caught up with the group in no time. Some people decided to sleep in, so it was a medium sized group of us. Visiting the inner grounds of Nijo Castle, the only portion which I hadn’t seen yet, was pretty anticlimactic. The inner structures were much less feudal in design, and they were completely different than the outer structures. It was pretty disappointing and unexciting, though I still enjoyed the space thoroughly. At least now I am familiar with Nijo Castle, and I won’t have to visit it in the future.
After Nijo Castle, a group of seven of us decided to part from the group and visit the bamboo forest and Monkey Park in Kyoto instead. We took the JR train line to get there, and it was very close. On the way, we picked up lunch at Mos Burger since it was convenient. I tried a shrimp cutlet burger for 350 yen. It was a bit fishier than I had expected, but it was nonetheless very good. Once we arrived at our destination, we had to walk a ways to get to the bamboo forest. It was very crowded, but the bamboo was very tall, straight, and beautiful. It was hot today, so the shaded forest was very relaxing. We had to ask for directions to the Monkey Park since it was a bit farther from the bamboo forest. It was at the top of a hill, and it cost 250 yen to get in. It was a very steep hike to get to the top, but it was definitely worth it once we got there. The monkeys were roaming free, and we just had to watch out for them since they could potentially get aggressive if provoked. All of us took lots and lots of photos, and the view over Kyoto was astounding. We spent a descent chunk of time there since the monkeys were so amusing and fun to watch. They weren’t the cutest creatures I have seen thus far on my trip, but it was definitely one of the most memorable.
On the way back to the train station from Monkey Park, we stopped to sit alongside the huge river at the base of the mountain. There were at least a hundred row boats in the water, since you could rent them for a fee. It turned out to be a very amusing form of entertainment as we were able to watch two drunk guys do crazy things in their boat and ultimately end up falling into the river and capsizing their boat. They were ok, so it was hilarious to watch. The boat attendants had to go out to rescue the oars and pull the boat back to shore, while the two guys swam to the dock. My friends took pictures of the ordeal, and I was able to catch the last part of it on video. It was a great comedy to top off our great visit to the north-eastern side of Kyoto.
Back at the hotel, I once again ate my leftover okonomiyaki. I will be able to finish it up by tomorrow night, but I am still amazed by how large it was originally. It lasted me for three dinners! I was pretty exhausted from a long day by the time I returned to the apartment, but I had lots to do. I started off with my Japanese language homework, then proceeded to work on my studio project with Trudy. Don is having all of our class projects be in partners, so by default, we work with our roommate. We finished it pretty quickly but still weren’t able to go to bed until 3am. One of these days I’ll let myself sleep in, but I’m just not quite sure when that day will be. There is still so much to see and do, and I don’t want to miss out on anything!

11 April 2009

2009-04-11T06:47:00.001-07:00

We weren’t meeting with Don until 10:30am this morning, so I decided to check out a temple about 20 minutes away from our apartment this morning. Most people wanted to sleep in, so I went by myself. It was really nice to do something by myself for a change, since all of us have constantly been hanging out. It is almost impossible to not get tired for some people’s company since we are inevitably together for the majority of each day. The morning air was already warm, and the walk was peaceful. The area around our apartment is mainly residential, and it later transitions into a more industrial district. It is still amazingly clean and safe, just like the rest of Japan. The temple I visited was called Toji Temple. It is one of Kyoto’s national treasures, so it was 800 yen to get in. It was the most expensive place I have visited thus far, but it was worth it. There was a garden surrounding a pagoda and two prayer halls. I was able to go inside all of them, and there were numerous interesting and intricate gold statues in them. It was really neat, and I was able to photograph at my own pace. Don always makes us feel rushed when we visit certain sites, so it was very refreshing to do everything my own way. It was a feeling of independence that I haven’t felt in a while. I returned back to the apartment just in time to meet with the class at 10:30am.
With Don, we took a bus to the beginning of the Philosopher’s Path in Eastern Kyoto. Along the path, we visited about five different temples and walked along the cherry blossom lined river. It was a beautiful and warm day, and it was probably the most peaceful area of Kyoto I have visited so far. For lunch, I ate some fried rice for 570 yen. We finished the Philosopher’s Path around 5pm, and most people were hungry for dinner. Since it was still light outside however, I wanted to visit another site to photograph it in the daylight. I was interested in visiting another one of Tadao Ando’s projects, located directly outside the Kitayama Station in Kyoto, so I asked Don for directions and headed to it with Derick and Seth. The subway cost 280 yen, one-way, and admission to the Garden of Fine Arts cost only 100 yen. The cost to enter the garden, though cheap, definitely wasn’t worth seeing the artwork they showcased in it. It was definitely worth it to see the architecture however. The artwork was merely tiled recreations of famous pieces of artwork… definitely nothing special. I cannot even begin to explain how amazing the building was however. Luckily, we got there early enough so we were able to photograph it in the daytime, and we stayed in the garden until dark so we could photograph it again during the night when it was illuminated. It was just a wonderful day, and I ended up taking almost 500 pictures!
I had leftover okonomiyaki in my apartment fridge, and Seth wasn’t hungry, so we came back to the apartment complex to just hang out and eat-in for a change. The rest of the night was spent on homework and photo organization. For everyone, it is really difficult to keep online albums updated since we are so tired after long days of traveling. Tomorrow I am planning to visit Nijo Castle again, to hopefully see the actual castle this time, and a group of us are also planning to visit the bamboo forest with the monkey park. Hopefully I can sleep in a bit more tomorrow as well since I will have project-related work to do tomorrow night.

10 April 2009

2009-04-10T08:37:00.001-07:00

I was once again tired when I woke up this morning. My arms and shoulders were also sore from dragging my luggage so far during the move yesterday in the hot weather. This morning was the first time we headed to Japanese language class from our new accommodations. We had to take the train, and we left half an hour early to ensure that we would have extra time to find our way. Unfortunately, it still wasn’t a large enough buffer, and we ended up getting lost a couple different times. Luckily, we were only ten minutes late, and we weren’t the last people to arrive. Every new location I am put in is always equally confusing, and it is really difficult to find your way. Hopefully with time, I will get better at figuring out how to get around in our new area.
After language class, it was pointless to spend money to take the train back to our apartments. Instead, Shae, Trudy, and I decided to do some shopping around the Teramachi Shopping Arcade. I found a really cute coin purse for only 350 yen. It was a great deal compared to many of the other coin purse places I have seen. I may very likely go back there to get gifts for my friends as well. We shall see. We proceeded to walk all the way from the downtown Kyoto area all the way to our studio class. It was good 45 minute walk, and the weather was hot again. Studio was boring, and I was anxious to get done so I could meet up with Nadine and Kimberly for dinner.
We got out of class a half hour early, and I decided it was more economical to walk all the way back to the downtown area rather than pay the fee to take the subway. I ended up being able to walk with Shae since she was headed downtown as well. I helped her find a store she was looking for, then went to the Central Kyoto Inn. Nadine and Kimberly were waiting in the lobby for me, so I didn’t have to worry about trying to talk to the people at the front desk. Whew! They wanted okonomiyaki, so we set off to find a restaurant with okonomiyaki. It took us a very long time to actually find a place that didn’t have a wait, but we eventually found one. It was a very nice restaurant located below some retail shops. We decided we would just order different dishes and share them all since that is usually what you do with okonomiyaki. I am not picky about what I eat, so I let Nadine and Kimberly choose what sounded good to them. We ended up getting a fried bean sprout dish, yakisoba, and two okonomiyakis. When the food came out, it was way more than we expected. The okonomiyaki was at least one foot in diameter, and we had two of them! As expected, we had leftovers, but luckily, this was the first place I have eaten at that had takeout containers. I was so relieved since I did not want the good food to go to waste. Nadine insisted that I take the leftovers home since they leave Kyoto for another city tomorrow. I didn’t want to, since she paid for the meal, but she made a good point since they really wouldn’t have had time to eat it. I’m very fortunate to have dinner for the next couple of days!
The rest of my night consisted of uploading photos and updating my blog. I have been so busy and tired that I have fallen somewhat behind on my correspondence with everyone back home. Hopefully by the end of tonight, I will be all caught up. Tomorrow Don is taking us on the Philosopher’s Path in Kyoto. It is a scenic walk through the East hills of Kyoto, and it stops at multiple temples and shrines along the way. I’m hoping to visit something else during the early morning or evening as well. We shall see how tired I am tomorrow though. I continue to enjoy all aspects of Kyoto, and I still can’t decide what I have time to see and what I don’t.

9 April 2009

2009-04-09T08:04:00.000-07:00

This morning was the big move from the Higashiyama Sanjo Hotel to our new weekly mansion short-term apartments. We were much more prepared to drag our luggage around, so it wasn’t as tiring and strenuous as the first time we arrived in Japan. I didn’t have very high expectations for the apartments since Don said they were supposedly smaller than our current hotel rooms. When we arrived however, the apartments were even better than the hotel, minus the massage chairs. The rooms are very descent in size, and I would argue that they are actually larger than the hotel rooms we had previously. There is a small kitchen, toilet room, powder room, washing machine, shower room, and a living room/bedroom space. There is only one bed, so I am sleeping on a futon on the ground. The floor is surprisingly springy, and I think I will have no problem sleeping like this for the next two weeks. This apartment is also very high tech, and it is really hard to figure out how to work everything since it is all very technologically advanced. We even have to push a button on the wall to get hot water, otherwise only cold water comes out of the faucets and shower. Those crazy Japanese designers!
After getting settled into our apartments, we headed to Uji with Don for our day trip. The weather was very warm, and the city of Uji was beautiful. We visited the two Uji Shrines and also saw the Byodoin Temple. The two Uji Shrines looked very similar to many of the Shinto Shrines we had seen before, but Byodoin Temple was something completely new. We were able to get a tour of the interior of the temple, and there was also a museum of Byodoin on the premise. Honestly, the museum was probably the most interesting building we have seen thus far. The architecture and use of interior lighting was absolutely astounding, and of course, they did not allow photographs inside. Some people were still able to take a few good ones, so I think we are all going to steal them. If they would’ve had a book about the museum’s architecture, I totally would’ve bought it, but they didn’t. The architecture was that cool! Afterwards, we all got ice cream since it was so hot outside. I got a half vanilla, half green tea ice cream cone, and it was very good and refreshing.
Once arriving back to Kyoto Station, the main train station I will now be using, Derick and I got some mini Belgium waffles as a snack. Mine was green on top since it was green tea flavor, and it was very delicious! I will definitely be getting that again since it only cost 147 yen. For dinner, Derick, Seth, and I got Chinese noodles in the basement of Kyoto Station. I had a combo for 760 yen that came with ramen, fried rice, sweet and sour shrimp balls, cabbage salad, and kimchi. I was so full after the big meal, but it was definitely a great deal for the amount of food that I got. The rest of my night was spent doing Japanese language homework, writing a paper for my architectural theory class, and laying out my travel journal for architecture special studies class. I additionally was able to use Norio’s phone to talk to Nadine McCarty and arrange dinner with her and Kimberly tomorrow night at 6:30pm. I am really excited to see a familiar face for a change.

8 April 2009

2009-04-08T07:39:00.001-07:00

This morning was a sluggish one for everyone since most people got minimal to no sleep. People were really struggling in Japanese class, so I continue to be very fortunate to have been exposed to it from a very young age. I wouldn’t say I’m necessarily better off than other people, but it definitely helps. After Japanese class, Trudy and I tried a new noodle shop that looked very similar to Nakau. The prices were almost exactly the same, and you got your order ticket through a vending machine. I had a bowl of udon with fried inari skin for 250 yen, and it was very tasty.
Studio seemed longer than usual today since everyone had to present their final projects. The output was very impressive, especially considering the fact that we are in Japan. Afterwards, Derick and I decided to pay a visit to Nijo Castle. Many of my classmates planned to visit it tonight, but I wanted to shoot photos of the building in daylight and in night. At night, the cherry blossoms were lit from below in the garden, and that was the main attraction everyone wanted to see. Derick and I took the subway line to Nijo Castle, and the station was literally right across the street from the castle. It only cost 200 yen to get in since we selected the student ticket price on the ticket machine. I’m not sure if we were supposed to do that or not, but we got in anyway with no questions asked.
Once inside, we were thoroughly disappointed to find out that the main castle of Nijo Castle is closed off to visitors at 4pm. What a disappointment! The garden was still very beautiful, and I’m glad I went at night to see the spectacular lights, but I am definitely planning another trip back to Nijo to see the castle during the day. For dinner, Derick and I came upon a different location of Nakau and ate there for a large cheap meal. I had a beef rice bowl and added tsukemono to the side for a total of 540 yen. I am trying to add some sort of green dish to each of my meals to be more balanced with my diet, but we’ll see how that works out. I have noticed that many restaurants just don’t have salads or anything green that isn’t ridiculously overpriced.
We took the subway back to my hotel but decided to wander around the Gion District again to see the cherry blossoms. Unfortunately, they weren’t illuminated anymore, but Derick was still able to get some good photos. Afterwards, we wandered around the Cherry Blossom Festival again and saw a total of FOUR geishas! I actually talked to one, but she did not talk back. Derick and I, along with many tourists, were trying to photograph them, but it is very difficult in such heavy pedestrian traffic. We got a couple of photos, but they weren’t anything spectacular. In general, it was a cool way to end our last night in our Sanjo Hotel.
Once arriving back at the hotel around 10:30pm, I went with Jeff to the arcade since we hadn’t been there yet. I decided it was ok to stay out a bit later since we somewhat get to sleep in tomorrow. Tomorrow is our moving day, so we don’t have to checkout until 10:30am. Norio will take us to the new apartments, then we have a field trip to Uji planned with Don. It sounds like we will be able to see more cool temples. Before then, I’m just making the most of the massage chairs in the lounge since it is the last time I will probably have this luxury during the rest of my stay in Japan.

7 April 2009

2009-04-08T07:05:00.000-07:00

I got up at 8am this morning to hopefully get going by 9am. Trudy, Scot, Zach, and I planned to go photograph the Times Building in Kyoto, which was designed by Tadao Ando. We walk by the building every day, but it is usually at night when it isn’t ideal to photograph it. The sky was a clear beautiful blue today, and it is definitely getting warmer. I didn’t even have to wear a jacket this morning. It was such a change from what I have gotten used to. I guess I don’t have to buy another warm jacket anymore. After that, we came back to the hotel to work on our final projects for studio which are due tomorrow.
Our appointment to tour Katsura Detached Palace in Kyoto was scheduled for 2:30pm, so we decided to leave at 1pm to be safe. The directions on the subway were very straight forward, but walking from the subway station to the actual palace was definitely going to be a challenge. I studied the route very carefully on google maps and also discussed it with my classmate Jeff. It is surprising how poor many people are with directions and finding their way in new environments. I’m not great at it, but I am definitely confident that I can get around decently. I just wanted to make sure I knew the directions very well so I wouldn’t have to rely on anyone else.
Luckily, we found it without encountering any problems. The Katsura Detached Palace was really great, and the garden we toured was very beautiful. The Katsura garden is specifically known for its beautiful landscape and the views it frames with its the greenery and structures. Since the entire tour was in Japanese, we had to look like silly American tourists with the audio headsets to translate. It was pretty hilarious.
After visiting Katsura, we headed straight back to the hotel. I stopped to by my favorite dango on a stick for 120 yen on my way back, since I will be moving away from here in a couple days. Our final project is due tomorrow, plus we have a lot of Japanese homework to complete. We had a very busy night ahead of us. For dinner, we tried sushi in Japan for the very first time. Trudy and I went with Norio and Blake to a sushi bar. It was the kind where the sushi passes by you on plates on a conveyer belt, and you are charged by the number of plates that you eat. This place was only 105 yen per plate of two nigiri, and Norio chose it, so I figured it was a deal. The sushi was very good, and it cost me less than 900 yen for eight plates. I thought it seemed like a pretty good deal for sushi, even though it wasn’t a 200 yen bowl of udon from Nakau! Haha. Trudy and I finished all of our project and homework by 2am, so we were at least able to get about five hours of sleep. I guess we are not exempt from the architecture lifestyle, even while traveling in Japan!

6 April 2009

2009-04-06T18:29:00.000-07:00

Today began a new week, and it once again began with Japanese language class. The lessons continue to be very intense, but I’m hoping that the language will slowly begin to stick in my mind. I know most of the verbs and vocabulary that we learn from listening to my grandma talk, so I just need to practice and understand the sentence structure and tenses a bit more. After language class, I ate at Nakau again and got a small beef rice bowl for 290 yen. It was very filling, especially for how cheap it was. I have still been unable to find anything of comparable value for the amount of food that I receive there, so I’m hoping I can find another one once we move to our apartments on Thursday. After lunch, I had my Arch 420 class from 12:30-2:30pm. Since my class was taking up too much space in the hotel lounge, Don split the class into two sessions based on which language class we are in.
After both of the Arch 420 sessions were complete, Don planned to take the class to the Cherry Blossom Festival and additionally check out the Gion District. Since Trudy and I had already visited both of these sites, we opted not to go and instead planned a trip to Heian-jingu Temple. It was located fairly close to our hotel, and we were able to walk there in about 20 minutes. It is known for its beautiful garden and huge gateway. I presume the gateway must be at least 40 or 50 feet tall, and it is painted bright orange just like the temple itself. The garden cost 600 yen to get into, which seemed a bit steep, but all of the online reviews raved about how beautiful the garden was, so Trudy and I decided to just pay the admission fee. I’m glad we did because the scenery of the garden was amazingly beautiful.
For dinner, we wanted to try a new place we had never been to. Since we didn’t find anything reasonably priced around Heian-jingu Temple, we walked back towards the area our hotel is located in. About a block down the street from our hotel, we tried a place that some of our classmates had recommended. The restaurant had a large variety of Japanese and “American” foods. I ordered some chow mien noodles, and we split an order of gyoza. This meal cost me 579 yen. It was very good, and there are many things on the menu that I would like to go back and try.
The rest of the night Trudy and I worked on our architecture studio project. The final is due on Wednesday, but tomorrow we will be traveling to the Katsura Detached Palace for a tour, so we wanted to get a jump start on the work. I think we might also try to photograph Tadao Ando’s Times Building in Kyoto tomorrow morning before heading to our 2:30pm tour appointment at Katsura because it looks much better in the morning sun. We shall see if I’m able to wake up in the morning since I have been so tired lately.

5 April 2009

2009-04-05T07:41:00.000-07:00

I slept in until 11am this morning, and it felt so good! Yesterday involved a lot more walking than I have done in a really long time, so a good night’s rest was expected. I didn’t have anything definite planned for today, so my roommate and I started the afternoon by going grocery shopping. I was really only planning to buy bread for the week and a roll for breakfast, but we got lost and ended up finding a different grocery store. It was really reasonable, and I ended up buying 1000 yen worth of groceries. This was the first time I have gotten fruit since arriving in Japan as well, so that was exciting. I got five bananas for 100 yen and six tangerines for 198 yen. Good deal huh?!? I also bought a small carton of low fat milk for 158 yen and a small two pack of tofu for 88 yen. Finally, I purchased four different types of sembei for 100 yen each. Now my roommate and I have plenty of snacks in our room so we don’t have to eat out for every meal. I ended up buying a small loaf of bread at the convenience store on my way back as well for 231 yen.
After our massive grocery excursion, we met up with Norio to visit a temple located close to our hotel. It was called the Kiyomizu Temple, and it also had the Temple of the Waterfall on its premise. Kiyomizu Temple is one of the most well-known Buddhist temples in Kyoto, and it was packed with people. Since it was the weekend, it was really hard to even walk around since there were so many people out on the streets. We had to pay 300 yen to get into the temple grounds, and once inside, we realized that the famous temple was actually open for viewing. It cost an additional 100 yen, but according to Norio, it is only opened every 24 or 33 years for visitors to view, depending on the religious calendar, so it was a first time for all of us. We were so lucky to be visiting during such a special time.
We saw the Temple of the Waterfall next, and we had to wait in line for about 30 minutes to catch the water in the waterfall. It was a mere stone platform up a set of stairs, and three waterfalls fell from above into a pond below. Visitors used the cups on sticks to catch water from the waterfall and proceeded to drink it for longevity and health. While watching from the long line, I thought it seemed very unsanitary to be drinking from the same cups. Once I got to the top of the temple however, the cups were being cleaned with an ultraviolet light system. It almost made me laugh since the high tech gadget looked very out of place in the temple, but I’m glad the Japanese continued to be as clean as possible. Trudy and I followed the traditional routine, and it was a neat experience.
Next, we revisited the Cherry Blossom Festival in Maruyama Park. It was much busier than when Trudy and I had visited it last time, and it was nice to see the festival during the day for a change. It was Norio’s first time seeing it, so he took lots of pictures. We all ate takoyaki, and it was just as good as the first time I had tried it. On the way back to our hotel, we walked through the Gion Geisha District again. We unfortunately didn’t see a geisha this time, but the cherry blossoms were so beautiful! This area was just as crowded as the rest of the city, but we were still able to get some great photos.
The rest of my evening was spent in the hotel hanging out with Trudy. We tidied up our room a bit, and I uploaded photos while she scrapbooked. I think we are both still exhausted from our extensive traveling and hiking yesterday, but it was well worth it nonetheless. For dinner, we just went down to the convenient store next door, and I bought a daikon seaweed salad for 199 yen and one nigiri for 105 yen. Since we can’t read the kanji labels on the nigiri, it is a surprise every time we pick one. Neither of us ended up knowing what was inside of our’s, even after we bit into them. I think mine was some sort of seaweed tsukemono, but I’m not 100% sure; it was very tasty, and I would get it again, especially since it was the cheapest one there!
The remainder of the night was spent doing Japanese homework. It took a bit longer since we began the katakana section of the book. None of us know katakana, so it is making everything much harder to complete. I wish we had more time to spend memorizing hiragana and katakana, but it always seems more beneficial in the long run to spend our free time exploring the city and the culture. I have been in Japan for eleven days now, and I don’t think I will ever run out of things to see and do before I move to the next city. As for now, I will go to bed early since tomorrow starts yet another week of new opportunities, adventures, and class.

4 April 2009

2009-04-04T10:30:00.001-07:00

Today was Saturday, so the two day trips Don had planned were completely optional. Trudy and I have a similar mentality luckily, so we both wanted to participate in both of them to maximize our experiences during this study abroad. We met Don this morning in the lounge at 9am to make a trip to Northern Kyoto to see some more Shinto Temples. Only four of us showed up to attend, so we had a nice and small group of five. We took the Keihan Line to the Eiden Line and arrived in Northern Kyoto by 9:45am. It was raining outside, so I knew we were in for a very long day. First we visited the oldest wooden house in Kyoto, but unfortunately it wasn’t open for viewing. Next, Don led us to a gateway to another Shinto Shrine. We had no idea about the strenuous task that lie ahead of us. It cost 200 yen to get in, and we got an extensive map of all of the shrines that were located on the mountainside. I figured we might as well see them all since we had travelled all the way to get there. The hike was very beautiful, and we saw many Shinto shrines along the way. The downside was that the hike was over two miles long, and it rose in elevation 2,640 feet. I took my inhaler six times during the long hike, and the rain made the hike all the more tedious. I will most likely be very sore tomorrow, but I survived, and I’m still very glad that I went. At the top of the hike, there were beautiful trees with roots protruding out of the soil, and I think all of us, except Don, were completely dead. After descending the mountain, we opted to walk to the train station to save ourselves the expensive bus fare. During the walk, we stopped at a street vendor and bought sakura mochi and strawberry mochi. They were both so good!
After returning from Northern Kyoto, we headed straight to the Hanku Department store to meet people interested in the second day trip to Osaka. Trudy and I were the only two students who engaged both trips today, so we were exhausted. Don, Trudy, and I got Mos Burger before boarding the train to Osaka, and I ordered a fish burger. It was really tasty, and I would definitely buy it again. Most people complain about the overflowing amount of mayonnaise on everything, but it didn’t bother me at all.
Once in Osaka, we started by visiting the Suntory Museum by Tadao Ando. Tadao Ando is one of my favorite architects in Japan, so it was really neat to see yet another one of his projects. It continued to rain the entire time we were there, so photography in the rain was very difficult. After the museum, we ate ramen and fried rice in the Osaka Mall. That was the largest mall I have ever seen in my life, and the criss-crossing escalators were insane! We ended the trip by walking through a three-story arcade and walking around the shopping mall. I was really bummed that we didn’t have time to stop and actually shop a bit since there were so many stores. We also didn’t have time to visit the Imeda Sky Garden, so I was the most disappointed about that. I will hopefully be able to make a trip back to Osaka sometime soon to visit that building in particular, and hopefully that day will be sunny. The consistent rainy weather today was very inconvenient for traveling, but it still wasn’t going to stop me from engaging an opportunity to explore more of Japan.
I have no idea what I will do tomorrow. I will definitely sleep in, and I will most likely be sore from walking and hiking so much today. I am still impressed with myself and my capabilities, but I definitely won’t push it any more. Some people are hiking through a bamboo garden tomorrow, but I decided against joining them since it is another uphill hike in the mountains. Instead, I will do some grocery shopping and work on homework. I might possibly visit the Cherry Blossom Festival again and/or visit some temples with Norio. We shall see. I did laundry for the first time today in our hotel, so at least I got that out of the way. The dryer here doesn’t work very well, so I will buy hangers at the 100 yen shop tomorrow to hang dry everything. In the meantime, it is all over my room. So, I guess that is it for now. I am completely exhausted, so I will sleep very well tonight.

3 April 2009

2009-04-03T08:34:00.000-07:00

Since yesterday was such a busy day, I started off today being very tired. I was amongst the norm however, so everyone was somewhat mentally slow during our morning Japanese session. Today’s Japanese class was once again very intense, and it was our most difficult class thus far. We learned three different lessons today, whereas we had previously only learned one a day. After class, I ate at Nakau again, and I have lost track of how many times I have actually eaten there. I wasn’t too hungry since I ate so much last night, so I got the 200 yen bowl of tanuki. It was as tasty as always. After lunch, we went back to the hotel to put the finishing touches on our project presentation, then headed to studio at 1:45pm. Studio was pretty laid back, and we spent the three hours listening to everyone present their preliminary project development. I was very satisfied that our project was well-received, and we got lots of great feedback. The final is due next Wednesday, so we shouldn’t have too much more work to do before then to finish it up.
After studio, Don was going to explore the area of temples located directly across from the Kyoto Community Center where our studio is located. Four of us opted to go with him, and another adventure began. We began by looking at a few temples on street level, then proceeded to hike up the hillside to find a rural Shinto Shrine. We eventually found it, but we hiked up a very steep slope. I was very fortunate that I didn’t experience any severe asthma problems. We ended up hiking along a hillside trail for about an hour before we were able to find our way back. There were marker signs along the way, so it was very beneficial that Don was with us so he could read the directional signs. If he wasn’t with us, we might’ve still been out there lost since it was starting to get dark. Within the confinements of this temple area, we also were able to see the Kyoto aqueduct. I had no idea this form is water transportation was still being used, and we were even able to walk along the top of it where the water what. It was such an amazing experience!
By the time it was dark, we were all very hungry for dinner. We invited Don to join us for dinner, and he gladly accepted. I think we have all realized that he is somewhat lonely, so we try to involve him as much as we can. He took us to a yakitori place called Daikichi, and we ended up ordering many new items to share amongst all of us. I ended up trying chicken heart yakitori, chicken liver yakitori, chicken stomach yakitori, chicken neck yakitori, chicken cartilage yakitori, chicken garlic thigh yakitori, yaki onigiri, chicken meatball yakitori, quail egg yakitori, fried tofu yakitori, and baked potato yakitori. They were all delicious, and we ended up just splitting the bill to be 1,200 yen each. It was somewhat pricey, but I guess that’s the price of eating in a group with Don. It was nonetheless a very memorable experience, and I have now tried many new things. That was pretty much the extent and highlight of my night. The rest of my time has been spent online uploading pictures and updating this blog. Tomorrow, I am getting up early again to visit more temples in Northern Kyoto with Don, and in the evening, we will head back to Osaka to see some more modern architecture.

2 April 2009

2009-04-03T08:11:00.000-07:00

The class met Don at 8am in the hotel lounge this morning to head to Nara for a day of temple and shrine visits. We travelled there by means of the express train, and it took about an hour. I slept the entire way on the train again, since I have been exhausted from my very busy schedule. Once in Nara, we hoped to take the local bus to begin our trip at Horyuji Temple. We had just missed the bus however, so we instead started at Kofujie Temple. This was a very early Buddhist Temple, and it was comprised of a pagoda, octagonal hall, and main prayer hall. This was also my first encounter with the deer at Nara, and I was surprised to find them everywhere. It is amazing that they always know the people who have food on them, and many of my classmates were heavily followed since they had snacks in their backpacks.
After Kofujie Temple, we walked back to the bus stop to catch the next bus. We hopped on and geared up for a long bus ride, since Horyuji Temple was 15km from the stop we boarded at. The bus was extremely crowded, and I gave up my seat multiple times to older people riding the bus. I surprisingly did not get motion sick either, which I was very thankful for since we took the bus for such a long time. Upon arriving at the Horyuji stop, the bus fare was 760 yen. Don didn’t realize the bus ride would be that expensive for each of us, so he said he’d buy lunch for everyone with the program money since we each had to pay for our bus fare. We had a short walk to get to Horyuji Temple, and it was amazing once we arrived at the site. It is regarded as one of the oldest wooden structures in the world, and it is the most celebrated temple in Japan. The temple site was enormous, and we visited two different gardens within the site.
It was a little past noon after we left Horyuji Temple, so we were all hungry from so much travelling. We split into two groups and went to two Japanese restaurants. I ordered pork cutlet, and it also came with rice, miso, cabbage salad, and daikon. It was by far the best pork cutlet I have ever had, and it cost 1,000 yen. I think almost everyone at our table ordered pork cutlet, and it was even better since Don will reimburse us all for the cost to compensate for the bus fare we had to pay. After lunch, a couple of us got Japanese ice cream to complement the saltiness of our lunch. I tried tangerine flavor, and it was spectacular and very authentically fruity. It cost 250 yen. To avoid paying the extremely high bus fare to get to our next destination, we opted to walk to the JR Line station. We took the JR Line for about ten minutes and got off the train in Central Nara. To once again avoid the high bus fare, we voted to walk for 30 minutes to get to Todaiji Temple. This was the last destination on our trip in Nara, and it is the largest wooden building in the world. The scale is inconceivable, and the Buddhist statues within the main temple were about 50 feet tall. I still cannot even explain how immense and monumental the scale of the figures and structures were. Wow!
So in the Todaiji Temple main hall, there was a wooden column with a small hole at the base. Supposedly, if you go through it, it is good luck. A group of us watched a guy get pulled through it by his friend, and then it was my turn to try since I was by far the smallest. The hole was shaped somewhat like a rhombus, and upon entering the hole, it became much smaller than it seemed. I could not keep my body angled correctly to move myself through the hole, so my horizontal body became stuck. I had my arms sticking out one end, and my feet were sticking out the other. Everyone was photographing and video taping me struggle to get out. Finally, my friend Scot came over and pulled me through. It was absolutely hilarious, and it is a moment I won’t forget anytime soon.
That night, once back at the hotel, Trudy, Derick, and I went out to find a Mos Burger. It was past 10pm, so we ended up not being able to find it. Since we were still hungry, we ended up resorting to eating McDonald’s. I got a Filet-o-Fish meal, and it tasted so good! It was the first taste from the U.S. I have distinctly had since arriving in Japan. The greasiness of the burger and fries somewhat upset my stomach, but it was all okay in the end. I finished the night with doing two pages of Japanese homework for tomorrow morning and completing a presentation for my architecture studio class also due tomorrow. This was a busy and very exhausting day!

1 April 2009

2009-04-01T06:58:00.001-07:00

It is hard to believe that today is already the first day of April. Today was actually the first day it rained here in Kyoto as well, so I guess we had our first taste of April Showers. I had Japanese language class in the morning and studio in the afternoon at 2pm. Japanese language class is going very well, but today’s lesson was also very intense. We are really learning a lot in a very short amount of time, but it is also a lot of information to retain since we are so busy.
In studio today, we received our first mini project. We are partnered with our roommates, and we are designing an infill retail store in the Kyoto shopping arcade. Since we only have a week to completely the mini project, it will be interesting to see what the outcome is. While at the Kyoto Community Center for studio, I also purchased a map of Kyoto for 400 yen, which is already proving to be very helpful in showing great sites to visit. On the map, I found the location of the Kyoto Cherry Blossom Festival, so Trudy and I went to find it after we were done with studio. The Cherry Blossom Festival is held in Matsuyama Park, and it will still be going on for about a week. We had no idea what to expect, but it ended up being very low key and simple. The cherry blossoms were absolutely beautiful, and many people there seemed to be tourists as well. Trudy and I decided not to eat at the festival since we hope to go back during the afternoon when it is warmer outside. Instead, we explored a new street in Kyoto and tried dango from a street vendor for 120 yen. It was really soft and delicious, and I think it is really similar to mochi. I might just have to go there again to get another in the near future.
After getting the light bite to eat, we wandered into the Kyoto Geisha District. We actually encountered a real geisha with her boss, but we weren’t able to get any good photographs of her. I had no idea that it was very rare to see a real geisha, otherwise I probably would’ve been a bit more aggressive at trying to get a photograph. Oh well. It was definitely a very memorable moment. The cherry blossoms in the Geisha District were equally amazing, and I took many beautiful photographs of the flowers in full bloom. I realized it is only two blocks away from our hotel as well, so many of my classmates want me to take them there to see the cherry blossoms since they haven’t seen them in that quantity yet.
It was really cold outside tonight, so we decided to head back a bit early. It was already dark outside, but we stopped at the convenience store next to our hotel to get a small bite to eat. Convenience stores never mark down the prices of their bento boxes, but two of them were marked down from 498 yen to 249 yen. What a deal! They were one day past the expiration date, but they tasted fine. It had so much food that I could barely finish it, but I was very determined not to waste.
When I got back to the hotel, Norio informed me that someone was staying at the hotel that had something for me. They said they were a friend of my Uncle Masaru, and the lady wanted to meet me in the lobby at 8pm. She didn’t speak English, so Norio translated. She had pictures with her of my dad, Auntie Meddie, grandpa, and grandma, and she gave me an envelope from my Uncle Masaru; it had 20,000 yen in it! I thanked her many many times, and I wish I could’ve talked with her longer. It was pure coincidence that she was staying at the same hotel as I, but it was really cool that I was able to meet her even for just a short while since she is a friend of Masaru. I immediately emailed him to thank him for his generosity, but I also have a very hard time accepting such a gift.
Tomorrow we visit Nara, so I can’t wait for another exciting day trip with Don. Hopefully we get back somewhat early so I can do my Japanese homework. And I have to remember to wear my ojuzu… on my left hand! Hahaha.

31 March 2009

2009-03-31T06:37:00.000-07:00

Today was our day trip to Ise to see the famous Ise Shrine. We met Don in the lobby at 7:45am and caught the Limited Express train to Ise at 8:45am in Kyoto Station. The train ride took a little over two hours to arrive at our destination, with one transfer along the way. I slept for the latter part of the train ride once it began to be less scenic. Once in Ise, we began by visiting the Geku Outer Shrine. This was a Shinto religious compound, but it did not hold the famous Ise Shrine. Photographs were not allowed within the main shrine’s walls, so we were only able to photograph the secondary structures and nature around the premise. It is amazing because all of the religious structures are rebuilt every 20 years on a site immediately adjacent to the existing building, and the craftsmanship is unbelievable. After visiting Geku, we took the bus to the Ise Inner Shrine, which was located about 4km away. By that time, it was a little past noon, so we decided to get lunch in the Ise street markets before entering the Ise Inner Shrine compound. The feel was Ise was much smaller than that of Kyoto, but there were plenty of new things to see and try. For lunch, I tried a shrimp and onion flavored fish cake on a stick for 250 yen and a beef-filled steamed bun for 350 yen. They were both amazingly delicious! The market was very small, but the city itself was surrounded by beautiful green mountains, a river, and lots of greenery.
In the Ise Inner Shrine, the structures looked very similar to the ones we saw at the Geku Outer Shrine. Before long, I couldn’t even tell them apart, but it was nonetheless, amazing. While within the first walls of Ise Shrine, we actually got to view a woman of high status be taken into the second layer of Ise’s walls. Don said it either meant she had a lot of money or was of a higher status. She followed the motions of a Shinto monk, and a crowd gathered to see the ritual. It was very short, but I was very impressed. Very few people are allowed anywhere within the walls, so it was definitely a rare opportunity. After we were done touring the Inner Shrine grounds, we wandered around the Ise street markets a bit longer, then took the bus back to the train station.
The train was very full, so the only seats Don could purchase for us on the Limited Express train were in the smoking car. It didn’t seem like it would be that bad, but as that train filled up on the journey home, it got very smoky in the car. My roommate and I feel asleep for the majority of the two hour trip, but we were all miserable by the end of it. Our eyes were burning, and our skin felt waxy from all of the smoke in the unventilated car. I really hope we don’t ever have to do that again!
Once back at Kyoto Station, Don let us do as we wanted for dinner since we were done with the trip. I hung around the station with two of my classmates, Scot and Zach, and we got Japanese food. I ordered a combination with tempura tendon, hot soba in dashi, and tsukemono. It cost 880 yen but was very very filling and tasty. The apartments we are moving to in a week are right near Kyoto Station, so I think many of us will be eating there a lot in the next couple of weeks. After dinner, we were able to figure out the subway system to take the two lines we needed to get back to that hotel. We were all tried out from a long day, and all I could think about was showering to get the smoke smell off of my clothes.

30 March 2009

2009-03-30T07:55:00.001-07:00

My first day of Japanese language class was this morning. I walked to the classroom with four of my classmates since we were all a bit unsure of the exact location of the building. It took 20 minutes to walk there, and we were perfectly on-time. The name of our Japanese language professor is Watenabi Sensei, and he is a very cute old man. He was Don’s language professor when he lived in Japan, so Watenabi Sensei came out of retirement to teach his student’s students. It is pretty cool, and the class goes by very quickly. We received two workbooks from him, and we are learning a lot in a short period of time. We are only in Kyoto for four more weeks, so we have a total of twelve Japanese language classes. It doesn’t really seem like a lot when I stop to think about it, but I hope I have enough time to learn a descent amount of Japanese. On the walk back from class, I stopped by Nakau and bought the medium bowl of tanuki for 290 yen. I still enjoy it just as much as when I first got here, and Nakau still has the cheapest prices I have found thus far in my travels. It is in a very convenient location as well, so I have a feeling many of us will continue to go there quite frequently for cheap meals.
At 2:30pm, we met in the hotel lounge with Don for our first session of our Arch 480 class. We each presented our PowerPoint on a different aspect of Japan’s culture and shared stories about the new foods we have tried. The heater is always on in the lounge, so the presentations seemed to go on forever since the room was so hot! All of us seem to complain that our hotel rooms are too hot or too cold. Mine is too cold, but I’d rather have it be that way instead of too hot. After class, I borrowed Norio’s phone to call my Uncle Masaru. He was very happy to hear from me, especially since he thought I had acquired my own cell phone, but he was disappointed when I told him I was only borrowing Norio’s. He was familiar with the name Kobayashi-san, so I’m assuming my Grandma had mentioned Norio’s name to him many times. Anyways, it was a good thing Norio was close by since Uncle Masaru didn’t understand that I needed him to refax me the contact information he had sent me earlier. Norio resultantly explained it to him in Japanese, so I received the fax later that night.
In the evening, a group of five of us went out in search of something sweet to eat. We ended up getting crepes, which were absolutely delicious. Mine cost 650yen, and it had custard, peaches, strawberries, bananas, and whip cream in it. Yummy! If it wasn’t so expensive, I’d probably eat it way more often. The rest of the time was spent wandering around department stores and the shopping arcade. I still can’t believe how easily I can find my way around, especially since I haven’t even been here for a week! Something funny happened tonight though. The group of us was waiting around until it was 7pm to look for discounted bento boxes in the department stores. The first one we went to had discount sale stickers on them, and they had really low numbers on them, so we all filled our shopping baskets with food. When we went to checkout however, we realized that the amount was merely deducted from the original cost, and it was not the sale price of the item itself. The food therefore was not any cheaper than food we can get at convenience stores. It was very embarrassing, and we had to carry all of our goods back to the refrigerator section and put them back. It was quite the scene, and I’m pretty sure all of the Japanese people were confused. Now we know though, so I guess we learned something very valuable tonight.
For dinner, we found a small place in a basement that served semi-American food and yakitori. I ordered two yakitori and a side of tofu for a total cost of 250 yen. My friend Derick ordered French fries and a chicken pizza, and the pizza was very interesting. The fries were normal, but the pizza had the thinnest crust ever. It was equivalent to a crispy and thin pita chip, and it didn’t have tomato sauce on it. It was just a super cheesy pizza with chicken and green onion. I’m not sure I could eat an entire personal pizza like that, but it was something tasty and different to try. The rest of the night was spent on the massage chairs as usual. A Japanese lady was totally passed out on one of them, and she was snoring super loud. We were all laughing, and this probably went on for a good 45 minutes. It was awkward when she finally woke-up, since there was no one there when she first sat down to use them, but it was very hilarious at the same time. It was an amusing way to end the night. Tomorrow we travel to Ise to see some very historic sites, so I am very excited.

29 March 2009

2009-03-30T07:25:00.001-07:00

Today was the latest I have slept in so far. I woke-up at 9am and went out with three classmates to explore the area north of my hotel. We are beginning to realize that most eating venues do not open until 11am, so that makes finding breakfast very difficult. After walking for many blocks along the river, we came upon a bakery where I found the square Japanese sliced white bread I have been looking for. It was 220 yen for six thick slices, which seemed reasonable enough since it will be my breakfast for the upcoming week. All four of us ended up purchasing some bread in some form or another. Afterwards, we couldn’t find anything reasonable in price to eat for breakfast so we ended up eating at Nakau for the second time this trip. I have a feeling that many of us will be eating there many times since the food is good, they open early, and it is cheap. I ordered tanuki again since it is my favorite. While sitting and eating, we saw Don walk by alone, and my friend Derek secretly photographed him from across the street. We thought he might be headed to the Mister Donut so we jumped up and attempted to follow him. Don walks faster than anyone we know though, so he was down the street and around the block before we could catch him. He didn’t go into Mister Donut though, so we did instead. I got a six pack of six different flavored donut holes, and it only cost 100 yen. The lion character, with the donut for a mane, is now my favorite character.
After the morning outing, I spent the afternoon in the hotel uploading photos and Skyping with my parents again. It is always nice to have breaks in between my daily outings and explorations. In the late afternoon, I ventured out again with my classmate Jeff to further explore the Kyoto shopping arcade. Jeff and I split an order of cheese takoyaki, and I liked it a lot. It cost 250 yen for six pieces, and it seemed very popular with all of the locals. On the way back to the hotel, I bought another large can of Coca-Cola and a larger bottle of my favorite royal milk tea. The soda was 100 yen, and the milk tea was 120 yen, which are both the best deals I have found thus far for the volume of liquid you get for the cost. I am somewhat stocking up my fridge so I have alternatives to water whenever I feel like it, and I want to take advantage of the deal before the vending machine runs out.
The remainder of the daytime was spent in the lounge with the majority of my other classmates. We were working on our two assignments due on Monday: one was trying a new food, and the other was documenting an aspect of the Japanese culture. My partner was Trudy, and we were assigned to investigate American fast food in Japan. The specific chains we looked at were McDonald’s, Domino’s Pizza, and Kentucky Fried Chicken. In order to complete our investigation, one of us had to try an item from an American fast food chain in Japan. Trudy refused to eat anything at McDonald’s, so I accepted the task. That night, I went to downtown Kyoto McDonald’s with my classmates Jeff and Derick to try an item on the menu. The menu at most American fast food joints is very similar to the U.S. with only a couple items that are different. At first, I tried to order a McHotdog, but I was informed that that is only a breakfast item that is served until 10am. Strange! I resorted to ordering a Shaka Shaka Chicken, since that was on the 100 yen menu, Japan’s form of the Dollar Menu. The Shaka Shaka Chicken was comparable to a large chicken finger, and it came in a bag with a packet of powder flavor. I chose spicy garlic flavor, since it sounded more appealing than black pepper or ranch flavor. So, in order to “shaka shaka”, I poured the flavored powder into the bag, “shaka shaka-ed” the bag, then opened and enjoyed. It was extremely tasty, since I like friend chicken, and it is definitely something I will order again in the future. There is also a teriyaki burger and green tea McFlurry that I want to try as well. We wandered around a bit more, but most places close around 9pm anyways, so we headed back to the hotel to study our Hiragana and Katakana for our first Japanese language class tomorrow.

28 March 2009

2009-03-28T00:49:00.000-07:00

I slept in a little bit later today and got up around 7am. Some of my classmates purchased a wireless router last night, so we all pitched in 300 yen to cover the cost and are now able to share the wireless internet in the lounge. To take advantage of my early rising, I went down to the lounge after I got ready to begin uploading some photos and Skype with my parents. The wireless internet was very convenient, and it was the first time I had access to internet on my computer since the LAN line input isn’t working on my laptop for an unknown reason. So all morning, I uploaded pictures to my Picasa webpage and caught up on emails and Facebooking. At 4pm, we met Don in the lounge once again to begin our day trip to Osaka. He figured since it was a Saturday night, we’d be able to see the “night life” in the Osaka area. To get to Osaka, this once again required the hour long train ride on the Keihan Expressway Line, and it was incredibly crowded. Luckily I got a seat after about 30 minutes since I was beginning to feel motion sick.
Upon arrival in Osaka, we began our visit from the outskirts and worked our way inwards. Our main goal was to see a couple of Tadao Ando’s projects. At first, Osaka was very much like any American city with freeways and high rise buildings. Once we got to the city center however, it was a completely different world. There was a maze of small streets everywhere, and I would’ve never found my way out if I wasn’t with a group. There was an abundant amount of good architecture, and we ended up only finding one Tadao Ando project since the streets were so confusing. Ando’s Galleria project was very amazing, and his simplistic design in concrete was as impressive as always.
Next we decided to grab a bite to eat since all of us were very hungry by that time. Don chose a small restaurant that specialized in okonomiyaki. I ordered the pork okonomiyaki while most of my classmates ordered stir fry noodles. My item costed 700 yen but was actually one of the cheapest items on the menu. After dinner, we proceeded to enter the mile long shopping arcade that rant through the heart of Osaka. Once in the city center, it was unlike anything I had ever experienced before. The buildings were completely lit by advertisements, and it was exactly like you see images of Japan’s cities. The amount of people in that exact location was inconceivable, and everything was embodied in bright lights and hustle of the masses. It was truly and wonderfully overwhelming. Before leaving, Don lead us into a Dohtombori Gokurakushowtengai, which is a indoor imitation of the Osaka downtown area. Everything inside was life size, but on a smaller scale, and they served foods similar to what we could buy on the street. Don said to think of it as an elaborate food court; this I found very interesting. I didn’t really like the feel of the indoor city, but it was definitely a memorable experience since there is nothing comparable to that in the United States.
That was the end of our adventures in Osaka for the night. We had to option to stay longer and explore on our own, but the trains and subway stop running at midnight, and it was already 9pm. It once again took us over an hour to get home, and almost everyone fell asleep on the train ride back. It was another day involving a lot of walking!

27 March 2008

2009-03-27T22:35:00.000-07:00

I woke-up very early today around 6am. I think my roommate Trudy and I are both off a bit on our internal clocks, but we got up and decided to explore more of downtown Kyoto. I assumed that most eating venues would be open around 7:30am since many people are going to work at that time, but my assumption was wrong. We finally found a small noodle shop called Nakau to eat breakfast at. It was one of the restaurants where you buy your meal ticket out of a machine and then sit down to eat. It was much easier than trying to order due to our strong language barrier. I ordered my favorite udon dish, tanuki, and it was only 200 yen. Thinking about the meal cost a bit more however, I realized that even if I spend 500 yen on every meal, that would add up to 1500 yen per day and 10500 yen per week. My goal is now to eat as cheaply as possible without being ridiculous. Food is just very expensive here, especially fruits. I saw a melon that cost about $50! It indeed was very perfect in appearance, but it was nonetheless ridiculous expensive. Later that afternoon, we met Don at 1pm to visit the locations of our studio classroom, Japanese language classroom, and explore the downtown a bit more. Our studio will be held in the Kyoto Community Center, and our Japanese language class will be in a small little townhouse that was built over a hundred years ago. It felt like we were walking forever, and everyone seemed to be pooped out, but Don was like the Enigizer Bunny. After it seemed like miles and miles of walking, we ended by walking through the shopping arcade which had the feel of a busy marketplace. Most of the foods and goods being sold were handmade, and I really had to watch out for dead fish since they were plentiful as well. Before retiring to our accommodations, we had traditional ramen at a tiny ramen house. There were ten of us, and we couldn’t be all be seated together since only eight of us could be seated inside. There were only four types of ramen on the menu, so I ordered the “normal” one which was plain ramen with a little bit of pork and green onions. The dashi was much thicker than any ramen I had ever eaten, and the noodles were very skinny. It was really tasty, and I ate the whole thing. I even tried putting some red peppers and fried crispy rice on my ramen, and it was good as well. Since that bowl of ramen was much larger, it cost 600 yen, but it still didn’t seem unreasonable for such a large and authentic bowl of noodles. Afterwards, I noticed that my hair and clothes still smelled like the dashi, and it made me laugh. I ended my night with an evening of sitting in the free massage chairs at the hotel to relax after a long day of walking.

26 March 2009

2009-03-26T01:00:00.000-07:00

I landed at the Kansai International Airport in Osaka, Japan today around 11:40am. The time difference is somewhat surreal, since I theoretically skipped March 25th completely. I flew out of LAX at 12:30am on March 24th and had one 3 hour layover in Seoul, Korea at Incheon International Airport. The food provided by Asiana Airlines was surprisingly tolerable. From LAX to Incheon, I had a [small] steak dinner with potatoes, carrots, a salad, pesto penne pasta, a roll, and cake. I slept for 12 of the 13.5 hours of the flight, so that was very satisfying; ear plugs are amazing! Upon arrival in Seoul, it was still day break, so the glass airport façade was brilliantly lit from the interior, and the glow of the immense structure was quite a welcoming site. During the layover, I slept and accessed the free wireless internet for a short while. From Incheon to Kansai, I ate a bento box assorted Japanese foods. This was even better than the steak dinner I had previously. The Kansai Airport was absolutely beautiful. It was designed by Renzo Piano, and my favorite interior spot was the upper-most level for departures. The suspended ceiling was so elegant.
My professor, Don Choi, met us after customs, and we proceeded to take a train and two subway lines to get to our hotel. The trip from Kansai to Kyoto took over two hours! The view from the train was practically overwhelming since we were travelling for such a long time, but it never felt surreal that I was in Japan. The hotel I am staying at is called The Higashiyama Sanjo Hotel, and it is located on Sanjo Street. It is very nice, and the rooms are quite small. There is a lounge with wired internet and a massage chair room, all free of charge.
My first evening in Kyoto, I ventured out to explore the Central Kyoto downtown strip with my classmate Karen and Professor Choi. Don introduced us to a large department store called The Loft, and it seemingly had anything you could possibly need from bikes to cosmetics to furniture to clothes. We also visited a Japanese bookstore to check out the small section of English books that they had to offer. Finally, we sat down at a rice bowl venue to enjoy some delicious rice bowls for dinner. I ordered a beef rice bowl, and I was surprised that it was only 295 yen.
I think the most surprisingly thing so far is that I have not experienced any culture shock. It is a bit uncomfortable that I cannot communicate to my maximum potential, but I do not feel any less a minority than at any other time in my life. I am curious to see if this continues as time goes on, but for now, I am enjoying the new experience. My first impressions of Kyoto are positive, and I look forward to more adventures in the future.