Just a quick update today, added a few current (2008) projects to the portfolio, click the link over on the side to check it out. So far the new server is amazingly quick making everything pretty painless; seems like i’ve only had one hiccup so far (probably on my part), mediatemple is fast.
Starting work over at Imagineering R&D again on monday, super excited to get my hands into some real work again. More portfolio updates to come.
I probably should be working… but this week is “technically” over.
Today was our first official day touring. Kanazawa is a pretty chill country sort of place, reminded me a bit of Omori, but just a little more country (it’s freakin cold out here!). Today we visited the 21st Century Museum of Art, Kimono-KagaUzen, Kenroken Garden, and visited/had dinner with a living national treasure/artisan Professor Nakagawa.
21st Center Museum of Art: Comparable to MOCA in LA, the exhibition was your typical selection of modern art with amazing instillations, an extraordinary venue complete with a skylight room designed by James Turrel. Rad.
Kimono-KagaUzen: Visited the house/studio of a famous kimono maker that specialized in traditional inking process made famous in Kanazawa, the pieces and process were amazing and studio time with the master was intimate and humbling. Pieces ranged from 7800￥, to full kimonos at 4,000,000￥．
Kenroken Garden: It’s like Huntington’s Japanese garden on crack. Beautiful in the sunshine and the rain (amazing in the snow… sadly not cold enough yet).
Professor Nakagawa: Visited the home/studio of a national treasure through personal relations of Ikezaki-Sensei. The man is known for his innovations in metal work, and hand tool crafting (earlier in the day we visited his student who teaches at a Kanazawa art school). Later that night we had dinner with Nakagawa and his family… it was an amazing honor and the food was excellent.
Tomorrow: Off to Kyoto for 5 days (without internet), super excited and enjoying some much needed time off from the group for at least a few hours.
having a beer, uploading more fotos, and missing the lady ;)
d.
So that’s it, the Pacific Rim Project has officially ended and now we’re off on our 19 day trip with Ikezaki-Sensei around all the choice parts of japan.
We just Arrived in Kanazawa tonight and grabbed a quick bite to eat and drink, most of the group went downstairs to onsen (japanese bath), but im way too tired… i figure it would be a good time to catch up on the facebook, picture uploading, and blogging. The amount of pictures between the last time i uploaded until now is somewhere in the thousands… so as im uploading current pictures from the post-final’s trip, i’ll try to get some of the ones since midterms uploaded…
Definitely check out our Final Exhibition album!
it feels good to finally be done with the project and just focus on relaxing, having fun, and hanging hanging out with the lady.I will try to keep this going until i leave japan… see y’all soon.
d
Alright, it’s starting to definitely feel like Art Center… at least a little bit more now that we’ve kick started the project. We’ve been working in random teams (3-5 members each) on a quick one week exercise. Totally awesome experience with it’s share of snags and workarounds… (getting the room organized, printers setup, and dodging security as the Tama campus closes at 9?! most design doesn’t even start until after 12!)
I couldn’t have asked for the better team this time around (Christina, Ilona, Yoko, Yujin, myself), it felt like a well oiled machine, the language barrier was definitely there, but we manage to get through with tons of sketching, JP-ENG dictionaries, and Christina acting as a pretty good translator. If this is anything close to what the next 9 weeks of the project are going to be like, it’s already exceeded my expectations. Great job team :D
(we did the sunblock)
Uploaded tons of photos this time around as i havnt had a great connection for a while, around 250+ … We finally moved out of the haunted hotel Hachioji New Grand, and moved into the beautiful Hachioji Plaza Hotel. This place is super choice as it’s across the street from the bus station, a few block down from the train station, there’s a mister donut and a bakery across the street. ** side note, I decided to try another one of those mysterious hotdog buns and good news! NO DIARRHEA! WOO!
We also had the chance to exchange portfolios with all the Pacific Rim members last night and after working with them for about a week and a half, and then being able to see their personal work, you can see all the raw talent and character hanging around the room. the mentality is completely different then that of Art Center, and yet very familiar all at the same time.
“design is design”
… Doing laundry for the 2nd time this trip as im typing this and I just realized i probably packed too many pairs of jeans… these things are taking forever to dry, especially with with humid weather. dang yo.
Other stuff:
- Shopping in Shinjuku: bought a bunch of Muji stuff (MUJI!!!!!!!) & checked out Uniqlo…
- Denny’s is amazing here
- So is the milk (no diarrhea!)
- The white people that walk around are Euro and not US
- Started Japanese class
- had my first home sick dream, waking up at home :(
Man, do I miss meat.
D.
Yesterday we had our first real Tama Orientation. We got to check out the campus, meet the faculty, and most importantly of all, hang out with the students!
The day kicked off with with a quick bus through “downtown” (if you want to call it that) Hachioji, and then a transfer to to another bus that took us on to the Tama campus. This place is freakin’ huge! I mean this place was massively big as each department pretty much had its own building, each building felt like at least two Art Centers stacked up on each other. Each department also had its own gallery, clean restrooms on every floor, and really polite students and faculty that were able to guide us, show us around, and maybe give us a demo or two. RAD.
Wada-Sensei said that the schools population was about 70% girls and a good many of them were super cute. I cant wait to really start school and scope out some of the “talent” ;p. on the other side of things the work that was show cased was really humbling, as they just have a different mentality and approach when it comes to art and design. is there anyway I could get a transfer?
The night ended with a super cool dinner and drinks with Ikezaki-sensei and Wada-sensei as well as the rest of the tama gang. Hopefully last night was a reflection of things to come as there were good vibes and good mingling all around. :D
D
Alright quick update for tonight…
Last night we hit up Roppongi, a high class business center with some swanky shops… it felt totally like a western downtown district but with a lot more money, not like LA Frank Gehry money, but like insane Dubai stupid money. the place was extremely nice as the mall that we checked out was slathered in bamboo flooring; almost reminded me of the red rock hotel in vegas.
We checked out a sweet gallery as well as the Mori gallery which over looks the tokyo skyline 56 floors up. check out the pictures if you have time. im getting real tired so im just going to run though this play by play random order as I remember them:
- Le Corbusier Exhibition in the Mori Gallery
- Tokyo Skyline
- Giant Spider
- Louis Vuitton Store
- Issey Miyake Gallery (pending for the real name)
- Kastu Curry
- Had Jyuri with is earlier, ditched her for Kaoruko later.
- Muji Store! woohoo! (totally made my day)
- Mid Town Tokyo
- Pimped out Starbucks
Today we woke up early to pack grab our free breakfast and move out to Hachioji (i’ll fix spelling on that tomorrow). We gathered up our things and walked to the station with all our stuff… four train transfers and a taxi later we’re in a “rural” town with not much going on, a big contrast to Omori. Although this place is cool in its own respect, the place where we’re staying is pretty run down… I mean an LA motel 6 could b a lot better than this, completely uninspiring, if i wanted stained sheets, walls, lamp shades and floors, I would have stayed at one of the love hotels in Shibuya. On top of that we’re paying close to the same amount as the friendly accommodating Art Hotel in Omori. Not Cool.
Getting here we had a small orientation as a quick walk to downtown Hachioji for a dinner and a drink with our awesome new faculty. Really excited to work with this new group of people (Art Center, Tama, Dan+Penny,Ikezake Sensei, and all the rest) This is going to be one hell of a project and one heck of a trip.
I’ll upload pictures here when the internet connection is less sporadic.
Cheers & Goodnight,
D
Much of the Monday was spent inside as some of us slept in and the rain poured down. We had a chance to snag our free hotel breakfast which seemed like a typical travel breakfast with a japanese twist (miso soup)… after breakfast, some of us crashed or a few hours, while shin and ran you to run some errands…
Our day didn’t really start until night where we met up Kaoruko again, as well as two new faces, Shinsuke and Sakuro… we hit up this pretty nice Okinawan food joint to have some sampled pork, this weird/cool seaweed salad thing and a few drinks.
After hitting up a Lawsons down the street to get tanked, we head off to Womb, a pretty rad night club located in Shibuya’s love hotel district (yea… love hotels)… the club turned out to pretty cool and almost surreal… supposedly named the 2nd best light show in tokyo complete with giant disco ball, laser, fog and stobes… it was a polite club environment that spanned between 3 floors, the top one with a bar overlooking the main dance floor. The entire vibe was insanely different compared to anything i’ve ever seen in LA… blasting J-pop with hyper lyrics, mixed in with house versions of oldschool US pop songs… i believe i even heard a remixed version of little mermaid; surreal. beer cost just as much as they do in hollywood and also supply an ample amount of redbull vodka… Clubs in japan stay open until around 5am since the train system shuts down around around 12 o’ clock and people are stuck. ont he other hand, Mc Donalds stays open 24 hours as well as some rawmen houses to accomadate the clubbers that wander the streets at odd hours of the night… this was our chance to try the interesting Mc Pork that we had seen on a train as a couple days before.
My Verdict: for 100yen, at 5 in the morning… it’s a complete steal, quality Mc Donalds at its best. Although quite greasy, the pork patty itself is actually a lot less greasy than any fast food place in the US, and the bread is totally different and very soft. The patty was complemented by lettuce and some weird Japanese sause; DEEREASHIOUS!
The train ride as well as the walk home was killer. I haven’t been that tire since high school preseason. sweaty, humid, and 76 degrees = gross, smelly and bad times. As soon as we got back, we showered up and passed the heck out…
Today, we woke up to the sound of thunder and the flash of lighting. though we slept in until 1 this afternoon, a lot of us were still completely burned from the night before. ugh. We picked up some grub from lawsons across the street as the rain was coming down at 45 degrees and just causing all sorts of havoc below. For lunch I made some instant noodles… damn they were gooooood… from there we jumped on the trains to Akihabra the electric city, to scope out some electronics shops, figurine stores, maids handing out flyers, otaku, and 5 storey porn stores… there’s no shame in porn here in japan. I’ve never seen so much “Material” in my life. Insane. Nelson was so disturbed he had to constantly light up… I left all the picture taking on that front to Alex.
Raining on and off, we met up with Jyuri for some dinner … we were going to check out a maid restaurant (where all the waitresses dress up as french maids?!), but it turned out to be too expensive so we hit up a very fancy restaurant japanese (what else is there?) that speciallized in some pretty traditional.healthy foods. man that meat is expensive, but it was well worth it. i think it was the most delicious meal i have had since i’ve been here (next to the rawmen of course)… Phew that was a long post. time to sleep.
Tomorrow I hope to fill up on free breakfast and hit up a gallery or two, and maybe a Muji store! 2 more days until Tama orientation. Super excited!
No pictures in my post tonight, but i’ve uploaded some pictures from the past two days.
D
Last night in Shibuya turned out really rad. I had missed out on the previous nights festivities with the rest of the guys due to an insanely bad hot dog I had ate a few hours earlier … the hot dog bow was pretty freakin’ tasty but I guess you cant really trust the cheap meat here…
New quote: “Watashi wa geri o shite omasu…”
The night started off chill enough as we took the trains into Shibuya around 8 o’ clock and met up Kaoruko (on of the tama students that studied abroad at art center few terms ago), super cool gal. the square we met in is this sort of huge hang out/meeting spot for everyone. the crowds in Shibuya are massively insane… I was told it’s gets even crazier on peek nights. After Kaoruko parked her bike, we headed into the massive light show, it’s totally like Vegas on crack. Everywhere you look it’s lights, advertising, people trying to sell you weird shit; awesome.
Well, we got suckered by one of them offering us a deal we couldn’t pass up; a 1000yen one hour all you can drink binge-fest (with the exception that you buy a bar dish as well) … the rest of the night was a a complete blur as the booze kept coming. Alex and I pounded one after the other until we lost count and number of fingers … all in all around $20 bucks a person, a small price to pay to be full and completely tanked. Sweet.
I have no idea how it came about but someone had the idea to get fireworks and light them up at a local park, so we hit up a local store where we were able to snag some sparklers, more booze, and some ramune. We stumbled across the infamous “F-Cup” cookies Sarah has been looking for…(if you haven’t heard about them yet, they’re cookies that are supposed to help your boobs grow … only in japan man … only in japan…) We’ll check up on Sarah the next couple of weeks to see if they have any effect, her goal is to have back problems by December.
It turns out lighting fireworks in the park is totally legit as some of the local youngsters were already lighting it up. We proceeded to light our sparklers and act like idiots in our drunken stupor … we were able to make our way back down the hill to the station just in time to catch the last train back to Omori… “OOOOMOOORIII” the voice bellows throughout the train station … we made it back to the area, whilst making several bathroom breaks along the way, finally hitting up good ol’ Lawsons to re-hydrate ending our night.
New pictures start here.
Not bad for 2 days in. We’ve been a tight little group and it’s going to be more good times ahead.
The first real day in japan. after staying up all night i thought we would be totally jet lagged and wouldn’t wake up before noon, but it seems that our midnight binge drinking had helped most of us get a few solid hours of sleep in before we woke up at 11am :)… we had already missed the free breakfast the hotel provided but the convenience store took care of that problem; seems that coke, pastries, aloe vera pudding, and beef jerky make for a fine breakfast experience. (oh, and coke is totally different here as well… like the mexican coke back at home, the aftertaste is crisp and non-syrupy)
After eating back at the rooms, we headed out from our hotel in Omori to Omotesando, Aoyama, and Harajuku via two train transfers. it’s pretty amazing seeing the difference between our homebase city, being much like a quiet pasadena of sorts, and the wild and extremely packed streets of harajuku (see new pictures from dsc_0077 to dsc_537)… i thought last night was pretty mind blowing, the harajuku district is everything you hear and then some… fashion freaks, style, and high end retail mixed with thrift store like clothes shops; pretty dynamic.
I’ll have to admit that upon getting off the plane yesterday i was pretty dissapointed with “quality” of women that walked the streets… but man, after today, i am completely mistaken. the women here are absolutely gorgeous (see bootycam pics mixed in; this is for you danny/bob/fay/kev) haha. these people are all style from head to toe and extremely influenced by western culture… but they take it to the extreme… i absolutely felt under dressed the whole day… how do these people walk around in heels, multiple layers, and hats all day long in 90 degree weather with 72% humidity; it’s crazy!
On the architecture/environment side of things, this is the place to be. the walkways, stairs, elevators, and designer retail are very accommodating (almost as much as the people)… saw the famous Tod’s retail store(designed by one of our instructors at tama) as well as the Aoyama Prada store… amazing amazing design, the story that they tell is very throughout and emotionally moving… the amount of detail is overwhelming.
Speaking of overwhelming, Shin Sen Gumi hakata rawmen back in san gabriel has nothing on this place… i’ve been waiting months to experience japanese rawmen and it’s well worth the wait. Tonight we tried some “mid-range” chain store rawmen… it was like an onion; so beautiful it makes you want to cry… i cant wait to try some hardcore rawmen stand stuff.
Alright, it’s been a long day. time to past out and start all over again.
d
**I was finally able to fix my blogger and get it back to english (thanks to google’s translation site) so I can finally post in confidence.
