Today marked our last day here as a class, how sad! It was a good last day though.

I started off by having an adventure at the post office mailing home a box full of books. Luckily it wasn't too expensive, but I'm not sure if I will ever see those books again. After the post office I had my delicious cherry blossom pancakes again for breakfast so of course my day started off well. I spent the rest of the day mainly doing homework and trying to get my assignments done, until my computer decided to stop working. Luckily by some miracle I backed all of my homework up right before it crashed and had been backing up all the pictures regularly so I didn't lose anything. I spent a large part of the day trying to get it working again, but I eventually got frustrated and didn't want to waste my time in Japan trying to fix technology.

So I walked around our town we were staying in and got some lunch. I'm not sure why, but I really wanted to try the Japanese version of Irish food so I found a nice restaurant, and well, the food wasn't so nice.

They absolutely love fried chicken here! I just don't get it because I don't think it tastes good here at all. But the rest of the food was actually really good, just the spaghetti seemed a little bit misplaced. Irish food with spaghetti and rice... not sure. After lunch I just walked around the Bic Camera which is a rival for the largest electronic store in Japan. So I looked at about a million iPhone cases but couldn't find anything to buy.

At last it was time for our last outing as a group to a very nice dinner. We all dressed up and went to sushi in Shinjuku. We had an eight course meal with unlimited drinks and it was a great time with everyone. And it helped that all of the food was delicious as well.

We ended the night going out in the town in Shinjuku and finally finding a big-eyed photo booth. We have been wanting to find one since the beginning of the trip, but I guess they are really hard to find. We followed the natives into an arcade and on the 5th story was finally an entire floor of photobooths. It was a great way to end the night and yielded some really scary looking results. It has been such an amazing trip and I am ready to embark on a four day journey here on my own! 

June 07, 2015

Day 28: The day I have been waiting for

Finally, the day I have been literally been waiting years for! We traveled to Yokohama to see the Yokohama International Port Terminal. I have studied this building for so long and have dreamed of going since I started school and I was so excited for this day.

What I didn't realize is that we were going to the terminal to watch another series of lectures, but nothing was going to ruin this day for me. It was a beautiful day as well with not a raindrop in sight. I spent awhile walking around the terminal getting completely lost. It was a really cool building and everything I had hoped it would be.

After we spent some time walking around we went inside to listen to the lecture. Not just one lecture, but 6 straight hours of lectures, ugh. But we did get to finally see Kengo Kuma with a good seat and the architect from SANAA, the architect who built the terminal itself and a lot of other influential architects as well so it was worth it to sit there. 

Once the lectures were over we finally got to go back outside! Yay!

From the terminal we walked to the Yokohama China town for dinner and I had some of the best food of my life. It was so cheap too! I had wanted dumplings for awhile so I finally got my pork dumpling and a custard dumpling as well. I wish I could go back here every single day. 

 

For dessert I got almond flavored ice cream and it was no joke the best ice cream I have ever eaten in my life. It does help that I love anything that is flavored with almond, but I have never seen this flavor anywhere else! I guess I liked it so much that I didn't even get a picture of it before I ate it all. After eating we walked around China town a bit and did some shopping because there were a lot of cute stores around. I got some really cute socks here that I had been looking for as well. After China town our night was still not over because we wanted to see the Tower of the Winds by Toyo Ito. Like the ferry terminal, I have been waiting to see this project for years as well so I was very excited.

We finally got there and it was soo beautiful. Not! They didn't even have it turned on! The tower lights up and lighting patterns respond to changes in the wind but there were no lights on what so ever. I was very disappointed, but nothing I could do about it. At least I can say that I've been there. 

June 06, 2015

Day 27: Days are Dwindling

It's day 27 today and that means that are days left here are really coming to an end! But my patience for the rain is also coming to an end as well. Luckily today I didn't forget my umbrella.

We started the morning and another architectural firm, but this artist dealt entirely with paper. He creates installations for shops and museums that are all created from flat pieces of just normal paper. It was really cool to see how he could just cut, fold and glue paper and create objects such as a teddy bear. It was pretty crazy, and of course I can't find any of my pictures of it now. But after we left his office we went back to the bookstore and I bought his book with pictures of all of his work.

In the evening we traveled to the University of Tokyo to watch a lecture and I actually had no idea that Kengo Kuma was going to be there. But I heard someone talking about the Sunny Hills bakery and then I realized it was him! It was a good surprise, but unfortunately we got there late and there was no seating left, and this was my lovely view of Kengo Kuma.

It was still worth it to hear him I guess. We stayed at the lecture for a few hours but eventually we got tired of not being able to really see or hear anything so we decided to go get a nice dinner. 

We had some kind of noodle thing I can't name and dumplings, and sake, and I got some really delicious oolong tea. I'm still not exactly sure what an oolong is, but they love it here and it tastes like a really sweet fruit so I have been ordering a lot of different things with it and they are all very good. 

June 05, 2015

Day 26: Pancake Addiction

Woke up this morning excited for the third and final trip I might ever take to Ueno. At least it is a pretty cool place so I didn't mind going back so many times.

We headed out pretty early but I stopped for a quick breakfast at our hotel cafe before we left. I ordered the "Hawaiian Cherry Blossom" pancakes and oh my god. These are the best pancakes I have ever tasted and quite possibly the most delicious food I have ever eaten in my life. I don't think its the actual pancakes, but the syrup that is on them that tastes absolutely amazing. I am now obsessed and probably going to eat them at least once a day until we leave this place.

Now I can't wait to go to Hawaii someday. Anyways, after my nice breakfast we headed to the park to see my first Le Corbusier building in person, the National Museum of Western Art. As our teacher said "its not his best work, but still one of his." I was pretty excited at least. I could have cared less about most of that art but I really did enjoy the building. At least they finally let us take pictures inside!

It was a little bit disappointing because they didn't let us go upstairs into any of the lofts he designed, but could still see how the whole place was designed to be naturally lit, and his use of materiality. 

Luckily we made it through the morning without any rain, but we had our class today outdoors and it decided to just start pouring. So after the museum not much happened, just went out to dinner at a good noodle place and then stayed inside to keep dry!

June 04, 2015

Day 25: Libraries & Kindergartens

Today was library day I guess! We woke up early and headed out on our travels during rush hour, fun! We were packed on the trains like sardines, but I've realized that even when people are packed on the trains it isn't a bad experience. I have so many nightmares of traveling on the packed trains in San Francisco because everyone is so creepy and all up in your space, or smells bad and it is so hot on the trains and you would rather just get off and walk than endure any more. But in Japan everyone is still very polite and respects your space and no one is bumping into you and no one smells bad.

Anyways, after hours of travel we arrived at the Tama Art University Library by Toyo Ito. They were very uppity about us taking photos so I mainly took them of the exterior. The things I really liked about this library were that it was constructed of catenary arches of all different sizes, and the arches extended from the interior and shaped the exterior of the walls as well. The entire floor was also gently sloped and I think because of this they didn't have any normal chairs. They had really weird stools that were all round at the bottom so they just kind of rolled around on the floor. Also very hard to sit on though.

Once we were done at the library we headed to kindergarten! I thought it was a little bit weird that we were visiting a kindergarten, but I'm really glad we did because we had a lot of fun. We went to Fuji Kindergarten, which I guess has been a case study for awhile now for educational design. They showed us an entire movie on the designs aspects that enhance the children's learning and then we got to walk around the building while the children were just running around us like crazy. The roof of the school is in a ring, so the kids can run around on the roof for hours. They had very little play equipment so that the children would invent games of their own to entertain themselves. 

There they go! My favorite part of the school was a building designed by Peter Cook called "Ring Around a Tree" that was a building well, built around a tree. It was like a really cool tree house, I'm so jealous I didn't get to go to school here!

Phew, here they are finally sitting semi-still. We said goodbye to the kids, which was really sad and headed on for the day. Maybe one day I will design a school so I can play with some kindergarten kids for my job. 

Our last stop was to another library which again allowed no pictures inside. They also had an obscene amount of rules at the Musashino Art University Library. I don't know how I feel about having this many rules for a building because it is a little bit off putting for me. It really restricts me from enjoying the space and just puts a bad taste in my mouth towards the project. But regardless they were very uppity so I didn't take any pictures of the interior. The library was by Sou Fujimoto and it was very beautiful. The walls of the entire place were built of the bookshelves which extended from floor to ceiling. The entire space was also built as a spiral which has again been a case study for making it really easy to find materials. Unfortunately we weren't even allowed to go beyond the second floor so I never got to test this out.

June 03, 2015

Day 24: Post Office Adventures

We were back in class this morning so at least my post will be a lot shorter! When we get together as a class we generally do less during the day because we see a few projects that are pretty far apart from each other instead of when I am on my own I tend to see a lot of stuff that is all right close to each other. But I enjoy traveling as a class and being all together with everyone.

Today we started our morning in the pouring rain, that umbrella that I bought is really coming in handy. He headed to Waseda University to have a guided tour by one of the practicing architects and professors there. We have been to a few Japan architecture schools now and it makes me really love our program more. The schools are really nice and are much bigger than our school but I really enjoy how our studios work and the studio culture that we have going. I definitely wouldn't trade that for anything.

After seeing the school we traveled to St. Mary's Cathedral by Kenzo Tange. Finally not a Buddhist temple! I feel a lot less awkward in a catholic church. The church was incredibly beautiful as well, it is pretty amazing some of the things that architects have done with concrete. I really enjoyed the curved concrete walls that he created and the impressions left by the wooden form work were really amazing.

Our last stop of the day was to see one more project by Sou Fujimoto that we saw the models for at the exhibit previously. The Tokyo Apartments, which I was a little bis disappointed by in person. It could just be because I was very grumpy at this point because we didn't get any lunch for the day. I just expected them to be a lot bigger in person for some reason, so it didn't seem quite as great as I had hoped.

The amount of telephone wires in this city though, wow. Luckily that was our last stop for the day because I was about to eat my own hand off I was so hungry. I stopped for lunch on the way home and then had an experience at a Japanese post office trying to mail some postcards home. Hoping they arrive within the next century. 

June 02, 2015

Day 23: Experiencing a Cat Cafe

Museum day take 2, at least this time they were all open. Started the day off at the zoo because by 9am it was already WAY too hot outside. Our first stop was to see the famous Japanese panda bears. They were so cute, and we got lucky because one of them was actually awake!

They were kind of lazy bums though even so. The rest of the morning we just spent exploring all the areas of the zoo. Major highlights were this tiger:

All of the crazy weird signage:

And the adorable little school children:

After the zoo we stopped at a little cafeteria for lunch and I had the cutest panda bear bread for dessert. It was super delicious as well. I haven't been disappointed by Japanese desserts once yet. 

After lunch I stayed in Ueno park and visited the National Museum of Nature and Science. I was lucky that about half of the museum was closed for renovations because the place was huge, and I stayed until they closed and were forced to kick me out. They had the largest collection of every specimen I have seen from rocks, plants, animals, pine cones, sea shells, butterflies, fungus, mushrooms, bacteria... you name it they had it. It was way overwhelming, but I have realized that I really love going to museums in Japan because I don't feel bad for not reading every little thing because I can't read any of it. Its like reading a book, but only looking at the pictures. Sometimes it is nice to not have to think too much, but I couldn't really understand all of what was going on at the museum.

I saw a lot of skeletons and parts of animal that i just saw alive at the zoo, so I was really glad that we went to the zoo before the nature museum and not after... My favorite area was of course the plant room.

After the museum I needed a little rest from walking around so I decided to go and finally visit a cat cafe. I went to Neku Maru Cat Cafe right next to Ueno station for an experience I will probably never forget. 

The cafe was on the 8th floor of a building so I took the elevator up and then arrived at the front door. I had to take my shoes off and put on cute little cat slippers and then they made me lock up all of my stuff and she told me that they charged by the minute. 

It was definitely not the experience I was expecting at all at a cat cafe. I had imagined that it would just be a normal cafe with food and drinks and then there just happened to be cats roaming around. But no, this was a cat cafe and you paid to sit around in a room full of cats. I walked in and luckily there were other people there already so I didn't feel quite to weird. I sat there trying to get the cats to play with me but none of them seemed very interested. The most exciting thing that happened was one cat jumped down on the water machine and started dispensing hot water while the other cats just stared. 

I think I only stayed here about 20 mins max and then I had to get out. I don't know why they don't have dog cafes because that would be much more entertaining.

After that weird experience I decided to end my night by going to the Tokyo Tower since I didn't get a chance to go while we were living in Roppongi. The Tokyo Tower was inspired by the Eiffel Tower so it does look a little bit similar but this one is supposed to be taller I guess. Personally I think the Eiffel Tower is a lot more impressive, but I had a really great time at the Tokyo Tower as well.

I coincidentally timed it perfectly so I got to the top just in time to watch the sunset. It was still a cloudy day so I didn't get to see Mt. Fuji but I did see Disneyland from the top! On my way back down the tower there just happened to be a Marion Crepes stand, which is the crepe place that the internet suggested I try. So of course I did, and it was the perfect ending to this very busy day. This was our last day off for awhile, back to class tomorrow.