6.8.09 Tokyo Giants game!

Tonight, Trudy and I went to a Tokyo Giants baseball game!!! It was a lot of fun. The Giants scored 4 home runs - 2 in one inning! Japanese baseball is wayyyyy more exciting than American baseball. They have cheerleaders, and the fans go crazy! It was a lot of fun, and they won 8 to 3 :) 

Astrid Klein

Here is a nice picture of our class with Astrid Klein of Klein + Dytham. She is infinitely cool!

6.6.09 Karaoke!

Bianca starts us off.. with John Mayer! Lol

Then we sing Poker Face by Lady Gaga DUHHH

Ok guys, karaoke in Japan is a very serious business! No kidding though. The people here took karaoke very seriously, and it works differently than in the US. Here, you rent a room with your friends and have a private karaoke machine/tv/computer and get drinks delivered to you. Its not like in the US where everybody sings together - they wouldnt stand for that! Plus, Bianca is a karaoke hog so good thing we had our own room tee hee :)

Ill spare you the pain of the videos of us singing!!

6.4.09 Yokohama

We spent the afternoon (til midnight) in Yokohama, the second largest city in Japan. It was extremely exhausting but very cool because we met with three different architects, and saw the FOA Ferry Terminal which now is definitely in my top 3 things I've seen in Japan. 

Koizumi Sensei explaining his design

FOA Ferry Terminal 

This is another odd occurance which is hard to explain because things like this don't happen in the US. This was a giant mechanical spider which runs on a steam engine and can basically take over the city. 5 or 6 people jump in it and turn it on and it does a little dance and blows steam out its butt.

The end

Office Visits

Lately, we've been doing a lot of office visits. And by a lot I mean 9 in two weeks!! Here are some highlights, since some people (ahem Maff) have been complaining I haven't posted :) 

The Klein + Dytham exhibit at Gallery Ma, where Astrid Klein met us to talk to us about their work. Gallery Ma is the most prestigious gallery in Japan for architecture exhibits.

Inside the tearoom in the house Fujimori designed

The ceiling of the tea room - made o

ut of plaster and pieces of "yaki sugi" (burnt wood)

Fujimori Sensei sitting on the roof of his house

Fujimoto Sou's office- Interesting because they work almost entirely in physical models. Everyone in there was also under 30 so it looked like an architecture studio!

5.27.09 Pecha Kucha Night!

Tonight we went to SuperDelux, the club which hosts the original Pecha Kucha! It was packed, about 300 people attended, and we got to see Klein + Dytham! Dytham offered to buy us drinks. 

Thats Klein + Dytham, incase you can't tell. They're relatively famous architects, especially in Tokyo. Both are fluent in Japanese!

5.23.09 Gokayama

This was dinner! Freshly caught river fish. Some people got scared, but they were actually pretty tasty. 

We spent a night in Gokayama which is part of UNESCO's World Heritage Sites. In case you don't know, UNESCO is basically a philanthropic organization which preserves historic sites/buildings/radical things in general. The village is totally secluded, we took a very expensive and sketchy bus ride to get out here. The houses have thatched roofs and most of them are either traditional Japanese Inns, or small shops. One shop had delicious fresh milk, the REAL kind. Yum! There wasn't much to do here, but we visited the next village over which had similar houses, and a small dance festival going on. This was pretty much the opposite of Tokyo, its a nice contrast to see the extremes of lifestyle/architecture that still exists in Japan.