masterpiece of furniture in shibuya

when i think about masterpiece of furniture, alver aalto always comes up to my mind first. this is due to my one year experience in finland and his architecture were always my destination back then. yet many other people might come up with others, such as Panton, Jacobsen, Lloyd Write, Eames, and more. their productions are probably equally super unique, influential, and valuable, and therefore are still loved by many. yet regardless of their uniqueness, they all always have the same character, which is, expectedly, freaking-me-out price. 

ive been always dreaming of having Alver Aalto's "armchair 400" at home yet apparently theres no way i can afford with my tiny salary. or probably i need to have a bigger room first that has a room for the beautiful armchair... this is also what i cant afford to. so i have plenty of hazards to go through to accomplish my ambition. 

instead of complaining about my small income and room, what i have to do is to head up to a cafe "seat mania" in shibuya to have a seat on fancy chairs that i cant afford to have at home.  

the cbd of Miyoshi, Tokushima

Miyoshi is a small city in tokushima, located in the central and super-mountainous part of shikoku, formed in 2006 by the community integration. it has varieties of outdoor activities as it has tremendous amounts of mountains, big river, waterfall, fields, and whatever except ocean. although it sounds as if it has no urban amenities, as it is a city and it has a (kind of) cbd, daily needs for residents and visitors were accessible. during a business trip to this city, while my boss was working at his hotel room, i decided to explore the city to discover it and tried to obtain my own insights into it. the business trip allowed me to stay in miyoshi for two days. so for the first day, i walked around the cbd, and for the second day, i explored its nature. 

what i actually surprised was to discover this city had a really good infrastructure and built environment. as it was flourished by tabaco business, many former-business people's houses were nicely designed with udatsu, a sort of japanese traditional fire prevention wall which was used to show off owners' prosperity. 

the main station had good enough access for main cities of shikoku. and the central shopping street had a nice ceilings so that pedestrians could walk easily without worrying for sudden rainfall.  

yet as the pictures illustrate, there were almost no pedestrians walking on the street. there were rather many shops closing theirs shutters even during the daytime.

while i was walking, i discovered an expectable reason of city's emptiness; motorization and gigantic super market.

as the city is located in a super mountainous area, private automobile is a necessity for transportation. it is reasonable. and as everyone has his/her car, everyone has a easy access to this massive market, which provides relative convenience and probably cool urban images that locals are longing for (although it is a typical character of suburb for urbanites). 

but this is also a really problematic as well. miyoshi is a shrinking city and rapidly aging. the population decline rate is like 10% in 5years. there would be many residents who wouldnt be able to drive in the very near future. what could be an outcome of these? its clearer than light, who can go to this super market? and is this market still open in XX years later?? 

obviously small local merchandises shut down their doors and people said there were no successors. where old people can go shopping without hesitation?? nowhere.

it would be super fun to be able to provide a wicked solution as a researcher/consultant/whatever, my whatever-ness doesnt allow me to be involved with this project regularly unfortunately, although i might be having a crazy idea that my boss or coworkers wouldnt have. for now, what i have to do from a distance is to study harder, think more by myself, work harder, and achieve something more interesting. saying and doing is two different things. lets hope i can activate my resolution somehow!

nihonbashi, the ugly symbol of japan

nihonbashi is the fundamental point of japan. old travel routes from tokyo start from here and still its the standard point for many roads. 

the other day i cycled there to attend an interesting conference about floating garbages. attendants were actively involved with the discussion, and i could get to know some interesting things about the issue. i didnt know that japanese law only concerns only those garbages that are drifted ashore and those still drifting are not paid attention to. so the attendants, mainly environmentalist or whatsoever, were arguing that that sorts of garbages should be also taken care of. it was surely a fruitful day for my interest...

yet, after the conference finished, strolling along nihonbashi area, i couldnt stop thinking, "is it actually possible for japanese government to think about what they cannot see by their eyes?" as i was strolling around nihonbashi, the symbol of japan, the standard of japan, although it was sooooooooo visible, i couldnt think it was well paid attention to. how could the symbol be that ugly? 

ok after the ww2, while japan was flourishing with the rapid economic growth, building a highway must have been something people were really proud of. and ive watched a program about the relation between highway and the canal, that constructing highway over the canal made it possible to organize highway network in tokyo cheaply and it was the only option. but now, after the rapid economic growth is long gone, i strongly believe that the city should pay more big attention to its people and their lives. i wouldnt say i hate this coverage of canal as it is the characteristics of chaotic tokyo, but i cant stop thinking "arent there any other things to do there?" when i see that sort of sight. i dont think its the best idea to demolish the highway, yet at least it could look rather differently, or simply put, nicely. 

this conference in nihonbashi reminded me of the importance to pay attention to something u cant see directly, but the area discouraged me to believe its possibility. unless people notice how weird or ugly what they take for granted is, i dont think they can concern more about what they cant see.

yokohama, development and gentrification

yokohama is one of the biggest cities after tokyo in japan. it has functioned both as a bed town for white color labor forces of tokyo and as a work place for many. from the end of the 19th century to the begging of the 20th century, many foreign mansions were built and some of them are preserved as cultural heritage and open for public. the city also attracts many chinese business and forms the biggest china town in japan. in recent years, the development of Minatomirai attracts many tourists to come and this area is said to have one of the most beautiful urban sceneries in japan, according to wiki. 

yet when i think about the new development (in big cities) rather objectively, theres no way that any of them can avoid gentrification. it was kind of surprising that i could not notice it until the last time i went to yokohama for a business purpose. 

as i was walking from the yokohama station, i was astonished by relatively nicely designed residential buildings constructed along a street. it has rather nice open space for locals to hang around peacefully. although i didnt like this sort of "new town" kind of concept with no mixed use environment, it must be a nice area to live here (although i cant afford to).

yet the most exciting part came soon after these "nicely designed" areas ended. all of a sudden, prefabs that might be a residences and factories showed up just next to concrete and glass skyscrapers.  i really enjoyed the drastic change of atmosphere. 

apparently there were still some people living and working there, and that somehow created thrilling atmosphere. it might be quite problematic for those who are involved in the area, but as a random visitor, i really appreciated the diversity of lives here. this kind of area always reminds me of interesting asia-ness;) thats what i was thinking while i was waiting for my co-league, looking at the "beautiful urban scenery" of yokohama.

digital art on tokyo metropolitan government building, shinjuku

as tokyo hosted some sort of asian metropolitan cities meeting or whatsoever, it collaborates with a digital artist Akira Hasegawa to illuminate tokyo metropolitan government building, aka tochou, for 3 days (7-9th November). it was surely a great experiment for that boring area. 

it must be super dope to realize/visualize what hes been doing on this huge canvas. great inspiration. i hope someday in the near future i can realize what ive been doing on the canvas of mine.

MISC, Meguro Interior Shops Community

Meguro is the hub of interior shops in Tokyo and shops organize a community called MISC, Meguro Interior Shops Community to brand the area. along the Meguro Street, there are interior/design shops of vintage/modern, oriental/occidental, reasonable/luxurious. as ive been looking for a set of table and chair, naturally MISC was an ideal destination for my free weekend. 

although MISC has its own webpage to promote itself (http://misc.co.jp/) it does not really successfully attract customers (at least i felt). maybe because (it does not seem that) each shop does not cooperate each other to promote the area.

i strolled around to try to find THE table in the end of october. i didnt expect that it was that hard to find the one even in MISC... but fortunately, a guy from one of the order-made furniture shops offered me to make one for me with a good deal. ive gotta think positively about it and whats more, need to come up with a great design that i can use as long as possible. in order to come up with it, my interior shops strolling will be continued... 

Tabloid, Minato-ku. full of inspiration

in the end of november, i attended a party organized by Monocle, the most attractive magazine im subscribing, at Tabloid in Minato-ku Kaigan. 

the party was packed with many attractive people with high creative capital; for example, Tyler Brule, the chief editor of the Monocle magazine and young Norwegian designers who were invited to Tokyo Design Tide. 

i went there with two friends who have high standard of creative capital and ended up agreeing at creating some sort of organization to do something related to urban/rural, creative, cultural, whatever;) it sounds kinda abstract yet, but hope we can start it in this year somehow. i think life is too short to achieve something great, but it is too long just to waste by doing what one has to do. i hope itll lead to something fun:)

the mode of transit in... BANGKOK

in the middle of september, i made a one-week trip to bangkok for my short summer holidays. the primary aim was to experiment something really energetic and chaotic, and it was super easily achieved. annoying tuktuk driver deceived me, annoying tourist information deceived me, annoying shop keepers deceived me, and i was obviously not ready for that sort of chaos. but besides that, everything was great. even such annoying experience wasnt that bad for me. anyways, there were so many things interested me so i start from the mode of transit (again).

first of all, this city has a great variety of transport modes, such as (annoying) tuktuk, (scary) bike taxi (that i didnt challenge), taxi, boat, bus, metro, and train. it seems that many locals use bus but it was nearly impossible to use if properly for me as i didnt understand the writings. but the system was rather funny. old bus without air-con is cheaper than new bus with air-con. i tried both but the old one was much fun.

tuktuk seemed to be a rather convenient node of transport, but the drivers are just sooooo annoying. the worst thing is that they look actually nice and friendly!!! nways, next time i go to bangkok or any cities with tuktuk culture, i will surely give a hard revenge on them:P

the Chao Phraya river is a big element of the city, and therefore the boat culture seemed well. the boat fair was quite cheap and therefore it seemed to be a daily use of locals. 

and the most modern modes of transport were metro and train network. it seemed that metro was the same package as that in taipei. and the train was really cool. they were like "underground" and "overground" as metro runs underground, and trains run over-ground. both of them were really convenient as the traffic jam is always a headache of bangkok yet it cannot bother them. the biggest problem is, however, its not so convenient to go to either metro or train stations. 

so, in the end, as i was too coward to use bike taxi and hated tuktuk drivers, rivers were not on my way, and either metro/train stations were in walking distance, i had to rely on the use of taxi. i usually dont like taxi, but in this city taxi is the best way to move around. taxi fair is super cheap in this city, and no drivers tried to ripoff from me (the biggest asset)!!! yet it was funny that i had to ask drivers if they could take me to where i wanted to go before i used them, because, according to my friends living there, they dont like traffic jam!!! lol  so probably, many taxi drivers prefer to use trains and metros to their own taxi for their transportation:P  funny contradiction ne!!

back to sweden?! or to ikea

its been 11 months since i left sweden. time flies!!!! sometimes i doubt myself whether i was really living there as i take the life in tokyo for granted and it seems to be super natural to me. but the ikea trip made me realize that i was actually there in sweden, although its kinda obvious.

what gave me the evidence of my life in sweden was this cookies:P i totally forgot about this beautiful snack. my bad. of course i brought them home with me:P

i realized that ikea could be the place where i can feel sweden the most in japan. probably. at least more than H&M for sure.

the mode of transport in Naoshima

ok, this is the last entry of "the mode of transport in ..." series from my business trip. it was rather surprising that i could visit naoshima this easily again only two months after the bullet trip in the end of july, although this time i could see next to nothing. so what i payed attention to was its mode of traffic, which was ferry. 

i wrote that having a tram network is a great asset for a city, yet having a ferry network is superb (from touristy perspectives)!!! and in this area, the price of one ferry ride is super generous unlike a customer-unfriendly ferry company operating between niigata and sado, which always rip off... with this price, it must be easy for islanders to move around the area, and definitely easy for tourists to travel around. 

but there is a huge problem about this ferry network, which is its frequency. if they operate bit more often, i think i could see bit more than just a pumpkin and a public bath...

it was my second business trip to outside tokyo, and i reconfirmed that i wanted to just make a trip, not a business trip, so that i could just enjoy something extraordinary. but at the same time, i really appreciate this sort of opportunity as i could at least glance something different from my ordinary life in tokyo.

the mode of transport in Hiroshima

the biggest characteristics of the mode of transport in Hiroshima is its tram network. i strongly believe that tram is the best urban public transportation system as it provides a city identity and users urban scenery. so i really respect Hiroshima that it has been keeping this great invention. 

one short ride costs only 150yen, which is super generous. yet its service was not necessarily generous. as i didnt have the transportation card for this tram (naturally as i dont live there) so i had to pay with cash. but paying machine was not able to give me 50yen of change, and the driver was frustrated at my behaviour of throwing 200yen to the machine as he had to work something additional...!! ok, it was my fault that i didnt pay a big attention to how to pay, but then this driver should be the one to tell me how i should pay for the ride. but instead of telling me how to, he just saw me in trouble, making mistake and got frustrated at what i did. i didnt get it. from this perspectives, i realize that i like cities with tram network with sophisticated system and drivers/staffs. hiroshima has some way to go in this aspect.

nways, after a short tram ride from the station, i could see the famous atomic bomb dome of hiroshima. this area made me determine that we have to maintain our globe more peacefully not only for all human but also for the all beings.

the mode of transport in Takamatsu

in the end of september, i made a business trip to hiroshima, naoshima and takamatsu. it was quite frustrating as i couldnt look around the cities almost at all (naturally as it was a business trip), yet there was an interesting finding about takamatsu, which was its mode of transport.

in takamatsu, bike lanes were quite well organized and therefore it seemed quite convenient to cycle around the city. comparing tokyo there were much less people and traffic of course, and that also enabled cyclists to cycle around. it was a big surprise to me because i really didnt expect cities of the size of takamatsu could afford to do this.

ok, i wouldnt deny its good development of bike lanes, yet i wouldnt say that i like this sort of bike lanes either as im pretty sure pedestrians would walk on this bike lanes to bother cyclists (as i did without noticing it) and cyclists dont care which direction they would cycle to. so in my opinion, bike lanes should be organized on the edge of traffic roads so that cyclists must follow the flow of traffic and pedestrians wouldnt bother them. plus, some areas provide bike lanes on the traffic road, but as the traffic lights were not yet provided for cyclists, inconvenient pathway was provided. 

nways, although this city has quite good bike lanes in japanese standard, it seemed that the number of cyclists were much more on pedestrian's mall. in this sort of area, bikes shouldnt be allowed in my opinion. 

i hope cyclists would obtain better rights in the cities in this country in the near future, yet in order to make it come true, cyclists should understand how they should cycle in cities. 

shinjuku, discovery of greatness

with my dear friend from seoul, i made a great discovery tour of shinjuku. i always thought that shinjuku was a nasty place to hangout, but as i got a very bad leg at that time and we decided to watch a movie there, we just decided to try to find something interesting. 

to begin with, it was damn hot outside although it was already in september. so the primary plan was to stay inside. we first headed to a cafe called bowls cafe next to shinjuku gyoen. (although it would be better to walk in shinjuku gyoen, it was simply impossible. weve gotta do something about this global warming thing!!! wait, i AM working for that:P) nways, the cafe is quite cozy and popular as it was on books and magazines. ive been there several times but i didnt know that it was a popular destination introduced on books until then, when i discover this cafe on a book i bought just before we went in to the cafe.

afterwards, it became impossible to just stay in, as i had to show around shinjuku to my guest. so we headed to shinjuku golden-gai. during the day time, it was super cozy although nothing was happening. we ended the day in the evening btw.

after we went to watch "the borrowre arrietty" by the studio ghibli, we headed to shinjuku 3chome. there, we had a good butadon, and went to see rakugo at suehirotei. it was my second time to go to rakugo and the first time to be at suehirotei. i realized how great actually it was! every saturday evening, it organizes night shows with four young rakugoka for only 500yen. i think it would be one of good ways to spend a evening of saturday. after rakugo, we headed to golden gai as mentioned earlier, and had a great time at a bar.

i didnt know that shinjuku was this exciting. i always thought its a chaotic place where all annoying people come to do something irritating. but if i try to discover something extraordinary, shinjuku is the place that offers me something beyond my expectation. 

ebisu

in the end of august, i took a day off. the main purpose was to watch a documentary movie "beautiful islands" at yebisu garden cinema (? i dont remember the cinema's name anymore). the movie itself was really interesting but the story telling was not as interesting as i hoped it to be.

n it was almost my first time to stay in ebisu longer than certain hours. so as usual i made a few hours of walk. it started from yebisu garden place. it is famous for its christmas illumination and maybe something more, but during the daytime in august, it was just an ordinary nice luxurious area. it was not as nice as mid town tokyo in roppongi. i think it was renovated from a brewery? not that sure. i dont deny it is a nice place to hang out, but thats it.

but the surrounding areas of yebisu garden place was cool. it seemed there were many cozy cafes and restaurants, good bars and shops. 

i should definitely explore more to acquire deeper understandings about this area. they must have many more to see. 

tokyo is so exciting! coz no matter where u go, ull surely find something new and interesting!!

shibuya HMV closedown, the end of an era

it was this spring that the news of shibuya hmv closedown was delivered through the media. of course it was a big shock and surprise to many people who have been to the store. it was regarded as one of the biggest record stores not only in tokyo or japan, but also in the global context. many musicians around the world carried themselves to the store when they had concerts in tokyo. i myself saw Black Eyed Peas and m-flo in the store. therefore, i could never imagine that this store would be closed and i could hardly believe the news. nevertheless, the closedown was an official fact. therefore, i decided to see the store before it disappears from the map of shibuya.

what i surprised at the store was, actually, the lack of collection of music in fact. i always thought that shibuya hmv has everything i want, but it turned out to be an illusion. i was rather surprised that i could not find what i wanted to buy!! i think this is because people today tend to take the internet for granted and i misunderstood the store had the same potential as the internet... internet offers us literary everything i can imagine, from goods to services, and even to dates (although ive never tried the last one:P ), and this huge rival has gradually weaken even such a great record store...

i really hope that the closedown of shibuya hmv will gradually make people realize how important to live in the real world outside the world of world wide web. i do use internet shopping services once in a while but i try to go to find what i want by myself as often as possible. i really hope this would not be a trend for other stores. but at the same time, this fact somehow indicates that one era is now over. i also need to move on to another era as hmv moves on...

naoshima @ setouchi international art festival

naoshima is an island located in setonaikai, western part of japan. it was once known for illegal garbage disposal but now known as one of the most artistic islands around the world. i made a first footstep on this island in the end of july for the purpose of visiting "setouchi international art festival." 

after 20 minutes boat ride from a port near okayama, naoshima welcomed me with a splendid sight of red massive pumpkin (?) designed by yayoi kusama. it was gigantic enough to attract my eyes in an instant, and outstanding enough to control the surrounding atmosphere in good or bad way. 

what good about this island is that it is small enough to allow you to cycle from one another, and hilly enough to make you exercise by cycling. on the other side of the island, there is another pumpkin, which is colored to be yellow, and on the top of a small mountain there is a famous art museum attracting young architects from all over the world, designed by tadao ando. this museum is surely the biggest highlight of this island, for ordinary rich tourists. it is promoted by Benesse and Fukutake. Fukutake has invested a huge amount of money to develop this island to be an art island. theyve built super fancy hotels, another gorgeous museum, and many more. 

i usually tend to dislike that sort of huge economic influx as it can easily dominate the surroundings, and obviously one side of this island is not for locals any more. but they also invested to local amenity by organizing a beautiful public bath near the port, which was a positive aspect for locals. 

whats cool about this island is that it doesnt attract people only by the two famous museums, but also small experimental exhibitions all over the island. as i could stay only for a day or less, it was simply impossible to see them all, but some i could see was superb. 

in the near future, when my saving will be good enough, id love to visit this island again.

kamakura, "bills"

in kamakura, there is a restaurant famous for "the best breakfast in the world." it is "bills". along the Enoden, along the shoreline, bills is attracting hundreds of customers every weekend morning, and i became one of them on the first sunday of july. 

the area was developed really nicely lately, with cozy cafes, boutiques, and lovely apartments. and it just next to the great beach. who wouldnt like it live there? so the customers were naturally diverse, from surfers to design oriented people, from local youngsters to gourmet-wanna-be urbanites. the funny thing was the difference of colours of skins between surfers and non-surfers.

although i was not so sure whether it was the best breakfast in the world, it was surely worth paying a visit all the way from tokyo. having a beautiful breakfast with good friends in the sunday morning, hearing a sound of wave was surely extraordinary. 

when i visit that sort of places outside tokyo, i cannot help but ask myself, "what are you doing in tokyo? what do you want there??" the answer is always unknown yet, but i still need to try to find one in this city.