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.