Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Tokyo Diary

Survived Boxing Day tube strike and am back in London! Big thank you goes to Megumi for organizing a lovely ISA reunion, Maiko-san and Miki for inviting me to various parties and introducing Tokyo creatives to me. Here goes my little summary of my two weeks in Tokyo!


Ed (of CSM fashion) was in town. We had ramen noodle, then had drinks at a pub in Shinjuku; observing Japanese people together.


Toyo Ito's architecture school. Loved the curtain. The place was very close from Tokyo Tower.
伊東豊雄建築塾。工事中?で網ネットで建物が覆われていたのだけれど、それが逆に、カーテンと組み合わさり、面白い模様を作っていた。


Architectural model made by lower school kids. Impressive.
小学生の建築の模型。うまい。わたしも参加したい・・・。


Faces of Japan.


Ex-Apple store assistant helping newbie iPhone user, before our amazing reunion with a big group. Us three went to Kazuki (of ISA)'s theater together and that too was one of my highlights of this trip.
アムステルダム時代の日本人で同窓会に参加。6年くらい会ってない子もいたのだけれど、みんなまったく昔と変わらず。外見や性格も変わらないし、お互いに対する態度も変わらないし。「昔のまま、大人になった」というよりも、むしろ「昔そのまま」だった。
そのうちのひとりが、オランダ時代からずっとお芝居をやっていて、彼の日本での芝居も今回、運良く観に行けた。劇自体も面白かったけれど、彼が昔と変わらず頑張っていることが見れたこともとても嬉しかった。


Tokyo was super sunny, never rained. Super cold too as the temperature dropped colder than was in London. Though it was nice to feel strong beams of sunlight even in a winter.
10年ぶりの日本の冬は、意外と寒かった・・・。


Streets of Tokyo is simply wonderful. I cannot stop finding everything so amusing. In another words, bad graphic design and bad naming everywhere.


A scene from a party that was held in the office of a design studio and an architecture studio. Full of interesting people and delicious food! I have learnt to exchange business cards when I'm introducing myself. Though exchanging business cards turned out to be quite an useful ritual.
日本のパーティーも、欧米のパーティーと似ていた!友達が友達を呼んで、面白い人が集まって、知らない人同士が繋がって・・・。割と人見知りなのに、このパーティーはとても楽しかった(マイコさん、ありがとう)。