Shopping Alley in Shinjuku
Daruma Dolls
End of Year Sales Campaign
Just walking
Archive for the ‘Travel’ Category
Photos from Winter Trip to Tokyo 2
Saturday, January 16th, 2010Photos from Winter Trip to Tokyo 1
Monday, January 4th, 2010
Flying over Detroit: Very cold looking below
Sunrise above the clouds.
Back in Providence
Friday, September 4th, 2009
After a long flight and several hours waiting in transit, I’m back in Providence! From Providence airport I took the bus back to school and despite jet lag, have been cleaning and moving in. Now I’m working with other students from school to be RA’s so we are going through lots of community and leadership training everyday. We just came back from a camp to do outdoor team building exercises, do ropes courses and go boating. I’ll have to post more pictures of that later today!
Photoshoot and Mt. Fuji
Monday, August 10th, 2009
Just this last weekend, I had the chance to go with threewhite to a city in Shizuoka prefecture to help at the photoshoot for a company we are working for. During the days before, we were busy with last minute preparations in the office, like painting a sign on a wooden panel, finalizing schedules and constantly checking the weather forecast. The company facilities is located at the foot of Mt. Fuji, so a beautiful background view of the mountain was a key component to the photoshoot. Unless it is a sunny day, it becomes difficult to see the mountain. Unfortunately, the rainy season has lasted longer than usual this year, so we were wondering how that would turn out…
Then early Saturday morning, we headed off with a photographer specializing in natural scenery, and took the Shinkansen bullet train to Shizuoka prefecture. It’s surprising that at 5.45 AM in the morning, many people were already bustling around the train stations. The shinkansen, which departed at 6.30AM also had many passengers.
Before long, we arrived at another train station and then went by car to the company facilities and agricultural lands. The skies were cloudy, so we could not see the moutain in the morning, but everyone kept their hopes up that Fuji-san would show his face later in the day. By the afternoon, the skies became blue, but only Fuji-san was hidden by the last of the morning’s clouds. We still kept our hopes up, saying that even if we can only see the mountain during the last 10 minutes of the day, it would be worth it. So the company directors and assistants, the photographer, and threewhite all worked together to take good photos of vegetables in the fields, the local water springs, and other necessary sights. These are just some memory snapshots that I took.
By the end of the photoshoot however, Fuji-san was still hidden away by the clouds. Our photographer said that this is Fuji-san’s way of saying that we should visit him again. In the car, on the way to the train station to go home, we were watching the beautiful landscape flash by and then- all of a sudden- we saw Fuji-san appear in front of us! It felt like it really was asking us to come see it again sometime- the sight was breath-taking. It was the perfect end to a day of collaboration and hard work.
Trip to Kamakura
Tuesday, July 21st, 2009Today I ventured out of Tokyo to visit the traditional sights in Kamakura. From Shinjuku I took the Shonan-Shinjuku train and about 50 minutes later the Kamakura Station came into view. There was a light drizzle in the air, and despite the humidity, the cooler temperatures came as a welcome break from the hot summer days. From the train station I walked down the main street that led to the entrance of the Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gu Shinto Shrine. Upon passing through the red Torii gate, there was a wide path the led to the main shrine and many side niches. Taking a side route, I walked upon this scene: someone with a green umbrella sitting and observing the large lily plants in one of the ponds. The rainy atmosphere intensified the colors and I felt like I was stepping into a watercolor painting.
The shrine is an important place in the city of Kamakura. Climbing up the side of a mountain, its red structure shines amongst so much green. The stairs that climb so far up are a beautiful sight and makes one feel so small.
At the top of the climb is the main temple where one can pray to the gods. I stayed here for a while just watching the people climb to the top while holding an umbrella in the cool rain.
Later in the day I went by local bus to visit the famous Daibutsu (Great Buddha) at the Kotoku-in Buddhist Temple. The temple is known for the large bronze statue of the Amida Buddha that is over 13 meters tall. I am told that this is the second largest Buddha in Japan, following one that can be seen in Nara. A plaque on one of the walls of the outer temple explained about the statue’s history: the Kotoku-in Buddha was cast in 1252 and originally an inner temple was built to cover it. In 1498, a tidal wave swept the temple away but left the body of the Buddha without any injury. In 1923 there was a big earthquake that destroyed the Buddha’s base, and repairs were made until 1961.
An interesting thing about this Buddha is that visitors can walk inside the bronze structure for just 20 yen! Inside people can look at how the structure was joined together. Because the statue is so large, it was cast in 30 stages. Many molds were joined together in layers. In order to securely attach the various pieces, a method known as Ikarakuri (a type of lattice joinery) was used to build the statue from the base up. It’s amazing to think that this Buddha has been sitting here so long. I wonder what the statue has seen over so many years, and what it thinks about the current world?
Summer In Japan Part Two
Saturday, July 18th, 2009It is really amazing how quickly time flies. I have been in Japan this summer for quite some time now and can’t remember how time just …sped by… My internship at threewhite has been absolutely marvelous. I’ve been learning methods of graphic design production and how to communicate visually in Japanese. My weeks at the internship have included: helping out the art director Ms. Tanaka with design work for both print and web, creating mock-ups for print projects, doing research, and meeting with clients. Please take a look at threewhite’s Work in Progress Blog to see what we are up to. I’m much better at keeping up with that blog than I am with my own.
At the beginning of my time in Japan I was really wondering how things would work out. My biggest worry has been with confidence in Japanese because I have been away from my “home” country for a long time. At the beginning of my internship, I was nervous in speaking, and worried I would say something wrong unintentionally, especially when meeting people for the first time and exchanging business cards. I’ve gotten better since then- at least a little. In the office I speak Japanese everyday, and even though I make many mistakes, I’m getting more used to it. I started keeping a notebook with photos and notes for new vocabulary, and I take it everywhere. This has been my best decision, because now I have a bank of information whenever I need it. I write down phrases used in meetings, and words used in describing production of projects. I constantly ask “how do you say this?” or “what does that kanji mean?” and write down notes.
In the visual aspect of my internship, I’ve been working on various things like Japanese and English typography (similar, and yet different so I really have to pay attention to all the nuances), photo editing, drawing images for use in layouts, and helping out where I can. I enjoy the work, and the learning experience. Working with clients and printing companies has helped me to see design on a larger scale. At school, most of the time, I’m my own client (or my professor is), and I’m my own printer. When working with different people, you become conscious of every step you take because your work is also someone else’s work. Being able to communicate thoughts, ideas, and problems in person, and also by email, and by phone when there is no visual in front of you is challenging but also a good experience. Editing also takes much longer and is more thorough than any school project. Where a class project may take weeks, a project at work could take months and is a collaborative work; photographs, texts, image styling, illustrations, print production, graphic design and art directing are done by many different people. That’s the most exciting part of this internship for me- meeting and working with people specializing in different fields, and also learning about culture from the various clients!
Recently threewhite had a special guest come to the office- Ms. Franki Goodwin, an art director working in London. Franki has been traveling to many places like Australia and Japan this year to experience new cultures and hear stories form many people. She visited threewhite to see how people in Japan work in the design field. Tanaka-san, Franki and I exchanged stories from university times and jobs experiences. Since we all studied in different places, (Japan, America, and in the United Kingdom) we compared different teaching and learning techniques of design. It seems (from our discussion) that American and Europen schools teach design in a conceptual manner, (form following function, or form evolving from content), where Japanese schools focus more on technique and specify both form and content at the beginning of a project. An important question arose from the discussion though : how do you find the balance of structure and freedom? I’ll have to look for the answer myself little by little. I found the meeting inspiring- traveling to meet people working in design fields in different places with different circumstances sounds like a lovely idea. I would love to take a similar journey someday. What a great way to see the world! Franki is also better at blogging than I am, and shares her stories on her site. I hope she enjoys the rest of her stay in Japan!
I think this briefly sums up what I have been up to this summer. Threewhite will be on a short summer holiday this next week, and I’m hoping to use the time to explore in and around the city of Tokyo (and learn more about my own culture!). I also want to use this time to fix my computer (hopefully it won’t take too long) and start to update this site. I’m working on a cleaner and simpler look than the one that is currently up. Well, this will certainly keep me busy!
