Christmas 2008!!

Christmas of this year has just passed. For Japanese, Christmas is a event for couples, so the mood is a bit different to the western style. In London, it’s for family, so every public transport stops. I’ve got no family in London, so I had nothing to do on Christmas, but some friends of mine invited me to their family party, so I joined it. They were really fantastic time. I’ve almost lost family, so the feeling of family is quite precious, and it reminds me of there being happiness of family.

I hadn’t drunk mulled wine, which is sweet and hot wine, in Tokyo, but now it’s one of my favourite drinks. Mince pie is a traditional dessert for Christmas, and it’s also good. The content in mince pies is called mince meat, but it’s actually not meat but chunks of fruit.

I stayed overnight at my friend’s place and watched some films. One of them was called “Alien Raiders”, which seems to be a low budget film, but it was interesting maybe because I’d expected just a little. Another one was “The kiss of Dragon”, staring Jet Lee, and why we chose the film to see is to know how different the behaviours of western guys and Asian guys are in films. Western guys usually get some girls laid even though they are Asian girls, but Asian guys hardly do that!!! It’s interesting because it might be cultural difference, and sort of manipulation of impressions of cultural appearances. The third one was “The shepherd”. The main actor is Jan-Claude Van Damme, whom I haven’t seen for ages!! He got older, but his action was still high quality. The quality of the film itself was… I shouldn’t say anything.

virtual meeting

We had a kind of virtual meeting for our presentation. Each member put some ideas on BBS in our social networking site. We use ning.com for creating our website for collaborative work.

Basically I don’t want to rely on some virtual meeting technology, because sometimes the communication is too fragile and not productive, but this time should work well, but no one knows until next “real” meeting.

A friend of mine went to a seafood market in London, and bought and brought a big piece of salmon and cod to our dinner. The salmon was really nice, quite tasty and contain a lot of fat, which made salmon feeling softer. I never thought I could eat such nice row fish, but actually it was as good as in Japan if not better. The U.K. is also island and a bit cold so it might be not so difficult to catch good fish.

We had a lot of topics to talk, such as our career, love and so on. A friend of mine told us we should strongly pursue what you want to be in the future even if you have to choose very dirty way in order to achieve it. I’m not sure I can do it if I’m in such a kind of situation, but basically I agree with his opnion.

One of those days and Ken Ribinson

I went to university a bit too early yesterday. When I arrived, the building was closed because the electricity had something wrong. The staff told the students there to come back around twelve, so I texted my classmates about that, and I went to a café near my college to kill time.

I chose a bad café since they put the message of “Free wifi” and actually it had but the quality wasn’t good. Then my classmates called me and told that the college was open now and I could come back now. It was almost the starting time of our class. When I went to our studio, there were few classmates and they told the class was cancelled because there were too few people. On top of that, the afternoon session was also cancelled because the morning was cancelled. I thought I shouldn’t have texted and felt guilty. It was meant to be good, but it turned out the bad result. Sometimes quick responses are good, but sometimes not.

Maybe, yesterday was one of those days. I planned to go to a short film event, but something urgent came up for a friend of mine and she suddenly became unable to make it. I asked some other friends of mine but unfortunately they were busy, so I decided not to go. We had had an English class but the college was closed earlier because of the trouble of electricity. Finally I moved to other campus and kept studying.

We usually have a presentation for sort of cultural knowledge sharing every week. The next theme is “DIY”, so I gathered some images of “Okonomiyaki”. Okonomiyaki is a kind of Japanese hot cakes. The thing is that when you go to an Okonomiyaki restaurant, you have to cook it yourself. I thought it was not special, but when I saw “Lost in Translation” I realised that it was a bit wired for foreigners. I hope it would be a good example of Japanese DIY…

One of classmates recommended me to see the following video of Sir Ken Robinson:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html
“Creativity now is as important in education as literacy, and we should treat it at the same status.”
It was really interesting. I think creativity is really important in education in especially developed countries to empower their economy and quality of life. The problem is education for creativity is very difficult and not formulated yet. It might be quite smart, and it might be quite humorous. At least, this video was really funny, but I couldn’t listen to his jokes because of my English skills. Improving my English listening skill is a really big problem for me. I became a bit concerned, so I accessed BBC learning English pages and listened to some audio contents. The handy guide of Business Gurus was interesting:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/work/handy/
Maybe reading their books are very difficult and takes ages, but if you just know the points of them, this contents should be really useful.

Chelsea vs Arsenal

Chelsea lost yesterday… The game itself wasn’t so good. The score was 2-1, but the one of Chelsea was own goal.
I went to Sports pub with a friend of mine and watched it together. He likes Arsenal. The first half was no so bad, because Chelsea got the first goal and finished it with 1-0, but actually Arsenal mostly controlled the game.

During the half time, we went to McDonald’s and ate fried chickens and potato. For the promotion of “Madagascar 2”, if you buy some specific set, you can get a figure of the characters. A friend of mine wanted to get it for his girlfriend, so he ordered it. He got the same one which they had got already, so he asked the staff to change it… he’s a really nice boyfriend.

The figure was made in China. Everything comes from China now. The figure was a hippo, the quality wasn’t so bad, and if you shake it, it speaks something. I was a bit surprised, because when I was a kid, it never spoke. I wondered how effective this kind of promotion is. There must be a kind of synergy, so it should be difficult to measure it.

Then we were back to the café and started to watch the match again. The second half was really bad for Chelsea. Van Persie got two goals and the game was turned back. I hoped that Chelsea would turn back again but it didn’t happen. After the match, many customers left the bar.

This kind of bars is really interesting, because they serve not only food but also a sort of mood. They might be able to sell some sports accessories or something. It’s not stadium but it proposes similar mood. I think you can appropriate this kind of services to other services. Sports might be special, because for sports, whether it is live or not is really important, but on the other hand, whether it is in Stadium or not is sometimes not important. Sharing the moment of victories on time is one of the important factors to enjoy sports. It should be special for sports. Films and theatre are a bit different. Theatre might be a bit similar, because if you watch it with some recorded media, you might feel the value is lower. You might be not so excited. The different point of Sports and theatre is the importance of places and time. For sports, in my opinion, time is more important, but the theatre is not only time but also places are important. Of course, watching a match in stadium is the best experience, but sharing the moment of the game would be more important, but for theatre you should be in theatre if you really enjoy it. The level of expansion of experience for the content are different and it should be a key factor to how to take advantage of it.

meeting and x factor

We had a meeting about our project.
Our member is usually six, but yesterday was just four, so it wasn’t difficult as usual.
I’m not sure which is better, because conflictions in meetings would be one of learning processes, but honestly it wasn’t so stressful, so that’s all right.

Making logic for our argument itself might be not so difficult, but how to show the evidence should be really difficult. That is always the main problem of ours in my opinion. I should have had some clear image where we go to before our meeting, but I always failed. I should have prepared some suggestions and direction in order to make our meeting meaningful. For the next time, I should use more time for coming up with some idea for how to organize and lead our group.

Then, I moved to Top shop with a friend of mine, because his girlfriend waited there. In topshop, there were a lot of people and staying there was a little bit stressful. Girls really love shopping. His girlfriend and a friend of hers hadn’t finished shopping, so we went to a book shop to kill a bit time. I looked for a book for my research but I couldn’t find it. I might be ought to ask the staff, but I thought if I asked them I couldn’t refuse to buy it, so I didn’t. The shelf of some book stores are really mess and it’s very hard to find books I want. In Japan, some big book shop has sort of searching machine. I didn’t think it was special, but now I realised it was really useful.

I gave up finding the book I needed and started to read a book about leadership. Recently I’ve really realised how important leadership is. Maybe I’m not cut out for a man who has strong leadership skill, so that’s why I adore becoming such a kind of person. Anyway I have to have some confidence about myself, it should be really difficult, but I have to try until I succeed.

During walking around with a friend of mine, we bumped into other classmate. He had planned to have dinner in China town, so we joined it. I really love ho-fun, which is a kind of rice noodles, so I ordered it as usual. That restaurant was recommended by the friend, so taste was all right, but the behaviour of the waitress was not so good. I don’t mean to complain about it but I couldn’t help thinking if I own some restaurant, I have to really care about the behaviour of the staff, because it might have a big impact on customer experience and satisfaction.

When I arrived at home, X factor was just on air. I really like Alexandra and Diana. They must be finalists. Alexandra has the best singing skill, and Diana is really charismatic. I can’t choose which is better, because their types are slightly different to each other.

Apple community

Yesterday, I went to Apple store for our research.
I tried to feel the mood, feeling and emotion, to see how customers behave. Basically the space was really energetic. Many customers circulated in the store. The customers are very various, from kids to elderly people. Among them, there two ladies, who it seems to me that they were looking for new computer for the mother, maybe she was between 60 and 70 years old.
I thought it was one of the good aspects of consumption. The activity produces some opportunities for families to communicate.

They also have lectures for their products. It looks like sort of “Apple community”. People gather with people who are interested in the same thing. Apple becomes a kind of hub to connect people. There is a community. It is also another advantage of consumption. Mutual experiences to use some particular products make us feel connected, and I think some companies try to take advantage of it.

The experience in Apple store was really comfortable, then I moved to Nokia store. The feeling was totally different. Basically there were few customers, it was not fair to compare it with Apple store directly, but the approach to customers seemed to be different to Apple as well. Their approach looked more technological and more “cool”. They seemed to want to show how cool they are. In a way, the approach might be really good, but my feeling in the store was a bit isolated.

Maybe the positions of Apple and Nokia are different. Nokia would want to be a pioneer of mobile phone technologies, but Apple might not care about it. Instead of that, it seems to me that Apple takes care about customer experiences. Both would be advantages of consumption, but the types are a bit different.

After that, I moved to college and checked some commercials of international brand companies. As I had seen in the store, Nokia’s approach was also kind of based on “coolness”. When it comes to Apple, they used both way. The commercial of iPod was really experience-oriented, maybe because the technology was not so special, but that of iPhone looked more technological, but based on experience-oriented.

I thought I would stay college as long as possible, but I felt a bit tired, so I went home earlier than I thought, but it might’ve been better to stay more, because in my room usually I’m too relaxed to study. I’m really not sure which is better to study at college for a long time or to change the place to study. Concentration should be important for learning, so I must put myself in a place where I can keep my concentration anyway.

Finally I watched “Shameless” to get used to English conversation in natural speed. It was the final episode of the first season. Its characters are basically crazy, but in the end it became happy ending, so my feeling was really good after seeing it.

the research of major brands

I applied for a part-time job. I’m looking forward to receiving the reply.

Our project is about “consumption” so we’ve decided to research major brands, such as Coca Cola. According to Interbrand, Coca Cola is the number one global brand. I checked Wikipedia, and their annual review. It’s crystal clear that they want to exploit the message of the global community through the experience of drinking Coke. It’s really interesting, because usually kind of globalisation is a negative discourse. The image is a bit boring and “Americanisation” and losing characters, but in a way it connects the world and promotes to understand each other and feel empathy. I think it is a positive side of globalisation and global companies.

Then, I saw a girl, who worked in art sector in Japan. She said the work was really hard because the budget was really limited. What she had to first was to build the connections with the politicians to keep the budget for art. He kept the work one way or another, but the budget for art was gradually lower and lower, then finally nothing, so she decided to quit the job. Her opinion about art market in Japan was negative, but my opinion was not so negative, so I told her my opinion and sort of “passion” to change the market, but only to confirm that she didn’t agree with it and realise that I might be just naïve.
Actually, however, I felt some opportunities in the art market, because the basement is so weak and there might be chances for new comers. Anyway I have to research the art market in Japan if I really want to join the market, and try and find what I can do and what my opportunity is.

Finally, I moved to White chapel to join a party of my classmates. I was really tired, so I didn’t feel up to going the party, but the party was a kind of graduation party of BA course of my classmates, so I thought I could see someone really interesting, but there was no classmates anymore, because it might have been too late. I should’ve finished the meeting with the girl earlier, but her story was really interesting and I couldn’t stop it. It would be better if I can see her again and talk about art or something with other friends. Some other friends of mine also have working experience in art sector in Japan, so they might come up with something from their conversation. It must be exciting time. That’ll be sort of synergy. Connecting people is really exciting, because there’ll be something more than “1 + 1 = 2”. 1+1 might be 3, 4 or something very interesting.

I remember another thing she said. She said people who can control budget for art in Japan were too conservative to understand the value of art policies. I agree with it, but I think we shouldn’t wait for it to change.

Innovation Leaders

http://www.bcg.com/impact_expertise/publications/files/Innovation_Aug_2008.pdf

One of our lecturers recommended us to read the report about innovation issued by BCG (Boston Consulting Group). I couldn’t get around to reading it for a while, but our presentation just finished and I had a bit of time for reading, so I finally read it.

The first half of that was not so interesting, but the chapter named “Becoming more innovative Enterprise” was very meaningful.

The author shows five common characters of the best innovation leaders:

-The Ability to Tolerate Ambiguity
-The Ability to Assess and Be Comfortable with Risk
-The Ability to Balance Passion and Objectivity
-The Ability to Change
-The Ability to Command Respect, Even from Those Who Are Skeptical.

Maybe it means being innovation leaders is very tough and stressful. We should expect there ARE troubles and overcome them instead of avoid them.
These abilities are a little bit too abstract, but they could be some of the core abilities which I have to acquire.

Presentation

I had a presentation yesterday, but I didn't have time ehough to prepare it well, so the quality is not as good as usual.

Maybe the point to be better is:
1. a story that connects each slides.
2. panchline.

This presentation is just for a couple of minutes, so not so difficult, but for learning something from actvity I should do hardwork for it.
I think it's right for everything. When you do something, you should be always serious, otherwise it will be wasting time.

Stay foolish, stay hungry. It's good words.

Minimal house hold altar "OFDA-DEN"

Ghost World

Funny and cynical.
The psychology of teenagers must be like that.
Scarlett Johansson is now a big star, but in the film she was still a cute girl.

The story itself seems to be simple, but actually it should be deep.
I felt I wish I could go back to days of teenager. They are free but don’t know where to go. At that time, it was just frustrated, but now I think it was a precious time.

2008 Power 100 List

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/10/14/baartists114.xml

The top is Damian Harst.
The only Japanese on the list is Takashi Murakami. He is really successful, some Japanese criticise him though.
Anyway, just one is a little bit miserable... How to make Japanese more international is a big challenge.

Philippe Starck's interviews

His interviews are really interesting.
He really thinks about future.

http://www.zeit.de/2008/14/Designer-Starck-14
Die Zeit in German
http://handmadezwonull.blogspot.com/2008/03/die-zeit-interview-with-philippe-starck.html
translation into English

http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/jul2008/gb2008078_897279.htm
Business Week in English

I really agree with the following part:

Society is pursuing a strategy of dematerialization: it is more and more about intelligence and less about material.

Philosophy for art and life

I went to my overseas study agency, and saw my agent. There were other students and he told us about Yoji Yamamoto and Issei Miyake. In his opinion, Yoji Yamamoto is like a cult religion. When he went to his studio in Paris, every staff looked like him. On the other hand, Issei Miyake is quite normal, and he has a philosophy of his works.

Recently I have felt philosophy is important for not only art but also life itself. I think people who have their philosophy are attractive, but actually it is difficult to answer the question of what your philosophy is.

My philosophy is like the following:
I think communication is really important for peaceful life. Most of troubles are caused by miscommunication or non communication.
You must have passion to achieve some dreams in your life, otherwise you lose your value to live. Just living to live is the same as death.

I must deepen them for all of my life.

Enrollment

Today was my enrolment day for my course. I went to school almost on time, but already there were a lot of people. Firstly the staff gave me a form for some information which I should fill in. After I finished the form, I moved to another room to get line up. The line was too long, so I had to wait for almost one hour.

I had already seen some classmates in my next course and I saw her there. We had a mutual friend, but she failed her English test, so it’s not sure she could enter our course. The time for queuing was really long but the process of enrolment itself was quick. I just showed my passport, English qualification, school qualification and receipt for the tuition fee. The process should go online. It must be quicker and easier.

Berlin Trip (2) : Cottbus University Library

The building is the library of Cottbus University. It takes one and holf hour to get there by train from Berlin. You should take a bus from station to the university, it takes almost 10 minutes. It is designed by Herzog & de Meuron. The exterior is very characteristic but fits with the location. The inside is very colourful. It might be still new, so most of the shelf is empty. Almost books were German books, and I can’t read German very well, so I couldn’t tell how good it is as a library. A friend of mine who went there together are interested in colour effect in interior space, so she was excited when she entered the space, but in my opinion vivid colours are not good for quiet spaces like libraries, but the part of the walls was made from steel and reflected the colour of floor and the other part of walls and it was beautiful.

Berlin Trip (1) : Bauhaus in Dessau

送信者 20080908

The picture was taken not in Berlin, but it Dessau.
It takes about one and half hours to get Dessau from Berlin.
We bought the express tickets, so it was more expensive than we had expected... We should have bought local tickets.
Dessau is famous for Bauhaus, but itself is not so big and not so flourished.
We joined the tour of Bauhaus and saw the inside.
It was usual and not special, but that's why it is important historically, because it was the start point of modern style architecture.

Google Phone v iPhone

http://www.designweek.co.uk/Articles/139724/Google+mobile+is+coming+soon.html

It must be interesting, it sounds like the extended battle between the giants in the computer market.
What is interesting about Apple is that they has restored control of the computer market as an hardware company. On the other hand, Google is a cutting-edge software company, which exactly might not be even a software company, but a web-service company.

Which company wins the battle should change the situation of the industry.

iPhone in Japan

http://www.yourcommunicationnews.com/news_item.php?newsID=10803

According to the article, The sale of iPhone in Japan is not as good as Apple expected. Japan market should be a bit different from the rest of the world.

When a friend of mine came to London, he brought iPhone and it looked very useful. If you can find WiFi network you can connect it, and it has GPS function, but actually there are a lot of types of cell phones in Japan, and it is difficult to differentiate the product. On top of that, changing a telephone line company is a bit difficult and the services different from each other. For a long time, mobile hand set has been almost for free, because the line companies are stronger than mobile phone manufacturers.
iPhone is cool and useful, but it might not be enough to be successful in Japan, but iPod has been quite popular, so if they take a proper brand strategy it is going to possible for them to sell more.

Dragons’ den

One guy was beat by the dragons, but one dragon told the others he should be educated not be beat, but another said his plan was dangerous and we should make him give it up or change his mind. In my opinion, both of them grasp the main points. Anyway I think it must not be just only the complacence of dragons.

My saddle has been stolen

I parked my bicycle in front of the flat of a friend of mine, then my saddle had gone when I went there to buy some more alcohol.
There had been no accident with my bicycle except for puncture, so I thought the security of London was not so poor and got careless.
What was the thief going to do with my saddle? Sell it or use it? Anyway I have to ride my bicycle out of the saddle for a while…

T-shirt folding: appendix of STIR Lecture of Dick Powell

He introduced it as a example of smart ways.
It's very interesting and smart...

STIR Lcture: Dick Powell

http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/newsandeventspggrp/imperialcollege/businessschool/events_summary/event_13-8-2008-12-13-31

I attended a lecture of Dick Powell at Imperial College.
It was really interesting. Listening to interesting lectures are quite profitable because it motives you to make effort for achieving your goal.
He was smart, eloquent and funny.
He’s got a lot of experience about product design, so he knew well about the difference between general images of design work and what it actually is.
What is the most impressive for me is his comment, “innovation is not a big idea, but usually a series of small ideas”.
Actually there are a lot of factors in design process, so innovation might not happen suddenly but it’s sort of circulation of creative process.

He told about how to get a job for young people, and the point is to become very good at “one thing”.
It is a good suggestion, but what is it for me? What is my advantage and differential point?
I might need to find the answer if you want to survive in design industry…

Lion King

Some friends of mine came to London from Tokyo, and they asked me to book some musical, so I booked the seats of Lion King.

As you know, it is one of most popular musicals in London. Maybe the reason is that the story is very simple and the theme, such as leadership, family and peace, is quite general.

During seeing it, I thought about leadership and the connection between fathers and sons. When the son lost his pride, he remembered he was a son whose father ruled the community as the king. Feeling of connection with other people makes people stronger. It might be a kind of general laws.
When I was young, I couldn’t understand it, but now I can. Family, society and so on are very important to live well.

Berlin Trip

20080910_berlin_trip

I went to Berlin with some friends of mine.
It was really interesting. The scenery of the city is different from London. Rather, it is similar to Tokyo. The reason might be that both of them were destroyed during Second World War.

Traditional buildings are few, and there are many modern buildings. The difference between Berlin and Tokyo is the density of the population. In Toyo are about 10 million people, but in Berlin 3 million people.

Tokyo is very powerful and energetic because of the huge population, but sometimes I felt it was too many, and actually I felt in this trip the size of Berlin was more comfortable. It is difficult to tell which is better, but we should think about the alternative ideas, such as the separation of city functions.

online trade in UK

“I thought I should learn about investment, and I looked around UK online brokers, but the commissions are very expensive...
Minimum is 6.95 pounds, but you have to make around 10 deals a month.
I asked a British friend of mine advice, but he was also taught by his lecturer that US market was more attractive...

Some stocks in UK are very attractive for me now, but it's a bit difficult anyway.
I think it might be difficult for beginners.

Life and Lyrics

It's a British film about its young culture.
The story was not so bad, and personally the exciting scene was the rap battle.
Actually their English during the battle was very fast, so I couldn’t understand most of them, but the atmosphere was interesting.
It reminded me of “call” battles in Japan.
“Call” has a special meaning in Japan. Sometimes, especially among young people like university students, people sing for forcing someone to drink alcohol, above all it’s a bottoms’ up, it was no so cool like the rap battle though (but too funny!!!).

X-files coming back!!

I went to see “X-files I want to believe”.
Several days have already passed, so the cinema was not busy.
Before I went there, I looked up the website for the preparation, and I was surprised when I found the first season was 1993!! It’s 15 years ago!!

The story is not bad, and Scully is not young but still cute, but I didn’t know she already quit FBI…

I saw an ad of a sequel of “The Terminator”… It’s already typical but I think Hollywood should be too defensive… but actually I’m looking forward to the sequel of Star Trek.

How much should we eat?

Since I came to London, How much I eat is dramatically decreased.
When I was in Japan, I worked as a sales person, so eating lunch with colleagues is a kind of a part of work, and usually went out to eat, but in London I usually eat in my place and the amount is not a lot. Sometimes I am really starving and feel bad, but I might get used to it, one day I felt good when I was heavily hungry.

Recently I have thought that you don’t need to eat a lot. Many advertisement and some TV programs recommend to have sufficient nutrition, but I think sometimes it is too much. It might kind of strategies of food industry.

a waiter work

I went to a restaurant in hotel in the early morning.
I thought I should not be late, so I left my place earlier, but it was too early, so I arrived there almost 20 minutes in advance, but already most of the staff were there.

I changed my clothes and shoes, then went to the kitchen.
The manager explained to me about the place, but it was really quick so it was difficult to understand.
I was not clearly sure about what I should do, but one girl was in charge of helping me and taught a lot of things during working. I made a lot of mistakes anyway. For example, waiter should not put a plate for gathering dishes on table, but I didn’t know so I did, and I shouldn’t have collected milk pots, butter dishes, which are basic stuff on tables and so on to the kitchen, but I did, and I shouldn’t have took customers’ coffee cups before they left their seat, but I did. I had no experience to do that, so it was really good experience for me to learn a lot, I am really not confident about whether I could get the job or not.

A part-time job

Last evening, I've got a call from a hotel in which I apply for a part-time job.
They asked me to come the next morning,and I accepted it, but actually I didn't know well how to work in a restaurant in a hotel.
At the time I was in a book store, so I looked for a book which introduced how to do it, but I counldn't find it.

I went back to home and googled some websites about it, and I found interesting movies on Youtube.
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=MCIxgRnshmk&feature=dir
It was a kind of a series of lessons for how to be a good waiter, it was too sophisticated for me though.

Then I found another series of movies, which is about how to make cocktails.

It was more interesting for me, and I wanted to become a bartender.
It must be difficult, and if I start it as an amateur, the tools are a lot and a bit expensive, and if you do it personally in your kitchen, how to prepare ice should be a problem, because they use a lot of ice without the least regret.
At any rate, how to make cocktails is very interesting.

Short films event again.

I went to a short films event again.
In my opinion, it was better than last time.
I think funny films fit short films more than some serious films, because building serious emotion would take longer time than funny feelings.

This event and place are really nice.
When I go back to Tokyo, I would like to make the same kind of place.

At a Korean restaurant

When I left my place, I was caught in a shower.
In Japan, usually I prepared to bring an umbrella, but I didn’t in London, because the rain in London is usually not so strong, and many people don’t use an umbrella, but it was a mistake for today.
The shower was gone soon, so I might have been ought to wait for a few minutes.

I met a friend of mine at central and headed to Korean restaurant. I wanted to bring her smartly, but I lost my way, we could find it soon though. I have been there a lot of time, so I didn’t check where it is before I came, but I should have. Idleness is the devil’s workshop.

We just talked about our flats, our works, and so on.
She is a native English speaker, so sometimes I lost her. Fast speaking is still difficult for me to understand. I usually wonder how I should improve my listening skill, which is my weakest point, but it might takes a lot of time…

The difficulty in flat shares

I had a dinner with some friends of mine in their flat.
That flat and flatmates were really nice and very comfortable, so we usually had a dinner there, but this time some flatmates didn’t join us.
Friends who joined last night told us they had trouble about flat sharing, such as how to share spaces, daily costs and so on. They looked got along with each other very well, it was a bit surprising. Some of them ware friends who has known each other before they started flat-sharing, but because of this trouble their friendship might be broken. It would be very sad.

Fortunately, I haven’t got any trouble with my flatmates, but many friends had some trouble actually. The worse cases are, like a example above, that sometimes friendships also disappear. Sharing a flat with old friends must be very fun, but you should not forget that it includes risks of the end of friendships. Anyway, if you decide to share a flat, it might be a better move to be generous even if you are right.

Olympic Games started

It is a big event in London as well.
Why am I not in Asia at this time? On top of that, I’m not sure I will still be in London when the next Olympic games come here…

I didn’t see well the opening ceremony, but many friends of mine told me it was really good.

Honestly I’m not excited though.
I don’t know the reason, but actually I’m not excited.
Is it because it’s so far?
Actually my life style is not fit with watching TV. I don’t see TV a lot. Maybe that is the biggest reason.
In addition, I think the Olympics are connected with a kind of nationalism, so I guess I need to be in Japan or with some Japanese to be excited. It is difficult to feel such kind of emotion in London as a foreigner maybe.

This time China team must be very strong.
I’m afraid how Asian economy changes after the Olympic games, because I think many people are optimistic about that because until the end of Beijing Olympic games the growth of economy should be stable.

This year is China’s year, but what is next?
Europe again, or the third world?
It must be a interesting theme.

introducing my course and designers in Japan

My agent called and asked me to introduce my course of the last year to a girl who were interested in it, so I went to their office with my works.

I’m really not sure whether she felt she wanted to enter the course or not, but at least she was a little interested in it.
She just quit her job in Tokyo, then came to London to study Design and Art. She attends a basic course for them.

My agent told us that Japan is not good for designers, but London is very generous to them, so many graduate students of Japanese don’t want to go back to Japan. One of them, he also said, went to Japan and found a job as a designer, but her holiday was just three days in New Year’s holiday in the first three years!! On top of that, it’s not special in Japan, because she actually got three offers from some companies, but that was the best and the others would gave no holiday…

Actually the status of designers might be low in Japan. I would like to improve it, because I think Japan have to change the industrial structure from labor-intensive to knowledge-based.

St Pancras Station

A friend of mine was leaving London by Euro Star from St. Pancras to Paris, so I went to send her off at the station.

The station was very clean and tidy, and I felt as if it were not in London:)
We had a cup of tea at "The Champagne Bar" in the station.
Actually we would like to have a glass of champagne, but it was too expensive for us…
One of them was about 500 pounds for 750ml!!
Anyway, the mood was really nice and relaxed.

An owesome new feature of Google Map in Japan

New feature is added to Google Map in Japan.
The name is "Street View".
You can feel as if you actually were there.

http://maps.google.co.jp/maps?f=q&hl=ja&geocode=&q=%E6%96%B0%E5%AE%BF%E9%A7%85&layer=c&ie=UTF8&ll=35.693631,139.701258&spn=0.00589,0.005815&z=17&cbll=35.691968,139.700896&panoid=RzTc9CX102wdfqcLHoQjkg&cbp=1,0,,0,5

I really want it to be added to the UK version.

Short Film Night

A friend of mine asked me to go to short films’ event together, so I went to Brick Lane.
The place was a bar named “1001”. The atmosphere was really good, a bit dark, and there were a lot of good furniture. The friend bought chips and it was really cheap, one portion was really huge, but just 1.5 pounds.

The films themselves were also very interesting. They were from all over the world form Russia to Korea.

Serpentine Pavilion 2008: Frank Ghary

This summer's Pavilion is designed by Frank Ghery.
When a friend of mine saw the drawings of Frank Ghery, she said, "What? He must be an artist..."

The quality is so high that we couldn't believe it was a temporary building.
The wood work is really nice. It has some small spaces which are a little bit higher than other floor.
We could see only the appearance in day time, but we feel it must be beautiful in lighting of night.



This kinds of events should be held more, especially in Japan, because they have to renew buildings for avoiding a tragedy of earthquake, so temporary buildings fit the geography of Japan.

Switzerland Report04: Herzog & de Meuron, Roche Pharma Research Institute

In my opinion, the character of the buildings is double layers.



The inside is not special, but the color lights are characteristic.



The next building covered with glasses is also designed by Herzog & de Meuron.



The curved mirrors on the roof are interesting and it makes a special inpression.

The other reports:
http://a-to-a.blogspot.com/2008/07/switzerland-report03-rheinfall.html
http://a-to-a.blogspot.com/2008/07/switzerland-report02-used-design-shop.html
http://a-to-a.blogspot.com/2008/07/switzerland-report01-freitag.html

Main Management Skills quoted from Rich Dad, Poor Dad

The main management skills needed for success are:

1. The management of cash flow

2. The management of systems (including yourself and time with family).

3. The management of people.

The most important specialized skills are sales and understanding marketing. It is the ability to sell--therefore, to communicate to another human being, be it a customer, employee, boss, spouse or child-that is the base skill of personal success.

It's very interesting and useful.
Selling!! It's really difficult. I was a sales person before, but it was really difficult but a good experience for me. We need to sell something to live through all of our life.
We should think what people need and how we can provide them, but don't get stressed, it's not a selfish work but for establishing win-win relationship.

Design industries are difficult for girls?

http://www.designweek.co.uk/Articles/139157/Female+directors+rare%2c+says+LCC+report+.html

The news is interesting, because I thought design industries were good for female workers.
It might be good for ladies to work as operaters, not exectives.

Switzerland Report03: Rheinfall

Here might be famous but not enough.
I heard It is the largest water fall in Europe, and actually it was really dynamic and powerful.
If you cannot find a good place to visit in Switzerland, I recommend to go there.
The access from Zurich is not bad.



The other reports:
http://a-to-a.blogspot.com/2008/07/switzerland-report02-used-design-shop.html
http://a-to-a.blogspot.com/2008/07/switzerland-report01-freitag.html

Four elements for developing your financial IQ

From Rich Dad, Poor Dad:
No. 1 is accounting.
No. 2 is investing.
No. 3 is understanding markets.
No. 4 is the law.

Incorporate & Grow Rich!

It is just reminder.

Incorporate & Grow Rich!


This book must be interesting, which is recommended in Rich Dad, Poor Dad.

Sudoku, and Kakuro

During our trip in Switzerland, we spent a lot of time in train, so usually I’m not so interested in puzzle games but I tried to do some games on papers.
Sudoku is very popular now. The rule is very simple, but not easy. All we have to do is put numbers from 1 to 9 in 9x9 boxes containing nine 3x3 boxes, avoiding put the same number in one line and one 3x3 box. It looks not difficult if you know the rule, but actually it’s a bit difficult.

Kakuro is more complicated. I think for beginners it should be more difficult than Sudoku, but it has some kind of formula, so if you learn them it should be apparently simpler.

Why aren’t Japanese people interested in politics?

During a party, a friend of mine asked me why Japanese are not interested in politics. I didn’t have a proper answer, but the following was my answer I thought in a very short time:

1. General Japanese attitudes: Generally, Japanese are supposed to be very obedient, so it is the same even about politics.
2. The problems Japan has are too complicated to solve just by political ways: Aging society, huge government bonds and so on.
3. The long political ruling by one party: Japan has been a democratic country, but actually it has been ruled by one party for a long time. Even now, there are two major political parties, but the second largest party has a lot of politician from the first largest party. It means there is no difference in political views between them.

They are just my opinions, and we should be more interested in it as our own problems.

Switzerland Report02: Used Design Shop

I saw a lot of used design shop in Switzerland.
It sells old modern furniture and so on.

It was one of them, which is named "BOGEN33" and located near the FREITAG shop in Zurich.

Some old stuff is really interesting, and gives us some new point of views for daily stuff.

Rich Dad, Poor Dad

An important distinction is that rich people buy luxuries last, while the poor
and middle class tend to buy luxuries first.

The lesson should be very useful, too much is not good though.

Shin Azumi, Tomoko Azumi

They are flourished in London as industrial designers.
Their works are generally very simple and sometimes very cute.


Shin Azumi's website:
http://www.shinazumi.com/
Tomoko Azumi's website:
http://www.tnadesignstudio.co.uk/
about more:
http://www.designmuseum.org/design/shin-tomoko-azumi

Switzerland Report_01: FREITAG

I went to Switzerland, mainly Zurich in this weekend.
I would like to introduce what I was interested in there.

A friend of mine in London had a “FREITAG” bag, and the design and quality was very cool. I heard the shop was in Zurich, so I visited there with some friends of mine.

The building itself looked a bit special, which was constructed with stacked containers. It is a clever way to show the brand concept.

Freitag’s main products are bags made with used track tarps, used seat belts, and used inner tubes, and there are many variations, such as wallets, iBook covers and so on.

I think it is very clever as a business. The costs of material are presumably low, but the price of product itself is not low. This brand is very popular at least in Switzerland and I saw a lot of people having them in the cities. It is a good example of how good designs increase a value of things.



FREITAG:
http://www.freitag.ch/shop/FREITAG/page/frontpage/detail.jsf
FREITAG SHOP ZÜRICH
Geroldstrasse 17
CH-8005 Zürich
Switzerland

Is your basement London, Tokyo or anywhere else?

Many friends of mine from Tokyo graduated from their course and was about to go back to Japan.
I guess, for Japanese students in London, which London or Tokyo they choose as their basement is really serious choice, because although the situation of Japan is not so good, it still has a large economy and the quality of products are excellent.

A friend of mine, who has stayed in London for about four years and studied fashion, is also going to go back to Japan. He said he wanted his basement to be Tokyo in the future. He has already stayed in London for a long time, so I thought he might well choose to stay more in London, but he said it was easier to get good products for making clothes in Tokyo.

I think I would like to work for a few years in London after graduation, but finally I might go to Tokyo as well. In London I would be just a foreigner, but I would fully take advantage of my career in Tokyo.
One day, a friend of mine in Japan asked me why I don’t choose to work in London because it would be very exciting. When I just came to London, I entirely agreed with him, but now just working in a foreign country is not so exciting for me.
Where I work is not important, what I will achieve is really significant.
World might be really flat. Recently I has really felt it.

UCL Bartlett Exhibition 2008

Some works were really crazy.
I felt as if I saw works of fine art students.






See also AA school Exhibithin Images

Chelsea College Exhibition 2008

Just interior design course's pictures are here.
Actually fine art was very interesting.

AA school Exhibition 2008

Architectural Association School Exhibition 2008.
My impression is that they are really smart. I expected their works were a bit crazy.
Which is better depends on your point of view.

Richard Rogers Exhibition at Design Museum

You can see almost the all his works from early works to works in progress.
I think his great point is that he makes very modernism concepts, which many people had been fed up with, as kind of his identity.
Many architects couldn’t get through, but he did.

The other point I was impressed from this exhibition is that he uses not only robotic structural elements but also color elements for some projects. I just knew very structural works of his.

A Huge Plug

It must supply every electricity in Lonodon.
It's located around Carnaby Street.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnaby_Street

Hakkasan

One of my tutors in Interior Design course suggested us to go to Hakkasan, a Chinese Restaurant in London, so I went there with some friends of mine.
I heard the owner was Hong Konger, and the interior design looks modern Asian style. I think it is similar to some well-designed restaurants in Japan.

One of the staff was Japanese and told us the restaurant was in a list of the best restaurants in the world.
The mood was really nice, it’s a bit expensive for students though (we just drank one glass of cocktails, but it cost almost 10 pounds a person!!)
If this kinds of Asian style restaurants are successful in London, it might be able to spread all over the world.

Lessons from Dragons’ Den quoted from Short List

It is interesting for people who think to be an entrepreneur.
The steps which are introduced in Short List is:

Know Your Numbers
Research the Market
Make a Robust Plan
Do the Basic Maths
Manage Your Cash Flow
Don’t Fudge or Lie
Presentation is Key
Know Your Audience
Be Realistic

Audition

This Japanese film is really scary!!!
It might be the most horrible film I have ever seen.
It’s really difficult to see the scene of the punishment…but it is very interesting, I can't recommend it to people who don't want horrible films though.

Japan buys ideas from London

In London now is the graduation season, so many friends of mine graduated from school recently. A friend of mine is looking for some internship in London and she told me when she had an interview.

She told me she heard from the interviewer that some company in Japan came to buy their ideas of design. When I heard it, I was really disappointed because I thought Japan should become a country to which foreign companies come to buy their idea. If Japan keeps buying ideas, the future of design industries in Japan will be really dark.

IDSA awards

The Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) announced their awards' winners.
http://www.idsa.org/

The Diver

I went to see “The Diver”, a play directed by Japanese famous director Noda Hideki, to SoHo theatre, because the play at 3:00 on Thursday was the cheapest one, it just cost 7.50 pounds. Noda also played a main character.
It’s kind of psycho suspense and includes the elements of a Japanese traditional play and a literature.

The stage is in Tokyo of today, but one girl misunderstands herself as the characters of The Tale of Genji, which is a famous Japanese historic literature.

I didn’t expect that it was interesting, but it’s actually very intriguing.
I felt it was a psycho suspense drama so that the message was not so poetic, but the staging and acts were very sophisticated and exciting as a suspense drama.

Lulworth

I went to with Lulworth with some friends of mine. It took about 3 hours to get there from London. It has just one train a hour usually.The beach was beautiful and the waves are not so strong, so it’s not good for surfing but just for enjoying with water it is very nice, the water was very cold though (Nevertheless some brave people entered it…)
You needed to go over a little hill to get the beach, although a taxi driver we used told us he could bring us the closer place.

There seems to be famous for the exposed geological formation.
Anyway it was really good for a easy holiday.

Where is the best place to surf near the UK

When I went back to Japan few weeks ago, I surfed in Japan.
The experience was really amazing, so I would like to do it again near the UK, but I’m not sure where the best place is.

I’m planning to go to Morocco with some friends of mine, but last night when I asked a friend of mine who likes surfing very well he told me it was a good choice if I was interested in the sightseeing as well, but if I just wanted to surf Cornwall might be better because it’s easier to access and the wave is not so difficult if I can choose a proper place.
I checked the websites about Cornwall, and it was very beautiful!!
Now my mind is about to change to Cornwall…

London and Tokyo

When I was in café with a friend of mine, he asked me what the most impressive thing is in London.

Honestly when I came to London I was a bit surprised because the city didn’t look so powerful, but the economy was in a good condition.
My impression of Tokyo was totally different. Tokyo was very energetic, but the condition of the economy was not good.
Actually I had not lived in any other country, so I was not aware of the power of Tokyo, but now thanks to my experience of living in London, I can recognize it.

In my opinion, London is more mature city than Tokyo, and the structure of the economy is to get money from the outside of the city.
Tokyo is getting money inside.
Now is still ok, because Tokyo is still big, but in the future the situation is going to be changing. The population should decrease, and the proportion of elder people is going to get larger.
Tokyo should change like London.
My current dream in my career is to support the change in some way or another.

sleeping mystery

Today, I slet few hours, but not so tired, but sometimes I'm tired when I sleep enough.
It's not unusual, but the reason should be very mysterious.

Shibuya New Station

In Shibuya, one of the biggest stations in Tokyo, new platform was open which was designed by Tadao Ando.
Many media are interested in it.
One of the concenpt of the station is ecology. It is designed to be effiicient ecologically.

http://www.wallpaper.com/architecture/shibuya-station-tokyo/2494

Art School Graduation Ceremony?

Yesterday, our graduation ceremony was held.
Our university was an art school, but everyone looked usual.
In Japan, the ceremony of some art schools are kind of chaos, but it is more natural, isn’t it?
Actually I can’t say anything, because I didn’t attend the ceremony.

Of course, creativity is not the same as things which looks strange, but I guess sometimes it requires crazy power to make fabulous things!!

I remember the difference between AA school and Bartlett.
AA school is cool but statistic, Bartlett is crazy but dynamic.

Applied for part time job in London

Now is holiday until new course starts, so I need to get some part-time job.
I found an ad of a translation job on a Japanese classified and sent a CV. I’m not sure which I should make my CV in Japanese or English, so I made both of them and sent it.

Firstly I didn’t know how to write CV, so I found some formats on the Internet and filled in them. In an English format, there was a space for “summary of qualifications”. I think it is usually not in Japanese CV format because sometimes too much appealing their advantage doesn’t give a good impression in Japan.
I was not sure about my advantage, but I managed to make it up.

Later, I’ve got the reply which told me they will send a trial test of translation from English to Japanese.
I’m looking forward to it coming.

AA school and UCL's exhibition 2008

I went to the exhibition of AA school and Bartlett.
My rough impression is that AA is more architectural and Bartlett is more artistic.

I felt many works in AA tried to show beauty in construction, but Bartlett tried it in how to show it. AA looks smarter, but Bartlett looks more passionate.

My prejudice was different from my actual impression. I thought AA was more passionate, but it was wrong. Some works Bartlett’s students are almost crazy, but very powerful.

Bartlett
http://www.bartlett.ucl.ac.uk/architecture/events/summer/summer.htm
AA school
http://www.aaschool.ac.uk/default.aspx?entryId=1836&section=eventsArchive

Tanabata

A friend of mine in Taiwan came to Tokyo with her sister, and I guided her in Tokyo a little.
We went to Tokyo tower with them, but surprisingly, in spite of closing time soon, there were many couples, whose girl friends wore Youkata, traditional Japanese wears for summer.
I got the reason soon. That day was 7th July. It was Tanabata, Japanese traditional lovers’ memorial day.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanabata

Jet Lag

I thought the minimum unit of time differences was one hour, but it was wrong.
That of Katmandu is plus 5:45!!
Mmm, I guess the gap of 15 minutes must be very important…

Pirates

I went to Japanese seafood restaurant, called "Pirates" in Japanese, with my aunt.
She has known it for 30 years.
One of the characters and advantages of Japanese food is seafood. There are a lot of ways to cook it as well.
My aunt told me that just only how to cut fish changes the taste!!

http://asoboo.com/places/Tokyo/Kinshi-cho/Kaizoku
(Sorry, the following URL is in Japanese)
http://r.gnavi.co.jp/b040200/

Life is limited

Life is limited with space and time, so efforts to be perfect are always in vain.
Setting your goal for what you want to be and thinking how to achieve it are more practical.

Vitra's new website

http://www.vitra.com

I like the global map. It's really cool.

3G iPhone!!

According to the New York Times, Apple has also filed patents for solar cell
technology that would sit under the iPhone’s screen, and potentially enable it
to be charged by the sun.

http://www.designweek.co.uk/Articles/138712/Apple+reveals+new+products.html

New iPhone should be exciting!!
What interests me is solar cell technology, because actually sometimes I forget to charge it.
It is going to be very useful function. (Why did some companies put it on mobile phones before? Or just I don’t know?)

I like “nomadic” life style, so this function will make me free from charging my mobile phone in my room!!!

Desire and Patience

"he was DETERMINED TO REMAIN READY UNTIL HE GOT THAT WHICH HE WAS SEEKING."

p. 20, Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich

I think for being successful in something we should be patient, and for being patient we need to have strong desire.
How to find desire in ourselves is reallly difficult, because there might not be a perfect method, and it should be different from each other.

It can be called " the power for living" or "the power for surviving".
Sometimes I feel the power of mine is not so strong, and how to develop it is a big task for me now.

How should I turn on myself?

It is my serious problem of my life...
Sometimes I really lose my motivation to do something.

I tried a lot of things to do it, for example:
Taking shower
Having meal
Sleeping
Just taking five

However, I haven’t found the best way yet.
I read an article about Japanese cartoon author. He is able to turn on his switch of “creativity” after he trained himself to do that for a long time. The author of the article called him a genius, and I agree with it.

Writing a post for blog itself is for motivate my feeling to do my project, it’s not going to work well… I have to find another way. If I found it, I would be a kind of genius…

My life is...

My life is up to me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
No one can be responsible for my life but me.
People are just saying or saying for their own.

Don't lose your way!!!

Model making, and Red Hot Chili Peppers

I tried to concentrate on making a computer model, but it is really difficult. For a breaking time, sometimes I listened to the tunes of Red Hot Chili Peppers. I had three favourite music artists in my life. The first one was Queen. I got to know them when I was a junior high student and Freddy had already passed, but his voice captured me and I thought I didn’t need any other music but theirs.

The second was Radio Head, especially the songs in “OK computer”. I think every teenagers should listen to them as a trial. Their melancholic sounds totally fitted my psychology in teenage days.

The third one is The Red Hot Chili Peppers, but I just like their songs after Californication, so I might not be a real freak of them. I can’t explain the cool point well, but I think the key factor is the sound of bass, I guess the bassist, Flea, must be a genius.

Anyway, I have to focus on my project. Keeping motivation is sometimes very difficult. I don’t know why, but sometimes I can’t control it. I know I should control it, but my consciousness is going to some different direction naturally.

Littlehampton and Arundel

I went with some friends of mine to Littlehampton where is located at southern England, and it takes one and half an hour to get there from London Victoria Station. The purpose was to see a café on the beach designed by Thomas Heatherwick.

I was interested in the exterior, but actually the interior was more interesting. The detail was not so sophisticated and I felt a bit disappointed, but the inside is also a dynamic shape like the exterior, so I was a little bit surprised because I did totally not expect it. The café was very popular and not so big, so we wanted to have lunch there but it was already full with reservation.

When we walked around the café and beach, we found a recreation amenity, where you can play mini golf, bowling and so on. One staff approached us and asked us to see how to play bowling because he thought we hadn’t seen it. Actually we didn’t know well about the game, so we followed them.
I thought we could just watched it, but when a friend of mine told the staff if we could play it or not, the staff accepted it with good cheer.

The game, bowling, was very simple game, whose purpose is to make hit a target with a bit distorted ball, but actually very difficult and exciting. Balls used in the game are not perfect round, so they always take a curve. All you do is just adjusting the throwing speed and angle, but it’s not so easy. I always thought next throwing must be successful, and I couldn’t stop playing it soon. It was very good experience, and really fun, thank the staff!!!!
.
Then, we went to Arundel, where the staff in recreation facility recommended us to visit. There is a big castle, which has a large garden. The entrance is not for free, but you can see many rooms and facilities in the castle. Usually the ornament is very classic, but some of them were humorous decorations such as funny faces, and there was some Chinese furniture, so I wondered if it was stolen.

On the train for return, we played tramp cards’ game. I think it is very interesting to play it with foreign people because they usually play very different games, and some games are very similar to ours, but sometimes the detail is different. It is very good to understand other cultures.

Crime and Design

http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/5173/

Government attempts to ‘design out’ crime by sticking anti-theft,
noise-emitting devices around the country will make us feel less secure.

I can understand what it means, but if so, what can designers do for reducing crime?
It is clear that it is the most important that communities and people themselves should be more secure and ethical, but it has almost nothing to do with design. The author might be afraid of design becoming too ethics to be attractive. On that point, I agree with the author, but I also feel it is a little nonsense that designers, or people who have a job related with design, appeal the uselessness of design.

How to avoid jet lag

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7414437.stm

"So, in this case, simply avoiding any food on the plane, and then eating as
soon as you land, should help you to adjust and avoid some of the uncomfortable
feelings of jet lag."

It's a interesting research, but I really like relax time in air plane, such as having meal, watching movies, drinking beer and so on, so maybe I can't follow this advice...

What should I do next year?

Now I should be busy for final project, but actually the most biggest problem for me now is what I should do next year.

I have two plans now. One is to go to a kind of a design marketing course in London, and the other is going to Architecture course. The latter has also two choices, it’s in London or Tokyo, so actually there are three plans.

Now, I think first choice is better, because I would really like to stay in London more if I don’t need to care about a financial aspect. Marketing course is not so bad, and I should get a interesting job related with design and art. It is the most possible solution so far.

The second choice, studying architecture in London, is ideal choice but not actual, because studying architecture take a long time and very expensive in London. The third choice is a sort of compromise resolution, but actually I think it is too early to go back to Japan now. Staying in a foreign country for just one year is too short to really learn something like the language, the culture and so on.

Anyway, I’ve got to get any offer from school or company, otherwise I have no choice but going back to Japan. I have already applied for some courses but I haven’t received any reply yet. I asked the staff who supported me to apply the course to confirm it, but it has been no reply yet as well…

Manchester United!!!!

Yesterday, there was the final match of Champions League.
I don’t have particular favourite football team, but my college is Chelsea, so usually I hope Chelsea to win.

The game was very good, it’s very exciting and I couldn’t expect the result until the last moment. I really like John Terry, so when his soot went out, I felt so sad. Penalty Kick is decided almost accidentally. The ability of kickers doesn’t have nothing to do with the result in most cases.

I wish I would have been in Moscow…
I’ll go to football stadium to see a football match in London one day….

Animation on the wall

I have totally no idea about how to make it. It must have taken ages....

http://www.fhm.com/site/videochannel/channelindex.aspx?categoryid=193

www.blublu.org
http://www.blublu.org/sito/video/video.htm

Engineering work or Financial work?

Interbrand to create branding for engineering body
http://www.designweek.co.uk/Articles/138498/Interbrand+to+create+branding+for+engineering+body.html

Now, many engineering undergraduates want to work in financial industry. I think it is the same as Japan. When I searched for some job just after I graduated from my university in Japan, I saw many engineering students in briefing sessions of financial companies.

I think it is inevitable that students move from engineering industry to financial industry as the situation of industry in the country is changing.

Japan is still strong in engineering world, but I think, in the future, the situation will change. I think Japan should be strong in finance and creative industry, because it is very difficult to survive in labor-intensive industry.

The UK should be already in this situation, so for people who are related with engineering industry it is very important to take back good engineering students, but like I said, I think it looks against trend of the times.

Bicycle repaired/ For succeeding as a designer strong passion must be needed!!!

My bicycle got a flat tire, so I brought it to a repair shop. It is not the nearest one from my place, but it is the cheapest in all I have know. I repaired it only few weeks ago, but the condition of the rear tire was too bad, so it might have been easy for the internal tube to get punctured.

The staff recommended me to change the external tire, but the shop itself already closed, he asked me to come again later. I saw the inside of the shop and it was really messy!!! It was packed with bicycles!!! I was a bit surprised…



A friend of mine in Japan introduced a friend of her who is living in London now to me. I had sent e-mail to her and got an appointment to see her today. We gathered at London Bridge station and went to a café which I usually go when I come to London Bridge. Meeting a new person is always exciting. I really like it, sometimes I get a bit nervous though.

She’s studying English now and moves to the Lake District a few months later. Her English course includes internship, so she works in the Lake District. It might be better for learning English than just staying in London, it might not be so fun though.

She worked in a interior design company and she told me how it was. Her company didn’t want her to quit her job, but she thought the reason was that the salary was too cheap for other people to want to work in the company. I often heard that design and architecture work in Japan was very hard, and her case sounded like the same. It might mean many people want to work in the industry and strong passion must be needed to succeed!!!

skin

It’s interesting.
Why?
1. Cultural difference
I don’t know well about teenagers’ life in England. Of course, it’s just a fiction, so I shouldn’t just believe it, but comparison between them and that of Japanese are very interesting as well as mine. My school life was not so exciting!! I never regret my teenage life, but sometimes I think I should be more active. It is still right for my current situation. I think we don’t need to think we should be mature. Steve Jobs also says, “stay hungry, stay foolish”. What beautiful words they are.

2. Not so happy story
It’s not just easy soap opera. Every character has some trouble, but they are not so negative. According to Wikipedia, one comedian says Skins makes viewers lonelier, but I think actually it won’t, because they don’t lose their hope. The reason is their youth. I should admit that every young people are very powerful, but we should be always positive and never lose our hope.

Richmond Park

I went to Richmond Park, which is the east side of London.
http://www.royalparks.org.uk/richmond/

It has kind of hill and the view is quite nice.
The name has "park", but actually it looks like a forest or wilderness, and there are many deer.
Today's weather was very mild, so it's a good day for hiking.

It's very difficult to find such kinds of parks in Tokyo.
We should have brought a mattress and some stuff for playing in the field.

What do you know the most expensive house is?

So far, it is Residence Antilia, owned by Reliance head Mukesh Ambani in Munbai. It is expected to cost $2bn...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7379562.stm

I wish I could get one percent of the cost.
The design is also interesting.

Why are Model T black?

"Continued Notably, for many years the Model T was solely available with black paintwork due to the fact that the black paint dried faster than any other color"
http://www.9sky.ca/7503

It is very interesting, because nowadays color is just option and i thought it has nothing to do with the productivity.

Extensions

It has been a long time sice I posted my last entry...
I would like to try to do daily update.
It might make me more sensitive about information of design.

Recently I have focused on my project in my course.
Now, I'm trying to make "sacred" small living space, and I found a good book, which is actually about extinsions of houses, but it has a lot of good ideas for small spaces.



For me, the last chapter "innovative additons" is the most inspiring.
If you are looking for some references about small spaces, small houses and big effects with small gesture, this book might be helpful.

loftcube

This house is famous, so you might already kknow it, but I would like to introduce the video about it.

English Idioms: The sky is the limit.

The sky is the limit. (The possibility is endless...)

http://www.goenglish.com/TheSkyIsTheLimit.asp

Robin Hood (TV)(2006)

I watched BBC’s TV series “Robin Hood”.
I like the character of Much, who is a right-hand man of Robin Hood, and the relationship among Robin, Marian and Guy.

the attitude of Robin about love is very indirect, so sometimes it was very frustrating in a good meaning…

the website:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/robinhood/

Best Global Brands 2007

It's a ranking of best global brands.
When I saw it, I felt the center of the world is still the U.S.

http://www.interbrand.com/best_brands_2007.asp

Design London

Design London is a joint venture between RCA and Imperial College London.
London focuses on making synergy between business and design.

... how Britain uses design to build an innovation culture over the next 20 years will play a big role in determining its place in the global economic pecking order. Failure to turn creative ideas into market innovation will cost the country dear, as China's manufacturing might casts its shadow over the whole picture.

p.6, New Design, 2008, issue 58

Design London
http://www.designlondon.net/

Cambridge

I went to Cambridge with my classmates.
My favourite thing in Cambridge was punting.
The punting guy was the same university student as us by chance.
Two other girls were aboard the same boat, and the one girl was a high school student, who wants to enter Cambridge University.
She asked him why he didn’t enter the university, and he replied her London is better place because you can experience many things, there is expensive though.
I agree with him.
Cambridge should be very good to study because it is quiet and beautiful, but life is not just studying.

In terms of architecture, King’s college chapel was very interesting for me.
The ornament of ceiling and stained glasses are exquisite.

The landscape is very traditional, so if you are not used to it, it must look very beautiful.

Cambridge punting:
http://www.punting-in-cambridge.co.uk/
king's college chapel
http://www.kings.cam.ac.uk/chapel/

Copyrights of Star Wars

I think it is very difficult for Ainsworth to win the lawsuit....

The result becomes clear next Tuesday.

from Guardian:
http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2271561,00.html
Shepperton Design Studios:
http://www.sdsprops.com/

City of the Future

This competition was hosted by discovery channel. It already finished, but very interesting.
It was held in 2006 and the task was to imagine the city of 2106.

This video is the introduction of this competition:






This is about Los Angeles competition:







The website:
http://www.history.com/marquee.do?marquee_id=51808

Car traps against car thieves

http://www.wired.com/cars/coolwheels/magazine/16-04/ps_baitcar

It’s very effective, I don’t know how much it costs though.
What can design do for reducing crimes?
It must be indirect ways.

Spirit Trap (2005)

I watched Spirit Trap, because I saw Billie Piper playing in Dr. Who.

According to Wikipedia, it got “generally poor reviews”.
The reason might have been that the characters were too typical, especially the bad guy character, but I felt that the psychology of people who felt guilt about a death of a person who is very close to them is very interesting. It is very difficult to understand it, because sometimes they seem to blame themselves too much.
I think it’s kind of a dilemma.
If you don’t blame yourself and feel nothing when someone die, you should feel you are cold and merciless…

The web site:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_Trap
Billie Piper:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billie_Piper

ET?

Are there any ETs in the universe?
I like sci-fi, but it is a bit difficult for me to feel a reality from works about aliens, but if they are in the world, it should be more fun, we might fight against each other, though…

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7333155.stm

Enchanted (2007)

Before, I liked complicated movies, but recently my taste has changed.
Now, movies which are easy and clear to understand are also my cup of tea.
“Enchanted” is one of such kind of films.
I think it is very difficult to convey some messages to viewers even if the message is very tiny, but easy movies resolve the problem in a way. It might be not a perfect solution, but I recon it is sometimes very powerful.

We can’t be always cold and realistic, nor romantic and optimistic, and we should be well-balanced between them.
Usually, I laugh at the naiveness of romantic stories, but I found myself attracted with it.

The website:
http://adisney.go.com/disneyvideos/liveaction/enchanted/

Amy Adams
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_Adams

John Soane Museum

I went there with my classmates.
It was John Soane's house, but he change it into a museum for students and beginners of art, architecture and sculpture.
I like the intention. Famous artists and designers should do the same thing.

The most interest thing there for me is the sarcophagus of Seti I. I wondered why it is here, not in Egypt.
It must have been stolen or robbed, but I’d like to imagine the history it has been seen.

The website:
http://www.soane.org/

Sea Change

The UK invests 45m pounds for Sea Change for three years.
I think how to keep the cities clean is also very imoprtant as well as their design.
If sea side cities become beautiful, many people come and they flourish, but at the same time visitors bring a lot of rubbish. It can make them dirty easily...

from DCMS
http://www.culture.gov.uk/Reference_library/Press_notices/archive_2008/dcms034_08.htm
World Wide Words: Sea Change
http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-sea1.htm

Ron Arad/ Timothy Taylor gallery

Exhibition of Ron Arad will be held at Timothy Taylor Gallery in spring 2009.
It's just my opinion, but his works, such as Tom Vac, are very popular in Japan as well.

Ron Arad
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Arad_(industrial_designer)

Timothy Taylor Gallery
http://www.timothytaylorgallery.com/
The map:
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&q=Timothy+Taylor+Gallery&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl

Timothy Taylor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Taylor_%28art_dealer%29

Gordon Russell Museum was opened

At 4th Apr, Gordon Russell Museum was opened.
http://www.gordonrussellmuseum.org/
Opening Times 2008 Open November - February 11 am - 4 pm Tuesday through to Sunday Open March - October 10 am - 5 pm Tuesday through to Sunday Closed every Monday (except Bank Holidays)From 2009 onwards the Museum will be closed during January Admission Charges Adults - £3.00 Concessions - £2.50 Children under 16 - £1.00

Gordon Russell
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Gordon_Russell

Terence Conran
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terence_Conran

The Mist

It is an interesting horror film.
The original story is a book written by Stephen King.

A village is fulfilled by mist, and something is in it.

In the beginning, I thought it was a usual grade-B film, but it includes themes of religion and weakness of people who face extraordinary horror.

I think the monster must be hidden for stimulating our imagination. Sometimes imagination exceeds computer graphics!!!

How to represent "sacred"

Last week, I brought some small paper models to my uni and I talked with my tutor. Last time, he suggested me I should see works of Carl Andre. I felt his works are very simple, they have a strong gesture. He uses tiles and woods for his work, and I thought sphere has some impressions of sacred, so I used it in my models. In addition sky is very important factor for me to feel sacred emotion, so I also made some models that have elements of sky.

Many tutors don’t prefer my sphere models, but he said he liked it, but it was not clear that it was his honest opinion. He gave me two advices. One is to “borrow” some spaces to make sacred spaces, because I always tried to make up them by myself, but he showed me that there were many beautiful places in our college. The other is to think well of how to represent “sacred”. There are many methods for that, such as drawing, computer, and pictures. They are good suggestions and I got motivation, but actually I’m not sure what is the best way to show my concept clearly, so I’ve got to do some trials.

Thursday tutorial

On last Monday, since my tutor suggested me that I should research how to sit and human body, I researched them. I gathered some images about relaxation and meditation, including ergonomics chairs, airplane chairs and so on. In addition, I also gathered some art works of lighting, such as James Turrell, Larry Bell and Olafur Eliasson.
I prepared these stuffs, but in this tutorial, which another tutor hosted, he wanted to see not research but materials, so I just showed my models and told him my intention that I thought I was about to make a small relaxation space, following another tutor’s advice, but my presentation just ended up showing the fact that my process was very slow, and my tutor advised me to make twelve sacred spaces for our college. Each space has intended members in the space, from one to twelve.
I guessed his intention of this advice was to make me speed up with giving clear directions. I went back to my start point again, but my direction became clearer, so All I have to do is just try to do it.

Relaxation booth

I had a tutorial yesterday. As always, I brought some models. Usually I don’t draw images about my project, but this time I did it in order to make my idea clearer, so I brought them as well.
I like my sketch images, but my tutor was not so interested in it but models. My idea is to make a small café like Japanese tea rooms, but she suggested me café should be already popular, so I should focus on how to sit in the space. Meditation space for relaxation is very interesting, and it might be like phone booth. I like this idea, and my tutor also advised me to research human body for making relaxation space.

In last project, I learnt the fact that if you have a strong opinion and concept, you lose your way easily, but I am caught by the same trap. Is it based on my personal character? I am not sure. Anyway, I felt my project gradually became more embodied.

I went back to the beginning

I made a model and brought it to my tutorial.
While I made it, I was afraid that the model was too simple, because the model just represented a simple hemisphere, but I like the shape of frame.

My tutor told me that I had gone back to very basic stage. It was just structure. Actually I was not interested in the structure itself but the lighting effect. I should have prepared better. My tutor also suggested me the stage, which was struggling with structures because many people can do sophisticatedly, should be quite difficult.

He also advised me to try to make a smaller space like a bedroom and I should find some ideas from the model.
Maybe my interest is to Architecture, but I should focus on interior now.
I thought curved shapes are very impressive for me as a “sacred” expression, but it’s a matter of exterior. When it comes to interior, I feel lighting effects are very important for expression of “sacred”, so now I think of exploring lighting effects.

English pronunciations

Needless to say, Japanese is not good at speaking English.
Generally speaking, there are two reasons. Firstly, English education in Japan focuses on reading and grammar. Secondly, Japanese pronunciation is very simple and quite different from that of English.

Today, I exercised English pronunciation, and I’ve got interested in those of “dn” and “tn”, “tl” and “dl”. “dn” is included in “garden”, “tn” is in “cotton”. “tl” is in “kettle”, and “dl” is in “candle”.

They are very difficult for me, but the sounds are very interesting, because usually Japanese pronunciation are constituted by single vowel, or a combination of a vowel and some consonants, such as “ka”, “wa”, “” and “i”, so I am not familiar with double consonants in Japanese contexts and they sound very “English-like” for me.

tutorial 20080218

I had a tutorial today.
I edited some images as my inspiration and brought it and some models to the class.
My tutor appreciated my models, and suggested me to think what scale I want to make my project in and think of it clearly. She also encouraged me to keep making sketch models.

I didn’t expect that I could get a good reaction, so little bit surprised, and I felt I should have clearer images of my project.

Next Step: to keep making models

lost my way

This week, I made models with shapes of honeycombs, but after I talked with my tutor, I changed my idea and I thought I would make models of curved shapes.
It was good that my direction became clear, but there are many curved shapes in the world, so It is difficult to find which shapes I am interested in.

Following my tutor’s advice, I collected some images related with my project. I was interested in modern churches, I selected Ronchamp chapel designed by Le Corbusier, Jubilee Church by Richard Meier.
Then I read “Architecture Now! 3” in the library in my university, and I was really inspired by the works of Calatrava. Curved shapes in his works are quite beautiful and from them I can feel something “sacred”.
My image of a health center of my project is a compounded facility with a spa and a café, and looks like a room of a spaceship in “2001: A Space Odyssey, so I chose some images from the film.

I researched like that, but I have not got some inspiration yet… In my last project, I could get some idea about rhythmic shape, but in this project, it is more difficult. I have no choice but making something, but I feel I might lose my way now.