Being sick in a foreign country is really not a good thing. I’ve been cooped up in my hotel room for almost 24 hrs now waiting for whatever I have to go away. I hope it’s not the SARS (ha, just kidding). Its more like a cold gone mad. Maybe a little flu mixed in there. yuck. Anyway, it’s given me a chance to comb through the last few days of photos and give you some more to look at.

Tokyo has become a place of inspiration. If any of you get the chance to come here, especially as artists and designers, do it. There is nowhere else in the world quite like it. Being placed in such a vastly diffrent culture not only forces you to change your way of looking at things, but it allows you to be a part of them as well. When anxieties and inhabitions are let go you can really feel it, allowing you to immediately become part of something. That something in this case is the constant ebb and flow of design that is the basis of how people live here.

What really influenced me apart from the culture and views of design was meeting other international designers. I have always valued the perspective of others, but I always find it immensely interesting from non-americans. On the surface, we all speak the same language (designer language), however there are always slight tweaks as to how that understanding or conclusion was made. This is where things get interesting and you learn so much more.

Because of the sheer size of our country, there are a lot of great ideas, manufacturers, designs, designers, and products that never make it here or only do so regionally (more than likely nyc). There are a lot of great things that happen in our country that don’t make it to the international scene either though. With this in mind, finding new ideas, people, products, materials, even companies who do amazing design in other parts of the world its like finding hidden treasure. The exchange of information is invaluable in any context, and in design its what makes our world go round.

We leave for home the day after tomorrow and there is so much more I wanted to see and do (especially because i’ve lost a few days with being sick!). But at the same time, I feel like I’ve been here a long time. Tokyo needs to be done in pieces. I hope the following pieces won’t be too far behind.

Yesterday we stopped for lunch in a very interesting restaurant on our way to the Nike Design Pod. The decor was all in english and very tex-mex/southwestern looking but they served nothing but curries, both Indian and Japanese. The food was pretty good but it felt really strange to sit in a place decorated like that in the middle of Japan. If I didn’t look out the window (and ignored the Indian food) I could’ve sworn I was just at another Chili’s in Tigard.

After lunch, we met up with Howard Lichter at the Nike Design Pod which was pretty cool. It’s a beautiful building in the middle of a neighborhood which I like to refer to as the ‘Tualatin of Tokyo.’ I would post pictures, but Howard said we weren’t allowed to publish them, so I won’t.

It was a brief visit, but Howard explained to us the challenges of marketing the Nike brand to a culture whose ‘fad metabolism’ is about five times faster than anywhere else in the world. It seems pretty incredible to me that they are able to keep up but it is Nike afterall and they have super secret magical marketing powers.

Afterwards we walked around Daikanama where there were a bunch of higher-end clothing stores. It was a nice little neighborhood and a warm afternoon. Everyone was walking toy breed dogs who were all dressed up in little doggie outfits. Before getting on the subway we were able to sit down and have a five dollar(!!) cup of coffee in a cute little French cafe. I felt it was well worth the money for a little bit of relief from so much walking.

Next we went to Harajuku to visit our host, Kurosaki at his bar/restaurant, Smoke. The view was amazing and we were served delicious red champagne and fancy h’orderves including toast topped with squid ink and parmesan cheese. It was surprisingly quite tasty!

Today, the rest of the group is at a design event where I hope to meet them later. Unfortunately for me, I am feeling ill and will being going to the doctor here in a few minutes. This could be interesting…

I hope all is well at PNCA! I’ll write more over the next few days!

Last night we went to an exclusive pre-party for the Design Tide (we basically crashed it, but we just had to go!). There was a mixture of coolness and some not-so-coolness there, but none the less I am super excited to see the rest of what’s to come! What a way to experience design in such a global yet community-esk environment. Rad.

Pretty

We are going underground

Moss Covered Table

This lamp is made out of some neat wiggly material

Shimmering Goodness

So it’s been a few days since we arrived in Tokyo. I haven’t been able to blog so far since I am one of the unlucky folks who didn’t get an internet connection. We’ve seen so much already though, it’s incredible!

Tokyo is broken up into neighborhoods, and last night we went to the neighborhood of Shibuya. Shibuya Station is the largest subway station in the world. It was crazy! I’ve never seen so many people in my life. The 4-way cross walk outside of the station is known as the world’s busiest. There are wall to wall people every time the light changes. I must say, I was completely overwhelmed.

For a while i just sat in Starbucks (which overlooks the crossing) and watched the people. I couldn’t help but wondering where they were all going, and where they all lived! It’s hard to imagine that each and every one of those people must have a home to go to at night, yet you never see any houses in Tokyo, or even many apartment buildings…

After splitting up and exploring a while, the group met up at the statue of Hachiko, a dog that waited for its master everyday at Shibuya Station when he would get home from work. After his master died, Hachiko continued to wait for him outside the station every day until his eventual death. The statue was erected in honor of Hachiko’s loyalty and is a traditional meeting place for people in Shibuya.

From there, we went to The Lockup, a ghost prison themed bar. When you walk in, the hostess handcuffs a member of your group and then proceeds to lock everyone up in a jail cell. Periodically, they turn out the lights and a “ghoul” comes running into your cell and terrorizes the patrons.It was awesome! I wish that we had something like that in Portland!

Today, I am just hanging out in the hotel room. I needed a break from the intensity of Tokyo. I feel like I’ve been here for weeks and it’s only been a few days. I’ll upload some photos and blog again tomorrow!

Sayonara!

So, we finally made it to the fish market and it was pretty fishy. And huge. I couldn’t help but think, how are there any fish left in the sea? after seeing how much they were bringing in. Insanity. The sushi was amazing though. Nothing like raw fish at 630am :).

The real sashimi. This stuff melts in your mouth

When in Rome… or…Japan

The Fish Market

this is a posting for things lost and found in the subway. i can just imagine what would happen if this was in new york. i bet you can too.

Tokyo is interesting. There is a complete visual explosion here, everywhere you turn is something hot pink, flashing, or just a crazy icon. but this deters the graffiti culture. that and there is zero crime here, artists would never think to debauch their city in such a way…or would they… This was just a little piece of someone’s tag I found on a pole.