"Wa"

Muji x Idee (via For me, for you) It's really a lovely set up.





Idyllic isn't it? Don't forget to play the music to experience what they're trying to sell in its entirety (top right). I thought so too, thinking how lovely it would be to live in a place with tatami again, especially one with a porch and with the wraparound "roka"(hallway). I was all set up in my reverie when that annoying little white Muji bubble pulled me down to reality, because anybody who thinks that a fan is going to cut it in Japanese summers...is not me. I have stayed at a house (and a hostel, in retrospect I suspect that the converted storehouse I slept in was not a legal set-up, more on that in another post) without air-conditioning and I slept fitfully, unable to get comfortable in the heat. Both times I had showered the night before and needed to shower again as soon as I got (not woke) up. Going back to the picture, once I noticed the fan I started thinking about all these other things like, how would you be able to leave the sliding doors open? The mosquitoes would come in. and that wooley-cotton covered couch would become sweat-beaded and damp in the summer. 「季節によるそう住まい」？ Sounding less attractive now.

On a different, related note, a blog post I read earlier today about housing insulation in Japan. I really didn't sell that one well. It's more interesting than I made it out to be though, and if it isn't, it's brief at least.

Back!

I'm not really good at this posting business, but I was away, so that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

As an aside, southerners really know their iced drinks. and fried delights. Fried green tomatoes with crawfish remoulade? Yes please!

(Pictured: Strawberry Lemonade, one size only, large. My fingers couldn't wrap around the cups the entire way.)

P.S. One of the many memorable exchanges from the trip.
Setting: A bar on frenchman's street.
In response to "What's in a New Orleans Lemonade?", uninterested response by bartender "Lemonade and rum."
"I'll take it."
"You know I say it like that, and people still order it."

Realize would have been wise to take her response into account after taking a sip.

Dancers in NY

お久しぶり。


Via Ballerina Project


Via Swiss Miss originally from Dancers Among Us

The first one looks and feels languid and relaxed, time goes leisurely in this seemingly empty station. The second one looks vivid and full of life (and color); I am half-scared for the dancer. The subject matter and backdrop share many traits, but the mood each evokes is decidedly different. It's fun to think about how the photograph was taken, now I want you to lie down on the platform and extend your arm out over the edge, arch your legs upward now...and just wait for the train to approach; I'll tell you when.
Okay, sure. Easy peasy. Right.

Nicely put!

via Design Crush via FuschiaMacaree.

Europe According to the U.S.

By Yanko Tsvetkov via Design Crush (from way back in October last year)

Totem, Alain Delorme

I stumbled across these images on Black Eiffel, a design blog. They're from Shanghai and while they appear to be photographs, it's hard to believe that they haven't been manipulated somehow. The coloring also contributes to a surreal feeling. It reminds me of photos of North Korea, saturated with bright, garish colors yet somehow washed out at the same time. His site doesn't strictly state that they haven't been altered, but isn't very straightforward about it either. In any case, they stayed with me and I snitched some from his website.

The expressions of surprise on the people around these load-bikers suggest that these are real scenes though.





(For similar color schemes but rather more creepy looking subjects take a look at his "Little Dolls").

Naoshima, Shodoshima, Teshima, Ojima...

I found out about this island called Naoshima out on the inland sea of Japan accidentally. I think I had been spending a lot of time on design websites over my internship and stumbled upon some gushing reviews. There wasn't too much information in English at the time, but enough for me to get around. It is a bit of the beaten path art island belonging to Shikoku but is actually closer to Honshu. There are sculptures scattered around the island, along with two, now three, museums. I went and loved it, but wasn't planning on going again. That was in 2008. Through a series of mix-ups and mis-communications I went again last year in the winter 2009. There were a few new additions in terms of experiences, a lot of new restaurants and minshukus. The experience was quite different as I went with some friends and took a lot less pictures but still got as miserably lost as I did the first time. I was taken off map duty before the end of the first day. Again, I didn't think of going again. But then the Setouchi International Arts Festival posters started circulating and I started thinking, maybe...and I didn't end up going. But I recently spotted a picture on Snow mag, which led to even more on Design Boom, and finished off today by this piece on Spoon Tamago on the newly completed Teshima Art Museum; I have to go back. The festival ends in a little over a week but I imagine the artwork will still be around. My goal is to stay at the Benesse House hotel next time. Fingers crossed.

A lunch on Naoshima, taken by my friend. (This was actually a second choice, we were looking for this other shop run by local university students but failed completely. It was a nice runner up though: one of the many chic cafes now on the island. The place transformed so much in one year! But there was still only the one place that served breakfast. I regret not having any good photos of that place. There was a tv in the corner, worn red carpet on the floor, mismatched furniture (not, in a cool hipster way, more like wobbly stools paired with end tables) well-loved stuffed animals in every nook and cranny. It felt oddly like dining in somebody, a grandmother's, living room. Breakfast was coffee, toast, a halved kiwi, and a hard boiled egg. Like the establishment itself, the meal felt thrown together from whatever odds and ends that happened to be around. )
And here are some photos I skimmed off of the Setouchi Art Festival site:

This is Shima Kitchen on Teshima, by Ryo Abe. I love the open, airy atmosphere.

My favorite perhaps, is this: "Tom Na H-iu" (also on Teshima) by Mariko Mori

Here is the explanation, copied directly from the Setouchi website:

"In ancient Celtic lore, Tom Na H-iu was the place where souls waited to pass on to their next life. Inspired by this myth, Mori has created a contemporary monument of glass. Networked to the Super-Kamioka Neutrino Detection Experiment, it responds when the observatory captures a neutrino, such as those emitted by a dying star. When it a neutrino is detected, the work emits a beautiful light."