Sunday I was woken up at 7:17 by a moderate 4.8 earthquake. Seems earthquakes are so common here that people don’t make much fuss about them. The Japan Meteorological Agency shows three earthquakes with a 4.5 or greater magnitude in the last week alone. The rest of the week has gone by incredible quickly. Monday I rode by back back to Tachkawa which is a large shopping district about 3 miles from here. I went to a camera shop to compare prices with the US. Unfortunately, it seems in general lenses are 20 to 30% more expensive here. However, accessories are dirt cheap, so I picked up a cleaning kit and some replacement lens caps. There is also another camera shop fairly close to where I live, so I went there on Tuesday to get some photos printed for class on Wednesday. After some confusion about how long I needed to wait on my photos, the nice gentleman at the store showed me some of his photo books. Neither store is a B&H, but it’s nice to have a place to print nearby. Diagram class is going surprisingly smooth given the language barrier. Ota Sensei seemed happy with my work on the project where we had to organize our bookshelf by different characteristics. Only having a hand full of books makes it easier though, some students had 200 books to rearrange in 10 different orders. The Japanese class is moving quickly, but so far I’m managing to keep up. Information Design is tomorrow and our group has another presentation to update the class on our progress. Not too many photos this week, it’s been rainy most the days I’ve had free time. The weather is starting to cool down and be very comfortable, I’m hoping it stays this way for a while before the cold sets in.
It’s been a rainy week here in Tokyo because, from what I gather, of Tropical Storm Siniaku moving north east up the coast. It poured all of last night, making the temperature quite comfortable out.
In Information Design on Friday we had a guest lecturer speak about user-centric design in Interface and Experience Design. He was from a company called Sociomedia here in Tokyo. His presentation was mostly in Japanese, but he stopped to speak in English to explain things that weren’t evident from the graphs in his presentation. After he finished, each group got up and gave a short presentation on the direction of our projects; which I was not aware was going to happen. Luckily my group, having already taken the first part of this class, knew the drill. The guest lecturer seemed to like the direction we are going with our project. We are studying the OLPC and the shortcomings of the XO laptop’s software as a learning device.
Went to Diagram Design this morning and Japanese this afternoon. Diagram Design is going to be a fun class, our first assignment is to take a photo of our bookshelf, and then rearrange it in different ways (height, color, size, etc.) and take more photos. Only problem is now I need to find a bookshelf to borrow. Language is going to be a bigger barrier in this class as no one can translate into English quickly for me. It’s a much smaller class than Information Design. Japanese class is also small, with just six of us. One girl has been studying Japanese for a year and a half, while some people have had no Japanese at all. We are starting from the basics; having already studied with a tutor for a few months, the review is helping bring back what I’ve already forgotten.
Monday we went to Yokohama, to the Time Crevasse exhibit. We only had time to visit buildings one and two, but there was alot of good work, presented in some very nice space. Check the Flickr for more photos.
Class on Friday was excellent. The class is taught in Japanese; however the professors and some of the students speak English well. Our assignment for the first half of the semester is to identify problems facing the One Laptop Per Child foundation. On a design level, a management level, and a cultural level. Since most of the information regarding the OLPC is in English, I’ll be much use to my team of 5 students. Friday night all the exchange students went out with Akane (the RA) and ate at a small restaurant near campus. There are 4 of us now that Pablo arrived from Germany. Yesterday I went back down town, and visited Meiji Jingu, a Shinto shrine. There seemed to be a wedding going on, and it was interesting to see some traditional Japanese culture.
Tomorrow I have my first Information Design class with Gotoh Sensei. I am a bit anxious, not knowing what problems there will be with language, but I look forward to meeting my classmates and finding out what class for the next four months will be like. My meeting with my student tutor was canceled for this afternoon, so instead I went on another bike ride, this time trying to find Kokubunji train station. When I first arrived in Tokyo I took a taxi from the Kokubunji station to my apartment. There is alot of shopping around that area so I wanted to go back and check it out. Unfortunately I didn’t make it to Kokubunji station, but I rode around the two stations after it. I found a produce stand that sold fruit at reasonable prices (4 oranges for USD $1.50, 3 apples for $1.50). The watermelons were no deal though, going for $28 — they were about the size of a soccer ball. I spent the evening separating my garbage into recyclable plastics, burnable garbage, and non-burnable garbage. I’ve seen trash cans for sale that hold 3 bags so you can separate it as you go, I’ll have to look into getting one of those.
I had orientation for my Diagram Design class this morning. Although I couldn’t understand much of the talk, I think the class is going to be quite interesting. The class is about visualizing data: in tables, graphs, charts, on maps, etc. I have Information Design this friday, I am interested to see what the difference is in these two classes.
My meeting with the Shide Department went well, I am going to be taking an Information Design class as well as Diagram Design, along with my Japanese course. In October I will have a drawing class that meets everyday until Art Festival, which is the last week of October. My first class will be Information Design this friday with Gotoh Sensei, who is my advisor. I have another orientation on Wednesday, and I meet with my student tutor on Thursday. Next week will be the first meeting of my Diagram Design and Japanese courses. I look forward to seeing what the course work for these classes will be like.
I have a meeting with the Shide (VisCom) department tonight at 5:20 to decide what classes I will be taking. Hopefully I’ll be starting class tomorrow.
Here’s a time lapse from my bike ride yesterday, more photos at flickr.
