Happy Halloween, guys!
This year I decided to be a witchy little pumpkin: I cut out jack o'lantern face-shapes and stuck them to an orange dress I already owned and found cute (and cheap!) orange and black witch hat-headband to top off my ensemble. A bit of a step down from the full-body Pikachu I was last year, but it'll do.
Hard to believe it's already November. I've already been here almost 5 months! The days and nights are getting colder (I'm wearing fingerless gloves as I type this) and the sun sets by 5 pm on the regular.
But! Help is on the way: the vending machines across Japan have transitioned, for the most part, to their winter offerings. Hot canned coffee or sweetened tea or even just hot lemon juice and honey, like a liquefied coughdrop. There's even cans of corn soup or beef stew you can drink for a quick "meal." I love being able to get a hot drink whenever I need one from the nearest vending machine.
Backing up a little bit. The past few days have been quite busy. Yesterday, the 30th, I was insanely productive. I woke up, worked out, went grocery shopping, went to a fantastic architecture exhibit, studied for the JLPT, made TWO bulk meals to last me for lunch and dinner throughout the week, edited a piece I'll have published in the Yale Daily News Magazine, wrote a 500 word application AND watched TV.
The exhibit was certainly the highlight of my day. It was at the National Art Center, in Roppongi, and titled "Tadao Ando: Endeavors." Tadao Ando is one of Japan's most famous architects, known for working with concrete and bringing nature into his designs, often in (honestly) inconvenient ways.
The exhibit featured excerpts from his sketchbooks, detailed models of his most famous works, interactions with clients, photographs and more. There was even a full-scale installation of his studio:
I was also surprised at the sheer number of people at this exhibition.
There were extensive lines in front of everything, and the diversity of the audience was astounding. Old, young, men, women, hipsters, matriarchs in pearls and Louis Vuitton, this exhibit attracted EVERYONE.
The highlight was another full-scale replica, this one so large it was installed in the courtyard outside the main building. It was a full-scale replica of Ando's "Church of Light," built in Ibarkai in 1989.
The outside is simple and as you can see from the vertical blueprint, the concrete walls jut out in angles that leave "gaps" in the walls that let in all the elements. While it looks cool from the outside, the inside is truly awe-inspiring.
The first thing you see is light shining through the cross-shaped gaps in the far wall (the wall that would be behind the alter), forming a blazing, blinding cross that dominates your vision. Even as you shiver in the space (because it's outside and cold and there's gaps in the walls) you can't look away from the light in front of you. The smell of cold concrete and newly-cut wood (for the pews) was crisp in the cold air and the entire space felt both exposed and protected at the same time. This was the most amazing part of the exhibit, and I feel inspired to seek out some of Ando's other buildings in the Tokyo area and beyond.
Then, today--Halloween!--I met up with a friend to go to a performance of Brahm's Deutsches Requiem at the Tokyo Metropolitan Theater in Ikebukuro, conducted by Robert Ryker.
I sang the Deutsches Requiem my sophomore year at Yale when I was a member of the Yale Glee Club, and it was amazing how much of this piece I could still remember; I had to actively resist humming and/or singing along at parts.
The concert hall also had a revolving organ! I almost expected some other Broadway-esque scene changes to happen mid-concert, like having the conductor conduct while suspended in the air or something. All in all it was a cultured and thematically appropriate (it was a requiem after all) to spend All Hallows Eve. Now I guess it's time to skip to Christmas, since they don't do Thanksgiving here in Japan...
This year I decided to be a witchy little pumpkin: I cut out jack o'lantern face-shapes and stuck them to an orange dress I already owned and found cute (and cheap!) orange and black witch hat-headband to top off my ensemble. A bit of a step down from the full-body Pikachu I was last year, but it'll do.
Hard to believe it's already November. I've already been here almost 5 months! The days and nights are getting colder (I'm wearing fingerless gloves as I type this) and the sun sets by 5 pm on the regular.
But! Help is on the way: the vending machines across Japan have transitioned, for the most part, to their winter offerings. Hot canned coffee or sweetened tea or even just hot lemon juice and honey, like a liquefied coughdrop. There's even cans of corn soup or beef stew you can drink for a quick "meal." I love being able to get a hot drink whenever I need one from the nearest vending machine.
Backing up a little bit. The past few days have been quite busy. Yesterday, the 30th, I was insanely productive. I woke up, worked out, went grocery shopping, went to a fantastic architecture exhibit, studied for the JLPT, made TWO bulk meals to last me for lunch and dinner throughout the week, edited a piece I'll have published in the Yale Daily News Magazine, wrote a 500 word application AND watched TV.
The exhibit was certainly the highlight of my day. It was at the National Art Center, in Roppongi, and titled "Tadao Ando: Endeavors." Tadao Ando is one of Japan's most famous architects, known for working with concrete and bringing nature into his designs, often in (honestly) inconvenient ways.
The exhibit featured excerpts from his sketchbooks, detailed models of his most famous works, interactions with clients, photographs and more. There was even a full-scale installation of his studio:
I was also surprised at the sheer number of people at this exhibition.
There were extensive lines in front of everything, and the diversity of the audience was astounding. Old, young, men, women, hipsters, matriarchs in pearls and Louis Vuitton, this exhibit attracted EVERYONE.
The highlight was another full-scale replica, this one so large it was installed in the courtyard outside the main building. It was a full-scale replica of Ando's "Church of Light," built in Ibarkai in 1989.
The outside is simple and as you can see from the vertical blueprint, the concrete walls jut out in angles that leave "gaps" in the walls that let in all the elements. While it looks cool from the outside, the inside is truly awe-inspiring.
The first thing you see is light shining through the cross-shaped gaps in the far wall (the wall that would be behind the alter), forming a blazing, blinding cross that dominates your vision. Even as you shiver in the space (because it's outside and cold and there's gaps in the walls) you can't look away from the light in front of you. The smell of cold concrete and newly-cut wood (for the pews) was crisp in the cold air and the entire space felt both exposed and protected at the same time. This was the most amazing part of the exhibit, and I feel inspired to seek out some of Ando's other buildings in the Tokyo area and beyond.
Then, today--Halloween!--I met up with a friend to go to a performance of Brahm's Deutsches Requiem at the Tokyo Metropolitan Theater in Ikebukuro, conducted by Robert Ryker.
I sang the Deutsches Requiem my sophomore year at Yale when I was a member of the Yale Glee Club, and it was amazing how much of this piece I could still remember; I had to actively resist humming and/or singing along at parts.
The concert hall also had a revolving organ! I almost expected some other Broadway-esque scene changes to happen mid-concert, like having the conductor conduct while suspended in the air or something. All in all it was a cultured and thematically appropriate (it was a requiem after all) to spend All Hallows Eve. Now I guess it's time to skip to Christmas, since they don't do Thanksgiving here in Japan...
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