Sendai Cafes

I'd been meaning to post these up for a while. These are reviews of some of my favorite cafes in Sendai. I had plans on visiting all the cafes in Sendai and drawing them until I got sidetracked.

Cafe Mozart

Mozart cafe is located on the third floor of a shop inside the arcade. It like it for the atmosphere; it feels like a small European cafe with assorted furniture. Only downside is that the smoking area is nicer and by the window.





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Atelier Mozart

Mozart Atelier is a bit of walk from the main arcade but well worth it for the beautiful views out to the river. Deck seating is best in the spring and summer.





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Forsta

Not exactly one of my favorites but interesting for the combination of clothing store, cafe and bar. The cafe itself is a little too small to really relax and read.

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More Japanese POMO

Well, this is my new place, Leopalace 21. It's a type of short-term rental place that comes furnished, the only thing it was missing was a worktable.





I can almost hear what they were thinking when they made this place. "Hey, let's make it look like it's always under-construction." It's two concrete towers tied together through a steel walkway. At first I thought there's no way this can be my apartment, it looks like it's falling apart. Well, aside from the rust it seems like it's built strong. I've survived three earthquakes in that place and it fits in well with it's context, a small apartment going up next door. I have to say it's growing on me.

Long Overdue Thesis Videos

Here are a few videos from my Sciarc undergrad thesis. Out of 25 studies I made about six or seven had a video component. Here are the ones with sound. I'll be blogging up the rest of the thesis presentation in the next few months. All my files are unfortunately stranded in Los Angeles.


Specimen 12 from s m on Vimeo.


Specimen 08 from s m on Vimeo.


Specimen 15 from s m on Vimeo.


Specimen 19 from s m on Vimeo.


Specimen 17 from s m on Vimeo.

Architecture Contradiction

Tokyo's known as the mash-up city and for good reason.

Here are a few examples of those crossings:

Traditional Japanese cemetery bisected by street.

A view down the main entrance of the Meiji-Shrine located in the deeply wooded Yoyogi Park framing the new construction in Shinjuku.

Funky POMO architecture. Where does the building end.

Japanese version of the LA taco truck. Everything on this small car has been carefully selected for maximum style including picnic basket on roof.

Old and the New

Architecture as Product

Japan is way ahead of america as far as marketing architecture towards the general public. This is a interior/architecture design department store in Fukuoka.

Meeting rooms for clients and architects are located right along side a furniture store. An employee told me that clients will often come out with the architect to pick out furniture that then gets designed into the floor plan. Architecture as a product.

Also cool aluminum modular furniture used to design shelves as well as buildings.

Seeing Yamato in Fukuoka

After a few days in Kyoto I travelled south to Fukuoka to visit my sister who's an English instructor with the JET program. She took me on a tour around the high school where she teaches. Since high school education in Japan is optional there tends to be some degree of specialization. Her school happens to be a farming school and boasts the biggest high school campus in Japan. They have dozens of greenhouses and rice fields as well as cattle, ponies, sheep and other farm animals. It seemed like a really fun high school to go to. I met one boy who was the captain of the pony club. All he does all day is ride the pony through the hallways of the school. My sister introduced me to the other teachers, they couldn't believe I was her brother, and said we look nothing alike. I seem to pass off as being more Japanese but we have similar mannerisms, coincedentally we happened to have the same shoes. They were much more amicable towards me after learning I was family, I suspect they thought I was her boyfriend at first.

Specimens

Was there to be any end to the gradual improvement in the techniques and artifices used by the replicators to ensure their own continuation in the world? There would be plenty of time for improvement. What weird engines of self-preservation would the millennia bring forth? Four thousand million years on, what was to be the fate of the ancient replicators? They did not die out, for they are the past masters of the survival arts. But do not look for them floating loose in the sea; they gave up that cavalier freedom long ago. Now they swarm in huge colonies, safe inside gigantic lumbering robots, sealed off from the outside world, communicating with it by tortuous indirect routes, manipulating it by remote control. They are in you and in me; they created us, body and mind; and their preservation is the ultimate rationale for our existence. They have come a long way, those replicators. Now they go by the name of genes, and we are their survival machines.

-Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene

Summer in Hawaii

I wanted to throw this idea out there again and see who was interested. I'm thinking about getting a bunch of us recent grads together, go to Hawaii in May and build a small shack. It'll mostly be camping on a lot on the big island in the Hawaii country side. The details need to be worked out but it would involve physically building a small shack and camping daily. I wanted to get about ten dedicated people that could stay for the whole month and put in some work and have some fun.

アロハー、卒業後いかがお過ごしですか？　五月ごろにハワイで小さい家を建てようかなと思ってます。　ハワイ島の田舎っぽい土地で毎日キャンプで過ごすつもりです。早起きしてサーフィンでもたのしみ、午後からバリバリと肉体労働、夕方からみんなで晩御飯のしたくをしてのんびり過ごす毎日はどう思いますか？まだ詳細は決まってませんがざっとそんな感じです。できれば日本とアメリカの仲間十人ぐらいで早く建てたいです。興味あればメールください。　　


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Colabour

The new LA collaboration

New Orleans + KPCC

I've spent most of my free time these past two weeks working with Harold to complete a model for a firm in the New Orleans relief effort, Make it Right organized by Brad Pitt. Read more about it on Harold's Blog, or listen to Brad Pitt talk about the project on NPR.

Speaking of NPR, I was talking with Yuki today about which shows I like listening to on KPCC, the local radio station, and although I probably listen to about 3-7 hours of KPCC a day I was still hard pressed to say which ones I like. There's something about radio that makes all the shows blend together to just form one continuous information stream. So I've done a quick little ranking of the shows I like. These are all available for Podcasts and live streaming so just go to KPCC to download:

Although they're all good, these are some of my favorites.

Zócalo Radio

Science Friday

Fresh Air

* Off-Ramp™

Talk of the Nation

The Writer's Almanac®

This American Life