videos

I’ve been posting unedited video footage to a podcast. You can either view it online through the mango player or subscribe to the podcast with iTunes or your favorite podcatcher.

Lost in translation..?

Smorking: please don’t.

Oh, and touting.  Don’t even think about it.

Group Photo

Here’s a group shot taken in Ueno park by photographer Miki Takahira

Couple of Vids

“Da Bear”

A salary man scrutinizes a television ad in Shiodome.

First Day Sampling…

Here are a couple of videos that only give a sample of what we saw on our first day in Tokyo. Stay Tuned! And make sure to press the HD button on the player!

Long bows on the subway

I am not making this up. This was one of the first scenes I saw when I arrived in Tokyo.

I set up a podcast for these videos.

re-conditioning myself

It has been a while since I’ve been a fish out of water, clearly a foreigner in a strange land, someone who cannot possibly blend in. I decided to go with the flow as much as possible this time. I assume it will take a while to re-condition myself here. I need to learn what tastes good, what doesn’t taste so good, how to use the doors, the subway, a map. I’ve had two re-conditioning events so far.

1. I bought a Pasmo card (an added value card for the subway) and promptly used it wrong. This is what happens when you instert your card into the reader instead of touching it to the top of the reader. Something I observed several locals doing as this nice man retrieved my card from the machine.

   

2. When you can’t read any of the words on a food package, just try it. I learned that there is good food at 7 eleven. Some of it better than others. I also learned that aloe yogurt is a little sour for my tastes – especially after just eating an extremely sweet custard.

   

preparing

I’m preparing to visit Japan for the first time. I’ve wanted to see this country for a long time and I’m excited to go. I’ll post here, as well as at my photography blog. I can hardly wait to see what I will see.

Welcome to the Floating World

This is an online journal by architecture students and faculty of the University of Minnesota + Tokyo University of Science study abroad experience in Japan, May-June 2009. Nihon ni ikimashyo!