Found a little piece of rural Russia in Kanazawa, very different from the surrounding Japanese style houses.
Some confidential source from Russian ministry of foreign affairs said that 5 extra people that were taken on the Tokyo-Moscow flight despite the official list of 174 people (for of 294 available seats) caused an overload of the airplane since it also contained a huge amount of overdue postal mail from Japan. In any case, postal services from Japan are experiencing month-long delays and my matcha/books selling initiative has to wait until better times. For now I will be trying out different samples I bought from Uji just before everything closed. I recorded my daily tea ritual so here’s a little tutorial for the future
I know I should be writing my thesis since less than two weeks left before the submission but heck I decided to chill out and do something I love for a change today. I compiled a shortlist of the most notorious danchi in Tokyo metropolitan area for those of you who are already there or will buy their ticket first thing after this pandemic ends. http://www.kunokumo.com/ultimate-tokyo
Ladies and gentelmen, last week I submitted the text of my thesis and finally got some free time which means a new post is ready and waiting for you! Read “How to Approach Japanese Architecture from the West” at http://www.kunokumo.com/field-trip
I graduated a week ago despite being unable to return to Milan where I was enrolled as a master’s course student since September 2017. It was quite bizarre for two reasons:
1️⃣ Two years of intense research ended in a 15-minute online presentation followed by a 10-minute discussion with 5 professors, who were not even familiar with my major, because the grad. committee was changed due to covid issues. My two supervisors saved the day by highlighting the value of the work in general terms during the introduction, otherwise presenting it in such a short time in front of uninvolved audience would feel...just sad. They haven’t even opened my thesis file.
2️⃣ I received an Italian diploma after physically attending the university for less than 4 months (out of 2 obligatory years) and taking only two exams (out of 14). After that I just went to Japan and kind of postponed my return for more than two years thanks to some loopholes👌🏻of Italian bureaucracy and ended up staying even longer than expected thanks to the global pandemic travel restrictions.
At first it seemed like a weird path to take considering all the difficulties and uncertainties I had to face along the way, but now I feel that this kind of distance education practices will become more and more common or at least more easily manageable.
1️⃣ Two years of intense research ended in a 15-minute online presentation followed by a 10-minute discussion with 5 professors, who were not even familiar with my major, because the grad. committee was changed due to covid issues. My two supervisors saved the day by highlighting the value of the work in general terms during the introduction, otherwise presenting it in such a short time in front of uninvolved audience would feel...just sad. They haven’t even opened my thesis file.
2️⃣ I received an Italian diploma after physically attending the university for less than 4 months (out of 2 obligatory years) and taking only two exams (out of 14). After that I just went to Japan and kind of postponed my return for more than two years thanks to some loopholes👌🏻of Italian bureaucracy and ended up staying even longer than expected thanks to the global pandemic travel restrictions.
At first it seemed like a weird path to take considering all the difficulties and uncertainties I had to face along the way, but now I feel that this kind of distance education practices will become more and more common or at least more easily manageable.
How bad does the crisis have to get that an apartment building designed by Kengo Kuma in Tokyo has to be advertised in FB feed? I’ve seen this multiple times already and it just doesn’t feel right
Did you know that tactile paving was invented in Japan? Okay, maybe you did, but did you know that in many places in Japan these tiles are actually made of nice grainy granite? I most certainly didn’t. The paint came off here in Uji and at first I thought I was looking at some computer-game-like glitch. It’s kind of sad the stone texture is always covered in yellow paint for better recognition, but I believe in Europe it’s usually made of clay or concrete.
I just received a message from my supervisor saying that I got accepted to Kyoto University. To be honest, I’m happy and slightly confused at the same time: it is definitely great to feel that your efforts were rewarded but a bit scary to realize that your fate for the next 3-4 years suddenly gets decided. Anyway, that means this channel will continue to be about Japan and architecture for many years to come. Sending ♥️ from Fushimi-Inari shrine that’s finally completely devoid of tourists (apart from me).