Finally. . .

It has been too long. You would think, in one of the most technologically adanced countries in the world where their current technology is our future technology, that it would have been an easy task to find an internet cafe so I could use my computer to access this thing. They're more scarce over here than fruit. None of you can truly understand that last statement, but trust me - I haven't had any fruit since being here. The closest I get is the glass of oj with my "western" breakfast at the hotel in the morning - which also happens to include a salad. I don't know who informed them that we eat salads in the morning, but I'm about ready to have a few words with that person. Oh for some cereal and milk (two other things that don't exist here). I think those happen to be the only draw backs to this entire endeavor though . . . and they are seriously minor in the big picture.
This place seriously rocks and I'm having a blast! It's hard to communicate, but we're able to get by on grunting, pointing, and the occasional person that knows some english. It's easy to get around because all the signs are in english, chinese, and japanese, but you know everyone's reading the characters. Whenever I spot another "westerner," we have a moment of quite recognition of each other that is comforting because we both know what we're going through and then they're gone in the next couple of steps. It's cool being somewhere so alien though. I'm worn out at the end of the day from just studying people and all of the intricacies that separate this place from New York or Chicago and make it just Tokyo.

Studio has been good to. It reminds me so much of being in Paris - I really miss Paris at times. Our challenge is to design a single family home on one of ten sites. Each of the sites are in a different ku (burough, ward) and have really different characteristics. They go from mid-rise buildings in an upscale shopping district to low-rise residential that feels more like a shanty-town than middle-class (the insides can be really plush despite the corrugated metal exteriors though). Right now, we're in a documentation phase. We have a mid-review on all of that tomorrow and will have our final next Monday.

I can't sit here and catch up with everything we've done everyday over the past week of being here, but here are some pics of the highlights. Two things - we were delayed six hours leaving from Dallas and we didn't see the sun until Fri thanks to a typhoon off of China. I'll try to write more of a reflective piece on the cultural, social, and spiritual things I'm noticing/learning/absorbing soon. Enjoy.