Does anyone know of any English speaking architects in Kyoto? I'm toying with the idea of A. applying for an internship there this summer B. possibly moving there for a few years after graduation (the more likely option). Can you tell that I really fell in love with Japan after my visit last summer? I'd like to spend some more time there, but the good 'ole US will always be home.
vado retro
Apr 8, 06 5:33 pm
and we love you to duesseldorf!!!
hiphip hooray
hiphip hooray
hiphip hooray!!!
Hasselhoff
Apr 8, 06 5:38 pm
I think the contents of your harddrive is a scary place.
I lived there 8 years ago and I think I remember them having a British partner, but it looks like he is no longer listed on their site.
I knew a Austrian girl that worked at this firm:
Amorphe: Takeyama & Associates http://www.amorphe.jp/
and of course there is Waro Kishi. I have no idea about if they would accept an english-speaker, but it would be a great place to work. http://k-associates.com/
Hasselhoff
Apr 8, 06 5:55 pm
Awesome, thanks for the heads up. I know there are tons of firms in Tokyo and Osaka, but I don't know how well Kyoto is known for its architecture scene.
Hasselhoff
Apr 8, 06 6:06 pm
Wow, I really like a lot of those projects. That is the kind of work that gets me excited about architecture. When do I get to do that stuff? I'm tired of complexity +.
Appleseed
Apr 8, 06 6:33 pm
Waro isn't in Kyoto. The Kiwi (forget his name) who was a part of FOBA recently split off to form his own office, is still in Kyoto. There's also Arai's firm (worked at Morphosis during the formative years) that puts out some dope stuff. He has offices in Kyoto and Tokyo, and is also the head arch. professor at Seika.
will galloway
Apr 8, 06 8:27 pm
are you fixed on kansai, or is tokyo also ok?
ando is the biggest fish in osaka. he def has use for foreign staff, but i have no idea how to get in to his firm. contacts probably wouldn't hurt.
can also try shuhei endo/. i believe he speaks english at the very least, and is quickly moving up the international scene. he is in osaka, but kobe, osaka and kobe are pretty much a single city now.
i have heard 2nd hand horror stories about foba that i won't repeat here (cuz i don't know if they are true). might be a good idea to check them out before applying.
not so sure if language will be that large an issue. my first job in japan was in a firm that had (and still has ) ZERO english. they now know a lot of english curse-words strangely, but in that environment i quickly learned to speak and do cd's in japanese, for which i am grateful. better than any language school anywhere. they hired me as a designer and for that didn't need so much japanese to start with...but it sure comes in handy lately.
other thing to think about are the hours. i would say minimum is 12 hours a day 6 days a week in any significant firm, and more if they are busy. i really don't know how people can sustain that, but it is stil the norm...great for compressing experience and immersion in architecture though...
bob_dobbalina
Apr 9, 06 3:01 pm
only 30 min commute Kyoto>Osaka.
Hasselhoff
Apr 9, 06 3:57 pm
That is true. Didn't think about that. I was in both Kyoto and Osaka, but didn't really 'commute' betweent them. Actually, only took the train from Kansai to Kyoto, which is farther, then Kansai to Kyoto to Fukuchiyama, so I guess I didn't really realize Kyoto/Osaka were so close. I guess I did, but not commute-wise.
bob_dobbalina
Apr 9, 06 4:50 pm
KIX>Shin-Osaka=1 hour
Shin-Osaka>Kyoto=30 min.
unless you are really in a hurry and don't care about money
take the shinkansen.
Shin-Osaka>Kyoto=10 min.
if you do care about money and you don't live near a JR station Hankyu and Keihan railways are cheaper and go farther north in Kyoto.
Appleseed
Apr 9, 06 5:40 pm
North Kyoto > South Kyoto ;-)
Andrew Kudless
Apr 9, 06 5:46 pm
Appleseed, maybe Waro Kishi moved but his website does say his office is in Kyoto:
Hasselhoff, I don't recommend commuting between the two cities. It may be a short distance between the main stations but most likely you won't be living/working near either so you should tack on another half-hour or more for transfers. Kyoto is a great bike city so I used to just get around that way. Both cities are great to live in, but I liked kyoto more. It's easy to walk to the mountains and start hiking when you tire of the city.
Hasselhoff
Apr 9, 06 6:11 pm
Yeah. We stayed in Kyoto for about a week and a half. I loved the combo of old and new. I also just really liked the scale and feel of the place. Did you know that at Kyomizudera, the forced perspective of the pagoda was created in order to confuse flying ninja? Also, ninja have a hard time flying around under the temple because they get caught in the beams. This is what my nutty 66 year old Japanese instructor told me. Ninja also survive on water and air.
will galloway
Apr 9, 06 7:50 pm
lol.
my brother lives in kobe and works in and around osaka, kyoto, etc (he is a pro street performer and moves around to dif pitches all the time). he still gets to work faster than i do in tokyo, and kobe is really a nice place to live.
but with long hours in japanese firms def better to live as close to office as possible.
btw, let me know if you make it to tokyo.
smkw
Dec 21, 17 12:27 am
Work
Appleseed
Apr 9, 06 8:11 pm
Andrew, interesting, but that might just be a satellite office? We were gonna drop by his office this fall, but I forget if it was Osaka or Kobe. Def. not Kyoto tho.
And yeah, Kyoto is a great city all around. Very bikeable, interesting neighborhoods, great scenery. Good food, good bars.
Hasselhoff
Apr 9, 06 8:11 pm
Too bad I didn't know you last summer, I was there for almost 2 weeks. Do you know Team Zoo? Have you been to Pecha Kucha? I saw Batman Begins in the first row at the theater in the Mori Tower in Roppongi Hills haha. I have one thing in the works for an internship at Takenaka's Osaka office. Doubt I'll get it though.
is right downdowntown, ne of Karasumashijo within blocks of the Hankyu line and the Karasuma subway (kintetsu railway)
Y aKyoto is great for cycling, mostly flat and lots of nice sidestreets to ride on.
will galloway
Apr 9, 06 9:03 pm
not sure if that was directed to me or not hasselhoff...
don't know team zoo. i used to think they were the official office of hiroshi hara (professors are not allowed to have offices in their own name here) but after a quick google realise this is wrong, though they have been around as long. why do you ask? did you get a chance to work with them?
i am always planning to go to pecha kucha but work is always getting in the way. are you interested in working for mark?
how was the theatre at roppongi hills? i have kids, so movies in the theatre are out of the question for another 10 years or so (babysitting is not normal here unfortunately).
takenaka is a good office. very commercial but very very high quality work. it would be a good experience if you can manage it.
Hasselhoff
Apr 9, 06 9:19 pm
Yes jump, was towards you haha. Kinya Maruyama is one of the guy at Team Zoo and he was our guide in Japan. He's awesome. We went to Pecha Kucha, that's all haha. And the theater was like any theater, but with out the people yelling "NUH UH! DON'T GO IN THERE" like you have in west Philly. I think I should know in a day or two about Takenaka.
Hasselhoff
Apr 9, 06 9:21 pm
Also, I would love easy access to Pocari Sweat and Calpis Water. Sweet sweet nectare of life. I have to go to freakin' Chinatown to get it here and it's like $3! Mmm, and those koala march things. Oh and soba. And yeah, pretty much all Japanese snacks.
will galloway
Apr 10, 06 4:19 am
haha. too funny.
i am bad and take all that stuff for granted. i go the other way, really. totally miss raspberry jam. its impossible to get here in most shops. grapefruit jam? hell, yeah all over the place (who the hell is eating it i wonder), but no raspberry jam in site, and when i find it seems like i am paying for it by the spoonful cuz so expensive...
anyway...
pecha kucha looks fun. some of my friends have presented for it recently so i have been wanting to go and see. sounds like mark is taking it big in UK, with some big name architects presenting there. that would be a blast to see...
good luck with takenaka.
Hasselhoff
Apr 10, 06 4:42 am
Some people that went to Japan with me started a pecha kucha like thing here at Penn called Talk 20. It's exactly the same and has done well.
I missed fruit in Japan. DAMN $1.50 for an apple! I got a mango and it was $5. It was delicious, but I can go outside of Meyerson and get a mango skinned and cut up for $3. Those crappy mountain vegetables are no match for some nice brocolli or green beans. Or some corn. Got a steak in Osaka on the 4th of July and it was terrible. It was an "American" steak, but soooo bad.
The sliced bread in Japan is wack, being all 4 ft thick and 5 slices in a pack. Weird. I actually didn't miss most US stuff. Took me a while to want soda again. I did miss cereal. I like cereal for breakfast, not fish or spighetti and meat balls (no joke). Cereal was like $6/box. I love Japanese commercials. They are so bizarre and peppy. They have weird stuff on TV, but I'm sure the same could be said the other way around.
will galloway
Apr 10, 06 5:42 am
funny you mention it. seems like the us is more and more like japan with the tv. there are no sitcoms here and most of the tele is devoted to talk shows and reality tv with the celebrities filling the wee screen for both. sometimes the shows are quite good, usually not. don't watch tv much, which is maybe a good thing...
cool you have set up a thang like pecha kucha.
i used to bake my own bread til my wife bought me a bread maker for christmas. we are all getting quite fat on the carb injection. but very happy...
bob_dobbalina
Apr 10, 06 12:07 pm
raspberry jam can be bought at the Jupiter store in the Porta Mall under the JR Kyoto station plaza.
Andrew Kudless
Apr 10, 06 12:35 pm
Back to Kyoto architects:
Arai was mentioned above. He was my advisor while I was researching at Kyoto Seika University. He went to Sci-Arc and worked for Morphosis in the late 80's and early 90's (Project architect on the the Crawford House). He is a great guy. Unfortunately, his website isn't working so well in firefox: http://www.aa-archi.com/
Some of his work: http://www.pref.kumamoto.jp/traffic/artpolis/english/links/041.html
Appleseed
Apr 10, 06 3:30 pm
Yeah, Arai is def. a cool guy. Love his cars too, haha. He is the only architect I know who has time/makes time to go race classic autos. Andrew, when were you at Seika? Was that for the Kenkyusei program?
Oh, and Hasselhoff, how can you hate on the bread?!?! I'll take that thick stuff over the limpwristed US version anytime!
Hasselhoff
Apr 10, 06 8:00 pm
The bread is hilarious. It's just over the top thick. I found it very good for toast, but kind of too dense for sandwiches. Just like...jeez, that's a lot of bread. Would you like some sandwich with that bread? It was like eating a five pound bag of flour.
will galloway
Apr 10, 06 8:48 pm
couldn't get arai's website to work in firefox or IE. just a lot of flash animations and no work...? pity.
the bread here is dangerous. it will sit on the shelf for months before changing color the slightest. some shops make rye bread and the like, but first time i thought i was getting whole wheat bread it turned out to be a slice of chocolate bread. ugh.
am used to it now, but believe the japanese opinion of bread is that it should be as cake-like as possible.
did you do the kenkyusei thing appleseed?
bob_dobbalina
Apr 10, 06 8:53 pm
move your cursor over the blank looking boxes along the top of the page.
will galloway
Apr 10, 06 9:19 pm
did that but no response beyond a simple animated rollover action...
let me try again.................
nope. same thing. ah well.
bob_dobbalina
Apr 10, 06 11:10 pm
ckick the rollover, third one is projects, fourth is gallary (bad spelling is arai's)
Appleseed
Apr 10, 06 11:27 pm
Did not do the kenkyusei thing....yet. I won't graduate until Sept., but my professors are pushing me to do it next year. I still find it odd that they pay for everything BUT tuition, yet you don't even get a degree....It sounds like a fun way to spend a year/18 months...
will galloway
Apr 11, 06 12:06 am
you can change from kenkyusei to proper degree if you want to (assuming you go on the monbukagakusho program).
actually you have no option but to start as a kenkyusei anyway. usually students spend this time a bit idle, or study japanese...
i did this for 4 months, did exam to enter phd at university of tokyo, then started 2 months later as a proper student. i was living in japan when i applied for the scholarship so worked pt in old office while studying for entrance exam. was a strange time, but worked well in the end...
btw, they pay full tuition plus the monthly stipend once you get in. so no worries about money. only thing for me was that i was recommended to go to the national schools as tuition was lower (though entry is nominally harder) and the guv likes this better (no money in the program lately). this meant, supposedly, that my chances for approval would be higher...
Appleseed
Apr 11, 06 2:26 pm
Really? Interesting, none of that info was in the Kyoto Seika paperwork that I was given. Sounds much more appealing in that light. I guess we'll see where the cards lay next year.
Does anyone know of any English speaking architects in Kyoto? I'm toying with the idea of A. applying for an internship there this summer B. possibly moving there for a few years after graduation (the more likely option). Can you tell that I really fell in love with Japan after my visit last summer? I'd like to spend some more time there, but the good 'ole US will always be home.
and we love you to duesseldorf!!!
hiphip hooray
hiphip hooray
hiphip hooray!!!
I think the contents of your harddrive is a scary place.
Try F.O.B.A
http://www.fob-web.co.jp
I lived there 8 years ago and I think I remember them having a British partner, but it looks like he is no longer listed on their site.
I knew a Austrian girl that worked at this firm:
Amorphe: Takeyama & Associates
http://www.amorphe.jp/
and of course there is Waro Kishi. I have no idea about if they would accept an english-speaker, but it would be a great place to work.
http://k-associates.com/
Awesome, thanks for the heads up. I know there are tons of firms in Tokyo and Osaka, but I don't know how well Kyoto is known for its architecture scene.
Wow, I really like a lot of those projects. That is the kind of work that gets me excited about architecture. When do I get to do that stuff? I'm tired of complexity +.
Waro isn't in Kyoto. The Kiwi (forget his name) who was a part of FOBA recently split off to form his own office, is still in Kyoto. There's also Arai's firm (worked at Morphosis during the formative years) that puts out some dope stuff. He has offices in Kyoto and Tokyo, and is also the head arch. professor at Seika.
are you fixed on kansai, or is tokyo also ok?
ando is the biggest fish in osaka. he def has use for foreign staff, but i have no idea how to get in to his firm. contacts probably wouldn't hurt.
can also try shuhei endo/. i believe he speaks english at the very least, and is quickly moving up the international scene. he is in osaka, but kobe, osaka and kobe are pretty much a single city now.
i have heard 2nd hand horror stories about foba that i won't repeat here (cuz i don't know if they are true). might be a good idea to check them out before applying.
not so sure if language will be that large an issue. my first job in japan was in a firm that had (and still has ) ZERO english. they now know a lot of english curse-words strangely, but in that environment i quickly learned to speak and do cd's in japanese, for which i am grateful. better than any language school anywhere. they hired me as a designer and for that didn't need so much japanese to start with...but it sure comes in handy lately.
other thing to think about are the hours. i would say minimum is 12 hours a day 6 days a week in any significant firm, and more if they are busy. i really don't know how people can sustain that, but it is stil the norm...great for compressing experience and immersion in architecture though...
only 30 min commute Kyoto>Osaka.
That is true. Didn't think about that. I was in both Kyoto and Osaka, but didn't really 'commute' betweent them. Actually, only took the train from Kansai to Kyoto, which is farther, then Kansai to Kyoto to Fukuchiyama, so I guess I didn't really realize Kyoto/Osaka were so close. I guess I did, but not commute-wise.
KIX>Shin-Osaka=1 hour
Shin-Osaka>Kyoto=30 min.
unless you are really in a hurry and don't care about money
take the shinkansen.
Shin-Osaka>Kyoto=10 min.
if you do care about money and you don't live near a JR station Hankyu and Keihan railways are cheaper and go farther north in Kyoto.
North Kyoto > South Kyoto ;-)
Appleseed, maybe Waro Kishi moved but his website does say his office is in Kyoto:
4F Yutaka Bldg.
366 Karigane-cho
Takoyakushi-dori Takakura-Higashiiru
Nakagyo-ku
Kyoto 604-8115
Japan
Hasselhoff, I don't recommend commuting between the two cities. It may be a short distance between the main stations but most likely you won't be living/working near either so you should tack on another half-hour or more for transfers. Kyoto is a great bike city so I used to just get around that way. Both cities are great to live in, but I liked kyoto more. It's easy to walk to the mountains and start hiking when you tire of the city.
Yeah. We stayed in Kyoto for about a week and a half. I loved the combo of old and new. I also just really liked the scale and feel of the place. Did you know that at Kyomizudera, the forced perspective of the pagoda was created in order to confuse flying ninja? Also, ninja have a hard time flying around under the temple because they get caught in the beams. This is what my nutty 66 year old Japanese instructor told me. Ninja also survive on water and air.
lol.
my brother lives in kobe and works in and around osaka, kyoto, etc (he is a pro street performer and moves around to dif pitches all the time). he still gets to work faster than i do in tokyo, and kobe is really a nice place to live.
but with long hours in japanese firms def better to live as close to office as possible.
btw, let me know if you make it to tokyo.
Work
Andrew, interesting, but that might just be a satellite office? We were gonna drop by his office this fall, but I forget if it was Osaka or Kobe. Def. not Kyoto tho.
And yeah, Kyoto is a great city all around. Very bikeable, interesting neighborhoods, great scenery. Good food, good bars.
Too bad I didn't know you last summer, I was there for almost 2 weeks. Do you know Team Zoo? Have you been to Pecha Kucha? I saw Batman Begins in the first row at the theater in the Mori Tower in Roppongi Hills haha. I have one thing in the works for an internship at Takenaka's Osaka office. Doubt I'll get it though.
dude,
4F Yutaka Bldg.
366 Karigane-cho
Takoyakushi-dori Takakura-Higashiiru
Nakagyo-ku
Kyoto 604-8115
Japan
is right downdowntown, ne of Karasumashijo within blocks of the Hankyu line and the Karasuma subway (kintetsu railway)
Y aKyoto is great for cycling, mostly flat and lots of nice sidestreets to ride on.
not sure if that was directed to me or not hasselhoff...
don't know team zoo. i used to think they were the official office of hiroshi hara (professors are not allowed to have offices in their own name here) but after a quick google realise this is wrong, though they have been around as long. why do you ask? did you get a chance to work with them?
i am always planning to go to pecha kucha but work is always getting in the way. are you interested in working for mark?
how was the theatre at roppongi hills? i have kids, so movies in the theatre are out of the question for another 10 years or so (babysitting is not normal here unfortunately).
takenaka is a good office. very commercial but very very high quality work. it would be a good experience if you can manage it.
Yes jump, was towards you haha. Kinya Maruyama is one of the guy at Team Zoo and he was our guide in Japan. He's awesome. We went to Pecha Kucha, that's all haha. And the theater was like any theater, but with out the people yelling "NUH UH! DON'T GO IN THERE" like you have in west Philly. I think I should know in a day or two about Takenaka.
Also, I would love easy access to Pocari Sweat and Calpis Water. Sweet sweet nectare of life. I have to go to freakin' Chinatown to get it here and it's like $3! Mmm, and those koala march things. Oh and soba. And yeah, pretty much all Japanese snacks.
haha. too funny.
i am bad and take all that stuff for granted. i go the other way, really. totally miss raspberry jam. its impossible to get here in most shops. grapefruit jam? hell, yeah all over the place (who the hell is eating it i wonder), but no raspberry jam in site, and when i find it seems like i am paying for it by the spoonful cuz so expensive...
anyway...
pecha kucha looks fun. some of my friends have presented for it recently so i have been wanting to go and see. sounds like mark is taking it big in UK, with some big name architects presenting there. that would be a blast to see...
good luck with takenaka.
Some people that went to Japan with me started a pecha kucha like thing here at Penn called Talk 20. It's exactly the same and has done well.
I missed fruit in Japan. DAMN $1.50 for an apple! I got a mango and it was $5. It was delicious, but I can go outside of Meyerson and get a mango skinned and cut up for $3. Those crappy mountain vegetables are no match for some nice brocolli or green beans. Or some corn. Got a steak in Osaka on the 4th of July and it was terrible. It was an "American" steak, but soooo bad.
The sliced bread in Japan is wack, being all 4 ft thick and 5 slices in a pack. Weird. I actually didn't miss most US stuff. Took me a while to want soda again. I did miss cereal. I like cereal for breakfast, not fish or spighetti and meat balls (no joke). Cereal was like $6/box. I love Japanese commercials. They are so bizarre and peppy. They have weird stuff on TV, but I'm sure the same could be said the other way around.
funny you mention it. seems like the us is more and more like japan with the tv. there are no sitcoms here and most of the tele is devoted to talk shows and reality tv with the celebrities filling the wee screen for both. sometimes the shows are quite good, usually not. don't watch tv much, which is maybe a good thing...
cool you have set up a thang like pecha kucha.
i used to bake my own bread til my wife bought me a bread maker for christmas. we are all getting quite fat on the carb injection. but very happy...
raspberry jam can be bought at the Jupiter store in the Porta Mall under the JR Kyoto station plaza.
Back to Kyoto architects:
Arai was mentioned above. He was my advisor while I was researching at Kyoto Seika University. He went to Sci-Arc and worked for Morphosis in the late 80's and early 90's (Project architect on the the Crawford House). He is a great guy. Unfortunately, his website isn't working so well in firefox: http://www.aa-archi.com/
Some of his work:
http://www.pref.kumamoto.jp/traffic/artpolis/english/links/041.html
Yeah, Arai is def. a cool guy. Love his cars too, haha. He is the only architect I know who has time/makes time to go race classic autos. Andrew, when were you at Seika? Was that for the Kenkyusei program?
Oh, and Hasselhoff, how can you hate on the bread?!?! I'll take that thick stuff over the limpwristed US version anytime!
The bread is hilarious. It's just over the top thick. I found it very good for toast, but kind of too dense for sandwiches. Just like...jeez, that's a lot of bread. Would you like some sandwich with that bread? It was like eating a five pound bag of flour.
couldn't get arai's website to work in firefox or IE. just a lot of flash animations and no work...? pity.
the bread here is dangerous. it will sit on the shelf for months before changing color the slightest. some shops make rye bread and the like, but first time i thought i was getting whole wheat bread it turned out to be a slice of chocolate bread. ugh.
am used to it now, but believe the japanese opinion of bread is that it should be as cake-like as possible.
did you do the kenkyusei thing appleseed?
move your cursor over the blank looking boxes along the top of the page.
did that but no response beyond a simple animated rollover action...
let me try again.................
nope. same thing. ah well.
ckick the rollover, third one is projects, fourth is gallary (bad spelling is arai's)
Did not do the kenkyusei thing....yet. I won't graduate until Sept., but my professors are pushing me to do it next year. I still find it odd that they pay for everything BUT tuition, yet you don't even get a degree....It sounds like a fun way to spend a year/18 months...
you can change from kenkyusei to proper degree if you want to (assuming you go on the monbukagakusho program).
actually you have no option but to start as a kenkyusei anyway. usually students spend this time a bit idle, or study japanese...
i did this for 4 months, did exam to enter phd at university of tokyo, then started 2 months later as a proper student. i was living in japan when i applied for the scholarship so worked pt in old office while studying for entrance exam. was a strange time, but worked well in the end...
btw, they pay full tuition plus the monthly stipend once you get in. so no worries about money. only thing for me was that i was recommended to go to the national schools as tuition was lower (though entry is nominally harder) and the guv likes this better (no money in the program lately). this meant, supposedly, that my chances for approval would be higher...
Really? Interesting, none of that info was in the Kyoto Seika paperwork that I was given. Sounds much more appealing in that light. I guess we'll see where the cards lay next year.