mandag 28. april 2008
odaiba..daiba?
today I had a lonely but in a way, nice day.
after my morning rituals, I took the yamanote line to shimbashi station on the other side of the city.
there I changed means of transportation to something called; yurikamome.
this is more or less a public rollercoaster. it looks like the trains that connects terminals at big airports,
and it runs without driver, that way you can sit all the way up front!
the track is 10-30 meters above street level,
and it winds in between the skyscrapers..it`s marvellous!
at one point, two highways and this rollercoaster transportation track gather into a huge loop in three stories to climb to the level of the high bridge connecting tokyo and the artificial island odaiba/daiba.
my oh my...hard to describe.
odaiba is a place where you find architectural ugliness, the statue of liberty in 1:10..maybe, shoppingmalls with rather interesting interior design, empty parkinglots, couples seriously in love, a beach, bbq people playing the flute, vending machines containing icecream, trucks and the sea. when I got there, I realised I haven`t seen the sea for three months..only from planes and/or skyscrapers.
I like the ocean. I spent one hour on a bench reading and trying to draw a crane on the other side of the bay...drawing is back on my TO DO list..if you know what I mean.
someone told me that shigeru bans, "nomadic museum" was located on the island.
I spent a long time searching for it, but in the end I had to give up as usual.
with my record of not being able to locate the architecture I want to see, my future as an architectural guide seems dark, nor realistic or wanted. but for my own sake it would be nice if I manage to get a glimpse of some buildings before I leave. luckily I like to walk.
after my morning rituals, I took the yamanote line to shimbashi station on the other side of the city.
there I changed means of transportation to something called; yurikamome.
this is more or less a public rollercoaster. it looks like the trains that connects terminals at big airports,
and it runs without driver, that way you can sit all the way up front!
the track is 10-30 meters above street level,
and it winds in between the skyscrapers..it`s marvellous!
at one point, two highways and this rollercoaster transportation track gather into a huge loop in three stories to climb to the level of the high bridge connecting tokyo and the artificial island odaiba/daiba.
my oh my...hard to describe.
odaiba is a place where you find architectural ugliness, the statue of liberty in 1:10..maybe, shoppingmalls with rather interesting interior design, empty parkinglots, couples seriously in love, a beach, bbq people playing the flute, vending machines containing icecream, trucks and the sea. when I got there, I realised I haven`t seen the sea for three months..only from planes and/or skyscrapers.
I like the ocean. I spent one hour on a bench reading and trying to draw a crane on the other side of the bay...drawing is back on my TO DO list..if you know what I mean.
someone told me that shigeru bans, "nomadic museum" was located on the island.
I spent a long time searching for it, but in the end I had to give up as usual.
with my record of not being able to locate the architecture I want to see, my future as an architectural guide seems dark, nor realistic or wanted. but for my own sake it would be nice if I manage to get a glimpse of some buildings before I leave. luckily I like to walk.
fredag 25. april 2008
easy mix
while being in beijing, you have to eat peking duck.
so anna and me headed for Da Dung restaurant, nr 1 peking duck restaurant the year of 2008.
something I find rather suspicious since 2008 is four months old.
anyway, the restaurant looked small and cosy from the outside, inside it was a labyrinth of bad interior design.
we were seated on a big round table, in an almost empty room. we ordered the duck and waited for the wonder to appear. a surprising ritual about eating ducks from peking, is that before they surve you the dish, they come to your table and show you the dead grilled duck, with all bodyparts remaining..feet, neck, wings and head. not something I`m dying to see, I`m the kind of person that prefers filets to "the real thing", that way you can suppress the fact that it`s an animal. at first I thought we ought to slize the bird ourself, but to my relief they brought it back to the kitchen and cut the meat off the bones. 5 minutes into the dinner, the waitress came back with a small plate with something undefinable on it. anna ate the eatable on the piece of something, we later realised that it was half a head, and she had eaten the brain...hardcore.
let me introduce the people I live with;
1. a corean girl; she never speaks to anybody. not even a hello in the hallway. she works at our local grocery store, where she pretend not to recognice you.
2. claus; german guy. super sarcastic all the time, addicted to cnn. works at a german place, something in relation with culture and trade, almost like an embassy only it`s not.
3. laurent; searching for work. hard to find on a tourist visa and no japanese skills. visiting his girlfriend.
4. andrea; italian guy?, don`t know what he does as the matter of fact. have to ask him. everyday around 12 pm he talks to somebody, most likely a girl, on the phone. yesterday he sang a song by oasis.
5. me; norwegian girl, just resantly unemployed.
6. tino; german guy, from berlin. don`t do much.
7. two guys from singapore, always forget their names. very sweet polite clean men, study japanese.
8. raya; form bulgaria, translator.
9. philip; french/swiss guy. artist, but now he wants to become the ultimate fighting champion. japan is the best place to be one. he eats alot of healthy food, drink honey strait from the bottle and end the meal with some powder proteins mixed with water. he taught me how to use a rise-cooking-machine. you basically just push a button.
10. indian guy; works with computers, spend his nights on skype, speaking in his mother tongue.
11. english fellow; study japanese.
it`s really bad that I don`t know the names of 5 people out of 10...working on it. I think I can eliminate the corean girl, she`s not very friendly.
earlier I`ve told you about my career as a t-shirt model, and the pictures that turned out to be me, looking like a meatball. japanese obviuosly like meatball pictures, they want more. now I`m getting suspicious, maybe they going to use the photos in some kind of meat advertisment. I don`t want to be the huge skandinavian meatball girl in a t-shirt.
I`ve also discovered a idyllic park.
it`s very close to where I live.
people go there to take pictures of flowers, trees and bushes.
I got inspired.
so anna and me headed for Da Dung restaurant, nr 1 peking duck restaurant the year of 2008.
something I find rather suspicious since 2008 is four months old.
anyway, the restaurant looked small and cosy from the outside, inside it was a labyrinth of bad interior design.
we were seated on a big round table, in an almost empty room. we ordered the duck and waited for the wonder to appear. a surprising ritual about eating ducks from peking, is that before they surve you the dish, they come to your table and show you the dead grilled duck, with all bodyparts remaining..feet, neck, wings and head. not something I`m dying to see, I`m the kind of person that prefers filets to "the real thing", that way you can suppress the fact that it`s an animal. at first I thought we ought to slize the bird ourself, but to my relief they brought it back to the kitchen and cut the meat off the bones. 5 minutes into the dinner, the waitress came back with a small plate with something undefinable on it. anna ate the eatable on the piece of something, we later realised that it was half a head, and she had eaten the brain...hardcore.
let me introduce the people I live with;
1. a corean girl; she never speaks to anybody. not even a hello in the hallway. she works at our local grocery store, where she pretend not to recognice you.
2. claus; german guy. super sarcastic all the time, addicted to cnn. works at a german place, something in relation with culture and trade, almost like an embassy only it`s not.
3. laurent; searching for work. hard to find on a tourist visa and no japanese skills. visiting his girlfriend.
4. andrea; italian guy?, don`t know what he does as the matter of fact. have to ask him. everyday around 12 pm he talks to somebody, most likely a girl, on the phone. yesterday he sang a song by oasis.
5. me; norwegian girl, just resantly unemployed.
6. tino; german guy, from berlin. don`t do much.
7. two guys from singapore, always forget their names. very sweet polite clean men, study japanese.
8. raya; form bulgaria, translator.
9. philip; french/swiss guy. artist, but now he wants to become the ultimate fighting champion. japan is the best place to be one. he eats alot of healthy food, drink honey strait from the bottle and end the meal with some powder proteins mixed with water. he taught me how to use a rise-cooking-machine. you basically just push a button.
10. indian guy; works with computers, spend his nights on skype, speaking in his mother tongue.
11. english fellow; study japanese.
it`s really bad that I don`t know the names of 5 people out of 10...working on it. I think I can eliminate the corean girl, she`s not very friendly.
earlier I`ve told you about my career as a t-shirt model, and the pictures that turned out to be me, looking like a meatball. japanese obviuosly like meatball pictures, they want more. now I`m getting suspicious, maybe they going to use the photos in some kind of meat advertisment. I don`t want to be the huge skandinavian meatball girl in a t-shirt.
I`ve also discovered a idyllic park.
it`s very close to where I live.
people go there to take pictures of flowers, trees and bushes.
I got inspired.
onsdag 23. april 2008
beijing
you may describe beijing in; a tiny word, a small word and a bad word:
a huge motherfucker.
they have a lot of cars..approximately 2,8 million, by I believe it to be more.
they also have a lot of busses, but they have a subwaydiet. only 4 lines to be reckoned with.
if you compare it with spagetti and tokyo, you could say that tokyo has a full plate of spagetti, and beijing is just finished eating, so there`s only 4 spagetti left. you have to walk a long way to the nearest station. I was lucky, halfway there was a great dumpling restaurant, it became my regular pit-stop...mmhmmh.
anna, a girl from the hostel, and I went to the forbidden city.
we were not alone, but since we came early in the morning, we avoided the unbearable rush of tourists.
the day was sunny and incredibly warm, every spot of shadow were occupied. after spending a long time in the museum of clocks and watches, a dark and cold place, we decided to go to the tian`anmen square and see the mao picture. by the way, a little boy peed on the carpet inside the clock and watches museum. the kids in china have pants with an open crotch, that way they may go eau de toilet whenever they feel like it...nice.
tian`anmen square is the biggest square I have ever seen, and the buildings surrounding it, could probably contain the city of oslo. subway line 1, runs beneath it, and have stations on tian`anmen east and west..big square, big.
OMA and the marvellous CCTV.
I must admit that my attitude towards this building was a little like:
yeh yeh yeh...O-M-A..blah blah blah. but when I stepped out of the subway and saw it in real life, I must say that it almost gave me a new hair doo. it`s just impressive as hell. I don`t get how it`s possible. the engineers must be geniuses. I mean it`s so big and high and heavy! I have to go back to beijing when it`s finished, eat cake in the corner of the top floor, knowing it`s nothing but air beneath the structure.
the Olympic arena was also big.
I`m worried that they might not be done by the time the games starts. to me, professional construction worker as I am, it looked like they had a lot remaining both on the building and the park. but the workers seemed to take it easy, hanging around inside the fence smoking cigarettes and drinking tea. maybe they know what they`re doing.
shigoto ikozet boys! translation; work! lets go!
summer palace...huge area.
saw the place together with 30.000 others.
I`m not so good coping with tourist etiquette.
ended up reading lonely planet on a rock by the shore of the lake, info: they handed out 150.000 condoms in the olympic village in salt lake city, it wasn`t enough. the olympics lasted for 2 weeks.
then I start to wonder how they manage to show up at the games at all? how many people live in the village?
china have to import all the condoms, because a chinese normal is smaller than a regular normal. why they don`t just hand out large I don`t know..lonely planet couldn`t enlighten me on that. didn`t actually see the palace at all...ops. it looked good from a distance.
tried to see two buildings by LOT-EK.
but the only adress I had was sanlitun north, and sanlitun south.
surprise, sanlitun is a rather big area.
didn`t find them.
the streets of beijing is not clean.
so when you wander around you frequently look down.
many times during my stay, I have thought; hmm, what is that?
and then; well, I rather not know.
the reason why all the photos are a little greyish, is because of the pollution.
I think
a huge motherfucker.
they have a lot of cars..approximately 2,8 million, by I believe it to be more.
they also have a lot of busses, but they have a subwaydiet. only 4 lines to be reckoned with.
if you compare it with spagetti and tokyo, you could say that tokyo has a full plate of spagetti, and beijing is just finished eating, so there`s only 4 spagetti left. you have to walk a long way to the nearest station. I was lucky, halfway there was a great dumpling restaurant, it became my regular pit-stop...mmhmmh.
anna, a girl from the hostel, and I went to the forbidden city.
we were not alone, but since we came early in the morning, we avoided the unbearable rush of tourists.
the day was sunny and incredibly warm, every spot of shadow were occupied. after spending a long time in the museum of clocks and watches, a dark and cold place, we decided to go to the tian`anmen square and see the mao picture. by the way, a little boy peed on the carpet inside the clock and watches museum. the kids in china have pants with an open crotch, that way they may go eau de toilet whenever they feel like it...nice.
tian`anmen square is the biggest square I have ever seen, and the buildings surrounding it, could probably contain the city of oslo. subway line 1, runs beneath it, and have stations on tian`anmen east and west..big square, big.
OMA and the marvellous CCTV.
I must admit that my attitude towards this building was a little like:
yeh yeh yeh...O-M-A..blah blah blah. but when I stepped out of the subway and saw it in real life, I must say that it almost gave me a new hair doo. it`s just impressive as hell. I don`t get how it`s possible. the engineers must be geniuses. I mean it`s so big and high and heavy! I have to go back to beijing when it`s finished, eat cake in the corner of the top floor, knowing it`s nothing but air beneath the structure.
the Olympic arena was also big.
I`m worried that they might not be done by the time the games starts. to me, professional construction worker as I am, it looked like they had a lot remaining both on the building and the park. but the workers seemed to take it easy, hanging around inside the fence smoking cigarettes and drinking tea. maybe they know what they`re doing.
shigoto ikozet boys! translation; work! lets go!
summer palace...huge area.
saw the place together with 30.000 others.
I`m not so good coping with tourist etiquette.
ended up reading lonely planet on a rock by the shore of the lake, info: they handed out 150.000 condoms in the olympic village in salt lake city, it wasn`t enough. the olympics lasted for 2 weeks.
then I start to wonder how they manage to show up at the games at all? how many people live in the village?
china have to import all the condoms, because a chinese normal is smaller than a regular normal. why they don`t just hand out large I don`t know..lonely planet couldn`t enlighten me on that. didn`t actually see the palace at all...ops. it looked good from a distance.
tried to see two buildings by LOT-EK.
but the only adress I had was sanlitun north, and sanlitun south.
surprise, sanlitun is a rather big area.
didn`t find them.
the streets of beijing is not clean.
so when you wander around you frequently look down.
many times during my stay, I have thought; hmm, what is that?
and then; well, I rather not know.
the reason why all the photos are a little greyish, is because of the pollution.
I think
søndag 13. april 2008
Abonner på:
Innlegg (Atom)
