6th February - 11th February 2023 / Week 5
Alana Sofia Othman / 0353451 / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative
Media
Intercultural Design
Intercultural Design
INSTRUCTIONS
Week 5: Field study trip and data collection
Tokyo, Japan 2023 Reflection
Itinerary Scheduled Visits
The Tokyo trip was a 6 days 5 nights trip. Following our provided schedule, we visited Sensoji Temple, Teamlab Planets, 21-21 Design and Mori Art Museum. Each place was an interesting experience to remember.
In Sensoji Temple, it was interesting to see some locals wearing their kimono’s and it even more surprising that there was a huge local crowd around. In Malaysia’s religious sites, we usually only get a crowd like that during a holy festivals but for Tokyo, it seemed like a spot for them to just go on dates or visit casually.
Teamlab Planets was an interesting experience as it was an immersive exhibition with a lot of meaning underneath all their different sections. They were able to come up with a completely unorthodox way of immersive experience to a completely regular rationale or statement. When I read their short rationale explanations of each section, it was something we all know of, heard of, talk of, its absolutely nothing new. However, they created an outcome that was quite out of the box, which is something I hope to be able to remember to practise with my future designs.
At first, I did not understand the point of 21-21 Design Sight. I was confused as to why we were there as we were not architect students. I also did not understand what it was about as I thought they were talking about how the Arc de Triomphe was built, and it did not add up since it was built over a century ago. However, after going through the exhibition slowly, I realised it was an art installation on/with the Arc de Triomphe. It then made it a lot more sense and I was able to understand the point of my being there. It allowed me to understand how much effort, planning and time goes into a big project. It was a reminder that eventhough we may face many setbacks that are out of our control, it does not mean we should give up. It also was a great achievement that began as a dream, proving that there is never a dream too big to achieve.
Mori Art Museum was actually my favourite spot we visited. I love museums as I get to see and experience other people’s art without the immersive exercise. One of my favourites was SIDE CORE / EVERYDAY HOLIDAY SQUAD “rode work ver. Tokyo”. That was a fun and creative display with things we hate to see on the road (seeing it just means it would slow down traffic and cause a jam).
Data Collection Explorations
For data collection my group and I explored many different districts in Tokyo. We went around Asakusa, Akasaka, Roppongi for data collection and went to Akihabara, Shibuya and Harajuku during our free and easy days.
Upon our research prior to the trip, Asakusa was a hotspot district for wagashi, especially in front of Sensoji Temple. We walked around the area the whole morning till afternoon and ate so much wagashi that we couldn’t even think of eating a proper meal for lunch. Once we explored all the wagashi shops we could find from walking around and from our list that Ellyn and Jia Min made prior to the trip, we walked towards Tokyo Sky Tree Mall to relax.
The next day we went to Akasaka, and we were amazed by how different it looked to Asakusa. It did not take us long to realise that Akasaka was a rich people district just based off the looks of the buildings and the locals around. It was an extremely tiring day as we walked back and forth Akasaka, up and down all the hills and housing areas, just looking for our wagashi shops.
The next day we decided to visit one last wagashi shop to make it an even 8. We planned to go back to Akasaka and visit one more shop there. However as Ellyn and I were walking around Roppongi trying to find somewhere to eat for lunch, we stumbled upon one hidden wagashi shop. We then went in and were able to talk to English to one of the customers around and ask her a few questions about the wagashi sold there. She was very kind with informing us which were winter season wagashi and which were not. Ellyn and I then told the group, and we went back there after we were done with Mori Art Museum. This marked our completion for data collection, allowing us the next two days of freedom.
Summary
It was a really fun, eye opening and educational trip. I explored and learnt a lot about Tokyo and was able to take some lessons home with me that can make me a better designer. I also made a lot of new friends on this trip and got closer with my group mates, allowing us to work better together when it came to our final project. Group projects are often hard due to us not knowing each other well enough but since we were able to experience and travel around Tokyo together, we were forced to be around each other and suffer the walking around, getting lost and testing the wagashi together. It created a strong bond and a somewhat of a team building experience we can treasure always.
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