LONG ABSENCE!

Hello brothers and sisters mothers and fathers and friends!

It is a long time since I last wrote this blog.

My apologies.

Well, what has been happening?

Nothing much. I have finished all the pottery classes and I now started my "Draw your mind out...Set your thoughts free..."class. Great. They say stuff like draw freely and do what ever you like even if it involves drowning your painting, bashing a metal piece or setting your paintings on fire and submit the ash. However, they have their very own "unique" sense of taste and somehow they always like critiques. This is strange. You shouldn't have critiques if you suppose to draw anything you like. But, all well...I have 3 hours to draw my mind and I get so tired after that so I divide the time. So now I have time to draw for the exhibition I'm planning to have on April2-7. Well, this is actually strange too cuz I should be drawing my mind out which means I like to draw anything I like. Though I get tired so I start to draw something else which I WANT to draw. I guess the difference in this is that I have a motif for class and nothing for the exhibition.

All toghether, school is great. I left home early so I went to school VERY early and walked around my neighbor. It is getting very cool and it was winter today. I had my coat on and there weren't many people at school since arties hate cold weather.

Oh, yes. I had my first TOEFL test. I tried hard and I think I tried hard although the guy next to me and the lady behind me gave me a shock while doing their speaking test. THEY WERE LOUD. Not to mention bashing the keyboard during essays. Hmm... good experience, good experience.

Write soon. This for now.:)

Love lots miki

ps. some photos from GEISAI.(musabi festival)

Look at the pig.

SAMBAAAAA!

great sketches

Hello textile!

Building up!

Hello.

Musabi has a lot of movement going on today and it is raining like mad. This week is going to be a rainy one.

sounds like tokyo has a rainy season in autumn.

It is not even going up to 20today.

new things have started and the pottery class begun.

Yes I will have a chance to become David Leach Jr or either Lucie Rie the second.

The teacher seemed nice and there was only like 9people all together so that was funny. One of my good friends didn't come though.

She is in a problem. She doesnt come to school. Mainly because of her boyfriend. Ha thats stupid.

Well, its getting darker and colder.

winter clothes already???

Love lots miki xxx

CwRASH!

haha. Autumn has come.

And one of the big assignments are due tomorrow.

However, I have already finished all my work and is

doing really nothing at school but helping people 

and trying to give them food so they do not "CRASH".

A boy who was using the PC next to me was always at 

school from 9-8 and has been staying up all night for 3days with out

much food. So, as you can easily imagine,

 he was just about to crash 30minutes ago. I couldn't really have the guts to see him suffer so i ran and bought some food and energy drinks.(For gods sake.)

Thought I do understand as tomorrow is critiques.

What are the teachers going to say?

I guess no one know till they actually say. haha

What else...Ah me and sean had gone really high yesterday celebrating my finishing the assignment and we decided to do

something at school that is fun involving arts performances, exhibitions and anything. So we went up to the school office and

talked about the school conditions on using music and drinks.

Then surprizingly for an art uni, the usage of schools were SOOO

limited. Like, no joke. LIMITED. Seems like people went a little too crazy in the 70s 80s and 90s. Well, they still must be those bulky speakers and amps and guitars from those rave times.

Well, all well here. 

Fun times are coming!

love lots miki

ORGANIZE!!

I am now at school.

Went to see the prof to get the check up for my assignment and 

I have a full on day today.9-5 at school.

I think if I organize what I should do I will be ok. Then next week I will start my pottery classes and drawing the rock from 9-12 everyday again.

haha very fun. For a while, I would have nothing to do.

That is not good either I think.

I should give myself something to do. Such as design something myself or start training for TOEFL and things.

Ohhh...It is going to be a good autumn and winter.:)

Hope everything goes well for all of you.

ps: I read about this 12year old fashion blogger and she

was rapping about the designer Rei Kawakubo(Commes des Garcons) it was funny. Seeing people do bad raps are one thing you can look forward to when you cant sing.haha

miki xxx

Silver WWWW

Yes silver week has finished!(. silver week is a term japanese people used to describe a long weekend that occured till yesterday. Was approximately around 5days long.)

I actually didn't know the existance of silver weej till the day before or something.hahaahaa

Nyways, I had a nice silver week which involved movies, massive shopping and walking and eating nice food and running and just relaxing.

I also had to study some for the assignment and am quite anxious about it. I'm getting two check tomorrow from the professor and I think and hope I have improved a lot since the assignment started.

BTW, the assignment is to create a visual map that best describes your "design philosophy". God thats about all they tell you nothing else. Obviously another very VERY open assignment.huh

Wish me luck and hope everything is going fine.

I read about the dust storm that happened in australia.

God that must have been terrible....Hope tokyo doesn't get much taifoons this season.

love miki xoxo

Cold and autumn

Its all getting very cool over here in nowhereland a.k.a, kodaira.

It seems like this area gets cooler faster and does not get hot so fast than nagoya does in the summer.hmmm.....The minor difference within Japan.

I had no classes today so i sat and did my work at school anyway.

Doesn't feel right if i dont go to school in a normal day anyway.

anyway anyway...

Ah! I saw the movie Babel and thought that, that movie is SOOOOO heavy in emotion. Like there is nothing else than human emotion and very good acting.

Better go and buy some movies! (it is way better than eating dinner in silence with me, myself and I.)

See YA!

miki xxx

rainy again!

HEllo im at school now!

i ate luch as a read a few pages of JRRT's the lord of the rings and 

been hooked by it. I started reading it since my high school english teacher who used to talk to me non stop for over 20minutes, recommended it. Plus, i founded in a second hand book store near my house so it was really cheap like ¥400.

Anyways, im going to try and listen to the contextual studies class. This is important, I'm not joining, but listening this time!! Plus, I need to be doing something next year...haha

I talked to  a Pratts exchange student a few days ago and we got on very well. She told me a lot about Pratts and she also warned me that in Pratts, the average points you get per semeseter is 18. That is only couting the 必修 points. And compared to that Musabi is 6.

Oh god....thats hard. She also told me a term called "freshmen 15". Which where when you enetr Pratts, you HAVE to gain 15lbs.

But RISDs exchange with musabi is starting too in 2011. Which is MY year!!!!! wooooo

A lot of options open.

love lots xoxo

RAINY!

It has been a long time since I have last entered this site!
Hello! and it seemes like blogger is having a birthday!

A lot has happended in the summer. I had fun FUN FUN! and also discovered and learned things. Important things. Like life lessons!

yes i am young and still naive.

There is this story where one person had created a life staircase and when in your 20s, the stair case is incredibly high and short. Which means there are a LOT of discoveries in a very short time. I guess I am in that stage. However, there are a lot of people in my life who are still having a lifetime in their 50s 60 and 70s! Which is great.
Because I can get greatly inspired by them and my staircase will be higher and higher. hahaaa

Anyhow, today there is no school. Yes! the 2nd term invovles no school days. But because it is sitll a weekday, i woke up at my usual time and went to school the usual time. Though, i walked to school today with no music or whatsoever. I wanted to feel the autumn and i did! i had my jacket on for a while and the sun was not hitting the ground.

well, i have to go now and work again.
It will finish soon though. Since I only have one class!!
This is MAJOR. and this is the first time im saying "i go to school" when there are days like this.

SEE YA!

ps. I am going to go to a party today to see the new exchange students.
Apparently there are 3girls and 3dudes. And the dudes are lined up as bold, blond and brown. haha

Hot, Cold and having a feast!

Heeeello.

I'm going to be back at Nagoya in definitely another 24hours and I have this really chaotic feeling.

Like, I AM GOING HOME.

I can't actually believe that the clumsy type me, lived through the first semester!!!

I, myself can't really believe it! :o

That's why I had a feast and had whatever I have felt like for today and did whatever I felt like doing today. I worked in the morning so I decided to let myself go for the luch and evening.

Oh, yesterday, I went out for dinner to Kichijoji with Misty and Erika. Two of them are Hapas(half-something people) and they are both half-japanese. So they both kinda have the same roots as me only they lived their life in the U.S. and is over at Japan for graduate studies. Guess what? They both have scholarships from one of the biggest associations in the world. Cool. And I went to dinner with them. Wow. Plus, there is more to this. Erika is a designer who was studying at RISD (Rhole Island School of Design) Whoooooa.Bang.

She nicely gave me quite a lot of advices and I have gotten inspiration again :)hehe

There is also this lady in Dentsu who is half South American(forgot..) and maybe I can see her too.

well, more than this, I'M GOING HOME TOMORROW.

HA.

Watch out NGO, I'm coming

raining and rolling around

Hello!

Its Miki the nothing-to-doooo girl today.

It's all rainy outside and I can't really go outside.

As my little apartman is sooo little I can't move around, I went to GEO(video rental store) to give back the Bridget Jones DVD and I was hanging around the store trying to move around and ended up finding, Hitch, the Lake House, Hair Spray, Babel and For Whom the Bell Tolls on a shockingly cheap price. I didn't know DVDs can be this cheap. I'm not really acquainted with old movies like the one I just have mentioned at the last. But I just got it to watch the beautiful beautiful Ingrid Bergman. In woman's magazines like Vogueeeee,Elleeee, Marie Claire (by the way, the japanese Marie Claire is going to stop publishing "temporary". shocking!!!!) they always mention her as one of the most beautiful actresses. So, I might study her as one of my so-called "role models".yaaay

So, the rain is stopping and raining and raining heavily like Singapore squalls. Seriously. Rains rains poooouuuurrrrrs stops. and back again.

Plus, because of the rain, its dark and that made me have a nap after my dried fruit and coffee snack. phew.

Now, I just finished reading one of the most boring but interesting

academic books about "Out sider Art" I better start my report then.

See you all!

Miki xoxo

REFRESH!!!

Hello.

Im now at musabi's computer space writing this.

It feels somehow right to write my blog at uni.

I came to uni today and there aren't many people here except the ones who are studying for masters+doctors and つうしん（long distance）students.

I came a couple of days ago here to get my book for homework and that day was the day the つうしんstudents summer school started.

There was a long line of excited people there. A lot of them quite old. Some of them looked like they were 60! what was more interesting about it was the fact that he was smiling away and looking very happy being at uni. Which was very sweet because I don't see many people looking happy especially when they are on their own. 

Anyways, I have a LOT of me time today since seansk8 is back home meeting his bro Kevin. I cleaned my house as usual and bought equipment from sekaido. Now what should I do? read I guess. Get all the work done. Maybe I should buy a DVD since I'm bored to death while I eat. Hmm...nice me time!:)

Ah...its getting all random. sorry.

Anyways, my body is great. So, I'm getting my routine back. I did Yoga yesterday and though I would go for a run but didn't. I didn't feel up to it. I will try it today! My appetite is normal and eating well.

Good for me! Hope you are all doing fine!

This is the best feel-good video on youtube.com

I watched this at least 5times a day when I was sick and gloomy.

Seansk8 was moved by this vid and was crying which was quite amusing. hahahahaha

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-94JhLEiN0

Plus when you feel hungry, you should read this blog. It seriously fills you up.

http://thisiswhyyourefat.com/

bi! 

mik

Run down

Haven't written my blog for a long time!

sorry.

A lot has been going on lately but the biggest one is that I have gotten sick. Probably from the stress and pressure of the 1st semester. Plus, I had 10hour shopping and sleep less nights due to my very silly friends. I also had this camp that I was half forced to go.

The camp was just going to be one of those where everyone drinks non stop. I'm always taking care of those drunks so I guess thats why I was asked to go. I'm quite convenient for those people.haha

So, looking back at the 1st semester, there were a lot going on and I think I have done a little too much. I should have took some stuff more easy to make room in myself. But I take my studies quite seriously so I didn't want to do that. I'm going to university for gods sake. I'm very blessed. Though, a lot of my friends take it for granted that they don't do much work but play and leave all the work later on. I hate seeing that and I know I shouldn't get annoyed but I feel stupid trying so hard when they don't take studies seriously.

The strange part of my friends is that they like design and are very passionate but they don't take studies very seriously. It's really strange isn't it? I guess they are passionate about the only design world. Like graphic design or typography. For me, I want to go more global so just being passionate about the design world is not the main point. My main point is how design is going to change and how I, who in the future is going to be a designer, is going to change things and how the world is going to change. Plus, the department that I go to is not aiming just to create designers who can just do graphics. You can just go to technical school to do that.

Oh gosh, I'm getting quite serious. Before I get a fever, I should go to bed.

Good night!

Love miki

Summer is here! and I'm all re-freshed although there are sitll

tests that I have.

But I finished my huge essay so I'm quite relaxed and all I have to do is to clear out my schedule for the summer in TOKYO and study french. BONJOUR MONSIEUR/MADAME/MADEMOISELLE. How difficult.

Seems like this summer is going to be a really interesting one as I'm spending half of it in Tokyo, Nagoya and a little bit of Paris.

How lucky.

Hope all of you are doing great and healthy.

Ah, speaking of which, I'm starting to get the hang of hatha-yoga. It's been over a year since I have started Hatha-Yoga(power yoga) and finally, I'm successfully making my inner boddy muscles flow. Just 40minutes of yoga makes me sweat like crazy. The back of my t-shirt gets soaked. At the end, my shirt gets really heavy. Kinda gross but true. I thought I was doing something wrong so I asked my bf who is too, a yoga nerd. Accroding to him, if you flow properly, you do sweat heaps. Plus, the sweat is like water. And that is detoxing your body. Which equals to getting rid of your water in you and making your body toned.

Hmm....The mystery of yoga.

I went for a walk at 玉川上水(a river) and took some photos of the place since the weather was amazing.

Did you know photos which are totally out of focus that the lights seem like bubbles,(the last one of the three) is called "BOKEH"?

Which means "out of focus"in Japanese. Bokeh is actually a word that professional photographers use too. And Bokeh is really big now. Like the trend.

So, please critique my bokeh.haha

Done!

YES YES I have finished my biggest assignment for the semester!

The assignment was to find a problem in the society and try to make it better or fix it using the power of design. What ever was fine. It could have been a product, a campaign, an ad, a shop or installation. I guess this is the most blank assignment that I can experience in my uni life. So, it was a very hard and nerve racking 1month but I think it was REALLY worth it. I experienced a lot and learnt a lot about design and PEOPLE.

now I just have to do my final report for next friday.

Though I started to get ready for it for quite a while and I just have to put that into action or writing.

Now that the biggest assignment is over, I will have a lot of free time me time from now on.

Maybe I will start a part time job or something.

Better not do nothing.

Part time relaxing

Hello all!

I had a good rest today. 9 hours sleep for a change and I feel refreshed.

I ate good food too. A whole grapefruit and tomato soup that I have made with onions, cabagge and carotts! mmm..!

The group work thing is going well and we got some fresh ideas that we can work on so it was a good thing to take it easy and see what happens. Than rushing off to school.

There is a massive plan to plan a Yukata day now and I'm in charge of it since it was my idea. I had this idea since I was in highschool but considering the time we have to travel to school,  it never became reality. But now its all different! I'm in an art uni. Eccentric everywhere where boys have long hair and girls have short cuts. I will also be a nice installation for me to capture as one of my projects. 

Getting excited of the thought! :)

Have a great day all!

U

hmmm...?

Today is not a good day for me.

I dont know why.

Maybe because my Dr.Martens are hurting my feet or because I'm feeling down?

I AM actually feeling down a bit.Not as bad as this though!haha

tons of more plus have to deal with all the people in school who are so japanese? I guess its time for cold stone ice cream

Maybe I'm getting tired for all the things I have to do?

Reports reports reports and tons of more plus have to deal with all the people in school who are so japanese?

I guess its time for cold stone ice cream!:)

Artie Life

Heeeello!

So, my real artie life has started.

And its really busy and I have a headache.

Maybe I'm beginning to get tired of hard work. Since I haven't got

a rest for a long time. Since Open Campus. In fact, I DONT have any holidays! I just remembered.

Massive need of me time. :)

But there is a bright side. The fact that I haven't been sick for a long time! Because I only use my right brain?or is it because I'm having fun everyday? and eating food that I enjoy?

As a conclusion, I feel really happy.

Only that my english is deteriorating.

FINITOOOO

Yes Yes it has finished!
all the hard work since 4 weeks ago has finished.

So what is it really?
well... I had to give a presentation
for the open campus(ie. about 2-3days where unis OPEN their classes or gives tours to highschool students who are willing to apply to a specific uni) Normally, 1st years do nothing other than nothing. But I had to give a presentation!!massive.
Anyways, the presentation went well in a relaxing mood so it was great.I didn't reallt get nervous though. I suppose I just had confidence in myself for I spent so much time and brain work for 4weeks! This is prof.Teddy

Cameras came too!

Me being stupid with others!lol


Plus, I had critiques in the morning for sculpture.
The teacher told me that I was very fresh and has a fresh eye since I haven't really trained well as other students for dessin.
All together, I was alright. My sculpture was destroyed as I dont have any space to keep it. I took photos though. Look


And after the hard part, PARTY!! We had a party at a nice place for a change. The teachers asked me if I drink beer PERSONALLY and I was like NO. I hate beer.haha
Anyways, I had fun. The professor was at the table talking to me and what he was saying was very interesting.
And he even told me I might one day be someone.
I'm lucky I said. He told me "being lucky is a treasure"
Deep. Beep.
Well, tomorrow I will have to hang around school explaining the projects for a while and that is all.
Great experience for sure


I took a lot of photos as the project and the Open Campus was big and very energetic. More than last year when I came.
I guess my university is getting better and better every year!
Here are some photos. There were having an ivent where the fine artists and designers did つなひき！

ah and almost forgot. This is one of the bigger projects we 1st years did. The theme was to make the www(internet) page we made by linking eachothers pages into some thing tangible and representing our "page" as the chair and the links as the strings.



This is the artie life!

Buzzzzzy

Busy Busy Busy times....

I have to octo-task things! 

crazzy stuff.

All of it will finish on Sunday.

Please wish me luck! :)

mik xoxo

Rainy season has arrived!?

Helloo

Seems like the rainy season has come and its raining quite heavily.

The open camopus for uni is coming up and a lot of people in musabi are becoming active.

And with that, students are doing a lot of performing arts around lunch time such as becoming bold in groups and walking around school.

Which was quite scary as bold men kind of represent mafias over here.

Maybe thats my descrimination...haha

Well, all fine over here. I have a lot of company to keep me active and not be alone so I don't really feel lonely anymore. More than that I actually have to make "Me" time as I'm constantly surrounded by people.

But being surrounded by people makes you think.

Like, I'm re-thinking of coolness. I used to think people who wear fancy clothes and hair are very cool but now, I don't quite think like that. Because, boys in my uni, tries to look natural and not obviously calculated as possible. So they TRY not to look as if they took 40minutes to decide on which clothes to wear. But what I think is that because they look too natural they look artificial.

So they very obviously look cool. Not in a quiet and elegant way. What's more is that because they look heavily-made-up they look beyond who they are. The person who is wearing that fancy Ralph Lauren jacket is not in the same point as their jackets. Strange but this thought has been going through my mind all day since 3days ago.

Now better work!

Breaking into bits and pieces

Hello!

I had a thing called "a hell of a week".
I stayed in school till 8 doing group work on monday, worked till 8 for thursday and friday, went to some home parties.
But yesterday was the most interesting day.
I went out for dinner with 4 of my girlfriends. We were having fun talking about stuff and rumors and all that girl stuff. But at one conversation, the toppic got deeper.
Then one of the girls just burst into tears.
She kept saying everyone is so special but she doesn't know what to do because all she can do is draw realistically. In other words, Entrance Exam style dessins.

She told us that she felt envious of me and another girl for getting into uni a different way (I went in by giving a presentation and doing face-to-face interviews).
Poor girl. She didn't even know she was this desparate to find what she is good at.
I guess getting into a good uni is a big step. But beyond that you are in your own so what's more sad and miserable not having support and all alone struggling to find YOU??

But the biggest thing is that I didn't know she was that struggling!
I thought she was a bubbly very earnest kind of girl. But she wasn't. And it turned out that she was a very fragile very sencitive girl.
So I made her stay over night at my place so to make sure she won't go all crazy regretting nothing. She left this morning.

For me, I'm actually doing very fine at university.
More than I expected.
Like I don't really get worried or get all down there and want to die or something like that. Maybe its because I'm so busy.hahaha

But I also try to detox all the information from my brain by writing my diary like crazy and doing yoga, running and drawing stuff at home on my wall without any thinking. I feel I'm very lucky because I have ways to relieve myself from stress and over-load infromation rather than staying at home and thinking in my brain non stop till I think I'm not worth living.

I also flashed back when I was little and remembered how it was hard to tell people about me. It must be the two-language syndrome or whatever.
It was hard for sure. Especially for a little kid.
This is very 懐かしい。 But because I suffered for quite a long time and gave people a lot of trouble, I have me and I'm very happy with myself. People may say this is confidece, but I think its something beyond that. What is it?haha Maybe its the fact that I have myself to rely on and I'm ok. Does this have to do something with having two identities in two languages? Am i thinking too deep?? Half-Japanese people tend to think too deep you know?

Ah by the way, I made a ad for this and I'm pround of it and I'm going to stick it around school and I'm attending it! :)

http://www.hafujapanese.org/index.html

Prestantaion

God there Im now attending a class for Hishyu and I have a presentation and the quality is quite not good or in other words bad.

I think I'm seriously getting an headache.

I used 石膏today.
Don't know how to say that in english...:P

Anyways, I hope peoples presentations will inprove in a year or I'll keep getting headaches.

roppongi and chaos

Hello!
Guess what!? I have finally gotten out from the little town that I used to live and actually went to the middle of tokyo where all the people are and where Gwen Stefani fantacizes. Yes! I went to shinjyuku, Shibuya, Roppongi and saw Tokyo tower and also saw only saw Harajyuku from a distance.

It was great. the chaos. I actually liked Shibuya.
It is indeed, as people say, over packed and busy you might get sick.
But young people who gets easily high with brain-made adrelanin can take it.

The Shibuya station was packed. Look in your right, a girl is getting sick while on your left, there is a massive photoshoot for a girls magazine.

So, what did I do?

I went to see the Cassina Exhibition and to a contemporary arts exhibition. I went to see two.
Cassina was great. All the furniture spoke for itsself. No explanation needed. Just pure time-less stuff from the 50-70s. You need a week to study and see everything. Just pure timeless things. I was amazed how human can create those nice things in their intangible brain.

But the other contemporary one was just strange.
I mean, you really don't get anything until you get your hands on one of those walky-talky-type machine that explains the works.
So, me without one of those, just tried to feel the art. But failed.
You can't get inspired by just listening to a sound that sounds like a PSP or refridgerator getting electricuted.


And by the end of the day, I was so excited that I couldn't go to sleep for a long time. Maybe the Krispy cream doughnuts's over grazed grazed doughnuts did their trick to make me excited.
But literally, Tokyo maybe one of the places you need to go once in your life while you are still young.



I will list some foods I ate at the city.

FO



Jean paul Hevin's chocolate.
One little piece of chocolate and a 3cm macaron　costs ¥700($7)




All time fashionista's favorite, Dean and Deluca


TOKYO TOWER!woop


Roppongi mid town. A grad school Korean lady told me that
it took 15years to create the building.
15years of THINKING. THINKING.
How many people do that?
But they should be happy since the building is absolutely wonderful.




Enough of playing.
I need to concentrate on my works and studies.
Having fun as usual at school though. It just gets more interesting
and interesting.

What I didn't realize is that I'm doing 3times more work than anyother student in my department.
wooo

miki xoxo

Feeling Good today

Yesterday, I really didn't have a good day somehow.

Probably because during the critique that I had yesterday, mine was not commented by the old teachers. Not that I really minded but maybe it was subconscious!! haha

by the way, this is my paintings...


It was like this...


then went likethis


yea it is a tree root..I don't know what you thought it was but its a tree root. Don't comment much on it because I do wish I had more time to paint more.

I'll show you other peoples paintings. Just for the whatever of it.











By the way, this is the class I was in.Everyone is arty and strange and everyone is so facinating.


Ok. So from tomorrow, sculpture starts.
People have been saying that the classes are quite hard.
But I guess I just have to see how it goes.

I bought a bunch of books today too from a nice second-hand bookshop near the river I always pass with my red bike.

Now better go.

Hope you all enjoy my photos.

Love lots M

xoxo