bird on a wire: TRAVELweek: Day 4::Miho Museum

Wednesday November 2, 2005

i remember watching this special on tv or something about the miho museum. it was built in the remote (and i'm talking seriously far away) hillside and only 20% of it is visible as to not interrupt the hillside and environment. the japanese people have a great respect for the environment that is truly admirable. i can only hope that i can incorporate this same respect in my work.

it was built by i.m. pei who also did the library tower in downtown la (it's the tallest tower in downtown la that has a crown on top, and if you still dont' know what building it is, it's the one that got blown up in independence day when the aliens were destroying la). anyways i'm not a real big fan of his work, it's a little bit too geometrical for me, but it remember me of one of my instructors at orange coast college. he is one of her favorite architects and she was telling the class how he is an example of an architect that has no ego. of course, i'm sure he does, but i think it's probably his great sense of humility and great intelligence that she admires. and i would agree with her, it's hard to find a lot of architects that are really humble, usually they're mouthing off about something (and usually it's about their work) b/c they want to hear themselves talk.

Interior shot of the museum. Despite the modernization of the traditional japanese pitched roof, the view was pretty good.

this is the bridge and tunnel that connects the reception area to the front of the museum.

anyways, if you have a chance to see it, make sure you've got a lot of money and time. from the dohokan, it takes about 20 minutes to get to the kyoto station, another 13 minutes on a local train, then you have to wait on a bus, that costs about $8 one way, for 50 minutes!!! it costs about $10 to get in and i was only there for about 2 hours b/c i finished it in about 1.5 hours and just loafed around to take a few pictures.

anyways i got back to the doho and spent the next couple of hours on the internet and in my room planning out my trip the next day to tokyo!!! i went downstairs to use the bathroom and one of my dorm mates came out of his room with a girl, and they were both extremely drunk. i think you can guess what they were doing in his room... PLAYING SCRABBLE of course! and then he asked me if i had gone to kino (this festival that the school throws on the school campus). i responded by saying that i had been there yesterday but didn't see anyone, so i just went to bed. but told him that i would go with them in a couple of minutes since they were heading down.

jimmy, dave and me...i'm not really drunk here, but just trying to hide the fact that the last shot made me want to hurl...

so you can guess what happened... we got F'ed UP!!! i'm sure i had a couple of shots of tequila and vodka and some other stuff. here are a couple of images of what transpired. we mostly hung out at this shot bar and then at this hip-hop club that was located just behind the architecture building. you should have seen when they did with the space. there was scaffolding everywhere, but with the appropriate mood lighting and music, the place that was probably an open quad by a ravine turned into a club. it was pretty awesome.