I remember the first time I watched the film AKIRA, I thought: "if Tokyo looks like that, I have to go to Tokyo some day". That was ages ago. Now, after wandering from city to city I finally decided to go there and sort of settle down for a while.But is not that easy, and it`s going to be a long journey until I actually get there and most important, manage to stay there. That`s why I want to keep record of this venture as it will give me the chance to, hopefully, find people and help; as well as being a “manual” for others that want to do the same.
For this kind of things it`s always good to have a time deadline, and since I still have many things to finish here I think setting the countdown for 2010 should be enough.So…
Starting point: Bogotá, Colombia 2008.
Target point: Tokyo, Japan 2010.
First, checking the profile:
1. Architect: interested in public space, landscape, urban design, informality, ephemeral architecture, homelessness, terrain vague.
2. Family: yeah! Wife+child
3. Money: savings = $0.00
4. Languages: according to the Japanese embassy in Colombia, applicants should at least have good English as Japanese is almost zero by default. (So, if you mates, Colombians like me or latinos in general, are having trouble by reading this blog I suggest you to look for an English teacher right away)
5. Contacts: a friend of mine lives in Sapporo.
6. Other merits: kendo practitioner (no rank at all).
7. Trivia: fan of…. kurosawa akira, miyake issey, otomo katsuhiro, oshi mamoru, kawabata yasunari, miyamoto musashi, katsushika hokusai and the list goes on and on and on...
Ok, this is what i`ve got so far, so, here we go!!!
2 comments:
Good news! (Or… light at the end of the tunnel)
There is a scholarship program (monbukagakusho) sponsored by the Japanese ministry of culture, sport, science and technology; Whit it, I can engage in an architecture post degree course in Tokyo, apparently in any university, any that has an architecture program of course. It sounds great for me as the things implied in this scholarship help with many problems, not all, not definitely, but helps a lot.
And it goes like this…
1. Tickets (Bogotá-Tokyo-Bogotá )
2. Japanese course for 6 months (after that you have to prove you know enough Japanese before actually beginning with the main thing, if not, well…arigato and sayonara my friend!
3. 170.000 yens per month for two years (jap course and post degree)
4. You can live at the campus (if there is available room there)
5. No fees to pay, like admission, matricula, exams, etc.
6. If you`ve been a good chap, in all senses, the chances to get a doctorate scholarship (other 3 years) increase considerably.
In direct proportion I must do quite a lot of investigation, paper and leg work to get the monbukagakusho, but I positively think it is the best option so far.
To be continued…..
Two links of interest about education and universities in Japan:
http://www.japanlink.co.jp/ka/kyoi1.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_universities_in_Japan
As you see, checking the whole list could take centuries, so you better know what you`re looking for. I have already checked a few options about my architecture studies:
1. University of Tokyo
2. Tokyo national university of fine arts and music
3. Waseda university
4. Nihon university
5. Tokyo institute of technology
I`m gonna write to these top five about their architecture programs hoping to get an answer that helps me in my search of an investigation workshop that matches my interests.
The following is a link to a list of blogs of architects and architecture students in Japan (thank you Karen!). it has a twist though, it is 100% written in Japanese! Nevertheless, it could be interesting to try a few of this blogs with an English post and see what comes out of it.
http://design.blogmura.com/buildingdesign/index.html
Next time i`ll tell you about their comments.
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