Had my hair cut

I had my hair cut and permed yesterday, so I feel really refreshed. My hair had been getting in my eyes and it was a real nuisance, but I’d been too lazy to go to the hair salon. But then I remembered that I had twenty-five thousand-yen of free tickets for the salon that were good till the end of this month. Oh! I had to go there! So I had my hair cut and permed, I had some treatment, got some mousse, a facial soap and a facial cream, for nothing! 

Long time no see!

Ta-da!

I’d been tackling my assignment until last weekend. As I mentioned before, once I start my assignment, I totally concentrate on it and work out as much as I can, so I didn’t have time to write this blog for a month. 
The assignment was to plan a place for praying by the sea. Actually, I could choose “in a green field” or “in the city” as the site, but I chose “by the sea”. This was my fault. It took a lot of time to make a site model. Three weeks! So I didn’t have much time to plan and make a place model, even though this was the original goal. However, I managed to make some plans and one of them was fairly good, I thought. 
Last Saturday, I brought a big box to class packed with models. When I took the site model from the box in the classroom, everyone looked at it in wonder. The teacher said that I was the first student who made it perfectly. I did it! And the comment on my praying place plan was not bad. I’m really looking forward to getting the result.

A choral competition

I often take part in my nephew and nieces events with my sister. The other day I went to a choral competition at my nephew’s high school. My sister said that it was unusual that they sang a cappella, so I wanted to go. 
Before the competition, the principal made a speech that the high school had a 50 year tradition of singing a cappella and some people chose that high school because of the a cappella competition. Really? I became more and more keen to listen to them. 
First, the first-year classes sang. They had only started at the school two months earlier, but they were not so bad, considering. After the first-year classes, the second-year and third-year classes sang. Wow! They sang pretty well. All of them were in good voice and in perfect tune. Excellent! 
Speaking of choral music, I like the American TV show, “Glee”; a musical-comedy-drama. As I listened to the competition, I deeply felt the difference between American and Japanese school culture. Freedom vs. discipline. In American schools, they sing and dance, and they sing all genres of music. In Japanese schools, they stand side-by-side in three rows, and sing songs as a chorus. I was surprised that my nephew said that when a class sang in the competition with steps, it was prohibited from the following year. Unbelievable! I hate such a Japanese thing like this.

A site model

I'm having a terrible experience now. I’m making a site model for my assignment and it’s awfully terrible, because the site is a mountain with sheer cliffs. Why is it so terrible? 
When I make a site model, I use styrene paper 5 mm thick. This time I am making a one to two-hundred scale model, so it is scaled down to 5 millimeters for 1 meter. The height of the mountain is 72 meters, so I need to pile up 72 styrene papers in a contour interval. If I simply pile them up it’s not so hard, but the styrene paper is expensive, so I make it by using only two papers. How? 
First, prepare two site plans, and trace on every other contour line with a red felt pen. Shift one line in another plan and use a blue felt pen. Next, put up plans on each styrene paper, and cut the styrene paper along the colored line. Then, pile up the red and blue ones one after the other. Finally, the mountain is complete! 
It seems not so difficult, yeah, it’s easy when it’s a gently sloping mountain, but in case of sheer cliffs, it becomes hard, and that's 72 papers. 
My work stopped at a part of the gentle slope. The future is black!

A crisis of continuation

The night before last I went for drinks with people who entered my old company at the same time. Our friendship, six members, has lasted about thirty years, although we are in different careers now. Last year, we decided that we would get together twice a year in the future. Of course, all of us should participate in it, but unfortunately one of us, my best friend, is going to move to the UK in the autumn and two of us will move to Yamagata Prefecture next month. Unbelievable! We are going to get together at a hot spring in Yamagata Prefecture next time for the moment, but can we continue the party? 

By the way, we met in Shinjuku, Kabuki-cho. I went to Kabuki-cho for the first time in a long time. I got lost and strayed off into the terrible place! No, interesting place! There were so many hosts, you know, Japanese hosts, on the street. Maybe, more than a hundred hosts were there. They stood in front of the shop and called out for passersby to come in. It was my first experience of meeting real hosts. It was the world I’ve never known, so it was kind of exciting. Fortunately they weren’t my cup of tea (^▽^)

I did it!

I attended a class at university last weekend and I was finally freed from the assignment. This time I tackled the assignment seriously, so I was really satisfied with my work and it was rated highly. The teacher said that my plan and model were the most beautiful in the class. I did it! A good evaluation motivated me to study hard and I’m working on the next assignment straightaway. Next is to plan the space for praying by the sea, in a green field, or in the town. I chose the sea because it seems interesting to make a model. How will I plan it? The problem is that the teacher of this course was the man who rated me low in his previous class, so I definitely want him to think better of me. I’ll do it! 

By the way, once I start studying architecture, I tend to totally concentrate on the assignment, so it is little hard to continue these bogs. I still need a lot of time to write these blogs…, but I’ll try to continue writing blogs as well as I can, even if it’s once a week, or if it’s very short.

It's no good just thinking about it

Recently I haven’t had enough time to write this blog, since I‘m going to take a class at university the weekend after next. I have to do some assignments before the class, but they are progressing at a snail’s pace. Something’s got to give. I should tackle the assignments right now!!! 

This time I’m tackling the assignments pretty seriously, and I'm reading more books than usual, so I’m rather confused. My ideas have not come together yet. In such a case, the teacher always says that you should move your hand. Yeah, it’s no good just thinking about it; I have to draw sketches. 
Well, it’s time to start drawing. 

Maybe these blogs will be short for a while.