So… back in NY for almost a week now… it is hot and humid here and all very familiar.
I think what strikes me the most, comparing the US to Asia (Japan mostly) is that everything is big here – the streets, the sidewalks, the cars, the food portions, and the people.
The subway though… ridiculously small, no air conditioning in the stations, and very old and dirty. Granted that it is one of the oldest subway systems in the world but in a world hub like NY you would expect a little more out of it.
I heard that the trains cannot run any faster because they can’t really tell exactly where each train is once they leave the station! In Japan they inform you on multiple LCD screens within the train, how minutes it will take to each station along that train’s path. They could probably tell you how many seconds as well!
In any case, I’m loving to be back… been hanging out at home mostly getting me jet lag off and organizing my photos, computer and starting to think about next semester at school and future projects 🙂

Back home! All AOK! Good to be back! Sleep!!!!!

Well… Venice… hehehe… ended up not sight seeing in LA except for this last day where I got Burn’s car and went to Santa Barbara with Weber – another Brazilian who was visiting a friend there.
At night we all went out to a very animated Italian Restaurant on Washington and went back to Burn’s place for my “good bye” event 🙂

Having a great time here with Burns… this was the perfect last stop for my trip… sunny beach and great people. Tomorrow I definitely have to go out and explore the rest of LA 🙂
Here are some pictures of the bike ride and the beach with Burn’s friends and a video of some parts of the bike ride.

Almost over the jet lag… ended up staying awake for something like 30 hours… met up with Burns for his famous “innocent” beer… ended up going to Santa Monica pier where live music was being played and people were hanging out on the beach… followed by two or three other bars. Very interesting scene!

Still awake! Stayed up during almost all of the entire trip watching movies and reading… the view going down the west coast was amazing – clear blue skies… and now at Burn’s place right on the beach! Struggling to stay awake so went our for a quick bike ride – very nice to have the sun and the ocean so close again! Was a little tired of all the urban settings 🙂

So… at the Tokyo Narita Airport waiting for the plane for LA.
Crazy crossing the date-line… leaving here at 5pm and arrive in LA at 11am of the same day!! Jet-lag is going to be tough 🙂

Yesterday I took the “day off” and just went to Akihabara to browse the electronic gadgets and play some video games.
Today, thanks to Gian Pablo’s tips (friend from ITP) I went to the following:
– NTT ICC – an amazing space with ITP-like projects. Pity there it you are not allowed to take pictures! But the building itself was great… actually almost every major building here is a feat of architecture, design and engineering:

At the NTT ICC center, some projects worth I particularly enjoyed:
— KAGE – a series of cones on the floor that produce an image both on the floor and two projections on adjacent walls when you touch them.
— Modulobe – stick and joint models move around on the screen and through large buttons, a track ball and a joy stick you can make the model jump and drag it. You can also change the view you have of the model as well as change the model you play with. Very dynamic and entertaining.
— The Secret Life of Numbers – a data visualization panel that shows the popularity of numbers from 0 to a million on the internet since 1997! Every time that number appears on a site it gets a hit. The number 1 and 1 million were obviously popular. To my surprise the number 365 (days in a year) was not popular but the number 6600 (one of Nokia’s phones) was very popular.
— Tablescape Plus – a simple but very effective board “game” where the characters interact if they are placed close together, saying hello to each other or sitting on the bench for example.
There was also a special exhibit for kids – Sight & Sound – Watch the Sound and Listen to the Images – very entertaining even for adults… well, especially for someone who is going to ITP – trying to figure out what technologies were used and all. One puppet show project was actually using the Wii stick to control the animation… the girl explaining the project said I was the first one that noticed that 🙂
After that I went to Roppongi to the Mori Art Museum to see a fantastic exhibit of the architectural genius of Le Corbusier. An impressive exhibit with both his art work (paintings and sculptures) and his architectural work including original sketches, schttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifale AND full size models and many videos about his work. Interesting to know that he is said to have influenced much of modern Tokyo’s urban planning in terms of joint housing, museum, shopping and entertainment centers!
As a bonus to the museum, you get to walk around the Tokyo City View – a large space around the building’s 52nd floor!

On the other side of the spectrum, the subway/train stations does not seize to amaze me. Not only the shear complexity and extent of them, but how deep the are! I was doing some mental calculations and my estimate is that some of these lines must be at least 10 stories or more underground… amazing.
Very interesting day!