Intercultural Design / Japan Study Trip Reflection

06.02.2023 - 11.02.2023 / Week 5

Yung Siew Weng / 0339847

Intercultural Design /  Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media

Japan Study Trip Reflection

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Japan Study Trip

EXPLORATION

➜  Day 1 / 06.02.2023

It is the day when we fly to Tokyo, Japan. That was also the first time in my life that I flew for seven hours; it was also the first time I experienced winter. I am eagerly anticipating it! 💭

HELLO, JAPAN! WE ARE COMING 😈

Throughout the overall experience of Airasia D7 flight, it was quite enjoyable (I think it is because we had the opportunities to “temporarily" throw away our assignments and stress. The most interesting frame that I experience on the day was I saw a beautiful scenery in flight. // It was very surprised to know that Japan's sunset time dropped around 5.15 pm.//

THIS IS THE SCENERY. SO "VACATION" RITE?☺️ 

After we arrived the hotel, we placed our stuff and straight away jumped into 7eleven for our supper! OH YES, IT'S SUPPER! 

DAY 1 EXPLORATION IN 7-11

//We even explore the JAPAN “legend” that their packaging design is awesome!💞//

THIS IS SO CLEAN! 👅

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➜  Day 2 / 07.02.2023

Our first destination on this day was FAMILY MART BREAKFAST HEHE! The most funniest and memorable part that occurred in the store was when I confusing which matcha taste greater -

💁‍♀️ : Which Matcha do u recommend most?

👩🏻‍💼 : Huh? ) the staff not so understand about English

💁‍♀️ : Which one OYISHII ?

👩🏻‍💼 : OH! これはオイシイ (Kore wa oishī, means "this is delicious")

👭 : HAHAHAHA

SHOWING OUR "TREASURE" HEHE

After the breakfast in Family mart, the whole study trip team had a compulsory trip to Sensoji Temple, Asakusa. )) This moment we felt that it was very great opportunities for us to data collect our research since there are lots of "treasure" about the Japanese luck and fortune culture such as Omikuji, Omamori and etc. To be mentioned, one of my teammate, Pei Yun had helped us to capture and edit the scenes of our adventures in Sensoji Temple, Asakusa -

YOU SHOULD WATCH THIS TO FEEL OUR EMOTION 👐

And, it was glad to say that we exploring lots of "food culture" in Asakusa. The most unique experience that we never experience in M'sia was enjoy ice cream in winter season ? ) COLD + COLD ?🥶

OUR "WINTER" MELON SODA

After the exploration in Asakusa, we depart to Akihabara, the world of anime in Japan to visit and explore the Gachapon culture. To be mentioned, we used the subway as our transportation all over the Japan study trip )) the transport fee in Japan is terribly expensive 🥲 

JAPAN'S TRAIN TICKET SO TYPOGRAPHY 

When we arrived Akihabara, we saw Gachapon machine everywhere and everywhere, even the street are full of  gachapon machine. The picture below are captured on a KAKI LIMA in Akihabara, which is more taller than me ...... ? 🥲🥲

HEY CAMERAMAN, MAKE ME TALLER K?

Overall, we explored and visited all of gachapon store in Akihabara, but the most focused that we had planned in our proposal was the Akihabara gachapon hall. Based on the information that we researched online, the store had 450 Gachapon machine, and 50 types of gacha contents will be updated monthly. But, overall, from my perspective, the store not really attracted me to play with it because I think the options was not so my favourite, and limited also. MAYBE not so true on the statement that "this store had largest selection in Tokyo". But, we used to make fun with it. 

WE ASKED SIM (TEAMMATE) TO IMITATE THE MICHELIN'S MASCOT 🤭

To clarify the statement that gachapon machine is everywhere even in train stations. Yeap, we saw a gachapon machine zone in the train station while we on our way to the next station.

GACHA IS EVERYWHERE = MONEY BYEBYE 💔

As we felt that the data collection locations might not so great and informative, we depart to the Largest gachapon store in Ikebukuro, Gashapon Ikebukuro Main Store. We did spend more than an hour in the store as the store is REALLY BIG AND INTERESTING. Check the video credited by Pei Yun (one of the teammate) on our adventures in this store! 💁🏻

THIS ONLY CONSIDERED AS LARGEST SELECTION BAH 👌

OH, to be mentioned, beside the data collection and food culture exploration, we also experienced the Japanese selfie machine. THE EXPERIENCE WAS TOO FUNNY K, share a video that the machine created for us here -

OMG, HELP. WHO IS THIS ?

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➜  Day 3 / 08.02.2023

We had a compulsory trip to TeamLab Planets, Tokyo. To be honest, prior from experiencing the art in the lab, I was really not interested to go for this planned journey as based on the statement online, we are required to take off our shoes and step in the water )) OS: WHAT? WATER IN WINTER? But, after the experience, I was glad to have this opportunity to visit this place. IT WAS AWESOME. I did a random clips regarding to our experience in TeamLab Planets -

RANDOM CLIPS, RANDOM EDIT, RANDOM VIEW !🤪

After the experience in Teamlab Planets, we continued our journey for data collection. We visited to a place, Gotokuji (this place considered as my favourite place in this trip, it having a sense of chill and retire vibe). The aim of visiting this place was to visit the Gotokuji Temple, which is the origin place of Maneki-neko.

THIS IS THE WORLD OF MANEKI-NEKO

I accidentally heard a "cute" monolog here )) look at the girl who in a pink jacket -

👧🏻 : This is MUMMY, this is DADDY, AND THIS IS ME ! ✌🏻

💁‍♀️ OS : 🥺//

MIAO ? - OUR TEAM IN GOTOKUJI TEMPLE 🐱

The highlight of the day, as we had researched that we might able to take the Maneki-Neko designed train if we are lucky. And, Prior to this, we all felt disappointed when we are not so "lucky" to take the train but when we "accidentally" captured this beautiful "movie scene", we saw it! IT WAS REAL 😍 This made my day.

I LOVE THIS! ADORABLE 🥺

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➜  Day 4 / 09.02.2023

We visited to 2 art gallery this day, 21-21 Design Sight & the Mori Art Museum. The 21-21 Design Sight was displaying about the genesis of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s work. It features the precursors of “L’Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped, Paris, 1961–2021” on display which will illustrate the processes that brought the project to fruition. Overall, I not really appreciated their art since I was confusing why they want to wrapped the original history? My thought was," YES, they are creating HISTORY, but why covered other's history? I think even the original version having its own story and adventures." By the way, I respected every arts.

RANDOM CLIP FROM THE SIGHT 

After the sight-viewing, we continued our journey to Mori Art Museum. This is the museum that having lots of arts inside; NO COMMENT.

MY FREN SAID ME DRESS LIKE UNNI TODAY 🥴

After the compulsory visit, Pei Yun and I went to a cafe, HARBS beside Mori Art Museum for afternoon tea. She said that this store is the "Hermès in the world of cake", LET ME TRY TRY -

QUITE FRUITY AND NICE, APPROVED 👌

And, we figured that mostly in Japanese restaurant, there is a rule that every consumer must order one drink/ food at least. This "culture" was not often saw in the restaurant in Malaysia. I do share this experience to my previous boss (I worked as part timer in coffee shop before), he also stated that "IF he stated this rule in his cafe, the consumer might not willing to come or even he will be "scolded" by them"..😂😅 WOAH, a big gap between the two cross-cultural cultures.

Then, we ended our trip today by shopping in Shibuya -

SHIBUYA CROSSING VIEW 👀

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➜  Day 5 / 10.02.2023

THIS DAY WAS THE MOST EXCITING DAY FOR US - WE ARE VISITING DISNEY SEA! 😍 

The weather today was around 0 - 4 °C, and having the "first snow" in Asakusa. Based on my Japanese friend's statement, he stated that normally Tokyo will not having snow, so we can defined as "lucky" to meet this unique experience here -

FIRST EXPERIENCE "SNOW" ON THE WAY TO DISNEY

 

It was lucky to meet "snow" but the snow became rain when we arrived Tokyo Disney Resort..... 💔 So, it can be said that we did not really enjoyed the journey while exploring DisneySea. But, this can also be considered as a "unique experience - Discover DisneySea in Raining Day". A saying goes, "If there is regret, there will be a next time". OK, SEE YOU NEXT TIME. 

RANDOM CLIPS FROM MY LIMITED ALBUM 😭

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➜  Day 6 / 11.02.2023

This is our last day in Japan. Pei Yun, Jiahui and I decided to solve our all regret, so we visited the places that we wish to go; exploring the "food culture" that we had missed; buy the stuff that we admit for. Our destination today is Shinjuku and Asakusa.

During our street exploration in Shinjuku, we saw a Daruma doll concept gachapon machine at Shinjuku Marui Annex. The design is very creative and innovative - 

DARUMA DOLL CONCEPT GACHAPON MACHINE

And, we meet a street performance that playing Hluru Handpan (a musical instrument that popular in Tiktok).

I LOVE THIS - UNDER THE SEA 

Then, after the street exploration in Shinjuku, we continued our journey to Asakusa to explore the "food culture".

FOOD CULTURE EXPLORATION 🇯🇵

Highlight : FRESHNESS BURGER IS MY FAVOURITE FOOD IN THE OVERALL JAPAN TRIP ! 🤍❤️

After the exploration, we returned to the hotel, and depart to the airport. BYE, JAPAN😭

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REFLECTION

Throughout the entire Japan study trip, I truly valued and was grateful to have the opportunity to join this fantastic trip, producing a lovely and unique experience in my life. In summary, we utilised ourselves to enjoy the data gathering process. For example, we felt emotion when drawing a gacha, we experienced Japanese cross-cultural culture, we experienced Japanese food, especially "convenience store culture," and so on. Obviously, I realised along the way that communication is the biggest challenge while visiting Japan. Most Japanese are rather poor in English, limiting us from effectively communicating; nevertheless, owing to technology advances, we can at least converse via Google Translate (sometimes also  inaccurately). Overall, this trip was not only a research trip for me, but also a pleasant experience; I saw varied surroundings and encountered new design components. Although I may not be able to physically see any output, but I feel that the trip has brought additional creative inspiration and ideas into my small, tiny, little brain! 🧠✨