Last week I wrote on the flood defences that the city of London has as she had been shocked by the recent images of chaos in the British landscape and she felt the urge to understand what “protected me”. We discussed this yesterday during my call and she was still fascinated by that particular post and by the video I linked to her explaining how the defences worked…
This week I thought that something a bit more light hearted was needed and i remembered the sketchbook i made when i traveled to Japan for the first time…
At the time, all i wanted was to remember everything about that first journey as I had been told that it was to be different from any future ones… Looking back, I felt that the things I discovered would amuse her too, so I posted them on her site… and here they are too. For your amusement.
All I want to say is that my encounter with Japan is a chance encounter and a very personal one as in marrying a Japanese citizen it became part of my own life.
I was never the kind of person who read a lot about Japan and had dreamt to travel there all my life. I knew about their technology since i was a child ,I loved my walkman as a teen, I learnt about zen when studying architecture as way to stay sane, I learnt about their architecture whilst at uni (my best friend is obsessed with Tadao Ando’s work… who i met on this first trip, if only briefly, and who signed her a book. The best souvenir i could have ever found) , and i learnt about their cuisine when i came to London…Therefore, some of my observations might surprise you. Don’t say I did not warn you.
Drawings by Cristina Lanz-Azcarate
Text by Cristina Lanz-Azcarate
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