2008....AF&F style.

Thanks to Brett's great suggestion to do a "year in review" post, I'm doing a "year in review" post.
If you look back on 2008 with that 20/20 vision everybody always talks about, one word sticks out in your head: "Shite." I mean, barring Obama's wonderfully emotional and uplifting election, some great individual holiday/family/personal moments, some good food, and an occasional (and I mean REALLY occasional) Newcastle victory, 2008 was littered with economic crises, joblessness, wars wars wars, bad baseball, bad football, and even bad American football.

I'd have to say my favorite moment of the year was, of course, the moment when CCN predicted Obama's victory on the big screen at Grant Park, and I let out of surge of joy and excitement with all my friends there that night. From that point on through the rest of the night it felt like we were all together, on one team. Walking back home on Michigan Avenue, all was right with the world. People singing and dancing in the streets, not a single frown on a face as far as you looked, and somehow, we would all come out of this mess that the GOP had put us through for the past 8 years.
Some other highlights were: Of course, our trip to Japan, Christmas with my little nephew and some great food prepared by my Mom, the day Keegan was announced to take over NUFC's reigns, our emphatic victory over Spurs last season at White Heart Lane, our trip to Via Osteria, and another trip we took to a little restaurant called Bistro Campagne in Chicago, which I did not document on this site.
The lowlights were: definitely the day that many of my friends and coworkers got laid off at the firm, and it sunk in REAL QUICK how tough the next year or so is going to be, if we're lucky enough to stay employed for the next year, and the day that King Kev left Newcastle. I like to keep this place a happy one, so I won't get too into the downers of 2008.

So, it certainly was a tough one to get through, especially the last few months. But look - we're all here. We've made it. Let's get our chins up off the dirt, and keep walking forward. Because at the end of the day, as long as there is still architecture to enjoy, football to watch, and good food to stuff your face with, the world is still worth hanging out in.

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some more photos from our trip south.

man for as long as this trip is, its harder than i thought to find enough time to piece together a blog entry.

i will do a short one again for now.

our trip to the south island and region was fantastic - we saw nagasaki, hakata, kurume, shinoseki, hirojima and a few other small towns and villages which names escape me. great photos to be uploaded at a later date.

got back yesterday and saw some more family just south of tokyo in Zushi, and today we are off to mt. fuji for a day/night/day of nature and hopefully an ohn-sen. sorry to be so short!

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Yesterday was a rainy day here in Tokyo. Which actually kind of heightened the senses a bit. We went to a couple of our usual Aoyama spots, such as Jangara Ramen and Anniversaire Cafe, where we saw they ubiquitous young television star with well to do suit-friends of his.

But what was more interesting about yesterday's excursions were the two houses we got to see - the Moriyama House by Ryue Nishizawa and the Small House by Kazuyo Sejima.

Jangara Ramen

This place looks like any old hole in the wall, but its known for the best Hakata Ramen in Tokyo and I make a point to go here every time we are in town. Hakata Ramen is ramen with white broth and a lot of fatty pork. Its a fast, loud, and incredibly delicious place for lunch and if you are lucky you can get a seat by this window, looking out onto the busiest street in Aoyama, where all the hilarious Harajuku girls walk down the street strutting their stuff.

Moriyama House - Ryue Nishizawa

Tucked away in a very dense part of old-downtown Tokyo, very near to Mrs. Architecturefootballandfood's Uncle's saw mill factory, this house, or more accurately, collection of small houses, sits quietly. This is every architect's dream, to design a complex of tiny, single-room structures like this. Actually we have very similar plans for a country house, if we ever get the opportunity. But the urbanity of this project is what makes it fantastic. Within this incredibly dense and urban city fabric, Nishizawa has created a hyper-dense and urban HOUSE, one which treats the lot like a small version of the city itself. Of course there are always questions like `well what if i have to go pee at 2am - you mean i have to go outside?` YES. You do. That is part of the experiment and the downfalls of living in a house like this in conjunction with the incredibly interesting relationships it creates with the users and the community are BOTH essential to its beauty.

Small House - Kazuo Sejima

This house has always been a favorite of mine, for its obvious simplicity and its attractive formal gestures.

It was quite tough to find - again tucked away in a different part of the city, but we finally did and it was worth the long, rainy walk. This was one of those times when it looked a lot different from the perfect, glossy photos they published just after it was built. The details of placement on site and building access became much more interesting and powerful than the actual form of the building.

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This will be short and sweet. We are into day 2 of the trip to Japan and its been an excercise in adjusting to time difference so far. Good times had, of course, but nothing huge to speak of besides three quick events.
1. The night we got there, (not being counted as a full day) we went to a restaurant called Popeye, because the owner, who used to be a professional baseball player in japan, looks exactly like popeye the sailor-man. He served us a traditional autumn soup which beats, hands down at that, any other food thats supposed to taste warm and atumn-y. This soup is basically stock, chicken, and a special mushroom (no, not that type of special) all put into a special clay pot (YES, that type of special!) which is heated directly over a flame. the pot has very little ventilation, but the aromas of the smoke and flame are directed into the pot, giving it its, well, smokey flavor. This was incredible. I cant think of the name at the moment, so that will follow in a later post.

2. We had lunch with two of Mrs. architecturefootballandfood's high school friends - one guy who i already knew, toru-san, and one girl who i only knew OF, the one and only, Ando Yuko. If you arent familiar with this girl, please get so because in my opinion she is putting out some of the best music from the island of japan. She is basically a pop-rock singer but incredibly creative and musical. the lunch started as this weird `you're ando yuko and i listen to your stuff more than i listen to oasis` vibe, mixed with a `you're white and bigger than i expected and married to my high school friend' vibe. i felt like i was sitting with this big star. but as usual, yuko-san eventually turned into just another nice, normal japanese friend of mrs. architecturefootballandfood's, and we had a great time over katsu, cabbage salad and beer. As usual, Toru-san was the life of the party, and it turns out he was recently in Aurora, on business. And he didn't even call.

3. Today we went to the local ohn-sen, or public bath. It was amazing and relaxing - just what i have needed for a while. This excursion is quickly becoming my favorite things about this culture, and I look forward to hitting the ohn-sen a few more times before we leave. Sitting there, naked, with about 40-50 other naked japanese men in 2-foot deep pools of red water (it has to do with minerals added so that your skin doesnt dry out after sitting in water for an hour straight), it struck me how different our two cultures were. I realized that, no matter how wonderful and logical and necessary a place like this was for humans, a place where you could go and relax and let the stress fall away, we as Americans could probably never appreciate or accept it. Certain people would think its somehow `too gay` or `evil` and ruin it for those of us who had graduated the fourth grade and could handle being in a natural state with other mature, civilized people who could appreciate the difference between nudity and pornography (John Ashcroft, anyone??)
I know it isn't everybody's cup of tea, and I'm fine with that. Anyway, see what a keyboard does to a guy with good intentions? Somebody take this soapbox away. I had a sweet time bathing with a bunch of other dudes today. End of story.

So hopefully I'll be able to write a bit more soon. Otsukaresamadeshita!!!