Long time no see! You know I always come up with stupid excuses for not writing earlier, but this time it was kind of a big deal. For over a week I was extremely busy surviving my first heartbreak since middle school! Moreover, it apparently triggered an unexpected "Western expat crisis" which is reported to happen after you settle into your routine here, when the initial fascination with the country grows into a gradual disappointment with its negative sides. To deal with it I got myself so busy with studying and attending events that I barely had time to think about why I'm even here and where I'm heading to in general. Well, heartbreaks are sometimes very effective in changing your life for the better - after the one in middle school I firmly decided to study abroad (kinda went too far though), and this time I started practicing traditional samurai swordfight and found two crazy part-time jobs. Anyways, I finally wrote all about the most surprising aspect of Japan for me - its totally controlled public environment. In my next text I hope I’ll be able to show how this influences local architecture and especially housing. ✿ http://telegra.ph/Penguin-Stolen-from-Ueno-Zoo-04-23

I know it's quite a random story but I just came back after an exhausting day in Tokyo to my dorm where I found almost all residents drinking with our elderly dormitory head Nakajima-san who brought his homemade miso soup and other snacks to share in the living room. My floor neighbor - Korean oil painting professor - brought down some beers and Russian "voduka". Needless to say they don't understand a word in English but still make sure that no one is neither hungry nor sober tonight. God bless Japan!

Just finished sorting out photos I took on my daytrip to Hakone and Odawara in Kanagawa prefecture. Odawara Art Foundation with its scenographic pavilions was definitely the best part of it.

Also got some backstage material with me admiring Fujisan and inside the tube pavilion built by a Japanese landscape photographer framing just a piece of sea and sky but I ruined it all of course. Yeah, I know it's been a long time but I'll write a normal longread post very soon, ok?