Intercultural Design Japan Trip Documentary

5/2/2024 - 22/3/2024 Week 1 - Week 7

Wong Kai Xin / 0353027

Intercultural Design / Bachelor of Design in Creative Media / The Design School

Japan Trip Documentary

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DAY 1

After landing, we rested in our accommodations for awhile, then we gathered to the Dotonburi street and explored their street food. There were a sea of people and the whole atmosphere was extremely lively. We took some pictures as well as it was pretty. My highlight of this day was definitely the tanghulu, it was really delicious and worth the price, as well as the Glico Man. 

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DAY 2

For today, we went to the cup noodle museum to learn about the making process of cup noodles. Not only that, we got to learn about the history of cup noodles. We had a lot of fun during the customization process as we got the personalized it with things like our cup design, as well as our toppings. After that, we came across a hidden gem: our lunch spot. It was a set meal with donkatsu. It filled our stomach and heart and we all agreed that it was the best meal we had in Japan. Later while walking on the streets, we discovered some wabi-sabi patterns in the neighborhood in Japan and decided to take some pictures as our data collection. 

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DAY 3

On this day, we took the train to Kyoto for our data collection. We were to find places to visit for our project and do or research in advance, so we found some and wrote it down in our itinerary. Unfortunately for us, the first place we initially wanted to visit required a booking so we had to switch to our second spot. We went to this place named POJ studio. Even though the space was small, but it was filled with so so much. It was a literal work of art and I was truly amazed by the beauty of the artworks. We asked the owner some questions about her views on the Kintsugi culture and the whole interview went well. We then had lunch in a local sushi conveyor belt restaurant and was wowed by the quality of the sushi there. The pieces were also way bigger than the ones from Malaysia. After, we visited the iconic Fushimi Inari Shrine. It was a different experience as I went here during the daytime last time I visited Kyoto, but this time it was around evening, which had a different beauty to the view. Later at night, we went back to the streets of Dotonburi to try the famous 10 yen snack, as well as our favortie tanghulu. 

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DAY 4

Day 4 was truly the most busy day, as well as the coldest. The first place we visited was the Osaka Castle. The whole scenery was extremely beautiful so we took a lot of pictures there. Next, we visited the Osaka Institute of Fashion and it was truly an eye opening experience. Although I am not a fashion student, I always had this interest in clothes so I learned a lot throughout the session. After, we went to TeamLab Botanical Garden. We saw many interesting sculptures as how the different colors created a different mood. It was an interesting experience. Lastly, we had some japanese curry at a nearby shop and it was quite delicious, and of course tanghulu as supper. 

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DAY 5

Today was a free and easy day as it was our last day. We just shopped for the whole day and visited the Ghilbi store. There were so many cute items but I had to control as I have spent a lot on this trip already. we also went to the gachapon store and spun some keychains. Of course we couldn't leave Osaka without eating the Okonomiyaki. As for dinner, we had a hearty meal of hot udon. We didn't manage to get tanghulu on this day as it was raining and I also fell sick :( Overall during this trip, I have gotten tons of inspiration from every single place I visited, and I am looking forward to visiting Japan another time.