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short/casual Japanese interior design course?
His birthday is now coming up and my wife and I had the idea since he is now there in Japan to get him as a prese… A friend recently moved to Tokyo and is really into interior design and architecture.
His birthday is now coming up and my wife and I had the idea since he is now there in Japan to get him as a present a short course or session where he could learn about concepts of Japanese interior design, cultural influences, history, examples etc.
The friend doesn't speak any Japanese, so if there was such a course/sessions he could do with someone in English that would be great. (We're not thinking of a full semester-long enrolment in a design school as he is quite busy, more like something which he could casually participate in perhaps 2 or 3 sessions in evening or on weekends)
This is probably pretty niche, but does anyone know of something like this? Thanks in advance
honestly the best format for this might not be a course at all but a private walking session with an architecture guide. look up Tokyo Architecture Tours or the guys doing "Tokyo in a Day" walks, they'll do custom half days in english focused on whatever you want, like machiya detailing in Yanaka or the post-war minimalism around Meguro. runs maybe 15-20k yen for a few hours and you can book just one or two.
also worth a shout, the Japan Traditional Craft Center in Meguro does short hands-on intros to things like shoji framing and tatami, and they've had english-speaking staff on weekends before. not pure design theory but your friend would walk away understanding why a room feels the way it does.
Worth adding Waseda's Extension Center in Shinjuku, they run evening and Saturday lecture courses open to the public and some are taught in English or with English handouts. The catch is their term structure, most run 8 to 10 weeks, so it's not really a two or three session thing, but a few of their shorter culture seminars might fit.
For something genuinely casual, I'd also check the Japan Foundation's language and culture programming, and the lectures the Architectural Institute of Japan puts on, they occasionally have English sessions at their Tokyo chapter. If none of those line up, a single guided visit to a place like the Kyu Asakura House in Daikanyama with a hired English-speaking architecture grad student could teach him more in two hours than a scattered course would.
Another route worth considering is the temple and garden side of things. Places like Nezu Museum in Minato run English-language gallery talks tied to their tea house and garden architecture, and the Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum out in Koganei does occasional English tours, though those tend to be daytime. For evenings, look at what the Japan Craft Design Association or the various machiya restoration groups post on Peatix, I've seen single evening sessions on tatami proportions and shoji that were taught in English for around 3000 yen. It won't be a tidy three-part course, but stringing two or three of those together over a few weekends gets close to what you're after.
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Where can I find crispy, pan-fried bacon similar to a certain international style?
if u have a costco membership the kirkland thick cut is the move, 4 packs of 500g for around 2500 yen and it crisps up proper in a cold pan. for smaller runs, precce in azabudai hills & the basement at isetan shinjuku both carry imported US & danish brands in the chilled case, just read the label for "thick cut" or "smoked" and not "loin". also worth knowing japanese bacon is often wet-cured so pat it dry before frying or it steams instead of crisping
kaldi coffee farm is hit or miss but their smoked bacon from denmark shows up pretty regular, the 200g pack runs about 600 yen. what actually works better for me is asking the butcher counter at peacock or life to slice the block bacon thick, like 5mm, they do it for free and it crisps way better than the pre-packed stuff. also fwiw cheap bacon crisps faster, the fatty supermarket kind at 300 yen a pack works fine if u cook it from cold in a dry pan and pour off the fat as it renders.
tbh the gyomu super store brand bacon is surprisingly decent for crisping up, its not thick cut but if you cook it low and slow it gets pretty crunchy. the key is the dry cure vs wet cure thing, wet cure steams. also check hanamasa if you have one nearby, they sell big packs of american style bacon thats actually smoked and firm.