Day 5 Presentation Urban Cultures: Cities and Bodies
Final and last day today, and the students were asked to present their work to the others. Slowly they arrive in the morning and I really have to ask them to paste their work on the wall. The presentations were interesting, some results are poor but I still hope the students enjoyed the work they did and what they learnt from it. Finally, there was one very good group (only 4 groups presented) which made posters, presentations boards and a nice film, and that in only 3 days. And this made me really happy, as I was thinking maybe I asked too much for this short week. But no, I see that it can be possible and their results were clear and very good articulated, and obviously they enjoyed what they did ...

In the evening all staff met up for dinner and we had booked a table for 20 people but finally we are more than 27 and all talked about their results and happenings. The range of people is very interesting: textile, photographers, film makers, artists, and of course architects ...and we all think this event week was such a success (Thanks to Eileen!), so we would be happy to do it again ...

Thursday, 9. February 2006
Day 3/ 4 Workshop: Urban Cultures: Cities and Bodies
People can come along to discuss their work and I hope that they find it not so difficult to get started, as the time is flying and they only have one day left. I am there to discuss things with them, help them in making a decision or even to assist with some work etc. Teaching, especially tutorials can be very tiring and so I try keep up with what they asked me ...everybody is asking for your whole attention and so I learn much from this days, not only lecturing but also giving the right answers, encouraging to go on or to participate...yes, I can vividly remember my days at university which is not so long ago :)...but now I am in the other position and I feel that I have to learn a lot, but it is ...learning by doing, literally!

At 5pm the staff and teachers of all the workshops meet for some drinks and it is an enjoyable atmosphere to have so many different people around. Some people I met before, others not and so it is a chance to make new contacts and to exchange basic ideas about our work. After some hours talking, drinking and laughing we get hungry and decide to go to the Chinese restaurant Tai Wu around the corner. We spend a long evening out, encouraging us for the last two days and that we all hopefully can be happy with the results. Yes, it is an intense but also exciting week, we can feel that people want to work and do something, it is a ambitious sphere around and we already talk about new and coming events ...

Tuesday, 7. February 2006
Day 2 Workshop: Urban Cultures: Cities and Bodies
After the introduction yeasterday, people might thought it is worthwile to come or not. However, in total I imagine that 12 people (20 signed up) will do the workshop for the rest of the week. And to help them with their tasks I gave today lecture 2 and 3, which explained in more details what is the workshop about. I hope this will help them to get an idea about the way they can do their work and hopefully they will do it in teams. Some people were not very interested and I asked myself why they signed up, if they don't like it or at least it is not the subject which bowls them over ...so lets see what they will do and how they can handle all the things...I don't take it personal as it is their choice and their first event week at the Manchester School of Architecture...lets see and I am curious about the results :)

Monday, 6. February 2006
Day 1 Workshop: Urban Cultures: Cities and Bodies
This week I will teach at the BA Event week of the Manchester School of Architecture,MMU and I am curious to know how people deal with the topic ...so wish me good luck and later more ....

Timeframe

Monday, 6th february: Introduction/ Lecture 1
Tuesday, 7th february: Lecture 2/ Lecture 3
Wednesday, 8th February: Interim Discussion
Thursday, 9th february: Interim Discussion
Friday, 10th february:Presentation

We have already the End of January and in only some weeks I will visit Japan again. This time it will be for 4 weeks and I really looking forward to come again, visit Tokyo and other places, meet beloved friends and to have hopefully an enjoyable and fruitful time.

But the most time I will use for some fieldwork, chosing the case studies for my research, finding some good libraries with material for my literature review (hopefully in English and Japanese) and to meet different academic staff. Now I have something like 7 meetings and I am really nervous about this. I never meet them before and so it is a new experience, because some of them wrote famous books and are very active in that field.

But sometimes it feels like jumping into cold water and see how to swim...and to be honest, sometimes think this about my whole research, how much passion I must have to do all this in Japan...yes, I dont know, but it really catched me and the most time I am really satisfied and hopefully able to do it ...so some weeks to go and a lot to prepare, I will do my best ...

Leeds
Last november I went to a conference in Germany and I made some useful contacts there, also with one professor from Leeds University

So I contacted him again and he invited me to come over to Leeds to meet him there. Prof.Paul Waley is famous in his field and he wrote very good books about Tokyo and the Japanese urban space. I was curious to see how he would react to see me again and what he would think about my research. But finally we spend some nice 2 hours talking, having lunch and exchanging some good information about our common subject :)

I was happy about this experience and the possibility to meet him, and on my way back I walked through Leeds, thinking it seems to be a nice city and so I had a really nice day out of Manchester ...soon again, I will come, that is for sure ...

1) Japan Centre Manchester, 1st March 2006
2) Oxford Brookes University, 3rd of April 2006
3) HTWK Leipzig, May 2006

1.Prof. Paul Waley
2. Prof. Simon Guy
3. Supervisors: Prof. David Dernie, Prof. Greg Keeffe, Prof. Jim Aulich

The last weeks I thought often it would be so nice to take a longer walk through Manchester to see how things develop and especially visit the lively and dynamic Norther Quarter of the city where a lot of ateliers, handicrafts and small shops are located ..for example you can visit the Chinese craft center with contemporary exhibitions of Chinese artists and local people (picture 3)... the city council also stimulate different projects of architects and artists which should improve the public space and have names like 'urban jungle' and so on ...
My walk took me along the city center to the edges of Picadilly and the down back on the Western side of the city where you can find now the German Christmas market, a lot of decoration and busy people buying tones of presents ...all in all this gave me a new perspective on the city where I live now and I would like to similar walks from time to time... as walking engages you with your own city and let you feel close to the local and grass root culture of every street life.