February « 2008 « New Ink

Frank Lloyd Wright is a world famous American architect in 20th century who designed more than 1,000 works. His most famous works are Fallingwater and the Guggenheim museum in New York. He is called one of the three great master of modern construction only with Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe. His works are in USA, Canada and Japan only in the world. In Japan, the most famous of his works is Imperial hotel but it is no longer exists. However, there is a still exist his work that called “Jiyu-Gakuen”.

The building was built in 1921 in Tokyo. The building used to be school, which called “Jiyu-Gakuen” which, means freedom. The concept is simple: to be a happy place for children. The building is small, but it is very a refined environment to visit as it is located in very quiet place in middle of an urban city yet only 5-minute walk from Ikebukuro Station. It is now open to the public when not in use for weddings and other events.

The building has some interesting characteristics. The building has 2 wings and it has an inverted U- shape structure, which was inspired by a Japanese temple called “Byodo-in”. The windows face south onto an open courtyard, with the symmetrical wings on the east and west. The central part of the building is twice as high as the wings. Jiyu-Gakuen is constructed by 2 x 4 wood. The floor is also made of wood and when people are walking, the floor is creaky giving it an old flavor. Some parts made by stone such as part of wall and pillar. These materials create warm atmosphere.

The visitor can find a lot of his original design in the details. He is one of the first an architect to design windows frame or furniture in the building. He try to get consistency between the site location and the building, so he created some pattern such as windows frame, light and furniture in the building and these are composed of geometric line. For example, the window frame is beginning full of sunlight to inside, and it also reminds the shoji pattern, and the chair consists of hexagonal shapes.

If you come to near here, you should visit the great building any weather is fine, because the building has high potentials to receive your expectation. You can walk each rooms to look at his style, and you can enjoy to drink a cup of coffee or tea with on the chair which is off cause Wright’s design.

Coffee is the most loved drink in world history. In fact, trade of coffee is ranked first economically among all the farm products. The heaviest coffee drinkers in the world are Finnish who drink more than 9 liter per year. By seeing so many coffee shops on every city corner we can know that it’s not only the Finnish that really love coffee. One of the reasons why coffee is loved so much throughout the world is the famous “addictive” substance included in coffee, Caffeine. But it is not only the addictive effect that makes people love coffee. One of the reasons can be its variation. Coffee has so many variations that can suit many situations of daily life.

Coffee is made from beans. The first step of making coffee is to roast the beans. Next, the beans are crushed by a coffee mill. After that, there are several different ways of brewing coffee, using the roasted and crushed beans. The most common and basic method used in Japan is drip brewing. In this method the hot water is poured over the crushed beans and the force of gravity to pull the hot water through the filter paper to remove the chunks from coffee. This is very easy method that doesn’t require any special technique or machine. Another popular coffee is the so-called instant coffee. All need to do to make an instant coffee is to pour hot water over the magical powder. These easy methods have made coffee available in most of home, and they made it even possible to drink in a hotel room.

There are several other methods of brewing coffee, but these methods rather need special equipment. Vacuum coffee (know as “siphon coffee” in Japan) is a method that requires special machine, and uses the air pressure to pull the coffee through the filter. Since vacuum coffee is brewed under higher pressure than usual drip coffee, it is said that coffee can be made stronger in this way. Some coffee fans and local coffee shops use this method. Another well-known method is espresso. Espresso is made by a special machine, which called an espresso machine. Espresso is made under high pressure (9atoms), and so, the brewing can be done in a very shot time – less than 30 seconds. Under such a high pressure, espresso can be made stronger than vacuum coffee. Espresso is the most popular method to brew coffee in Europe for years. Recently it has becoming very popular in Japan too. Many new coffee shop chains, like the Starbucks Coffee, provide espresso and have rapidly spread over the country.

Methods of brewing are not the only variations of coffee drinks. Coffee is sometime drunk black, witch means without adding, but often it is drunk after adjusting its taste by adding various ingredients. The most common would be sugar, milk, and cream, Café latte and café au lait are made by adding milk into coffee or espresso, and they are often drunk at tea-time. Steamed milk is probably the most favored addition to coffee in many coffee shops. Cinnamon is sometimes added by favor. Overall, many special flavored syrups, such as vanilla, maple, hazelnut and so on are provided by coffee shops. Of course, drip coffee with cream is the best match for morning toasts; wile a strong espresso will do after fatty food.

Coffee is the most loved drink throughout the world. One of the reasons can be its variation. Everybody can brew and drink coffee very easily with some simple tools, almost anywhere, and even every day. Coffee lovers can drink their own favorite coffee by using their own equipment. People who don’t those can go to a coffee shop and drink ¬a cup. There are so many ways to adjust the taste of coffee in order to make it suit the situation. Frappuccino can be a snack itself, and strong black coffee e will “sharpen up”. Coffee can be drunk daily and also at special days, and in every aspect of human lives. A little kid will like a super-sweet coffee with plenty of mile. Older men will drink a cup of double espresso. Coffee is for everybody, from young to old, and for every occasion, from morning to night. And that is probably the reason why coffee has been loved for centuries and centuries.

Monthly Archive for February, 2008

Jiyu-Gakuen

Joy of Coffee

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