Night Watching Tour：Oouchijuku Let’s go look at lights on the snow-scape! 2020.02.08- 2020.02.09　Namiko Watanabe + Noriko Higashi In search for a festival of lights in Japan, we headed to the Winter festival at Oouchijuku. Our 19 members headed north from Tokyo towards a fantastical view of snow and the lights of the old villages houses. Looking down on Oouchijuku, we were lucky it started snowing the day before, barely creating a beautiful snowscape Oouchijuku cuisine – Green Onion buckwheat noodles- where we use green onions as our chopsticks Located in South Aizu in Fukushima Prefecture, Oouchijuku prospered as a passing town on route from Nikkou to Wakamatsu in Aizu. It is a beautiful town, designated as an architectural cultural heritage, where cottages with thatched rooves still stand. Our Night-watching tour planning committee, after lots of investigation decided upon this Winter Festival in Oouchijuku. Let us find out if we were able to glimpse the view we were promised! ■Tour Cancelled⁉ The theme of this tour is “Let’s go look at lights on the snow-scape!”. Our goal for this tour was to go see the glimpse of warm light spilling out from cottages buried in the snow or as we like to think “THE Japanese Snow-scape and Cottage lighting”, but sadly this winter was an abnormally warm winter. It had not snowed even a week before the planned date for the tour. A lot of the festivals were cancelled or shrunk…

2018/07/21-07/22 Yumi Honda + Simeng Huang + Noriko Higashi This tour was planned to make up for last year’s U-turn over Hachijo-jima. We took a chartered bus from Tokyo to Achi Village in Nagano Prefecture, which has been selected as the village with the most beautiful starry skies in Japan. A total of 15 participants enjoyed the summer stars and sun. Waiting to see the stars at Heaven’s Sonohara ■The Starry Sky as a Tourist Resource Even on a bright night with strong moonlight, the number of stars was completely different from what you would see in a city People lying down on the mountaintop, waiting A guided commentary on the stars using a laser pointer Tsumago-juku, the 42nd post town on the Nakasendo trail. A sight unique to the mountains: a roof thatched with wood and held down with stones The waki-honjin’s irori-bata and high windows. The seat for the head of the household is in the foreground A nostalgic streetscape This “Achi Village Starry Sky Tour” was devised as a way to attract tourists back to Hirugami Onsen—which had been popular until the time of the Aichi Expo—by using the ski resort during the summer. While reading an interesting article on the bus, we, the Lighting Detectives members, learned that the event, which was started by villagers about five years ago, has now become a year-round attraction. With that in mind, we headed from Tokyo to the western…

Nightwatching Tour：Hachijo-Jima Island Tour to Experience Natural Light That Never Happened July 2nd, 2017Written by: Noriko Higashi Hachijojima Night Watching Tour, which was planned on the 2nd and 3nd in July. We were all super excited as the Light Watching Tour was planned for the first time in three years. Guess what happens to us? Although there are clouds on other islands, the island can be seen Flyer for the tour　 Hachijojima which was supposed to be under the eyes was covered entirely with clouds and fog, and we could not see any part of Island Glowing mushrooms, fireflies, sunlight falling through tropical rainforest in the summer, the sunset falling into the sea, and starry sky. Expecting to experience various kinds of natural light, we decided to visit Hachijojima for this year’s annual night view watching tour. Although it was right in the middle of a rainy season, we were blessed with perfect sunny weather in　early summer. There was also a forecast that the day would become the hottest day this year in Tokyo. To board a flight departing Haneda airport at 7:30am, our group of 12 members met up at a boarding gate at 7:00 in the morning. One of our members, supposed to be feeling excited, seemed worried and said “We might not able to fly.” “I heard that flights can return to Haneda airport even if they fly” said another. Flight status display showed our flight was…

October 30, 2009 As part of the events held during ArchiFest2009 in Singapore, the Lighting Detectives took a boat ride to observe Singapore waterfront lighting. How does waterfront lighting contribute in creating a space for a pleasant evening stroll along the river? What attracts us towards the waterfront, and how can light help enhance this atmosphere? The ride started from the busy commercial part of the river winding down to a very quiet residential stretch where the Lighting Detectives put up lighting installations. The idea was to highlight derelict zones of the riverscape with the intention to attracting the residents and passersby. Pedestrian bridge was chosen for this. The water edge was also highlighted by using floating lights, handrail lighting and even changing the colour of the street lights from an orange to a blue to complement the surrounding waterscape. Prior to the boat ride, there was a talk on waterscapes and lighting by Mr. Kaoru Mende who showed innovative projects involving waterscape lighting, and Ms. Diane Chua who explained the history and evolution of Singapore River. The talk was moderated by Mr. Siew Man Kok of MKPL Architects. Mr. Siew Man Kok of MKPL Architects moderated the talk between Kaoru Mende and historian Ms. Diane Chua. As an authority on the history of Singapore River, Ms. Chua and Mr. Mende discussed the riverfront and lighting. Lighting instillations were set up along the darker residential section of the river. Aluminum…