留学生レポート

Asa Elmstam

領　域 ： サステナブルプロジェクト
派遣元 ： コンストファク
期　間 ： 2006.09.11　～　2007.01.31

The time in Tokyo was a really good experience for me in many different ways. In school, I felt that I could look upon my work or rather my way of working with new fresh eyes. And it is in a situation like this, when everybody else is working in a different way and everything is new, that you really can tell what your own skills are and how much you know about things.

The subjects I was studying in Zokei were a little different from the ones I do at Konstfack, which made my approach to assignments there even clearer to me. And it was so helpful to see how people at Tokyo Zokei University where working and thinking; and it was very different from Konstfack-Adellab. Both that people there were much younger and the school system is completely different, but also how they solve the assignments. And when everything is strange in Japan, as it was sometimes, I know what I will appreciate back home, and vice versa.

I had a lot of freedom at Zokei University, I got to choose the lessons I wanted to take. There was a lot to choose from. Two lessons a day, six days a week. In the beginning I tried to walk in and out of as many different classes as possible to finally decide which of them I would take. Some of them I had to skip because I had trouble understanding, since everything was in Japanese. But some of them worked very well thanks to a few people who spoke English and were able to translate. And in most of the classes I continued when the teachers/professors spoke English. I am very lucky that my professor Mr. Masuda sensei spoke very good English; he was speaking as much English as Japanese during the lessons. I also went to Japanese class once a week; I was trying to learn to be able to have basic conversations. But it was quite hard, I now know a lot of words but it is still difficult to put them together to a sentence, and to understand when Japanese people speak fast to me.

I am still really exited about learning more of the Japanese language, I bought a lot of books and I am studying a little every day. Because it feels like I would like to return to Japan some day in the future. Tokyo is one of the potential places where I feel I could live and settle down, at least for some time.

I was really happy with my major at Tokyo Zokei University, which was Sustainable projects; which is about environmentally friendly materials and ways of producing products. As well as using materials that normally are looked upon as waste. Or it can be anything connected to methods that can help save our planet, like trying to change our way of thinking - to be more aware of our actions and comfort in living.

Some of the lessons were mostly discussions about the environmental problems on our earth, in some we were given a waste material to come up with a new use for and in others we just have to design something in an eco friendly way. But overall it feels so great and important to now be in the middle of the Sustainable design discussion. Thanks for this opportunity!

There were many events taking place in Tokyo while I was there, many organized by my professor Fumi Masuda, international conferences about sustainability, exhibitions in big fairs, the exhibitions during the Designers week, which is going on at the same time as Swedish style and much more. Much of the discussion is about global warming, that we all have to change our way of living and create designs with the lowest possible environmental impact (by minimizing resources and energy consumption through out the lifecycle of products, structures, services and systems). These issues feel very important to me since I lately have felt a little frustrated that my line of work contributes to environmental problems, as it is a part of the consumption industry.

I found that I had a lot of energy in Tokyo. I was so very energetic about learning new things and really be able to concentrate on what I wanted to learn and do. And it felt that I had a lot of opportunities that are different from what they would have been in Sweden. I think that it always feels easier to come in contact with people when I am abroad, and make good and important contacts. Probably because I feel freer, no one can quickly judge me and I can not judge anyone as it is sometimes in your mother country. And this feeling of freedom really strengthens your self-confidence.

I had a hectic life, a lot to see, many museums, galleries, networking with people, new experiences, a lot of nice materials to buy, and places to visit. I really enjoyed my life in Japan.

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