maki sensei

on yesterday's schedule was the long awaited reviewing session with fumihiko maki. for the shanghai office project.
pretty interesting for me, maybe not in the first place for what the master said (my japanese is still far from business meeting level), but for experiencing another chapter from the japanese customs book - "how to host a sensei" (a master).
everyone in the office - so not only who is working on the office project - was expected to attend the tributary gathering in the annex. initially only maki was sitting, surrounded by two concentrical belts of vassals. the samurai - chinese client mister fu, kobayashisan, tsushimasan, and naomisan (daughter maki/mrs kobayashi) - bringing the gifts and doing the talking, with kmdw warriors (katosan, kamidesan, kasorisan (in utmost "yokataaa" admiration), antoniosan and jansan) bodyguarding around, legs a little apart, hands together behind the back. later the inner circle could take a seat. the meeting lasted one hour and went well, as we could witness laughter and consent around the table.


a kmdw extended family picture.
now you know everyone... (katosan behind the lense)

so fu back to shanghai, with an updated draft for the Vanke headquarters, and, at least as valuable, with pictures of the meeting.
while making an interior view of the entrance lobby, I played around a bit with ImageReady (after PhotoDeluxe the most underestimated graphic software around) - click on the images for low-fi animation...