世界WORLD

It would be a long night, I'd miss the last train and intended to catch one of the first trains. To prep, I stopped for a Starbucks espresso fix (not that hard to find, even here) and filled up with a quick bowl of noodles. I arrived in the general area of Club World, but not knowing exactly which way to go, I must have looked a little confused, as a pair of Japanese girls helped me out. The Japanese are very willing to help, but tend to be shy, like I'll hear 'Hello!' from someone just as they walk by, and even after I respond, that's where the conversation starts and ends. In this case, the girls saw me, said hello, asked me where I was going, then walked with me there but did not stay.

Some friends already had tickets, but I wasn't planning on going, so I didn't. There was a big, long line and a few of us stood there before abandoning it to go have a drink. We'd get in anyway, we knew that, so no need to wait. After hanging out in a bar for a bit, we came back and went right in.

The place was packed. And it was a maze, 3 floors with interconnecting stairways, the lowest level being the dance floor and main performance area. Again, not having planned to go out, I had a jacket and bag with me, but Japanese clubs are good like that as they tend to have long banks of lockers to put stuff in for the night, which I did. Then down to the floor. Crazy. Insane. No room at all and an ocean of bodies moving to the lights and sound. My feet were crushed many times, and I can't imagine what it would have been like as a woman with open-toed shoes. A few trips to the bar, there goes my complimentary drink ticket, and the night went on and on. The floors were slippery with sweat and spilled drinks, but slowly the crowd thinned and slowly the space opened up. The many that remained simply crowded up closer to the stage and screen.

We left sometime after 5am and came out into the sunlight along with hundreds of Japanese clubbers all around.

Teramachi

I started to get hungry as I walked farther south. Most restaurants have food models, or pictures to make it easier for foreigners to see what is available, but nothing grabbed me. I came to the entrance of Teramachi street, a covered shopping district. I'd been there a few times before, but never on a Saturday evening when everything was open and so many people were out. There are shops of every kind. Clothing stores, touristy stores, jewelry, antiques, restaurants, fast food (see the KFC?), galleries, electronics, video, music, fashion, you name it, you can probably find it. As you continue along, there are also cross streets, some which are covered and extend into the distance with the same variety and density of stores. One street I went down turned into a farmers market of sorts, food stands, seafood, vegetables, butchers, grains, rice, teas, and pickled foods (kinda liked this one, they had a tray out to taste from).

I ate in this area at a nice sushi restaurant. This was not a conveyor sushi, or premade sushi, so I had the chance to watch the sushi chef in action as I sat by the bar. As a gaijin in Japan, I get a lot of attention walking into restaurants, and this was no exception with the hostess rushing to seat me, get a menu, and talk in broken english. Her speech was actually pretty good, though she didn't think so and apologized multiple times, gesturing to the displays outside the shop. But I could read enough and knew enough about sushi to order a mixed selection of nigari and a beer without the hassle of walking back outside and pointing. The tray that arrived had a selection of all sorts, from roe and eel, to salmon, tuna, some whitetail, octopus, and others. I took my time eating and it was delicious, then I ordered two pieces of tuna shashimi after (though the sushi chef did not understand what I was ordering, so I must have been speaking incorrectly).

Finished eating and feeling good, I hopped on the subway and went north a few stations. Took me a little while, and I had to ask directions, but eventually I found Funaoka Onsen, an (apparently) very old public bath. The entry-way was all wood, they had a nice open air section with a little water feature, and the tubs were nice and big. I had my fill and left feeling good, my legs especially all relaxed and rubbery after walking all day. Purchased a cup of sake and enjoyed it on my walk.

When I came into Kyoto for the day, I expected to go back for a good night sleep and get an early start the next day, but by this time I was feeling really good and wanted to stay out longer. I knew there was a popular dj, Shinichi Osawa, at Club World that night, with some friends going, and abandoning all thoughts of sleep, I headed that way.

Kyoto art & washi

Went into Kyoto today, figured I'd make it a day of museums. The first place I went I had a free ticket given to me by a classmate, for the Hosomi Museum and an exhibit called the Fantastic Age. It was interesting, but not fully to my taste. Not many pieces caught my eye, the artwork was from the Edo period and involved a lot of crafts and miniatures. Walking through, I felt like I was examining each piece less because of personal interest, and more simply because I was supposed to. Still, a few pieces attracted me, particularly the paintings of court life, and scrolls including calligraphic elements. Shodo, japanese calligraphy interests me, it is very expressing and free in it's creation. Meaning is bound in the movement of the image, but without knowing the kanji and being able to read the script, I feel like a blind man looking upwards at the cathedral ceiling.

Nearby was the Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art and the Kyoto National Museum of Modern Art. The Modern Museum had a Renoir exhibition up, and I was more interesting in seeing Asian art, so I went to the Municipal Museum. This was something of a disappointment too because their permanent artwork was not on display for some reason, all but the first floor and the show focusing on ceramics was open. I enjoyed this and walked around for awhile, particularly enthralled by some of the surface design I saw. On my way out, I stopped and browsed through collection catalogs they had available for purchase, and this made me even more disappointed, because those were the masterpieces I had wanted to see that day! I guess it will have to happen another time, not like it's hard to get there.

I went west and crossed the river on a little stone walkway. A lot of people were out as it was a nice day, and I saw a youth football team practicing by the river on the smallest field I had ever seen. On I went and arrived at Kyoto Imperial park. This is just like it sounds, an enclosed wooded area containing the Imperial Palace. The houses around it would have housed nobles and court-hangers on, but a lot of them had seen better days. The Palace itself is not open to visitors without special permit, I've heard foreigners can get the processes expedited, but the locals have to wait months and months through a long waiting list. That wasn't why I had gone there, and instead just explored the park. Again, there were a lot of people out playing softball and other sports on the field, cycling through the park, having food on a bench, or just sitting and reading. The roads were very wide and it wasn't hard to imagine big parades and thousands of people marching around. Many of the surrounding trees were old and bent, propped up with supports and marked by signs explaining their history and origin. Eventually I left by the north-eastern gate, turned south, found a little shrine along the way which I stopped at, then kept walking.

My destination was a washi, Japanese paper store. This was in my Lonely Planet book, though I was sure there would be lots around, and I was right! The street I walked down had antique shops, restaurants, little cafes, stores focused on washi, stores focused on calligraphy, a few flower shops, just little places that I enjoyed exploring for a bit. Over winter break I took a book binding class, and seeing the large variety of paper inspired to think along those lines.

Sentō & wandering

Had a japanese lesson today, then I wandered a bit in the Nagaokakyo area. There a lot of places right nearby that I haven't been, specifically local shrines, the Kyoto race track, the Kyoto brewery, but I didn't do any of those. I went into a few small little shops, a liquor store with an impressive whiskey selection, a large grocery store, music store, walked streets I haven't been on. I went into a book store, browsed around the magazines. I think it's interesting with Japanese publications, though the entire inside magazine may be written in Japanese, there is still likely to be a word or two of english on the front cover. It's like a subliminal language lesson for the whole country.

I looked through some magazines on book binding, and japanese art, computers, gadgets, technology, then when I had my fill, I went to check out a local sentō. This is a public bath, and I may have been confusing you by having said onsen too much, as these specifically refer to naturally heated spring water. My bad.

Anyone that visits Japan should experience a sentō. Traditionally, a lot of japanese homes and apartments did not have showers or baths (some still don't), and with cleanliness being important nonetheless (especially in hot sticky summers), public baths became a necessity instead of a luxury. The serving hours are usually 11am-1am, or something like that, with weekends being 8am open. They're cheap, 300-400¥, though the more popular ones can be a bit more expensive (one right by Kyoto station is 750¥. I've gone to a few different ones, and the first in Kyoto was the most lame and I would never go again, not having a sauna, herbal, bubbling, searing hot, or cold that so many others have. There's no time limit at these places, go in, wash off, then relax however you want. I usually go sauna/cold tub a few times, also the herbal and simple hot. The tubs are often big enough to stretch my legs out, but tubs for herbal or cold might be tiny that you just sit in. Some are old, one in Kyoto had wooden carvings in the changing room, and an open air section where you could hear the rain beating on wooden slats overhead.

I've talked to other foreigners about public baths in Japan, and how they probably would not work in the western world, people would attach too much sexuality to it, or be too conservative, or feel it too deviant, crazy to pay for a bath, poor business model without a client base, or any number of other things. It's to get clean, and to relax, the western world would lose sight of that, and it's a shame.

(P.S. If I ever have a jacuzzi, I will so have a cold tub to go with it.)

Pretty imagination

Today was the best Japanese Art History lecture to date. Not because I understood anything AT ALL of the lecture, but because I really enjoyed the slides today. It was a good progression, though without dates I could only imagine relationships. And thats what I did, just, sort of, infer meaning from what I was shown. Soon, I hope to have copies of the images from the professor, and real information that I can understand, but until then, I can sit back and simply live inside my head.

It was a great story, I was shown (for example) illustrative and realistic images, such as this (a landscape), based on the real world and containing narrative. Following were images of religion, holy figures and demons, the spiritual. Ideas of non-proof, the unknown, without physical presence, living in the minds of men. Nothing is certain, searching is what matters. Then came more landscape, but with, I felt, a distinct difference. There were clouds, areas of obscurity, details left to the imagination. Perhaps it was just coincidence, perhaps the images were not in chronological order, but when a people start to think of the unknown, their struggle is reflected in art. Art is contemporary, it reflects current issues and struggle. Once a society begins to contemplate the unknown, would not that struggle extend into other aspects of existence. In Japan, nature is often revered, close at hand, the mountains outside your window are always calling. Hide nature. hide the existence of nature, and reflect.

Poetry

Today is Wed, meaning still life. Continuing with the apple and shell, I think they came out very well. My biggest difficulty was with the shell. It's mostly white, so in order to have depth to the image you start with some layers of base color, then white on top. Nihonga is all about the layers. My problem is with the detail, I don't know when to stop with the depth and draw the prominent cracks and lines of texture. It will come in time.

A Japanese man came in today, all dressed up in a suit and looking official. He went around looking at the students work, then talked to Sawano-sensei for a bit, during which I overheard them talking about me (America, Boston, etc etc). Then he came over, crouched down and posed next to me for a picture. It was kinda odd because he didn't really talk directly too me, he just came up while I was seated there painting. After he left I found out who it was, turned out he was the University president.

Midori Abeさん also came in today. She is a fiber professor, speaks good english and was our contact at the school through most of our application and preparation. Abeさん came over to me with a student from the class, said the student was a little too shy and would I help with a translation. It was a poem, written in Japanese, which the student had tried to translate into English. The wording was funky, not only poor grammar obviously, but it was a poem, so used a lot of imagery and creative phrasing, making any translation extremely difficult. Especially when I couldn't read the original version and only had the translated version to work from. Without knowing what a line was supposed to say, wasn't a whole lot I could do to, even just trying to fix grammar! But I did the best I could.

Later in the evening went out for food. Had a dish sake chazuke. Sake means salmon, which was the topping for chazuke, a dish consisting of rice with green tea poured over top. The tea was very mild, but the whole thing was tasty.

Candy

Most people know that gifts are important in Japan. One might bring a gift when visiting a home, or simply give a little tokens to people you know. It's not really as formalized as it's made out to be, but that's through the eyes of a gaijin.

Similar to gifts are おみやげ (omiyage which are souvenirs. These are little bits of candy or sweets brought back from travel, and each region of Japan has some variety or variation of sweets associated with that place. Many Japanese know this information by heart and can name the food and sweets from that area. With that in mind, the one souvenir I really wanted to share and give out was maple sugar candy! Sure, I ordered it in bulk from Canada and not New England, but same thing. Handed some out today to my Tuesday class, the moment I offered it their eyes widened and everyone was very excited to have a taste. Most everyone liked it, though I think the sweetness surprised some of them.

Other than that, in painting class had a discussion with Muraoka-sensei regarding the rest of the semester. As I have set aside my first painting, and have been practicing brush skill by copying, we talked about what I will do next. I have some ideas in mind, but I would like most to focus on different techniques of making color fields and backgrounds. Obviously there will be something on top of this, but the imaginative and ethereal qualities of the background in nihonga is very interesting to me. Also, I will have the opportunity to use iwa-enogu paints, which are a higher quality and handle somewhat differently from from the doro-enogu I have been using.

あつい

Today was a sign of things to come. That it will be hot. Very hot. And humid. And unpleasant for a winter guy like myself. Heard it all over, あついですね (atsui-des-ne), or 'hot isn't it?'. The phrasing does not really allow for disagreement.

Still, I haven't seen a lot of 'summer' clothes, most men wear long pants no matter the temperature, and long sleeves are still the norm. Women here are especially concerned with the sun and UV radiation. With heat and the rain overlapping, umbrellas double as parasols for many women. Also popular are long gloves that reach to the elbow and protect the delicate skin of the hands. On the gadget end are UV-indicating cellphone charms, also available in a digital version.

But I have air conditioning woooo!

Entropy of Time

Looked at a calender today, I've been here almost two months! In that time I've experienced some of Japan, memorable sights and memorable experiences. I've studied, I've gone hiking, I've met people, but it hasn't been enough. I am not happy with how my studio work has been progressing. I still feel distracted, stuck in the planning stage of so many ideas and not following through.

What holds me back? I do it on purpose, watch a little video here, read something on the web, do a google search about something random, and the hours fritter away. Is it my environment? Should I look around through eyes of feng shui? I used to think so. I had so much stuff in Boston, accumulated ideas, materials, things of interest, and where there is missing space to store a physical 'object', how can storage of the 'idea' be any different? Does clutter lead to chaos, or can chaos form it's own system? Many people say they have their 'own' system for organization, for doing things, and they would be right. But some systems work better than others; maybe mine is not working, and maybe it never has.

Back to my studio work. I haven't felt as comfortable working in my studio here as I used to at MassArt. Sitting at a table, instead of having a semi-enclosed area to work in, that could be one reason, but it is not the whole reason. It is also ownership. At MassArt, that studio space was mine, I felt like I could change my idea anytime, make mistakes, make a mess, become a mess, and it didn't really matter. Randomly writing BANANA DECAF MOTHER in big bold letters and drawing the shredded remains of a latex glove come to mind as 'lets give myself the giggles' play. I have not felt that way here. In my studio, which is also the classroom, I never know who will come in, but I do know they are more than likely to look over my shoulder, curious about what I am doing. Or examine my work when I'm not there. I'm sure much of this is just paranoia, I stand up with the work I do, but I know my status at the school, I'm an oddity and a curiosity, everyone wants to see what I do, and sometimes that makes it hard to concentrate. The fact that I've been copying work off/on to practice brush control does not help, because I don't really feel that it's my work. On top of that, if I want to work in the studio after 6, or on the weekends, I need to get approval via a form I fill out!

Bar hopping

The five of us walked down the street towards... somewhere. It was raining hard then, but we all had umbrellas, because that's what you do in Japan. It wasn't far, and turns out we were simply going to a restaurant where we sat, and drank and ate some appetizers. We were told the lunch there was much better than the dinner. There were three japanese with us and we talked about various things, one of the men, Yasurimotoさん, is a retired Kyoto police officer who now worked in the city office and has a son in Seattle. The younger man, Nishimotoさん, also works in the city office and, from what I understood, tested and monitored water quality in the area. He also keeps aquariums, so we were able to throw names of different fish back and forth to see what stuck. We also had some Shōchū, which from his talk of potatoes I though was simply a potato vodka like Chopin, but turns out it's a little different. The third man, Suzukiさん, was boisterous and seemed to be well known by many people. We sat at the first place for awhile, then all of a sudden everyone got up, into a waiting cab, and we were somewhere else. Suzukiさん had paid the bill.

The second place was much like the first, just a small little restaurant and we met someone else there. Before arriving, we were told we were going for pancakes. These were not breakfast pancakes, but meat, shrimp, vegetable, egg-omelet type food cooked on the grill at our table. The hostess came over with a bowl of these ingredients, cracked the raw egg, stirred everything together and poured it down on the grill. After a few minutes, we flipped them over, brushed a thick sauce on top, sprinkled on spices, and viola. There was sumo on the tv and we saw the champion match where Kotoōshū became the first European to win the Emperor's Cup. Suzukiさん asked us what other Japanese food we liked, then same as before, all of a sudden we were headed somewhere else. Again, Suzukiさん had paid the bill.

This time it was someplace a little larger where we all removed our shoes and sat around a low table. Along the way I was asked if I liked turtle and I had to admit I had never had it. So that was the first dish to arrive, a big bowl of soup with chunks of turtle, followed by some tofu and a selection of sushi. It was here that a pair of Katherine's friends, along with Yasurimotoさん wife showed up, so we were a larger group. It was good to have my electronic dictionary with me, though it's somewhat less useful for knowing what I want to say, but more for handing to a japanese person so they can quickly look up words (see previous post Mibu-Kyogen). This time, some money was exchanged as it was time to go, but we still didn't end up paying anything as it was made to seem like they accepted our bills, then simply passed it around the table back into our own hands!

Some people left at this point, and it was just Katherine and I, Suzukiさん, Yasurimotoさん and his wife in the cab headed to... who knows. When we arrived, I recognized the outside of the building, but had never been inside. Turns out, it was karaoke! Different than the other time I had went, this was smaller and more of a high-class lounge. We sat at the bar and was served a little tray of food (some pickled veggies, goose liver, something else) along with our drinks. The tenders were very attentive and whenever our drinks were more than halfway gone, they would be refreshed. Can't say my singing was any good, at all, and it was difficult to use the song-selector as it was full japanese. I'd say my best performance was Nirvana - Rape Me (random find), though the subtleties were probably lost on most of the crowd. Yasurimotoさん though was really a very good singer, obviously a regular patron.

The night ended with a drunken cab ride home and sincere thank yous. For two gaijin only just met, it was a perfect example of japanese hospitality.

Soba noodles

It was heavy rain as I left my apartment in the afternoon, a little bit later intended for a trip into Kyoto. I found Katherine and Kristine talking in the hall. As chance would have it, Katherine was headed to make soba noodles, but Stephen, who had also signed up, was sick and could not go. So I was invited along to fill in. At this point I still hoped to go into Kyoto after the class, but as you will see, it turned into something different.

The class was held at a lifelong learning center by the JR station, like an adult-ed class. We eventually found the room, and I was a little bit surprised that even for something like a cooking class you remove your shoes and wear slippers. We were a little bit late, and everyone was already mixing their dough. This was pretty straight forward, the dry ingredients in a bowl and you add water as you knead it together into a ball. Next flour the large wooden cutting board and roll the dough into a big flat circle. An interesting technique to this was to roll the dough right onto the dowel, then apply pressure from the center to the ends as you roll forward. It was a way to make your dough more circular if it was too oval. Once it was thin enough, which we only guessed at, you put extra flour on the top, then fold the whole thing in half. Flour again, and another fold. Continue to do this until you have about a 5" x 10" folded layer of dough. Next came the cutting, which we used a large cleaver-type blade and a wooden press. Instead of picking up and moving the wooden press each time, the edge was slanted, so you would chop downwards, then tilt the blade towards the block so it would move just the right amount. When this was done, we boiled our noodles until then turned a little gray, remove, rinse with cold water and serve on a plate. I kept getting compliments about my noodles, I had cut them thin and fine, while others in the class had ended up with thick, clumpy noodles that didn't really cook correctly.

Soba noodles are generally served cold on a plate, with a separate dish of sauce, which we added onions and wasabi to. Instead of pouring the sauce on the noodles, you dip them into the cup. The food was great, and we had some beer to go with, then a group picture. On the way out, we were invited out by some of the men, though it wasn't exactly clear where, perhaps his house, and we accepted.

Slow day

Today was a slow day. Some exercise wandering the area, then most of the evening just wasting time on the web. There are a surprising number of blogs about Japan written in english, and I've been reading Japan Probe along with numerous others.

I enjoyed the many photos at Chopstick Sensei, but the post that really caught my eye? Guess what show Fox TV is set to produce?

Mariah Carey likes coffee.

(This one is for Todd.)

meishi

Nihon-ga was the same as Tuesday, continued to copy old drawings. I am working from copies obviously, and sometimes the details are not fully clear. I'm not sure which direction the brush went, or if the uneven edges of paint was from a dry brush or simply a bad reproduction. I'll continue to do this for a bit longer, but next week I hope to start another painting, also finish the previous sakura branch I posted earlier. Dealing with that piece, I think some of the leaves are turning out well, but I have little control with the paint and am having difficulty with consistency.

I was very tired by the time I got home, I've been staying up too late most nights, getting up too early, relying on coffee, and not getting enough sleep. Rested a little, then did something I've been meaning to do for ages, post some of my art on the web. I've created various artists portfolios over the years and posted them online, some better than others, but each time it eventually disappears as I grow tired of the design or some other aspect. This time I went quick-n-dirty, get it up there with least possible effort, meaning I used Photoshop and automate web gallery. At least it's there, and now I can give the link around to anyone curious about my art. I'd also like to get printed some simple business cards for the rest of my time here in Japan.
Seth A. Crayton: Portfolio.

Japanese moth

Language tutor this morning, the staff definitely recognizes us as a regular at the coffee shop. The lesson felt good, though as always it's memorizing the vocabulary where I'm at my weakest.

In class we started painting our apple/shell still life. Sawano-sensei was late arriving, so Muraoka-sensei was subbing and demonstrated some techniques for the class. He also talked about resources on the web, and later escorted us over to the teachers office to show us the site he knew. While we were there, Kristine came in with classmates, who asked if there was anyone around who spoke better english. Muraoka-sensei pointed at me and it was pretty funny when the japanese student immediately started talking to me. English sure, but that's only half of it! Back in the studio, my shell is mostly white, and that makes painting it pretty difficult, but my apple is fresh and bright. I had thought, instead of jumping directly to bright, pure colors, I would try building up layers starting from a dull base. I thought it was working well, then Sawano-sensei commented on how 'dead' my apple looked even though it looked like it had mass, and I put a layer of bright red over the top. It was fine, and I feel that in this case it works either way, but I'm still trying to figure out if there's a system of color order. If there is, it seems somewhat flexible.

Afterward I went over to my other studio to do some work. Along the way, there was a large moth just sitting on the wall. At least 3" in the wings. It didn't move at all, and I was able to take a closeup shot.

Copy cat

Art students look at art to learn. We are told that whatever problem we're struggling with, odds are another artist has also struggled with it. Painting students will sometimes copy the work of an old master, or at least study how they moved the paint or dealt with color. Today I copied parts of a drawing as an exercise in learning brush direction with sumi-e. The drawing, dating from the 13th century, depicted frogs, rabbits, foxes, and monkeys acting like humans in various leisure activities. Animals in human form are traditionally a form of satire and mockery, with each animal representing the bureaucracy, or priesthood, or samurai, or nobles. I find it odd to be copying art like this, I understand the purpose, but it feels limiting and counter intuitive. Still, the lines are expressive and interesting, fun to reproduce, and not too complicated. My only real concern is with direction, as there are no gradients or fading, just line. Muraoka-sensei did show the class an interesting technique of rolling up a sheet of newspaper, very neatly into a tube, then using that to create a window shade with the overlaying paper. Roll the paper forward to easily see the image underneath and details that don't show through.

Stayed late in the studio, then went home and made some food. At dusk, started a night hike into the nearby mountains with Stephen from the building. We went up, and back down, passed quiet a few homes and rice fields. Passed many bamboo forests and areas that had been thinned of undergrowth. We cut a piece from a large stalk found by the road, I now have it in my room though I'm not sure what I'll do with it. Also explored a large cemetery in the hills, and only in Japan do cemeteries have vending machines at their entrance. We ended up doing a nice loop of the area, a few hours just as intended, then a walk back along the canal bank.