On the road

My pack is much too big, much of it from food I had in the pantry, but I am off now to catch the ferry to Hokaido. The last few days were a blur at school, so much to finish up, but now I am done. My plan to ship my big suitcase did not work, as apparently my information was wrong and the normal Japan post will not ship it. A private company is asking for over $230! Instead, I am leaving my big suitcase, plus my carry-on with computer, at the school where I will pick them up on the 29th and take them with my on the plane home. I was looking forward to only checking my backpack, but oh well.

Posts will be sporatic (possibly moreso than already are lol), but whenever I have access to a computer I will be sure to post an update.

Final language

Today was my final Monday language class. It went well, learned about the -kudasai form of verbs, which is basically saying please this, please that. Obviously they're very useful and used often. The problem is, for a non-native, they're really complicated. There a four different groupings of verbs, and exceptions to every rule.

Afterwards, chatted with Kawakatsuさん about my plans for August. Whenever I talk about where I want to travel and what I want to do, Japanese seem to get so impressed. For one thing I'm headed north to Hokkaido and working my way south again through most of mainland Japan, which is a pretty good distance (Japan is approx the same size as California fyi). But more shocking is the fact I'm backpacking, intend to climb mountains, sleep in a tent, follow wind and whim wherever it may lead. I have a loose plan, things I'd like to see and do, but if I end up on a deserted mountain top somewhere, and decide to just stay there for another day, then I will. I don't have an hour-by-hour itinerary, and even if it means I don't get to see as much as I possibly could have, I'm ok with that.

Also more painting. As I said previously, this second painting is not a piece I really like. I came here to learn materials and methods, which I feel successful doing, but the real ideas, the art I want to make and be proud of, those ideas are still bouncing around. On Wednesday I have a final critique with Sawano-sensei and Muraoka-sensei. I look forward to it, though I am hesitant to believe I'll get real feedback. They know I came to learn materials more than anything else, but also they're Japanese and I'm a visitor. They're not likely to be very critical.

Cleaning

Cleaning and organizing today. I've collected piles and piles of papers, from school, info sheets for places I've been, maps, ticket stubs, etc, etc. I'm a pack-rat. I like to keep those things, and it's a big future project of mine, wanting to scan those objects into digital form and always have them at my fingertips. Even the sheets I can't read, and especially the sheets I can't read, I want to keep for future reference. They will be shipped back home with the majority of my stuff, leaving me with just a backpack to carry around in August.

I'll be packing light, and that means making choices. Do I want this, or that? Will I miss not having, or will I regret having to carry? What if I pick things up along the way? Souvenirs and oddities from travel, it all adds up very quickly. But, worse scenarios I can purchase anything I might desperately need, or ship home anything I might be sick of carrying. Couple more days!

Big Painting #2

I am not happy with my second large painting. Not at all happy. And it's my own fault, I did not learn. I did not prepare a good sketch. I tried to freewheel, and now I am not happy. As I continue with the image, it feels simplistic, childish, empty. The colors are all wrong, and I don't know what I'm doing. If this was a drawing, I would simply discard it, start again, but because of the materials, I struggle and search for every little thing that might make it better. Which isn't much in my mind.

But having said that, I am using 岩絵の具IWAENOGU, vs DORAENOGU in this painting and that is part of the problem. It's a problem because I approached the Iwaenogu not knowing how different it would be, and it's very different. I really like it now that I understand it better, the materials are amazing. Once you mix up the paint, and brush it onto the paper, it is like nothing else I have ever done. I can take a brush and push it around. I can take previously dried areas, apply water, and rework them. It's like pushing around grains of colored sand, drawing on a beach.

I may hate the image, but I'm privileged getting to use these materials. Doraenogu and Iwaenogu are different from each other, but they work in concert. Next time, which will unfortunately not be until back in Boston, I will do better.

めいし

Today I had some business cards printed, and it took forever.

The place I went was very close to me and the only printing company I knew of in the area. Business cards are very common, and extremely important in Japan, so I had high hopes that they'd be able to help me. Unfortunately, this was no Kinkos, and when I went in with my digital file on USB drive, I was told they had no way of opening it. They had a big offset printer going, and all the carbon copies and light boxes to go with it, but they had to have a way to open a digital file!

So I went to school and printed a hard copy, this was good in a way, as it allowed me to see the couple different versions I had made. Some were ornate with clipart, others more traditional Japanese text only. I went back to the shop and asked which image was their favorite. Bad idea, as it involved a lot of delaying and discussion and back and forth, calling for a second opinion, and eventually I made the choice myself. The Japanese man did point out that one design was definately an American めいし, while another was Japanese めいし, and his comment did make me realize that as a foreigner, I would make a foreigners めいし.

After this little discussion, I was invited to sit for tea, during which another Japanese man came from upstairs, with a laptop computer and a version of Illustrator. Could've saved a step there. Unfortunately he was running Illustrator 9, so I ran home quickly to resave my file, then we both went upstairs to a dedicated business card printer. This is what I was looking for, quick and easy. Yet it wasn't, because this guy didn't know Illustrator. At all. So I ended up fiddling with the file myself, trying to use keyboard shortcuts and guessing which menu option I wanted before I had the file all set to print. And then it printed wrong. I knew immediately what the problem was, their printer did not like embedded raster files, but I had no way of explaining this. About 10-minutes later during which the guy fiddled with the settings and did the best he could to act like he knew what the problem was, he finally suggested that they do the cards via offset. I was ok with this, as they gave me the same price, but also meant he wanted me to create a file with proper registration and crop marks. No problem, but why can't he do it?

After a quick trip home again, fixing the file on a computer I could actually read text on, I went back with a two new files. One with the crop marks as requested, another with my raster image converted into vector so it would print on their dedicated めいし printer. After a false start with the crop mark file, where my helper could not figure out how to get it to print onto a page without being cut off, I asked him to try the other file upstairs. It worked, and I left with a stack of 2-sided cards to give out in my travels and to people I have already met. But still, this was no Kinkos and it felt like I was renting equipment to do the work myself! That's the way it works sometimes, and being from a graphic arts background, I'm a bit more informed than the average client. The cards are nice though, and the translation a friend did for the back will be very useful as an introduction with 'much-less-likely-to-speak-any-english' Japanese people I will meet in August.

wtb ēgo

After putzing around a bit in the morning, I went to my school studio for painting and study. Often I need to wait for the paper to dry before moving onto something else, so I used the extra time to study for a Japanese language test I was expecting that afternoon. It felt good to review, and while I am weak on vocabulary, I surprised myself on how well I recalled sentence structure.

But it was all for naught, as we did not have a test in my Japanese language class. Instead, we continued in our book and free-ranging discussions. The most important tidbit I learned was the word for 'area', ちほう. By area, I mean a region, like the Kansai region of Japan, or the New England in the US. Up until now, I couldn't really explain New England, only having words for state, city, or prefecture.

After class, returned to my studio for a little while before then going to an artist talk. This was not a normal event, but a special presentation by 12 German artists on an exchange program. I had seen and met some of the artists around the school, as anyone not Japanese is hard to miss, but I was curious to see their work and how it was presented. Also I was hoping there might be English involved and I'd actually be able to understand what was going on!

Alas, it was not to be. The artists were at tables in the front of the room, and there were images shown of their work here in Japan, but most of the artists talked in German (two in English), which was then repeated in Japanese by the translator. There were two translators, neither professionals, one a native German/English speaker also fluent in Japanese, the second a native Japanese/English speaker. So, anything hard to translate was discussed in English between the translators and I could eavesdrop, but mostly I sat there, watching the slides, and not being able to understand yet another language. I thought it was pretty funny actually!

The artists themselves came from a range of specialties. Painters, print makers, sculptors, graphic design, photography, and most interesting to me was trying to see any connection the art had with Japan. Some things were obvious, one sculptor created a large, organic form using bamboo and had nothing but praise for being able to use the material. There were drawings related to manga, drawings reacting to the environment and the constant sight of electrical lines everywhere, prints about the weather (super hot) or Japanese landscape. Other images, I could find no obvious connection, like a crude and rough painting of a nude, or abstract textures, or a pair of drawings showing strong, muscular men in motion.

I did not connect with everything, some of the work just did not interest me, and that's fine, but it was the images without clear connection to Japan that I was most curious about. Being here has, among other things, highlighted for me the link between art and surroundings. Even the artist who works only from imagination and abstraction is themselves a product of their environment. I would have liked to hear more of their thought process and if/how their work in Japan is different from anything else they may have done. That is a question for any artist traveling abroad, and one that I will soon have to answer for myself.

Yasugawa river

Up and out super early today to go with classmates from the outdoors club to Yasugawa river, near Moriyama train station in Shiga. It was about an hours ride and we had to be there early to prepare for a rafting event. This was no ordinary rafting event, but a sponsored event where participants construct their own vessels, are judged, then float down the river to end at a mini festival atmosphere. There were about a hundred groups participating, a lot of scouting groups, schools groups, and other community organizations. There was also a video crew roaming around documenting, and they went around taking closeup shots of everyone.

Our rafts were made of PET bottles (plastic), a painted wooden panel and little bits and pieces for decoration. We did most of the work over the last few days, but constructed them on site. There were eight of us in the group, so we had three rafts in total, a big, mamma raft, and two smaller baby rafts. We had chains and hooks to try and keep them in line, with fins for decoration. We were provided PFDs and rafting helmets like this was a real rafting trip, but in reality the river was somewhat low and we bottomed out in areas.

With everyone ready, we were called up by number and presented to a group of judged. I was the only foreigner anywhere in sight, I think that was why everyone was especially interested about our group. A short cheer and we carried our rafts down to the launch point. The river was alive, little fish swarming about everywhere I looked, and the distinct smell of river (you know what I mean). The early parts we took turns having someone pull us along, not much current and shallow, but farther ahead the river widened and deepened and we all got on our rafts and floated ahead. It was a hot day, but nice riding on the water. I wish the river had had more water, would have made it even more fun without having to stop at a few points and walk.

About 50-minutes onward, we came to the end, and a big crane was there to lift the rafts to the bank where we took it apart and recycled the components (plastic bottles at least, rest of it just went into a common 'burnable' dumpster). There were a number of food stands around, but somehow I was not able to find a bottle of water anywhere and I was really dehydrated from the river. The river had also washed away the little bit of sun screen I had put on my legs and I was sunburned. But food was good, one area had bins of fish swimming around, order one and the japanese man would grab it, skewer it right in front of you, roll it around in some salt and throw it on the grill. Tasty and fresh, if you could get past the eating a whole fish, head and all thing. There was an award ceremony, and we won! From what I could understand, it was a popularity prize, and came with a grill for cooking takoyaki.

As part of our participation, we were given free passes to an onsen in the area. One of my classmates parents had driven up with the raft materials, and they gave us a ride to the onsen. It was nice, connected to a big hotel and resort. The hot water scalded my burnt legs, but the cold water did wonders. On the way out I purchased some milk from a vending machine. These are especially popular around onsen and sento, and for good reason! A ride back to Nagaokakyo and pretty much ended crashing for the rest of the night.

Museums and Shodo in Kyoto

Up early today for a trip into Kyoto. Even with all the things I've seen there, I can still find more to do. Today, I was headed to a special exhibition at the Museum of Kyoto, as had been recommended to me by Muraoka-sensei. I ended up a little lost getting there, saw one sign, but it wasn't very clear about which street to turn down. I asked directions from an official looking Japanese man, but still ended up wandering a little. When I did find the Museum of Kyoto, I realized I had passed it before on one of my trips into Kyoto and could have found it immediately if I had known that was where I was going. Figures.

The special exhibition was on the 4th floor, so I went straight up. There was so much to see, painting after painting by Japanese artists. Many of them were your standard nihonga subjects, trees, nature, geisha, festivals, those sorts of things, and it illustrated how much art is influenced by ones surroundings. The Japanese paint what they see around them, so do many artists, and that is one of the defining characteristics of the style, even if the image is abstracted.

This exhibition felt different in a few ways. One was the size. With few exceptions, they were all wall-sized, 2' x 3' or so, some bigger or smaller. The colors were all over the place, bright, saturated hues, or darkened neutrals with everything between. Some of the paintings were very realist oriented, shadows, colors, almost a photograph, while others were little more than line with fuzzy color filling the shapes. Presentation was very good, I appreciated the lighting especially, as it made bright colors seem to glow and dark colors reseed into the distance. I've noticed before how some nihonga can be very thickly painted, while others thin and wispy, and I saw the same variance here. I also noticed a lot of different surface textures, even some purposefully stressed or scratched away. One painting was covered in bristles having fallen out of the artists brush. It was a great exhibition, and I recorded the names of many artists that impressed me. I was very tempted to purchase an exhibition catalog, but held off for the moment as I can go back another time if I decide.

From the museum I went again to the Kyoto International House for the free class in shodo, or Japanese Calligraphy. It was fun, I enjoy using the brush and learning the techniques of control. I focused mainly on kanji today, reproducing the characters for 'study abroad', 'winter', 'the four seasons', 'above, between, below', and a few others. Afterwards I went for late lunch with a Japanese friend, Syunpei. Among other things, we discussed how english does not focus so much on anything like 'calligraphy', sure there is cursive writing, and I explained this concept as best I could, but that is very personal and unique to the individual. Japanese calligraphy does entail some individuality in each character, but the difference lies in what is considered art. In Japanese shodo, one might see art on the gallery wall because of the way it is written over what is said, while in english, with a much more universal character set, the focus would be on what was said over how it was written. Sure, font selection is important, but it is a different aspect than the individual hand of an artist.

Hot hot hot

It's hot every single day. Hot and humid. If you sweat, it doesn't dry. Today, temperatures reached over 100°F, and this is not unusual. The Japanese carry towels around their neck to wipe themselves down. Everywhere, I see clothing labeled 'Always Dry', or 'Cool'. 'Always Dry' Socks, 'Always Dry' Shirts, 'Always Dry' Underwear, even 'Always Dry' Jeans. I've stopped wearing most of the shirts I brought with me, in favor of the hot-weather, dry, sports shirts I've purchased here. Otherwise I'd be walking around as one big, disgusting sweat stain.

And it will get even worse. August is the hottest month in Japan, which is fun for me, as that's when I'll be farthest away from regular access to air conditioning. I bought a second water-reservoir to make sure I will always have plenty of fluids with me, though it means extra weight, I won't be thirsty out there. And I'm going to shave my head. You'll get pictures.

Focus

Early lecture, then lots of painting in my studio today. I was motivated and I enjoyed myself. Base colors for my mountains painting, then planning as I waited to be able to continue.

As I was in my studio earlier than usual, I was able to chat a bit with one of my classmates. She is an older student, returning to studies after time working. Similar to me in that respect, but farther along as she also has a daughter of college age in Tokyo. We talked for awhile, about the paintings we were both working on, about the upcoming Gion festival in Kyoto, and about what souvenirs I will have of Japan. I mentioned how I would like to purchase some ukiyo-e Japanese wood block prints, and also a large hanging scroll before I leave. I have also been purchasing some postcards, as I enjoy the imagery on some of them, and it was then that she told me her intent to purchase omiyage, aka souvenir, for me when next she visits Kyoto. I thought this was a very generous thing to do, and it makes me wish I had brought more interesting souvenirs of my own from Boston.

Later, when class actually started and Matsumoto-sensei came in, we touched base a little about where I wanted to take my painting and she offered some advice about how to proceed.

Taking a break, I went outside and helped outdoors-club classmates work on building a raft. This is a raft constructed from panel and PET bottles, which we have plans to use this Sunday during a river race in Shiga. I guess when we first talked about it, I didn't realize the effort that would go into making the raft and decorating it (not required, but still fun), so I'm glad my classmates are more on the ball. Sunday is a really early train ride when I would rather be sleeping, but it should be lots of fun all around.

Yama

Some good progress on my mountain painting today. I think nihonga is difficult for me because it requires planning. My drawings, and digital artwork before that, are more of an evolution of an idea. Rarely is the image fully realized in my head before I start working, and things change along the way. I enjoy working like this, but it is a weakness as much as a strength.

Osaka-Seikei University has visitors, a group of artists from Germany. They have been traveling in Kyoto, visiting different studios and museums, I'm not clear on their purpose for being here other than independent research, but I'm sure they are having just as much of an experience as I am. Today I met one of them, a woman named Britta. She works mainly as a printmaker, but was getting a lesson in Japanese painting from Muraoka-sensei when I came in. They were talking about paper and priming materials, but having small language difficulties. Britta speaks German with some English, and Muraoka-sensei speaks Japanese with some English, so I had the advantage by speaking good English and broken Japanese. I'd have to say Britta was more prepared than me, having both translated business cards and little wrapped up packets of postcards from her own portfolio to give out to. My time here is obviously different, but when next I come I will have the same.

Before heading home, I had to stop into the office and pay my rent. I had used a bunch of 10¥ and 5¥ coins to do this, because I've been accumulating change and those 'dimes' and 'nickels' aren't of much use. I also have a bunch of 1¥ coins, which are of absolutely no use, the Japanese tend to use these small coins to pay their taxes. While in the office, I learned I need to write a Scholarship essay before I leave, telling Osaka-Seikei about my time here, what I've been doing, and how I've been spending their money. I have a month still to go, and a lot of work to finish, before I can report with confidence on time well spent.

I really look forward to August though, when I can wander and experience with more freedom. I still have much planning to do, but at the beginning of the month, there are two matsuri, festivals, in Northern Honshu that just so happen to correspond to where I would be going anyway. The Kanto Matsuri and the Aomori Nebuta.