Hisashiburi (long time no see)

Even though I love blogging, I had to take a break on my travels. My visit home was packed with friends, family, good beer and food and four trips to the movie theater. To some people this might not be worth mentioning, but I love movie theaters as much as I love coffee, which is to say, A LOT.

Anyway, now that I am back in Japan Land my adventures have already begun. Mikel picked me up in Nagoya. We spent the first jet-lagged night in a "smoking" room, despite the fact that Mikel requested non-smoking... something got lost in translation. It's just one of the many things that come out differently than expected when we bumble over the few Japanese words we think we know. That's what I have come to realize. I think I know a lot more than I can actually communicate in a practical way. I have conversations like (English translation, obviously), "Oh, Megan-teacher, would you like to run a race in Japanese iron shoes in Nino next month with Mikel," says my vice principal. "Oh, um...ok. I email to Mikel do. I to Mikel, email to do... email... do... to e-me-i-ru." All the while I am sweating, and grinning like the Cheshire Cat (in other words, maniacally). "Ok, umm," as she looks at me confused, "please, you can e-mail Mikel. Let me know."

After our night in the smokey hotel, we went on a week-long trip. First to Gujo to see a festival. We slept in a tent for one night and our car for two. We were nice and smelly by the time we made it to Kyoto and got a hostel with a shower. In Kyoto we walked our butts off. We like to walk, but we also had the unfortunate bad sense to try and find restaurants in our Let's Go guide to Kyoto from 2004. Bad idea. Only one still exists. We found it after about three hot, depressing hours of dragging our butts around downtown Kyoto looking for anything remotely edible for vegetarians. The restaurant we found is called Didi's. We like to talk about that time as, "Didi's or Big D" as in: Divorce. We joke about splitting up (we are travel buddies!) but when we are hot, smelly, tired and hungry, LOOK OUT. Danger. Thank god for Didi's.

We didn't find the amazing $100 ice cream sundaes in the photo above until our second night, during which we walked for one and a half hours to another restaurant that doesn't exist anymore. We could have shriveled up and died at the idea of walking all the way back on my blistered feet and "combini" food, but we decided to work our way home from Circle-K to Family Mart (convenience stores) eating veggie sushi and getting drunk on Asahi Dry (bad Japanese beer). Japan at night is very interesting, especially when you can drink beer in public and people watch. If I wrote a guide book for people with no money and a heart for adventure, I would recommend the "combini beer tour."

And I would recommend making faces like this man when walking down the street. The hat is optional.
Hello from our HUGE tent. We were trying to be inconspicuous as we were rough camping by a river frequented by traditional Japanese fishermen and very friendly rafters. A giant yellow tent isn't exactly what I would call stealth, but it didn't seem to matter. Due to stink factors that I mentioned before, I "took a bath" in the river, hence the swimmin' suit. Suit up missy!

We made an amazing discovery. Japan has AWESOME coffee. It's really strong and if you go to a cafe for breakfast, you can get a set (pictured above) with usually toast and a hard boiled egg. The coffee comes with super thick cream and a sugar syrup. The day we found out this not-so-secret aspect of Japan, we went to two other cafes the same day. Like I said, I love coffee and so (thank god!) does my husband. I would have posted the photo of Mikel at this table as he was much more photogenic at that moment, but my photo of him doesn't have a good shot of the breakfast.
Check out this sweet shirt! This is a food stand at the festival called Gujo-dori that we went to. (And yes, these three almost-blonde ladies are all Japanese. ) People dance certain traditional dances in a trance-like manner all night. After we danced the full cycle of six dances that they would be repeating, we pooped out and went to sleep in our sweet sweet kuruma.
Many people at the festival were dressed in traditional summer kimonos like the women in the photo. It was beautiful!

Mikel might kill me for posting this, but I think it is a fun photo. He is standing in a path created by hundreds of "tori" or gates which indicate the entrances of shrines. This place is in Kyoto and it is called Fushimi Inari. I hobbled through it on my giant blister, and then limped about an hour north to find our long-sought Indian food, which was good (the restaurant was recommended by the hostel so we knew it existed) but it was a lot like tomato soup with various Indian spices. Anyway, food is good, even if it isn't the BEST.

Now we are back at work and my blister is gone.

More soon, but it's time for lunch at the ol' junior high.

Happy August!

By Water and By Air

This is a river near our house.  

I'm going to miss this tall buddy the next few weeks!  I am flying to VT tomorrow morning which means I have way to much to do before Mikel and I drive to Nagoya after school today.   I will try to get some blogging action in while I'm gone!  I can't wait for some time to relax, talk a LOT in English, and see family and friends.  I need to rejuvenate my creative spirit and get out of this sweltering Japanese summer humidity.

Workshop-a-roo

The beading workshop was a total success yesterday!  

Mikel and I were giddy with relief and excitement when it was all through.  I had a total of 15 people with three very crafty boys in that group.  The most important thing I learned was that I love teaching workshops! 

Mikel and I were a little late arriving at the building for the workshop (due to a little flea market shopping and some seriously fast scarfing of Indian food with Sarah at our favorite restaurant in Matsumoto).  Although the last minute scrabble for a DVD player and to organize all of my materials was stressful, many people arrived late anyway so I started my presentation at a really good time.  Mikel made coffee, we set out snacks including some vegan chocolate cake and blueberry scones we had baked, and got down to some beading fun.

I learned a lot about the range of abilities in a workshop class.  I had some very beginner beaders and some people who have beaded before but maybe not using the techniques I taught.  I had people who asked really great questions, people who could learn best from my "idea book" (which worked a little like a manual).  Some beaders kept to themselves but created amazing designs in their four hours of focus.  I think everyone was excited about what they had made in the end.  The best moments are when people suddenly understand something new and get a certain look of excitement and pride on their faces.  I love it!

I was nervous for the workshop, of course!  It was my first one and there were a lot of unknowns.  The funny thing is that Mikel was WAY more nervous that I was.  He was a really nice guy and tried to hide it from me (although his nervous silence made the air as thick as pudding on the way up to Matsumoto). It was really great how the stress just melted off of him by the end so that we were both maniacs with excitement during our "parking lot picnic" after the workshop.

What a relief and an accomplishment!  

I am so proud of myself for trying this new experience out in Japan.  It took a lot of hard work but now I can just relax and start packing for my trip to Vermont next week.  I could not have done it without the help of Sarah Kissler (who is in the middle of getting ready to move back to Canada from Japan) and Mikel who proves to be the best assistant and technical support anyone could want.  

Thanks Sarah and Mikel!!!!!

I am really excited for my next workshop, but for now, I need a break!

Brainstorms and Eye Ooze

Here is another commission from Ashley!  

I hope she likes it.  The fabric sewn onto the felt is from old kimonos.  She gave me a list of colors she likes as well as two artists to look at (Julie Peppito and Kristaraak). I recently got a simple kit to attach snaps to any fabric as well as an easy grommet pincher (I don't think that's the real name...)  I think I am addicted to attaching metal to fabric.  I like the ease and the contrast of texture.  

My workshop on Sunday will center around beading cuffs.  I want to concentrate on learning through basic stitch guidance and experimentation, and I want to discuss and try out ways of brainstorming to find or clarify ideas for any project.  I will also talk about my use of an "idea book" (or sketch book) in my art practice and provide the class with booklets full of "how-to's", space for collecting ideas, and thoughts on beading.  Of course I will have lots of specific tips and techniques for beading, but in general, it is the creative process that I find most important, more than skills.  Through the creative process we acquire skills.  It is part of the creative process of my students that they are joining my class.

For now, I am attempting to load things onto my website through the e-mail tutorial of my lovely, computer-savvy husband.  I hope it doesn't make my eyeballs ooze out of my head.  At least it's Friday!!

Here's where I ate lunch on Wednesday in Nagano-Shi.

peas-owt!

Ze-Ri and Collecting Space

What's this?

It's behind the scenes of a sweet sculpture photo shoot.  

I use anything from our shed as a tripod. 

We actually finally bought a little tripod last week so this will be my last "yard sale shoot."  Behind it you can see four long pots of plants.  That is where I accidentally grew lettuce this spring.  All of the plants I tried to grow died, like the time Mikel and I tried to plant a mini garden in downtown Buffalo but only ended up with wild blackberries (a nice trade, honestly)

Today I ate strange cubes of white-ish jelly (pronounced as "zeri" after translation by katakana).  I am not sure what flavor they were, but they weren't anything easily recognizable.  Although I now bring my own lunch to school (I couldn't handle eating any more strange greenish brown curry with meat bits or tiny white fish) I apparently still can't avoid eating some school lunch.   Although I said no, I still ended up eating a strange bowl of fruit juice with canned fruit, bananas and "zeri."  Another magical Japanese creation.  The magic is what I came here for and there is no telling where it will show up.

Last night, while working on some residency applications, I had a mini break-through.  Suddenly my artist statement went from focusing on color and objects to collecting space.  This new perspective has exploded into a whole new way of looking at things around me.  For example, how many kinds of space are there?  What's the difference between space and object?  How does mental space compare to audio space and visual space?  How can I collect space?  I can't wait to go to Nagano City tomorrow and add to my collection of space.  

A poem for you:

The green computer folder is still sitting on my desk.

My liter of water looks like a liter of Sake.

It's hot and sunny for now.

Snot-tites and Practicalities

(One more sculpture down the editing shoot)

Happy Monday!   

I finally feel like my old self again after about 10 days of low energy and a head full of snot.

Which reminds me of something Mikel and I saw on the show Planet Earth that we have been watching off the Internet lately:  In caves where the water is highly acidic with sulfuric acid, there is a certain kind of bacteria that makes "Snottites" like stalactites but snot-like.  I'm serious.

That show really makes me realize how amazing the earth is and has rekindled an old desire once again: the desire to bike across the sweet land of my birth, the USA.  With my health recovered I feel a little like a super-hero.  I have been using my manic super powers to finish my beading workshop preparations (except for the final touches on my power point), started to apply to art residencies, and packed my head full of future projects (installations, sculptures, black and white drawings, bike trips and traveling).  

All of this new activity manifested as a weird dream last night:  I gave birth to a fat cat but Mikel and I decided we didn't really want a "baby" yet.   I was full of regret.  

I take it as a sign that we should wait for babies and go full steam ahead with arty-farty stuff.

As my head gets wrapped around thoughts on art, I realize that making my painting and sculpture is the most rewarding experience for me.  I love crafting and jewelry, but "Craft Land" I realize is a different place than my studio.  They are connected and influence each other, but not the same.  Usually I notice how my painting influences my jewelry, but only recently did I realize the way Beaded Weeds influences my art practice.  I have become a much more disciplined business woman.  I realize that if I treat things like applications and deadlines as strict with my painting/sculpture as with my jewelry, I get the same results.  The abundance flows just as easily and makes an organic, intangible studio experience feel more concrete and practical.

Practical parts of life (like paying bills, sleeping, eating healthy, getting a reentry permit to Japan, etc.) can be quite a nusance, but also mindless relief from thinking about art all the time.  Sometimes it is much needed perspective.

Time to pay my car lease bill!  

Website in Action

Here is a new sculpture. It will soon be added to the lovely website Mikel made for me. He launched the "real" version this week and I think it looks fantastic!

Check it out at:

www.oknosleeping.com

Time to go home, drink a little coffee and get started on editing the rest of my sculpture images. It is really amazing how finished images allow for an objective perspective on my work. Not only does it make me realize how much I have already finished, it also makes me realize what I want to change, inspiring me to keep making more.