30 Hours
We spent twelve days traveling back and forth across Japan, from Hokkaido in the North to Kyushu in the South. We took two inner-island flights and the rest of time we moved around by train. The unusual features of this junket were the morning visits to the elementary schools, and the presentations in the theaters [...]
Tachibana Elementary
We left Osaka on Tuesday morning and took the bullet train to Shizuoka so we could visit Tachibana Elementary. This was such a beautiful school. When visiting schools you always leave your shoes at the door, which is immediately relaxing and makes you feel very welcome indeed. The office we received our briefing in had [...]
Drawing on the Road
There are still a lot of places I want to share, but I thought I’d change gears this morning and talk a little about some of the drawings I’ve done while traveling.
I’ve always owned sketchbooks, but I’ve never really been a sketchbook sort of guy. I’d buy them because they looked cool, but they’d remain [...]
Osaka Midori Elementary part 2
Time is short this morning, but I didn’t want to start my day without posting some more pictures from Osaka Midori Elementary. I’m a bit behind in my days, so I’ll be playing catch-up for a while. I’m already back in Tokyo, and I visited several places after this. More on that later.
The point of [...]
Osaka Midori Elementary part 1
Yesterday morning we dropped by Osaka Midori Elementary. Whenever we do this our first stop is always the principal’s office so we can be briefed on what’s gonna be happening. But before the briefing started I looked out the window and saw a bunch of kids playing dodgeball in the playground below. Man, it looked [...]
On the morning of June 27th, 2010…
….I unexpectedly became cool.
Before I came to Japan, appearing in a photograph next to real football players was something that was only going to happen to me through the wonders of Photoshop. And the possibility of being presented with a real jersey was about the same probability for me as winning the Giant Slalom or [...]
Manga Museum
Did you know that the International Manga Museum is in Kyoto? I didn’t either. Till we accidentally drove past it.
There are some exhibits in the galleries upstairs, and I saw original Range Murata drawings and some huge prints of his finished work. There was a cast of Hayao Miyazaki’s hand. There were a lot of [...]
Kyoto 3 – Bronze Creatures
I’ve been meaning to do a little post about some of the creatures I’ve run across in Kyoto. I’ve seen more here merely because I’ve had a day off to look around. One of the things I’ve noticed is that there is that quite often, different materials and textures are placed together. Like this dragon [...]
Kyoto 2 – Kiyomizudera Temple
In the United States, a tourist attraction might be the mummified corpse of an obscure gunslinger with a stapled-on dolphin tail, advertised as a real mermaid, lying in state behind a gas station.
In Japan its more likely to be a solid granite temple built by master artists, frequented by real spirits and demons.
In this case [...]
Kyoto part one
So we arrive in Kyoto last night, and wisely decided to get dinner at a really cool restaurant that was super-hard to find. It is hard to find partially because smaller streets don’t have any names. So when you get to this level of searching you’re really using landmarks as much as anything. Like, “Turn [...]
Sugiyama Jogakuen University’s Elementary
Every morning we visit a school. And every morning I think, “That was magic, we’ll never be able to top this.”
And every time I’m wrong.
We visited Sugiyama Jogakuen Elementary yesterday morning, and, well, how am I going to explain this? You know what, for right now, I won’t. I’m in Kyoto for a couple of [...]
OHK! :)
If you read my previous post you understand this picture.
This is me and OHK.
OHK gets me.
Its alright that Dean is in our picture. OHK is cool with it.
Even though this is really just a picture of me and OHK.
Uchiyama Kindergarten
June 23. Too many things happened to fit in one post – I’ll never be able to narrow it down to one picture or video.
I started the morning by taking the Bullet Train from Fukuoka to Okayama. We visited Uchiyama Kindregarten. Uchiyama Kindergarten is where Japan keeps the cutest kids on the planet. About 70 [...]
Bullet trains
This morning I traveled from Fukuoka to Nagoya on a bullet train. Specifically, the Nozomi Super Express – the fastest of the bullet trains at over 180 mph. These arrive on time, and leave on time. They glide out of the stations without a sound or a shudder, and quickly accelerate with several noticeable surges. [...]
“People of Fukuoka…”
We ended the day by appearing on a live radio show, that was also broadcast on giant screens all over the city. Very super-Villain-ish.
Seinan continued…
I wanted to share a few more of these pictures with everyone – I can’t say enough about this school; the kids, the teachers and the building just radiated energy and inspiration.
Seinan Gakuin Elementary School
I’ll post more from today a little later, but I wanted to get this in right away. We were invited to the most amazing and beautiful school this morning, where we visited with some very talented young artists.
Sapporo
We flew from Tokyo to Sapporo last night. It was immediately cooler, and foggy. They picked us up at the airport in a medium-sized bus. I immediately staked out the backmost seat and curled up in the corner. We drove through what looked like woods for a long time, and I finally couldn’t stay awake [...]
Tiny Dinner Creatures
I couldn’t get on with my day till I posted just one more picture from dinner the night before. I’m not sure what the official name of these little fellows is, but I call them “Tiny delicious crab friends that I eat as many of as I can.” They are very, very small, as [...]
Sake should be…..
….square. I’ve searched and searched for these in the states, and haven’t found them yet. Crisp and thick cedar boxes for sake. They immediately infuse the drink with their wooden tone. The other thing I’ve noticed is that drinking square drinks make you feel less yucky in the morning. Clearly the edges [...]
Arrived!
So I’m all set up here at the Peninsula. And I have a smashing view of the Imperial Palace. More later – its only about twenty minutes before I meet everyone downstairs to go to dinner.
Japan bound
So, HTTYD is opening soon in Japan, and Dean and I are cooling our heals in the AA lounge, topping off our power and having some coffee.
Because we’re going there for a couple of weeks. Which is cool because even though, according to her website, Hello Kitty lives in a suburb of London, I happen [...]
