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29th June Sean walked up to Kawaguchi shrine to take the frogs home to the puddle where the tadpoles had been found. It finally rained yesterday so there were actually puddles again. Met Makoto kun on the way and had a wonderful time. Still in residence at Ukishima aquarium is Emily's collection - river eels, dragon fly lavae, river beetles and river shrimps, plus caterpillars and a butterfly crysalis. (KT) |
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Despite appearances Kata is still working on his drawings and I am still working on small sculptures for an exhibition in Tokyo next year. (KT) |
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28th June Kata reckons that Sean's newfound interest in boxing is in the genes - Scottish Granpa' s Cambridge boxing days. My father quite openly admits that the only reason he was champion in his class was that he was extremely tall for his weight so his arms (his reach) were much longer than his oponents'! Although Sean seems to have his Granpa's height, also like his grandfather he is actually rather a gentle soul, he was in fact knocked over by the punch bag (his old baby futon rolled up) but Kata decided not to include that photo on the homepage. (KT) |
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25th.June A typical Sunday at Ukishima; today's hide and seek in the studio was unfortunately interrupted by some guests for Cinnamon - I had no idea who they were (but they were apparently fans of our dog even before she became a film star). Then back to the serious business of play... Later a clear out of the toy cupboard unearthed some paper clay - animals and pots were duly made; and some puppets which had been hibernating in the depths of the bottom toy box since we moved from the pre-hab emerged to produce a show for us all (KT) |
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24th. June The rope swing, also featured on a daily basis are bicycle races, hide and seek, tag, drawing as the basics, then several variations to keep Kata and I on our toes. On school days all this does not start til 4.30 pm, on Saturdays and Sundays Kata and I are on our knees by 6 pm but Emily and Sean usually manage to keep us going for atleast another 3 hours. (KT) |
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23rd June Emily doing her homework!? It is just possible that she is deep in thought and not just in a dream slumped at the crossroads. I'm not sure why homework is neccesary, children should be able to learn the things not taught at school when they are at home. Lego is still the most popular toy, and Sean is still hooked on robots (KT) |
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22nd June Ukishima Hair Salon. I am getting better at this, Emily's fringe is nearly straight. Much easier to cut stone as it tends to stay still. (KT) |
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21st. June Emily and Sean celebrated the lack of rain by pretending to be trees that need watering. (KT) |
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20th. June Planting potatoes, we gave up with most vegetables several years ago after all our neighbours had a good laugh at our attempts, and then regularly turned up with truckloads of much better nurtured produce so that we wouldn't starve. But none of them grow potatoes, so if its a good crop we can take boxes of them round the area, and if not they will be well hidden among the weeds and no-one will be the wiser to tease us again about our farming skills! (KT) |
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17th.June Wakamatsu and Roppongi's party in Morioka tonight to celebrate winning a major architectural prize. Momose's family will be looking after Emily and Sean while we go. As Momose and Wakamatsu both said they missed good Scottish bread, Sean and I decided to make some bread and chocolate cake for them - I think Kata took the photos to prove that I can actually be quite domesticated. (KT) |
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16th.June Kata working on his new drawings using gorgeous hand made paper from Nepal, 3m x 1.5m. The architect Wakamatsu commissioned one for his house to celebrate his architecture prize and my Best Artist award. But Kata has got really enthused and is still working on more! I am still working away on new stone sculptures every day, but feel very tempted to try and appropriate some of Kata's paper, looks very satisfying stuff to work with, especially on this scale.(KT) |
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15th.June Road safety play soon evolved into a battle between rival petrol stations. (KT) |
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13th.June I thought the news broadcast had announced the official start of the RAINY SEASON several days ago, but as we have still not had any rain, watering the two hundred trees we planted last year is a good game. (KT) |
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12th.June "The Man Who Loved Only Numbers" by Paul Hofman. The amazing life of Paul Eldesh, the Hungarian mathmatician. Spent his whole life travelling around the world tring to attack thousands of mathematical problems with his friends from over 25 countries. Real genius. At 3 years old, he could caluculate hundreds in his head and found out the concept of minus numbers as well as the idea of death! Never interested in property or daily stuff only numbers! (HK) |
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| Bus trip around Hirosaki, Shiragami mountains, Oirase rivers and Mt.Iwaki. Most of the sculptors who are involved in the Hirosaki project went on this trip and it was just wonderfull! (HK) |
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9th June Chikako Wayama`s Sayonara party After working as a volunteer for the Iwate Art Festival UK98 Chikako decided that cultural life is more important, interesting, and fun than being a career beurocrat. She has given up her high flying job in the Prefectural Government Office to spend 2 years studying tea in Taiwan and China before establishing her own tea house. The art of tea is the essence of Japanese culture, Chikako feels she needs to travel to its source to develop her own ideas. (KT) |
| from left: sitting - Michimi Kudo, Noboyuki Wakamatsu, KT, Chikako Wayama, Hisashi Roppongi, Kanako Kumagai, Hiroko Hatamura, Hisashi Momose, Setsuko Yamamoto, Kazue Sato; standing Nagai and HK) | Feeling a little guilty at the sense of implied responsibility we all invited her to a slap up Chinese meal in Morioka, good food, good company. Another party in China is planned sometime in the next two years. |
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| 8th. June - Sean`s Kindergarten Outing - Koiwai Farm again - we saw the sheep dog trials, Sean fed a lamb a bottle of milk, stuffed himself with the sweets won in the paper scissors stone contest, didn`t touch the delicious picnic I got up at crack of dawn to make, rode in a horse drawn carriage, rode on a pony, made a new girlfriend, escorted new girlfriend through every bit of play equipment available, topped up with juice and icecream, and generally had a good time. (KT) |
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5th. June Any suggestions for a caption? |
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4th. June Just managed to catch the last day of Sakae Terui`s stone sculpture exhibition at Yorozu Tetsugoro Memorial Museum of Art. from right: Katsura Kikuchi, Hiroshi Hirasawa (2 of the people who make Yorozu such a wonderful museum, and were a major force in making IAF UK98 a success), the sculptor Sakae Terui, and the Katagiri clan (Kazue behind the camera). (KT) |
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