27th.Nov. Emily`s Birthday
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Then Emily and I set to making a dress for Barbie with the pattern and sewing kit Ann chan had given her.
(KT)
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8 candles on the cake makes quite a glare. Emily loved all her presents - many thanks to all the family. Then Emily and I set to making a dress for Barbie with the pattern and sewing kit Ann chan had given her. (KT) |
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Emily and Sean helping to make biscuits and cakes for tomorrow`s party. (KT) |
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Kamikado came up to Iwate-cho for a meeting about the landscape design of the Michi no Eki project which Richard Murphy is designing the new gallery for. He stayed the night with us which was very popular with Emily and Sean as he brought presents of plastic beeds which can be ironed together to make all sorts of things. He also had several bottles of wine for us, so we spent a happy evening after the children had gone to bed remembering the trip the 3 of us made around Europe the year Kata and I met 13 years ago. Then 3 was quite deffinately a crowd, this evening Kamikado and I (who are now good friends, he speaks some English and I can understand Japanese) and Kata had a really good laugh about some of the communication and gooseberry problems we had in Europe! (KT) |
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Today is a national holiday in Japan, the community centre in Kawaguchi village was showing the latest Digimon film (the computer age version of the Pokemon series). About 50 local children, one other mother and me sat on tatami mats in the freezing hall, but much better than going to the proper cinema as there were no trailers. Last year we took Emily and Sean to the cinema in Morioka - never again - the trailers on show before a children`s matinee should have been "X" rated and the children got very upset when I whisked them out of the auditorium until the children`s feature started. I tried to talk to the manager of the cinema about not showing such gorry and pronographic images to small children, but he just told me that he had no legal obligation to NOT show them, and I was the only person who had ever complained! Apparently nobody here thinks that it is important to have a cinema or video rating system. (KT) |
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Today`s project - a Blue Peter style double bass made from a cornflake packet, a kitchen paper tube, sticky back plastic and elastic bands. (KT) |
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Transplanting the 60 larch trees which had seeded themselves around the studio (where they were beginning to get in the way of working). The impressive line of the parent trees which used to be on the opposite side of our field were cut down by our neighbour a couple of years ago, so we were rather pleased that so many of the seedlings survived. (KT) |
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Emily and Sean celebrated a heavy snowfall. (KT) |
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After the official bit of Kata`s trip in Hokkaido was over he went to stay with my lovely friends Reiko and Laurent, and their new baby Ayaka. Friends here teased me that it is perhaps unwise to introduce my husband to the most beautiful woman I know in Japan. (KT) |
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Hokkaido - reseach trip to resort areas such as Niseko and Rusutsu. I have never been to Hokkaido before, I enjoyed the big scale of the nature there like Shikotsuko National Park and so on. The bronze bust figure is a memorial of the famous Japanese masseur, Tokyuji Namikoshi, who massaged Marilyn Monroe in Japan! (HK) |
| Elspeth Lamb came to stay in Ukishima for a few days break from working on wood block prints in the Nagasaw Art Project (see links). It was lovely to see Ellie again (we didn`t manage to meet up in Scotland last time), and Emily and Sean fell in love with her. On the 15th we did the sites (mostly sculptures) in Iwate-cho, and then stayed up all night talking. On 16th November Kata`s mother came up to look after Emily and Sean while Ellie and I made a tour of galleries in Morioka, we then met Mr Jack of the British Embassy at the hotel to go on to the BBC Pops orchestra concert together. Followed by a reception for the orchestra hosted by the Iwate Japan Britain Society, where we met up with Richard, Stewart, Wakamatsu, and Roppongi who had just returned from Richard`s lecture in Hachinohe School of Architecture. I was busy making sure that people were meeting eachother, (including Rosemary Chiba`s Kagola dance group who are going to be performing in Hyde Park in May as part of the opening celebrations for the Japan 2001 Festival meeting some of the musicians from London) when Dr. Suzuki announced on the microphone that I was to translate the speeches - I was not keen, especially as it is difficult to translate a speech you have not been listening to! Then on to a second drinking party with other members of the Iwate Japan Britain Society, Mr Jack, and Ellie. (Very uncharecteristically Wakamatsu, Roppongi and Richard went home to sleep , exhausted after their hard schedule this week.) But despite her cold Ellie lasted the course, and all the members of the Iwate Japan Britian Society were delighted to meet her having already seen some of her work in the Iwate Art Festival UK98. By the time I put Ellie on the train back to Nagasawa I think she was keen to get back to work for a rest, and a final dose of Japanese culture before going back to Scotland. (Kata had the digital camera in Hokkaido so no photographs to show you) (KT) |
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From Narnia to Wonderland - not quite the high culture trip Richard had anticipated!? But Richard was really working - researching the Ishigami no Oka sculpture park at the site he is desgning a gallery for. I think this is one of the more effective sculptures in our local park, a kind of Mad Hatter's last supper. (KT) |
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Richard Murphy arrived for meetings with Iwate Town Office about the project he is working on there collaborating with Wakamatsu and Roppongi Architects. Wakamatsu held a small party to welcome him back, and to introduce all his staff to Stewart from Richard's office - but Emily was convinced that Richard had only come over to deliver the 2kgs of Narnia chronicles from Ann chan, and then read them to her! Meanwhile Sean and his pet toy 'Puppy' were hiding behind the chair to save Puppy from being eaten by Richard! (KT) |
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Ice had formed inside several of my sculptures. After the children decided to bring it into the house we started experimenting with various kitchen chemicals. Salt had fairly predictable results, but baking powder, sugar, yeast, cream of tartar, pepper, and food colouring had some more surprising effects. All were then put in the freezer again to create some very wierd crystals. Our town planner friend Kukida turned up in the middle of all this and seemed amazed that I was as into our strange kitchen science session as the children. (KT) |
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Emily and Sean were much more excited than Kata and I at the early arrival of the first snow of the season. (KT) |
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Digging finally completed; on to the fun bit of planting the bulbs according to Emily's garden plan; name plates painted in Japanese and English; and then Emily insisted that Kata built a fence to keep Cinnamon out - I am sure this will not prevent our enterprising dog from exploring the area, but the overall effect looks quite sculptural. (KT) |
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Emily has decided that she wants to make a flower garden, but has very generously allowed Sean to be a joint partner, and Kata and I to be guest members (touch of the Tom Sawyers here). We have made several previous attempts at planting flowers in Ukishima, but every year Emily has picked them all, so nothing comes up again from seed the following year, so this time we have gone for bulbs. (KT) |
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Kata has bought yet more soft ware - Mac OS 10, and is so pleased with it - lots of flashy graphics. (KT) |
