| 31st October - HALLOWEEN! |
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| Sean and Emily making Halloween biscuits. |
Edible halloween masks. |
Candlelit supper, the Halloween lantern on Emily`s head. |
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| The children always want to go trick or treating, but as this is not a tradition here I have to persuade them not to give all our neighbours heart attacks. Sean dressed all in black put the Halloween lantern on his head and lay in wait for Daddy coming home instead - got very cross when Kata laughed instead of jumping out of his skin. (KT) |
| 30th October |
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| Busy working on new marble light sculptures for my exhibitin in December - and looking up to see the gorgeous autumn colours all around me. (KT) |
Iwate san behind the studio. |
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| 27th October |
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We were so relaxed being spoilt by Mrs Momose treated to a delicious brunch the morning after the night before while Ui played with Emily and Sean, that Kata forgot to tell me Mori and his family were coming to Ukishima.
Raced back home when Mori phoned from our house, and whistled up a barbecue to make it up to them. (KT) |
| Sardines are still in season. |
Mori san and Kata cooking up a storm. |
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| 26th October |
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Spent the day making stone mortars for the working model of a mill as a tit for tat favour for our friend who helped so much with the preparation for our 10th Anniversary party 2 weeks ago.
Just finished in time to change in 2 minutes, rush off to pick up the children and drive to Morioka for the Iwate Japan British Society meeting to plan their 20th anniversay. |
| racing to finish |
Drinking with Lord Nambu - who very kindly sponsored the evening, Dr. Susuki, Momose, Roppongi, Kumagai, Kudo, Yamamoto, and Kukida after the meeting. |
Meanwhile Sean and Emily were having a lovely time with Momose`s family. |
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| 26th October |
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Action Man helping Sean clean the goldfish tank. (KT) |
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| 25th October - Ukishima Architects |
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Kata has been sketching ideas for a drawings studio/guest room extension of the house. Although we can not fund this yet we are still haing fun dreaming.
Emily and Sean got really into helping, adding minute details of their toys, etc. fascinated by seeing their own house in the tiny scale of Kata`s plans. (KT) |
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| 24th october - Kata`s Birthday |
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| Not quite 43 candles |
Initial suspicion of carrot cake |
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| Complaints that it was not chocolate cake were however soon forgotten |
Cinamon trying to scrounge some |
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| 21st October - IMONIKAI-potato stew cooking on the riverside |
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| The huge chocolate cake I made to celebrate Kata and Wakamatsu`s birthdays was going so fast Sean took his share to the safety of high ground. |
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| The Chinese sake we took went down well with Roppongi`s fishing friends who had spent the morning cleaning the river of rubbish from dumped bicycles to tissues |
Great excitement when the children discovered a female salmon tied to a trap to attract the males. |
Roppongi let one go then lost his nerve about upsetting fellow fishermen. |
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| 20th October - Berry picking |
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Emily`s still got a cold. But today was such a beautiful day, so Kate and Emily went into the garden to pick up some Gumi berries.(HK)
The most gorgeous autumn afternoon, then an evening spent making Gumi juice and gumi jam. (KT) |
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| 17th October - Autumn Colour |
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I went to a site meeting for the next project. On the way to the site on the hill, I drove through the beautifully coloured woods. Red and yellow. Autumn in Iwate.Å Winter here is off course very cold but just beautiful, breath taking, sometimes!(HK) |
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| 17th October - |
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In Japan, we have to renew the driving license. I went to the Driving License Centre near us today. I had to attend a 2 hour lecture until the new license was ready. The lecturer was showing us examples of all sorts of accidents - and telling us
" Be carefull!". But I think, nowadays we should be able to produce a car with equipment built in, such as 'near miss sensor' or 'emergency automatic break system' or whatever! (HK)
I do not have to go to lectures as I have a clean license! (KT) |
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| 14th October - Sean's class perform at the sports ground/the day after the night before/puppet show |
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| 13th OctoberÅiSat.) Ukishima 10th Anniversary Party |
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| 7th October (Sun.ÅjKoiwai Farm "Wool In Wool" Exhibition Opening |
| 3 years ago Koiwai came up trumps by being the ideal host for the Land Art residency & exhibition as part of the Iwate Art Festival UK98 which we organised. Not only did they catch the ball we threw at them then, they have run with it -
"Wool in Wool" started last year with art works made using one of the basic materials produced on the Koiwai estate. They have continued to develop their commitment to the arts and education (NB*over 100 years ago philanthropy was one of the founding principals of the Koiwai estate). This year's exhibition shows work by art students from Iwate & all over Japan, giving young artists a unique chance to show their work to the thousands of visitors to the Koiwai Farm theme park area within the estate, a much wider audience than would normally attend a gallery. (KT)
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| Emily and Sean always enjoy visits to Koiwai, & even put up with speeches interrupting play. |
The standard and range of work is even higher this year. If you are in Iwate this exhibition is well worth a look, on til 28th October. |
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| 6th OctoberÅiSat.ÅjThe Opening of the new Iwate Prefectural Museum of Art |
| Having dropped the children off at Momose's house to play with Momoko san and Ui san, Momose san, Kata and I set off for a morning of speeches followed by a preview of the new building, and the permanent collection of works by northern Japanese artists, before being ushered out of the building to make way for the public opening at 1pm.
On the way out we met Yasui san, one of the curatorial staff asking me for my CV, etc. for the flyer advertising the artists' workshop I am doing at the Museum in December, and we ended up being treated to a special tour of the storage facitlities for the collection - oxygen cutting gas instead of sprinklers against fire - never mind the staff look after the art works!
We then decided to check out the restaurant with Abe san (curator of Iwate Museum) before slipping back into the temporary exhibition hall to see the special exhibition of "The Merzbacher Collection" which we had not previously realised was hiding behind the reception desk.
After a six hour marathon we rescued Momose's family from Emily and Sean. (KT)
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| The main stair from the Entrance Hall to the Permanent Collection Hall. |
Abe san, Momose, and Kata testing the chairs next to the Entrance Hall. |
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| 5th OctoberÅiFri.) Ukishima 10th Anniversary Party Invitations |
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Sean helping stick the stamps on the final batch of Ukishima 10th anniversary party invitations. (KT) |
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| 4th OctoberÅiThurs.ÅjUkishima Sunrise |
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Having got the children to bed last night I was looking forward to finishing the champagne with Kata to discover that he had already done so and was fast asleep on the rug. But atleast, having got to sleep so early, he woke up in time to see a breathtaking sunrise (KT) |
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| 3rd OctoberÅiWed.ÅjMy Birthday |
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Braved the suddenly clear sharp evening air to watch the wonderful harvest moon rise with a glass of bubbly before the children helped me blow out my candles: They would never forgive me if I didn't make a cake for every birthday, and are unfortunately getting old and wise enough themselves to notice that there were not nearly enough candles. (KT) |
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