Misa Kitty

This is the newest kitty to come around the neighborhood. She showed up at my door last Sunday. She was really scared of people when I first found her. I was afraid she would starve so after a few days I started giving her a little food. Well, you can guess what happened next.



Technically she's still homeless. This is the box she lives in. I just wanted to keep her alive but it seems that I've adopted my second stray cat.

Max at Isso Junior High

My little brother Max is on Yakushima visiting me for about a month. The first few days he was here I brought him to school with me so that he and the students could do a bit of a cultural exchange since they are more or less the same age. After Max gave a self introduction each student stood up and told Max about themselves and then asked one question.

During another period we made origami and played Japanese cat's cradle. The English teacher, Nakao Sensei, is on the far right.
Max had school lunch in the classroom with the students. The day before we had "make your own" sushi rolls but this day it was curry and naan. The students all adored Max and had a great time talking and playing with him. For the last few periods Max and the students all played hide and seek. Yesterday was the last day of school, summer vacation is finally here.

Brush work

Some practice paintings.

Tanegashima

A few weeks ago Brittany and I went to a nearby island, Tanegashima, for the weekend to see our friends. One of the coolest things we saw was Japan's main rocket launch center. They put satellites into orbit a few times a year. If I get a chance I really want to go see a launch.

Kitty's getting bigger. He's running amok and attacking everything in sight.

Monday Night Sketch

I haven't been drawing too much lately, aside from some random sketching on the back of my daily class schedules (the schedule scanned through). I helped the gardener at school paint some bulletin boards today and I think that got me in the mood to throw some color on these.

Rainy days

It's the rainy season so I'm getting lots of bugs around the house again. This is a kind of spider I hadn't seen before. I got a pretty good macro shot, you can click on zoom.
This bug had the size and appearance of a small lizard.

Yakushima Home for Infirm Cats

This is Shogun. It's hard to say if he likes being held like this.


Brittany heard some stray kittens mewing near her house so she decided to adopt one. It turned out that the kitten was only a couple weeks old and needed intensive care. Once we determined that it wasn't eating and that we couldn't care for it properly we brought it to the local vet who gave him food via tube.

After a few days at the vet clinic we got him back along with 2 special kitten foods, a nursing bottle, two different kinds of eye medication and kitty de-worming pills. (All medicine, food, care, and 3 nights stay cost only 70 dollars). He looked pretty sickly still when we got him back but he's doing a lot better now.

I'll take some new photos to show how much healthier he looks already. He's eating regularly and off his medication. The only thing missing is a name. Any ideas out there?

Good Times

Well, Cindy flew out Monday morning and arrived home safe... Monday morning. We had a really great time and managed to do a lot in a week and a half.

This is SunaMushi. A hot spring under this sandy ocean beach keeps the sand piping hot just under the surface. You lay in a shallow hole and are covered in sand. You're only supposed to stay under for 10 minutes, more than that and it gets too hot and painful for most people. Beside Cindy is her friend Keiko chan.

The Kamada family took us to lunch at a famous local restaurant. If you see Cindy ask her how it worked.

Melons. If you zoom and look closely you can see the prices. The least expensive being 5250 Yen, the most desirable being 16800 Yen. To figure out the dollar amount just move the decimal left two places.
There are normally prices melons in Japan but these are grown with perfectly homogeneous patterns and are given as gifts to show status.

The many faces of Yakushima

Cindy and I sat here for a long time watching the monkeys and deer.
Click to enlarge.


This is our local supermarket. It's called Wai Wai Land, wai wai being the Japanese for a child's yell of delight, similar to Yay yay. Happy Shopping!

Cindy and Kagoshima

Please ignore that stupid little rating bar, I can't get rid of it.

River Unknown

I walked up the nearby river today and, for the first time, brought my camera with me. I always come across quite a few strange things by the river. Today I hiked up to the bamboo beach, through the old gypsy camps in the forest, past the coelophysis grove and onto Kaizokujima, an island known, by me, to be a haven for monkey poachers.


The Bamboo Forest. If the crisscrossing paths show evidence of the Gypsy's home base, the camp size clearings are undeniable proof.


Directly opposite is the Coelophysis Grove. To say that there aren't dinosaurs in this cretaceous clearing would be ludicrous, but to turn your back on it would be fatal.


This is the view that the shikaru have of you while you're walking by on the beach. There are some swimming just below the surface on the far side of the river, you may be able to make out their shapes. Trust me, you don't want to get any closer than I was when I got this shot.



As I was returning home I came across this shredded bird carcass. I thought that maybe I hadn't noticed it earlier but then I observed the untrampled feathers over my footprints from earlier. Something had made short work of this bird. Whats more, small bird prints circled the area while no predator prints could be found anywhere. The monkeys? Coelophysis? shikaru? Another river mystery.

Bike safety

My spring vacation consisted of two weeks sitting behind my desk at the office. I'm so glad to be back in the classroom teaching again. Two new English teachers transfered to Yakushima this year, both are really nice, though one is so shy I haven't been able to get but a few words out of her.
A few days ago the police came to the Junior High school and showed us the equivalent of a red asphalt video but for bicycles. It was all done with dummies on bikes being rear-ended and side-swiped at 20 and then 40kph. I thought the advice they gave was pretty good.

She's Back!

My friend Luke told me he wanted to start a comic and sent me this idea (the words are his). There isn't actually a story but I thought it at least deserved an illustration.
I actually don't know anything about Jane Fonda (big surprise right)

The Goodbye Party

It's the end of the Japanese school and work year and many of the teachers and government workers are transferring to the mainland. My boss, Kamada Sensei, is one of the people transferring so I went to the ferry terminal to see him off. It turns out that there is a big get together every year for all the teachers leaving. Students and cooworkers made signs, sang songs and yelled bonzai.
At the end the passengers threw down rolls of paper tape that everyone held onto until they were torn in two.
Kamada Sensei was a great guy, I'm planning on visiting him next time I go to Kagoshima.

Planet WS415

Click for Full View please

I made this planet up today at work, using photoshop and some online references. It pretty much took me the whole day to figure it out. I used textures of the moon, mars, and Korea to get the land. It seems to be missing stars, but actually the reflection of a planet is bright enough to knock out the background starlight.

Day to day

This is a picture of the back of my house. It's pretty nice because the whole back wall is made up of sliding doors. It's perfect for light and fresh air when it's nice out.
Halfway hidden somewhere in the picture is Shogun. Can you find him?


My ridiculous cat, sleeping with his tongue out.

Iguana (Turtle) and girl

Something I whipped up after lunch. I just started with some eyes and this is what happened. Not exactly an iguana, but I'm thinking there's a relation.

A slow start

A kind of sketch I did on photoshop. I haven't been painting or drawing much lately, hopefully I'll get back into it soon. It's frustrating because I really want to improve but I have no structured way of studying art here on the island.
It's spring break which means I have no classes for the next two weeks. However, I do have to go into the local office of the Board of Education despite having absolutely nothing to do there.

Jovie

My good friend Jovie. This feels unfinished to me but I've been working on this for too long and I've got to call it quits sometime. It's an improvement over the last portrait I did of her and thats all I can ask for.
ジョビちゃんごめんね。でもね、必ず又描くからがまんしてくれ、僕が上手になるまで。

Head Shoulders Knees and Toes

These are first graders warming up for "head, shoulders, knees and toes." Every time they make a mistake they have to go down one level. Desk, chair, floor, knees and then they bow and they're out.


Playing a card pickup game. Please click for a larger view, notice there is a kid in the backpack shelves. I think he was feeling shy that day.


To get an idea about the range of age groups I teach, here are the oldest students, 9th graders. the Japanese school year ends at the end of March so I won't see these students anymore because I don't teach at the high school (10th - 12th grade). Kind of sad but I'm sure I'll see them around town.

School Garden

We did some light farming during 6th period at one of my Junior High schools. We were digging up ukon, which is a relative of ginger root and is used for upset stomachs and hangovers. There are maybe six of seven more people to left of this shot, but this is pretty much the whole school which consists of the seventh, eighth and ninth grade.

This is Shogun greeting me at the car door as he does everyday when I come home from work.

Rainy inside day

Today is super windy and stormy and wonderful. It's warmed up quite a bit this week and I hope it stays that way. These pictures are from the school I taught at today. The first is our lunch, shrimp fry, bread roll, Chinese soup and whole milk.

These are second grade students. Quite a few of my classes are small like this but I also have quite a few with 20 or more students. We played a game where I hid a picture of a bomb under one of a bunch of cards that were stuck to the board. The students have to say what's on the card (in this case fruit) and hope they don't hit the bomb.

You-san

A portrait I did for my friend You-san. She's living in Taiwan, I'm planning on taking a trip there as soon as I get some extra money saved.

Moko chan

Here ya go Moko. This is a good friend of mine in SF who asked if I'd paint her. 似ているかな。六ヶ月前のと全然違うけど、いつか本当に上手に描くよ。　じゃんじゃん　次

Walking Day

Last weekend we had Walking/ Jogging day, an annual event in Nagata where lots of locals from around the island get together, walk or jog between 4 and 5 kilometers then come back to the school campus to eat Udon noodles. It was a lot of fun despite the cold wind and rain. One farmer let us pick his oranges while we were passing his orchard.

While we were eating my friend asked me how to say okura in English. I told her okra, it was an English word. She said "oh, do you eat it often in America?"
"Well, I think mostly in middle America, like Oklahoma."
"Okrahoma?"
I was cracking up but had a hell of a time trying to explain why that was so funny to me.

Miyaurabashi+

A girl
This took between 2 and 3 hours. It's of the old bridge here in Miyanoura. The photo is on my blog somewhere. I didn't go into details, I felt I captured the basic feel and learned a few things so I'm calling it a night.