The Hike to Jyoumon Sugi

The sun rose after hiking for awhile in the semi-dark.

The day after Thanksgiving I went with Brittany and her friends on a hike to Jyoumon Sugi, the oldest and largest ceder on Yakushima. It's an eight hour hike plus travel time to get to the trail head so we had to get up at four.
A lot of the path is pretty easy. We started by following this old track into the mountains for about two hours.
After the tracks we climbed up into the woods. The paths are all well maintained and there is nothing too treacherous.
This is Jyoumon Sugi, though looking at a photo doesnt do it justice. I may try to post more later and get a little more detailed, I just don't have the energy right now.

House

I've been meaning to put up some pictures of my house for awhile now. I'll try to get more up in the future, its a pretty good sized house especially for just one person.

There's that cat again, hiding in the sun. This is one big room that can be divided into two with sliding doors. My bed is in the lower left corner and the desk and table is where I spend most of my time.

My house from the front. It's deeper than it is across the front.

Mid November

I haven't done anything very exciting over the last few weeks. Nor have I taken any good pictures or painted anything worth showing. I went to Kagoshima city again for a long weekend of teacher training and shopping. I ended buying lots of great stuff, like a squirrel gathering nuts for a long winter. Books, comics, paint, canvases, electonics, games, should keep me busy.

Next weekend Brittany and I are planning on having a Thanksgiving get together with our teachers and friends. We're gonna do our best to make a big dinner (neither of us cook well) and we'll see what happens. There are no turkeys in Japan and even if they're were there wouldn't be any on Yakushima. We're gonna have to get creative.

Happy Halloween

No one in Japan celebrates Halloween but everyone knows about it. I painted the above picture to illustrate the different costumes and overall scary theme of Halloween for my students.

I hope everyone has a fun Halloween.

Precious Things

This is a picture I took with my phone of a mostly dry river I was hiking up yesterday. The weather is getting cooler and its great for hiking.

Last week I went to Kuchierabu (Island of the Bats) again. The ocean was so rough on the way home I had to lay on my back holding my stomach. My whole body was floating as the ferry lifted off one wave and dropped down onto the next. It didn't help that I had to stay near the bow and below deck, the worst combination in rough water.

I met a really nice family last night and learned that the father makes knives. He said that he would show me how but that it takes months from start to finish. How cool is that.

Anbo

Just a few pictures I've taken over the last few days. Below is Anbo, the second largest port on the island. You can rent boats here and have dinner parties in the middle of the river.



Brittany is obviously much cuter than me but also oh so much more popular. She's already had her mother, step-father, father, step-mother, and boyfriend come to visit her. Next week she's got another good friend coming to visit and then who knows, maybe her dogs will come. Time to buy some plane tickets whoever you are.Or maybe its because I keep posting pictures like this. It's harmless, honest, except when you're washing your hands and notice it sitting a few inches below you in the sink and almost have a heart attack. Tenacious island bugs.

I was eating cereal a few days ago and noticed a small ant on the rim of the bowl. When I began looking for more I noticed small black spots floating all around in my milk. They had infested the cereal box without me noticing and I had eaten half a bowl of frosted ant flakes. Mmm yes wonderful.

Moon girl

I realize I haven't posted any decent photos for awhile now. Tomorrow I'm planning on a hike with a new friend of mine. Maybe I'll get some good shots if it doesn't rain too much. Brit's (the other ALT) parents are here so we've all been hanging out together recently, hiking and eating out. I even made them all dinner one night.

I'm taking a break from digital and decided to only paint "traditional" paintings for awhile. At left is my first shot, a bookmark for the friend I'm meeting tomorrow.

Same same but different

I've been getting some pretty strange school lunches recently. I eat with the students in the classroom and I'm always a little nervous about the menu. A few days ago we got a salad of pickled vegetable and these creepy little fish. Yesterday we got rice and seaweed mix, slimy mushroom soup and chicken liver. mmm. It's often quite good but some days I get the one two punch. A crazy mess that was fun to draw

Seasons

It's finally starting to cool off around here. I was able to take this picture of the coolness on my way home from work today. I got some water and rocks and stuff in the background but you can clearly see the nice weather in the foreground. We should have a solid month or two before it starts to get really cold (it snows at the higher elevations). That should be fun too though... snowmen in Japan woot woot.

A really rough painting. This is just too hard so I'm giving up, hopefully I learned something from it... perhaps subconsciously. Moving on...

Falling Water

I worked on this over the last few days. It was good practice doing all the different elements, water, buildings, sky and rocks... though the rocks are the hardest part, I'll have to work on those.

Somehow this song has really caught on in Japan. I even heard it over the loudspeakers at the supermarket.
http://www.tv-links.co.uk
is a great link with a collection of streaming tv, movies and anime.

Kuchierabu

Kuchierabu is a pretty strange island. It's one third the size of Yakushima but has a population of only 150 people. None of the teachers are from the island, they are all sent there for three year (teach on an island) stints. What's bizarre is that half the students are sent there for an island study abroad. I'm not sure which they started sending first, teachers or students, but its too late to pull out now.

Once I got out of town I began to understand why people come to the island. I stayed in the inn, which sits on a hill overlooking the ocean. The family that owns the inn has 5 small kids, lots of stray cats and kittens and a dog. Kids running around playing with the bugs and plants kinda reminded me of Totoro or Little House on the Prairie.

I'm looking forward to going back next month. Maybe I can catch one these adorable local bats and bring it home. Wingspan: a few inches short of 3 feet.

And back to Yakushima

Tuesday

I don't often draw landscapes... or buildings... or anything but people so I'm pretty bad at all those things. This is kind of a rough color I did from a photo. Not very good, but I'm gonna try to do one every day or two so I can improve.

Tomorrow I get to take a boat to work. I'm going to Kuchierabu, a small(er) island about two hours north of here. I'll teach tomorrow at the junior high, stay over one night and then teach at the elementary school the next day before coming home at night. It'll be a long couple days but should be fun.

The Office

This is the office at Issou Junior High. It's one of the four schools I go to most often. This is my desk and the particularly ridiculous paper that I'm supposed to correct. It was so funny and impossible that I had to copy out a paragraph. There were 18 pages of this.

"The mackeral that can catch in the sea off Yakushima Island by the one that the mackeral that was called MA mackeral smokes, does Cawa, and was made is said, "Yaku Saba", and has been found useful, saying that "Mackeral paragraph" from of old."

There was also a particularly funny page where child had been translated as "dwarf".

Was it the Cloooooowns?"

I'm kinda stuck, but this is as far as I've gotten...

http://www.drawergeeks.com/ has a new theme every couple weeks. I decided that I would try to keep up with them and maybe even join them someday. Last week was "clowns" so I'm working on this. I'm gonna color it but I wanted to post something today.

School is going great though its been so hot and muggy that its hard to have much energy during the day. I'm wet with sweat all the time at school (there is no AC at all). My school days are pretty free so I have time to read and draw between classes which is nice. Next weekend is another three day weekend so I really hope it stops raining... but stays cool (someone should really put me in charge of weather, the current bloke is doing a pretty shoddy job).

Taking Care

I got another good shot of one of the monsters lurking around my house.

I haven't posted for awhile but I've got lots of good excuses. First, I'm actually working now, second, Bioshock (ゲーム）, third I haven't taken any pictures at my schools yet, but I will. Today I went to the high school to help a girl with her English and had a really good time. I don't actually teach at the high school but I hope that I'm invited back often, its a great place to make friends.

The first few days

I've visited 3 different schools this week and tomorrow I'm going to the last major one. Today was a lot of fun, instead of there being only a few students in a class there were 20 or 30. The junior high school girls were pretty funny. They had me eat lunch with them, I was surrounded by about 9 girls all chatty and giggling asking me questions. It was pretty ridiculous actually. The guys are a lot of fun too but are a bit more shy.

I brought pictures of my family and friends, so now all of the students in my classes know Jovie, Emmanuel and Motoko.

Kogame

My first day of school turned out to be a lot of fun. The atmosphere was comfortable and the teachers are all easy going. Also, all the classes I've taught so far have been very small, between four and seven students. Today I'm going to a different school with all new teachers and I hope the experience will be much the same as yesterday.
The school is right next to a popular beach where sea turtles come and lay their eggs. There is a building next to the school where they keep some baby turtles for the students. They really are as cute as kittens.

Currents

It's been a slow week. I went to work from 8 30 to 4 30 every day even though I had nothing to do at the office. Everyone knew that, of coarse, so I just drew comics and studied Japanese. I've got one more day of "office work" and then I start visiting the schools. I'm a little nervous because its all new to me. I'm expected to do a self introduction with props for the first 20 minutes of class but all I've got so far is a map of the States and pictures of my family.
A character couple. I was thinking about costume design when I drew this. The outfit on the left is being scrapped in its entirety.

Rat-parrot

A rare shot of the elusive Rat-parrot. For my wonderful Uncle Steve.
(There is a story behind this for those wondering)

THE hike

Starting out

The day before I left for Kagoshima city Kamada sensei invited me to go hiking with him and two others (his young daughter and a mountain pro). I was a little nervous to accept because the destination was Miyanoura dake, the highest peak on Yakushima (and also all of Kyushuu). I'm not in good shape for all day hikes but who could say no to the offer.

Keiko Chan, amazingly tough little girl

We head out at 4 30am and reach the trail head at exactly six. We hiked for an hour, ate breakfast, and hiked for another few hours until we got high enough to get out of the dense forest. We rarely took breaks, saw few deer and no monkeys... and just kept going up and up.

The inner peaks hide behind gorgeous hills of granite

The sights were amazing and after about 5 hours we came to the path that leads to Miyanoura peak. But instead of simply tackling this one mountain, our group heads for a peak in the other direction. I have to say that this first peak was more fun to climb than Miyanoura but I was so tired after the first one I honestly felt ill trying to make it up the second.

A buck watches us pass

The first peak we climbed had hardly any kind of path at all. It was just pushing through thick vegetation that was anywhere between two and six feet high. Keiko chan got pushed through it more than once because the bushes were almost always taller than she was and she didn't weigh enough to push through them. On top of that we had to step very carefully because the mountain below us was full of crags and pits we couldn't see.

The first peak, we bouldered to the very top

We ate lunch at the top and headed down, back to the fork in the road. It had taken us seven hours to get to this point and we were just starting up the final path.

Just a few more peaks beyond this one

It wasn't easy, and I wasn't sure if I was going to make it, but eventually we got there. I don't remember if it was beautiful, I just remember being hot. And I remember thinking to myself, how the hell am I gonna make it back.

頂上。 That's right, the summit

We made it back to the car in about four grueling hours. I had been comfortable almost the whole way up, but the trek back was more like a death march. We just kept going, five minute breaks once an hour. There are about 50 Japanese sayings for "Just keep going" and I think I heard them all. Little Keiko chan was doing about as well as I was, but she hardly complained at all, I was really impressed. She's super tough.

And that was the Hike. I don't at all regret going, I just wish I had been in better shape. (I do regret our fish breakfast and lunch, however). I don't doubt that I'll be back to the top again.

Situation Under Control

This is a notice to inform everyone that there are no longer giant insects lurking behind every dark corner. Matsuda san and I smoked 'em out and then encircled the entire house with poisonous white powder, no joke. I personally looked behind every dark corner and I can assure you that they have left the premises. So please, everyone, it is safe to pack your bags and come visit me.

Thanks, The Administrator

Adora Lanphere

I thought this angle would give me a good challenge but it ended up a little wonky even after all the work I put into the sketch. It was good practice anyway, kinda makes me think of Lyra Silvertongue.

*Jovie, I found the Golden Compass in Japanese at the library here, woot woot.

Paris

This is a character I'm working on for a story. It's a rough painting, done directly into Photoshop. I'll try to scan something else later. I've got tons of sketch pages of but not many are post worthy.



I want to Thank everyone for checking out my blog and leaving all the nice comments and emails. It makes me want to write even more. I recently changed the settings so that anyone can comment without having to sign in. (because I love comments). Note that I'll respond to comment questions on the comment pages.

The Battle

(Warning: Disgusting and Overly Dramatic *with pictures)

The giant centipede comes first, sliding it's way across the floor, tiny legs creeping forward in unison. It's speed is remarkable. It runs past my bare foot, up the wall onto the door and pauses in the shadow, it's arching antennas search the air. Something has to be done. I consider relocating it into the backyard but I'm certain it'll be back. It has to die. I throw a book at but it won't die, it keeps scuttling along trying to escape while oozing something yellow-green. Eventually I bring it to the ground, it's body nearly severed, twisting and writhing. The battle is over, one fewer giant centipede. Somehow I don't feel any better.
... And then I go into my kitchen to clean up and I see this.
This disgusting giant spider in full daylight, I had to get my camera. After a couple photos it spider sensed me and took off running... fast. Faster than that damned centipede. "Oh well" I thought "at least it's outside".

Two hours pass... darkness falls.

I step into the kitchen and hit the light, something flies across the floor, up the stove and hides behind the burners. I attack with my newspaper weapon but he's too quick and escapes. The previously innocuous items on my kitchen table become projectile weapons and giant spider is knocked upside down. I approach to check if he's dead but of coarse he's not and in typical villain fashion he makes another run for it. After I finally destroyed him I took a closer look an realized that this was no ordinary spider. It was in fact a a face-grabber from the Alien movies as can be clearly discerned in the picture below.

Life on the Isle

Before leaving for Kagoshima city Brittany and I drove around the island, stopping now and then to inspect the wildlife. Photo credit goes to Brittany, who took most of these from the passenger side of the car. The western side of the island is cluttered with monkeys, though they can be seen anywhere. I haven't been attacked by one yet, but I've still got lots of time so I'm not giving up hope.
The cutest little baby deer you ever did see.

I couldn't establish eye contact. But I will, just you wait monkey!