A small break from the internet...

So things are really looking up now here in Japan. Luckily we got a new teacher here who is my age and is actually really cool. He's from Southern California and used to play in rock and blues bands with hair down past his shoulders. He's really awesome at guitar and the other day we went to this guitar shop on the side of the tracks and played really nice vintage electric guitars on huge tube amps in a professional studio. We thought that after a few minutes of messing around the owner would tell us to leave, but we played for an hour and a half and rocked out. I'm going to get a guitar and we're going to start playing some funky soul music down in Okayama Station. Right now there are a bunch of kids that sit and play, but they all play really boring, poppy, Dashboard-esque music so we feel like we need to liven things up a little. I've also ventured out into the few foreigner bars here and have met some really cool people. Basically, it feels like I'm finally building a little foundation.

I've also become extremely motivated to make animation. I worked pretty hard on this months 11 second club animation and I'm already pumped to get started on the next one. I think right now this is the best exposure I can find, so I figure why not? Please critique me on this, as I don't have too many people I can ask for opinions, so anything you can tell me would be greatly appreciated.


11 Second Club November Comp from Paul Fuller on Vimeo.


I've asked for another day off to just relax and work and to add on to my possible vacation time. It's less money, but right now I want to experience Japan and enjoy myself, not always be worrying about work. Anyway, I apologize for not updating, but its not always easy to find time to come and write about everything that's going on. I have a lot of great pictures from my trip to Onomichi and Setoda two weeks ago, so I'll update again soon with more.

A Day in Tomonoura...

This week I went to my favorite place so far, Tomonoura, a port town a little ways out of Fukuyama. The weather was finally sunny on my days off, and it made the whole visit that much more enjoyable. I didn't really know where to go once I got there, so like usual I just started walking and getting myself lost. It's really handy to have a guidebook telling you certain locations, because to ask where something is is so easy. I met a few artists drawing in the harbor, and this one woman from Kyoto who could speak a little English that I kept seeing the whole day. Somehow I ended up at the top of a hill at an old temple overlooking the city and the harbor. There was nobody in sight, and being in a few hundred year old building with the sun shining felt absolutely wonderful. I meandered through the streets and came across a few more temples, and even though I didn't really go anywhere, just walking around in the city felt great. The streets were narrow and there were lots of little alleyways to explore, complete with little fishes hanging out to dry. When I started to get hungry I decided to treat myself to tempura at a restaurant mentioned in my guidebook. The place was in a huge wooden building and inside a woman was giving a massage to a man who kept moaning. The sounds were a little strange, but the food was delicious. I had fresh red snapper tempura along with a few other things that I'm not sure what they were, but all were definitely tasty. To finish my day, I headed to the harbor and sat outside at a cafe while the sun disappeared behind the hills. I was drawing a boat in the harbor and the guy working at the cafe started talking to me about art and such. When I decided it was time to go, the barista asked if he could take my picture because he thought I had good eyes. I guess I can't escape the gay come ons even in a foreign country.

From Tomonomoura

From Tomonomoura

From Tomonomoura

From The Beez Neez

Takahashi and a few sketches

This week went by really fast, and since I found it was going to be pretty crappy out on my two days off, I decided to stick around Okayama and do some shopping and start animating again. On Thursday I went out into the mountains to the little city of Takahashi. I could tell that there weren't many tourists that came through there because there were several people who stopped me in the street just to shake my hand and say hello. When I got off the phone after trying to call my sister, a really old woman, probably in her 80's who's back was hunched over really far took off her hat, looked me in the eyes, and shook my hand. It was really awesome, and even though I'm not sure why she did it, I'm really happy she did. Even the schoolgirls and stuff would say hello and then pass me with a lot of giggling.

So this town was pretty small, but there a few temples that were really old. There was a castle too, but since the weather was bad, and it was an hour long hike up to the castle, I stayed more in the city. Once again I just have fun walking through these cities and taking in the sights, sounds, and smells. I did head up towards a more run-down part of town up in the mountains. The air was really fresh, and a lot of people were out farming in the fields. Some were farming, others were hanging out clementines to dry from their porch, and one guy was patrolling the area on his motorized wheelchair. I walked pretty far up the mountain, only to look down and see this man's headlights heading my way. He just passed by, but I thought maybe he was protecting something so I headed back down. I did a lot of drawing on my days off though, and forced myself to start animating again. For some reason this Desmond Decker song came on and it talked about having to try if you want to succeed at life ( pretty cheesy but its a good song ) so I figured if I want to become a character animator, I better practice and get to the point where I can compete with other animators. This made it hard for me to return to work today because I feel really motivated to pursue an artistic career. Work is going good, and I really enjoy talking to all these different people, but what I know I want to do is animate now. I might request to have one more day every week so I can work more on my own projects and have more time to travel. One of the other teachers did it, so I'm thinking that if I can, I might as well try.

From The Beez Neez

From The Beez Neez

From Takahashi

From Takahashi

NEW SCANNER!!!!

After asking a lot of questions that still didn't get answered I finally bought a scanner from Bic Camera. It's actually pretty nice, but I had to install things that were in all Japanese so hopefully my computer doesn't crash in the next week or so. I've scanned some of the sketches from my last sketchbook, and also some from my sketchbook now. I've decided I need to work on color relations, so I'm going to go with a flat shading style for a while to build up my palette. Soooo, since I'm kind of colorblind and just terrible with colors, any feedback would be great. Here's a small taste, but check out the link to see all the scans. Oh, and I'm going to Kyoto or Nara tomorrow so in a few days I'll post some of those photos up too.

From The Beez Neez

From The Beez Neez

From The Beez Neez

From The Beez Neez

From The Beez Neez

From Big and Paul

Hiroshima and Miyajima...

Things continue to go well here in Japan, and this week I made a trip out to Hiroshima and the sacred island Miyajima. Once I start getting paid, I think I'll definitely start taking the Shinkansen ( bullet train ) because I've realized how hard it is to explore a city in just one or two days. I took the local train to Hiroshima, and even though it only took three hours, I could have gotten there in around an hour on the bullet train. Sadly, I didn't get to see as much of Hiroshima as I would have liked, and didn't realize how big of a city it was until I started trying to find my way around. I did get to eat the local delicacy called okonomiyaki, which is kind of a pancake mixed with a bunch of vegetables, meat, and seafood and I got to see the A-Bomb dome, the only building left standing after the bomb dropped, but I didn't get to see the Peace Park or check out the art museum which has some famous paintings in it. I spent the night in a youth hostel that was run by a really friendly old man who spoke just a little English, and I met two girls from Nagoya who I tried to talk to as best I could. It was a lot of fun, and even though earlier in the day I didn't get to do everything I wanted, I went to bed feeling pretty good about where I was.

While Hiroshima was left unexplored, I went almost everywhere I could in Miyajima. The temples and shrines were absolutely beautiful and just being on the island was peaceful. Apparently no one has been buried there, and you can almost feel the lightness of the place when you walk around. Monks were chanting and banging on drums, and watching them in a temple that was 500 years old was pretty amazing. I had to sit on the ground though, and when I tried to get up I just fell over because my feet had fallen asleep minutes ago. After walking around the main part of town I decided to trek up Mt. Misen, the tallest mountain on the island full of tiny little deer and monkeys. I saw a lot of deer, and even though I made monkey sounds to try and attract any of them, none came out into the open. It felt good to be out in nature like that again, and despite the huge crowds of tourists near the harbor, I only saw one or two people my entire hike. The top offered some great views, and to get down, I rode the skyline that sits a few hundred feet above the valley floor. It was really awesome, and even though it was cloudy the whole time, the fog around the mountains made things more holy and mysterious to me. I definitely want to go back there in the Spring when the small maple leaves turn red again.

So for next week I think I'm going to head out to Kyoto before winter comes and hopefully get there on a sunny day. I've been meaning to post more on some of the other blogs, and I apologize for not doing a very good job with it, but work is really busy and its not always easy to make it to the internet cafe. Anyway, I hope everyone is well, and I will try and update again sometime soon.

Oh, and I figure my first step in becoming more Asian is to act like them in photos. Hence...

From Hiroshima / Miyajima

From Hiroshima / Miyajima

From Hiroshima / Miyajima