Big and Paul

Progressively shorter...

2009-05-18T20:00:00.000-07:00

Even though I haven't traveled anywhere in the last few weeks, I've still been pretty busy around Okayama. Our friend Tom got back from his pilgrimage on Shikoku and only had two days left in Okayama before he went to a few other cities and then back to England, so I had some good times kicking it with him and a few other people. One day we went on the Kibi bike trail, a great little path through the countryside with temples, shrines, and a 5 story pagoda where we picnicked with real bread, 3 cheeses, olives, apples, strawberries, chocolate, wine, and champagne. It was pretty fantastic sitting in the shade of the pagoda, but it was made even better by the huge fields of purple seasonal flowers in bloom. On his final day in town, we had drinks and jumped off the bridge by the castle into the river, a proper farewell in my book.

Other than that I've just been doing a lot of drawing, reading, studying Spanish, and planning for the whole European adventure coming up in a month and a half. Hopefully I can get a hold of my friend in Vienna, because I want to hang out there for a few days, then go to Prague for another couple days or a week, then to Frankfurt for a day or two, and then to Madrid where I can catch a train to Leon. I'm trying to save money for this whole deal, and I can't believe how difficult it is. My spending habits have become something I couldn't even conceive of a few years ago. I can do it though, even though I still have one big trip left here in Japan. I'm going to go to Takayama, a small and really old city in the North and then to Fuji and Tokyo. I'm quitting in a month and a half, but I still get a 2 week paid vacation in June. I count the days.

Here are some drawings I've been doing, I haven't posted any on this blog for a while. Cheers.

Hrmmm...

2009-04-23T22:05:00.000-07:00

Well even though I've had an amazing month traveling, I haven't been updating at all except for status updates on facebook. Sad eh? However, this last day trip me and Joe took is definitely worth writing about. And what makes this trip better than hanami in Kyoto? Monkeys!

On the way up to the park, monkeys were sprawled out in the road, and it was surprising to see the driver not slow down one bit or even move to the other side of the road. I definitely thought we'd witness some kind of horrible thing, but the monkeys just casually got up and slowly walked to the side of the road, following the car with their heads before returning to their positions. Once we got in the park, we were greeted by a little monkey and Joe put his hand down to say hello. Rather than being a gentleman and taking Joe's hand, the thing stole his ticket, ran away, and started eating it. I was ecstatic.

The next stop was at a feeding cage thing where we saw the monkeys going crazy for food. There was a man and his son inside a mesh cage, feeding screaming monkeys ripping each other off the fence to get their share. There were about 20 monkeys here and it was pretty impressive to see them all running around, screaming, and cleaning each other. There were two old men working here, and they kept the monkeys at bay with bamboo prodders and brooms. To get the monkeys' attention, they made a strange loud cooing sound, which we soon found to have much for power than we originally thought.

There were a few caged monkeys, including a baboon, and about 30 peacocks, but the best part of this whole adventure came at the end. We took our turn feeding a large group of monkeys further up the park, and were on our way down when we heard the same cooing sound from before. The old men were yelling as loud as they could this time, and we soon started seeing monkeys come out of the forest. At first just a few heads popped up over the brush, then more and more started to appear from the trees and by land. They just kept coming, and soon there were at least a couple hundred monkeys around us. I wish I had taken pictures of this chaos, but I really had no clue what was going on and was frozen in place.

There came a final coo sound, and all the monkeys started running across the street we were on towards one of the buildings. The first few that got there were led down to another area, and once all the monkeys were out of the forest, we followed the migration to check out what was going on. It was feeding time, and while the monkeys went crazy when we fed them, watching hundreds of monkeys fight in a big cluster for food was absolutely insane. Mothers carrying children were getting chased away or thrown, small babies bitten by bigger monkeys, and there was even a multi-colored mangy looking punk monkey that nobody messed with. To describe this in words, or even pictures, is pretty difficult. It was one of the most amazing, craziest, things I've ever seen, and even though the taxi to get to the park was expensive, it was well worth it.

After the feeding, I thought I'd try and communicate with the monkeys on a simple level. At first I tried offering one a sip from the cap of my water bottle, showing him that it was ok by taking a capful myself. When I put the cap out for him to take, he looked at me for a while and then made a strange grimacing smile type thing that was frightening. I tried a few more times with other monkeys, trying to give them rocks that they were collecting among other things, but nobody took to me. Maybe next time.

We also went to the beach and ate a lot of free samples of bread with olive oil made from olives grown on the island, so overall, the trip was pretty great even though we had a few mishaps with buses. I've got some drawings to post too, but they'll have to wait till next month when I get more space on Flickr. Maybe I'll finally get some of them Kyoto pictures up to, we'll see what the month brings.

Waterfalls and motorized battles

2009-03-25T05:54:00.000-07:00

Another objective has been met: eating Kobe beef in Kobe. And holy crap, was it good. It's kinda funny that everybody here says Kobe beef is too fatty and that its not good, but while the meat is marbled with fat, its that good kind that adds a lot of flavor and just melts in your mouth. Our 10 oz. steak was on top of a heaping mound of garlic and topped with herb butter and onions. The final step before serving was lighting the whole thing on fire and waving the plate around on a little wooden board to put out the flames. Unbelievable.

As for the city, Kobe itself has a great feeling to it. When I got there by myself, I hiked up a small mountain lined with waterfalls to the Nunobiki Herb Garden that had great views over Kobe and the harbor. I hadn't eaten anything all day, and it was a pleasant surprise to find black pepper cheese, rosemary olive oil crackers, and assorted dried fruits in the gift shop. The perfect little assortment for watching the sun go down.

Once Joe got to Kobe we set off to eat, in search of Kobe beef but ending up finding a place just as good. We got another beef, Kagodashi, that we got to cook on a small stone heated by a little torch. This stuff was amazing, and they gave us salt and pepper, soy and wasabi, and ponzu with green onions to season each piece exactly how we wanted it. This place also had some great sashimi from a fish I've never eaten before, bonito. After our first plate of sashimi, I wanted another one but after seeing that we definitely payed for a high quality fish, we had to restrain ourselves and settle for a few more beers instead.

After that we were feeling pretty great, so we went to a jazz bar to sip on some whisky and enjoy a little live music. A great little trio played, and after a while a woman came up and started singing. Everything was really nice, and by now our pre-conceived "easy night" was turning into another one of them crazy nights. We headed out and started looking for a bar to hang out in, since Kobe doesn't seem to have many places to really get down, and chose a small bar randomly off the street. This place was really really small and there were 3 other younger people in there and a dart board. Our next decision seems obvious, we played some darts and then challenged the other people to a match. Let me note that neither me or Joe really played darts before. That said, these people were pros. They had some crazy style and each shot was right around the bullseye. They were good, but for some reason we were even better. We beat em 4 out of 6 games, and one of the guys kept telling us to go home. It was awesome, and I beat a girl wearing a skull necklace and black wristbands in a 1 vs 1 match.

We ended our night at another small bar with a foosball table with missing pieces. We got our first beer, and after a few minutes we were given tequila shots on the house. Confused but grateful, we started talking with the server and soon challenged him and his coworker to some foosball games. After a few more beers and two more free tequila shots, it was time to get to bed.

We did a lot the next day, but I want to focus on our little adventure in Harborland, a small shopping / amusement park area right on the water. Besides eating Kobe beef, we chose Kobe because we saw these crazy motorized animals in a few people's pictures and really wanted to ride them. When we first found them we didn't have any change, and got a bit pissed when we came back to see other people riding them. It worked out perfect though, because after a failed attempt at landing a large sausage from a claw machine, the giraffe and baby panda were facing each other on opposite sides of the little square designated for the animals. I chose the cross-eyed giraffe, and after a short countdown, our duel began. We were acting pretty stupid, waving our fists at each other and unleashing long strings of insults and it drew a small crowd. When we finally made contact, my giraffe stopped almost completely and a guy was out to fix it in about 5 seconds. While he was trying to untangle our animal mess, I continued to give Joe all I had, chasing him down and once his panda ran out of juice, I did a victory lap around his sorry excuse of an animal. We were applauded.

This post is already longer than I intended, so I'll end the stories here. Really though, Kobe was awesome with great food and some cool places to hang out in at night. Really really soon the cherry blossom season will start, and I'll be off to Kyoto to see them how they're supposed to be viewed. Looks like the last week of the pay period is going to be rough again.

The short-armed champ and a few others...

2009-03-22T08:23:00.000-07:00

More drawings, I'm too tired to write about Kobe right now so this'll have to do.

From The Beez Neez

2009-03-16T10:24:00.000-07:00

Some buildings and a quick line drawing of Jake P. I usually draw bums but Jake's so much more interesting. Check it.

From The Beez Neez

A Small One, I promise...

2009-03-12T11:20:00.000-07:00

So there's a lot of things to write about, but since I always write way too much and nobody wants to read it all, I'll just write about today and see how I feel. The weather for once wasn't cloudy and rainy on my days off, and me and Joe decided to spend it outside in the sun. We had kind of a late start since we both ended up staying up till 4 or so, but we headed into Okayama armed with sketchbook and guitar. We thought we could complete the whole artsy traveling show with a bottle of bubbly, so we stopped into Jupiter, found the cheapest bottle we could find, and went to the castle to sit by the river.

Joe's really good at guitar, and it's always fun to listen to him play. It makes it even better when he takes requests like Rockin' in the Free World and sings all out for them. Haha, sorry Joe, I had to mention it somewhere. It's also interesting because he's a blues and folk guitar player, which is practically unheard of here, so its fun to observe peoples reactions to the music.

While he played I drew him again and this one turned out pretty good I think. My proportions are still all wonky sometimes but I'm getting better at making decisions and being confident in them without needing to erase.

From The Beez Neez

I've been drawing more and more lately, for my own enjoyment, but also because I got offered to show my work in a little coffee shop here in May. The woman who runs it doesn't speak any English, but we communicated well enough to come to some sort of understanding. On top of that, me and Joe might start playing guitar at the station and I'll try and sell my drawings. We'll see how it goes, but it'd be fun to play some real music instead of the J-Pop crap that comes out of that place. And of course, a little extra money is never harmful, especially when I seem to always run out of it a week before I get paid.

From The Beez Neez

A little dancing on the beach and beer...

2009-02-28T06:22:00.000-08:00

Well as the title says, I danced on the beach and had a few beers this last weekend. Nobody was with me, it was just one of those things that happens.

From Shodo Shima

I went to Shodo-Shima, an island an hour's ferry ride away from Shin Okayama, just to get away from Okayama and to be by the sea again. I learned later that the island has a monkey zoo where local monkeys roam free and fight for food. By the time I got there though, I would have had to rush everything and I figured I could just go the next day. I also found a place to rent scooters, and the next day became more and more promising. My plans were to drive around the coast on the scooter, then head up the mountain to the monkeys and call it a day. Sounds pretty great eh? But when I woke to a rainy day once more, my plans changed to drinking a lot of coffee and drawing by the beach. Maybe not as exciting, but it was still nice and the woman at the coffee house gave me an orange.

From Shodo Shima

At night, I ate some strange Italian concoction at a restaurant with weird music box music playing. This kind of music, instrumental covers of famous songs, is all over the place. My favorite restaurant has one CD on loop, with a pretty great version of Ticket to Ride on it.

Anyway, I got beer and was settling down for a night of drawing and listening to music. The water nagged at me though, so I left my room after a drawing and headed to the beach to sit for a while. It got kind of cold, and as the drinking continued, the music started to sound better and better. And then it just happened. I got up and danced for about 45 minutes to a bunch of funky soul music and then went back to do one more drawing before bed.

So here are a the drawings I did over the last couple of days. I really like how the sketch of the buildings came out, they're by the castle here.

From The Beez Neez

Some mo doodles...

2009-02-23T10:52:00.000-08:00

From The Beez Neez

A Rainy Day in Takamatsu...

2009-02-23T06:42:00.001-08:00

Last week we went on a day trip to Takamatsu, the capital city of Shikoku, an island south of us on the Inland Sea. I hadn't really been outside Okayama since Osaka, and it felt great to be on the train heading somewhere new again. What made it even better was that the track was about 200 feet above the inland sea. It was really cool and a pretty amazing engineering feat. There were huge pillars that went right into the water holding up a massive track for two trains to run at once. So the hour train ride was interesting the whole way, and when we got off everything just felt good. Takamatsu is right on the coast, and one of the main reasons we were going there was to hang out for a bit by the water and have a few beers. Before we did that, there was a garden that we heard was pretty great, and after walking around in there for an hour or two, I'd say it was one of the most impressive things I've seen so far.

From Takamatsu

From the beginning, the garden was amazing. There were these really old trees that had bark that looked like a tortoise shell and branches that bent in all sorts of crazy ways. You can see tree limbs held up by crutches all over Japan, but I've never seen trees so contorted anywhere before. It looked like all of them had a terrible birth defect, but at the same time it was a really beautiful thing. After a path lined with these trees, we followed a path up a mound which was labelled as Little Fuji. What we saw at the top was something distinctly Japanese, something I can't say about most of the country, with no influence from Western Culture at all. The landscape looked just like a woodblock print or a screen painting, and it was what I always imagined when I thought of Japan. Trees were trimmed perfectly, and the patterns formed by everything seemed to have a very natural flow. I never really understood what all the hype about Japanese gardens was about, but after that view, everything changed.

From Takamatsu

Anyway, we kept on walking around the grounds, and soon found a bridge with a bunch of koi in it, all swarming around a group holding bread. It was hilarious watching their mouths extend a few inches out to try and suck up the bread, and we decided to feed them ourselves. I got way too into it, and started putting my hand down in the water and having fish suck the bread right out of my hand. It was really funny, and we got the group we first saw all into our little show. One of the men in the group grabbed my bread and started poking the fish in the eyes and stuff and I wasn't sure exactly what he was trying to achieve but it was a lot of fun.

From Takamatsu

After the koi, it started to rain. Lightly at first, but then it picked up and we thought it'd be best to head back to the main part of town. We managed to find the garden alright, but we got lost on our way back due to my terrible sense of direction. We ended up at a station on the opposite end of town, and then got off on the wrong stop on our way back to the main station. Haha, it ended up working out ok, because we bought some beer and potato snacks and found the tracks. On our way back, an old guy with a toothpick dangling out of his mouth opened up the door of his house and gave us a nasty look and a grunt. We didn't know what the hell he was doing, so we were kind of making fun of him when we heard a voice call out " SUMIMASEN, SUMIMASEN!" from behind us. It was the old guy, and he gave us two umbrellas for absolutely no reason. It was pretty cool and it felt good knowing that some people are genuinely nice and don't need a reward for helping others out.

We finally got back to the main station and the coast, but the rain was really coming down by then. We were determined though, and after an umbrella led charge to the coast we found a gutter under an overhang that was dry. It smelled a little, but it was really peaceful after spending a long time in the rain. We ate our snacks and drank our beers and then went up to a building by the station for a high class dinner. We thought we deserved it, and we really wanted some good sushi since we haven't really had any good stuff since we got here. We found a comfy looking restaurant and got a bunch of tasty sushi accompanied with a few containers of sake. Heaven.

From Takamatsu

We also went to the Naked Man Festival but I feel like I've typed too much already so I'll keep it real short. The festival is a bunch of guys dressed in only a sumo wrestler diaper all fighting for a stick that brings happiness. It was a lot of fun screaming at the teams while they ran around the festival grounds and giving them high fives. The guards were pricks though, and they kept pushing me back whenever I got a little too close to the runners. It was definitely a good night, even if the actual competition part of the festival was kind of weak.

From Takamatsu

2009-02-22T08:23:00.000-08:00

I haven't gotten much sleep the last couple days so I need to go to bed, but I'll update soon with some more sketches and pictures from Takamatsu and the Naked Man Festival.

From The Beez Neez

A fine day off...

2009-02-18T04:39:00.000-08:00

Well today was really awesome. In spirit of my new desire to interact with the world instead of sitting in front of a screen, I headed out into Okayama today with nothing in mind. My plan was to walk around and find cafes to draw in, and that's exactly what I did. I found two great cafes today. The first one was a sunny cafe with windows lining a whole wall and a really cheery staff. I did one drawing there and had some coffee, then wandered the streets for a long time trying to find run down buildings and another cafe.

The weather was great, so between cafes I stopped by the river and finished the Murakami book I've been reading. I was there for an hour and a half or so, and even though I was a bit chilled by the end, it felt great to be outside with the sun on me reading a good book.

The next cafe I hit was on my way back to meet Joe for dinner, and it was labelled as a coffee saloon. It's kind of weird going into a restaurant or something here, similar to going into a bar with a regular crowd in a small town, but once you get situated everything is really nice. The saloon was filled with older women dressed in fake fur and scarves, all chatting with each other from different tables. The waitress / owner was an older woman who knew everyone there, stopping at their tables, even sitting down, and chatting like she was out with her friends. I was drawing, and the woman saw what I was doing and praised me with a million "Sagoyyy!"'s and approving groans. Later, she gave me a free pancake potato thing that was really good. That cafe rocked.

Tomorrow were going to Takamatsu on Shikoku, an island about an hour away, so I'll update again soon with some pictures and thoughts.

From The Beez Neez

2009-02-16T10:14:00.000-08:00

From The Beez Neez

2009-02-15T10:32:00.000-08:00

From The Beez Neez

A few more...

2009-02-12T09:16:00.000-08:00

It feels really good to just draw lately. The best part of it is that I can go places and draw instead of being cooped up in my apartment. Today me and Joe hiked up a mountain by where we live and sat drawing for a while at the top. The weather was great, the sun was out, and it felt really good to be doing something I really enjoy and be doing it in such an awesome place. I get paid tomorrow finally, and I'm going to begin making day trips every week instead of wasting my money and time at the bars here. I'm not here for that long, and I'm really inspired to just travel again and experience new things instead of doing the same stuff week after week. So here's the drawing I did at the top of the mountain, it was a little rushed and Joe kept moving but whatever, and a little ink page I did after we got back.

From The Beez Neez

Oh, and another movie recommendation: Vicky Christina Barcelona. It's a Woody Allen film that came out last year, and I think it's amazing. I think it's funny that what's refueled my desire to travel is something that's completely passive.

And check out the music! I added a few songs I think are good for perusing my site. Just click play and let 'em load.

Being poor is good for some things...

2009-02-11T10:00:00.000-08:00

Since I don't have any money till Friday, I spent all day drawing in my apartment. I haven't really used ink much until recently, and I really like the boldness of it. I used to be scared to use straight black, but I'm starting to gain a little confidence and the whole process is becoming enjoyable instead of being something I worry over.

From The Beez Neez

We'll all be cyborgs soon...

2009-02-10T21:01:00.000-08:00

Check this out, science continues to amaze me.

2009-02-09T10:50:00.000-08:00

From The Beez Neez

Micron and Markers reunited...

2009-02-08T09:12:00.000-08:00

So I gave up on the markers a while ago, but for some reason I pulled 'em out and did these two characters. I had all my colors planned, and the first thing I realized after coloring the guy's robe was that I used the wrong color. Real tight, but I think it turned out pretty well anyway. The scan doesn't really do the colors justice but whatever.

From The Beez Neez

First sketch in a while eh?

2009-02-06T01:51:00.000-08:00

A little drawing for Brandon's band I did the other night.

From The Beez Neez

Oh, and even though the message is a bit too obvious at times, the movie Happy Go Lucky was really good. Kind of an affirmation that just because a lot of people aren't satisfied with their lives, its ok to be happy yourself and not let their attitudes towards things get to you. Being happy, and trying to make others feel the same way never hurt anyone. Cheesy, but that's me.

Osaka plus a few...

2009-02-03T20:08:00.000-08:00

Wow, I've become really crappy at keeping this up to date. I haven't been terribly busy since I go back from Osaka, but the ability to watch movies and just hang out feels great after a day of work. Also, the 11 Second Club continues to take up most of my free time, and I'm really happy with this months entry even though there are still obvious problems. Other than that, work continues to be incredibly repetitive, but there are still things about it that will keep me here for a few more months. Like I wrote before, I teach twice a week in Kurashiki, and the students there are really great. I met this one woman who is a really high level, and it's really awesome to talk to somebody in a normal manner, who I can tell that I slept in my closet because I drank a little too much the night before. She even pokes fun at Japanese culture and all the crazy things that go on here. Good stuff, and as always, its nice to see people enjoying lessons and your company even if they don't understand you very well.

11 Second Club - January Entry from Paul Fuller on Vimeo.

Osaka was another awesome trip that totally drained my paycheck one week after I got it. Haha, this trend will stop soon, but just being in those big cities is so exciting. The food is wonderful, and the lure of dance clubs is too strong to resist. The one thing about our trip was that it was raining the whole time. It was strange, but it never really bothered me. I guess I was too distracted by all the neon lights and hordes of people around me to get annoyed or think that the trip could have been better if it would've been sunny. I went up on Wednesday by myself and just got oriented in the city so when I met up with Joe later I would have some clue as to where we were. Luckily, Osaka was much easier to navigate than Tokyo, as all of the entertainment and nightlife is focused in just a few areas.

At first I just walked around the Shinhaibashi and Namba areas. The main shopping street is a few miles long and covered the whole way. Designer stores and 100 yen shops alike line this whole walkway, and its unbelievable how massive the place is. Being taller, its even crazier to be able to look far down the street and see no gaps in people. It really was like a herd of animals following each other. I stopped in a few shops, and ate at an awesome ramen place, and by that time Joe was arriving on the Shinkansen so I headed back up to Osaka station to meet up with him. After a little confusion, we finally got out of the station and were met by a brass band playing in the street. They were really good, and even did a cover of Waterfalls. The best part though was seeing how the crowd around them reacted to their music. When band members tried to get everyone to clap to the rhythm, instead of just feeling the music, the people watched the timing of the band member clapping and tried to match him. Anyway, they got me into brass bands, and if you like that kind of stuff, check out Dirty Dozen Brass Band. Their CD Voodoo is awesome, and they play with some great musicians like Dr. John.

Anyway, we checked into our hostel whose directions were "Take the colored road and look for the sign." It was surprisingly easy to find, and we got a great deal for a private room, about 25 bucks a night. Now that everything was set up for the night, I showed Joe some of the cool areas in Namba and we ate dinner. By now, we were ready to start drinking, so we headed to the area that our guide books suggested and ran into some hussie guy trying to get us in a club. It sounded like a lot of people were in there, but we decided to wait until later. For some reason the clubs here don't really fill up until 1 or 2 in the morning. The night was pretty dead, but we found a bar where we were the only people and took shots of tequila and had beers. This place was huge, and they had a shark swimming with a bunch of other fish in a tank in the middle of the bar. We stayed here until 1:30 or so, and headed over to Club Azure for some dancing. Again I was shocked by Japanese rhythm, and insetad of just dancing, most people were doing practiced routines. There were lots of people doing the robot and little pop moves, but a lot of the time their moves were off beat. I really love these situations because I get even more loose than normal and really enjoy just feeling the music. Dancing was a lot of fun here, and we stayed out super late and ate Yoshinoya at like 5:30 or 6 in the morning before drifting off to sleep.

From Osaka

The next day we met up with Karrah, a girl who teaches in Kurashiki. Our main plan for the day was to go to the aquarium, and we ended up spending a few hours there because it was so awesome. The Osaka aquarium is famous for its two whale sharks, but I was impressed with every exhibit in the place. It all started with otters. First river otters, and then giant sea otters that put on a great show for us. There were seals, some turtles, and then out of nowhere, a sloth. I've never really seen one up close, or seen one move, but this one crawled down out of the shadows and across a rope to where a woman was waiting to feed it. They really are amazing animals, and their claws are out of control. Their movements seem fake, and each push forward was smooth and controlled. I was impressed already, but the exhibits were just beginning. I won't write everything, but the whale sharks, and the tank that held them, were some of the coolest things I've ever seen. The water was crystal clear, and there was a huge variety of fish and other aquatic life in the tank. Right next to it there was a huge manta ray and some octopuses, and it was an over-stimulation similar to the neon lights in the streets. My battery ran out in the aquarium, but I got some good pictures while it lasted so check em out. When we got out it was a lot later than we thought it would be, but it was well worth it. Just outside of the aquarium was the world's largest ferris wheel, so we decided to go on out just to do it. It wasn't anything crazy, but it offered some nice views of the harbor and the surrounding area.

From Osaka

Next we headed into town and did a little shopping, stopping in at my favorite store, Zara where I found two shirts on sale for 20 bucks each down from 80. Oh, me and joe also got really awesome shirts from the aquarium with goofy whale sharks on them. They look like they're out of the 80's and you can't really tell what the image is, somebody here's confused it with a cadillac already, but they're cool nonetheless. We got some good food, and before Karrah left, we went to Osaka castle. It was a really long walk up to the castle itself, but the whole journey was a lot of fun and really beautiful. We walked through forests, and saw the original foundation stones from 1200 or so when the castle was first built. How humans built structures like these so long ago amazes me. It seems impossible that stones that large could be moved at all, no matter how many people were pushing and pulling. Since it was raining, there was nobody around, and when we reached the castle it felt great to be alone with such a magnificent building. It is a reconstruction, but they did a brilliant job with it. Normally, the new castles, shrines, or temples end up looking gaudy and ugly, but it was obvious that they took the time and hired the talent to make this castle feel like it once did. We hung out around the castle for a while, looked out across the city, and then headed back down so Karrah could catch her train back to Kurashiki. It was still kind of early, so we wanted to try going to one of the jazz clubs that were mentioned in our books. Stupidly, we left our books at the hostel because we thought they'd be a burden, so we ended up in a hostess bar part of town that felt real sleazy. Every building had women outside dressed in expensive clothes waving to passerbys, trying to get them to come in. It didn't take long to realize what we'd gotten ourselves into, so we decided to just choose a bar and drink until it got a little later. We chose one called Oldie's Bar or something like that, but it wasn't anything like we thought it would be. We walked in and immediately got a strange look from both the bartender and the one woman inside. He sat us down, and started calling out to girls. It was great because a few girls came out, and then he said that a set would be 10,000 yen each, or about a hundred bucks. We just laughed and left, and on our way out, we saw through a girl just putting on her robe through an open door. Hostess bar = brothel??? Haha, it was pretty funny, and we found a little restaurant that we could just drink at, so we sat and had a few beers, swearing to ourselves that we'd take the night easy and avoid shots of any kind.

We headed back to the area we were in the night before, and went to a different club that was supposed to be pretty popular. This place had a lot more people, and some that could actually dance, and for the first time girls actually approached us and talked for a while. Of course their English wasn't very good, and a few were pretty messed up on an assortment of drugs, but it was fun nonetheless. I met this girl DJ who gave me her number for next time we go to Osaka. She said I was a good dancer and rubbed my sideburns, we had an instant connection. Haha. We soon forgot our promise to ourselves to not take shots, and began a sort of ritual. A shot of tequila, a beer, and then back to the dance floor. Again, we stayed out super late, ate Yoshinoya, and then went to bed.

From Osaka

It's difficult to really explore a city in a few days, and really experience the night life on Wednesday and Thursday nights, but I had a great time while we were there. My fascination with Japanese cities hasn't died out yet, and every alleyway continues to grab my attention. Our next stop is Kyoto, which I think will be a lot different than the last two cities we've visited, but I really can't wait to see all the temples and the old districts that have been there for centuries. I'll remember my camera charger too, so I won't run out of battery so early into the trip.

From Osaka

Back to the big city...

2009-01-20T11:21:00.002-08:00

Firstly, I must admit that I'm really proud that we elected a president like Barack. I couldn't help feeling joyful watching his inauguration speech. He had so many positive messages and a confidence in the American people that I haven't really seen in my lifetime. The best part is that he's realistic about all of the challenges, and is trying to motivate the country to really buckle down and work for not only what's best for the country, but what's ultimately best for the entire world. Here's my favorite quote from the speech:

"As the world grows smaller, let our human commonalities spread." Well put Barack, well put.

Tomorrow I head out for Osaka with Joe to get another taste of big city life in Japan. For being the country's second largest city, the people here don't think Osaka has too much to offer. I guess that could be expected since a lot of our students are middle aged housewives. There's a booming night life and the food there is supposed to be really good so I'm pumped to do some shopping, dancing, and eating. It'll definitely be a nice break. I'll take a few more pictures than Tokyo, that last upload was almost embarrassing.

And lastly, another update on the 11 second club. I still haven't touched some areas, but let me know what you think.

11sec January__More Progress from Paul Fuller on Vimeo.

A little further...

2009-01-16T08:34:00.001-08:00

I've been watching a lot of animated movies lately ( I highly recommend watching the Jungle Book if you haven't seen it in a while, that movie is amazing ), and now am starting on a bunch of old Hitchcock movies, studying the characters and the acting. It's helped a lot, and over the last few days I think I made some pretty good progress. Maybe it doesn't show quite yet, but something definitely clicked for me and I feel a lot better approaching this little clip.

There are still a few dead parts, but I added some basic lip synch, trying out a new method, so let me know what you think. Watching this in a smaller format, I can see that the woman's "jilting me" needs one or two more poses for it to read, so don't worry about that one. And of course, her pose at the end is terrible, I haven't touched it for a long time.

And thanks Andy for the little crits. Your comments are always helpful.

11sec_linearProgress from Paul Fuller on Vimeo.

Linear Beginnings

2009-01-15T10:29:00.000-08:00

With all the great feedback I've managed to make some great strides in my animation. Haha, anyway, if anybody sees this and wants to comment on the poses so far it would be awesome.

11sec_linearBeginnings from Paul Fuller on Vimeo.

Feedback?

2009-01-13T19:12:00.001-08:00

Since I have internet at home now I thought I'd take advantage of it and try to get some feedback to help me with the 11 Second Club competitions. I started a little late this month, but here's the rough blocking phase. The end pose for the woman is definitely going to change, but let me know what you guys think of it.

11sec January Stepped Keys from Paul Fuller on Vimeo.

Wanna feel good?

2009-01-10T02:21:00.000-08:00

I love this song and the singing woman's afro.

Small update

2009-01-08T07:04:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post to announce that I got 15th place in last month's 11 Second Club competition and while it's not as good as last months, I'm still really happy with the feedback I got back and the overall project. The winner's animation is top notch and he really deserved it and I'm actually learning a lot from watching the winning entries frame by frame. It kind of sucks that Animation Mentor students have such an advantage with that Bishop rig, it's capable of much more expressive faces because of the brow and it's hard to compete against it. Using Max for Maya is ok, but there are some serious limitations. Oh, and also it's kind of nasty looking.

I got internet at home now after a five hour session of squinting my eyes at small katakana instructions and talking to people over the phone who couldn't speak English very well. It's really nice to have instant access to email, animation resources, and the world in general. So, my art posts should become a little more frequent and responses in general will come more than once every two weeks or so. Hurrah!

I've started going to Japanese lessons again after a long break. I've been listening to really good instructional CD's, but the teachers there don't slow down at all and use words that we obviously don't understand since we've never studied the language. Thankfully, the CD's have done a good job preparing me for the way sentences are structured and some of the most commonly used verbs so from now on I think I just need to build my vocab and keep practicing. It was funny though because I got put in a beginner class with a 16 year old Chinese kid and a 40 some year old woman from Taiwan. We played a card game to practice our HIragana where you had to grab the card as the teacher read out a sentence. I took it pretty seriously and had like 3/4 of the cards at the end. Maybe it was a little mean, but I felt pretty good about myself walking away from the table.

Lastly, for the month of January I have to work in Kurashiki twice a week. My first day there was really nerve-racking and the place is really really small and cold, but the staff and other teachers are cool so I think I can deal with it for a month. Plus I have three days off a week so even if I feel uncomfortable for a few days, having the time to go to Osaka or Kyoto on my days off makes everything worth it.

And here's a drawing from my head that I'm not sure I like.

From The Beez Neez

Holy Crap

2009-01-03T22:37:00.000-08:00

Tokyo has completely blown me away and gotten me more excited about traveling and just life in general. It wasn't just one characteristic of Tokyo thats inspired me, but everything about what the city is. Huge buildings, massive crowds of people, and tons of restaurants, cafes, bars, clubs, and places to shop. We were there for four days, and we barely scraped the surface of what that place has to offer. Even if we revisited an area, the same place felt fresh and full of energy. I highly recommend trying to go to Tokyo sometime, it really is a unique city that's safe and incredibly fun.

Even though we only were able to do a few things in Tokyo, what we did do was awesome. We spent the first day just wandering around Shinjuku trying to get a grasp on what was around us. We went to the 54th floor of some building and had coffee and cake, a common snack for us on the trip when anything went wrong. The view was really cool because all you could see was buildings and they just kept going all the way to the horizon, finally becoming hidden in the fog somewhere in the distance. At night we hopped around to a few restaurants and bars, and then while we were looking for a club, some hustler guys from Ghana started bugging us and asking if we wanted to see a live sex show. It was really funny but the guys were creepy and followed us for a long time for absolutely no reason. One guy was pretty good at what he did, and somehow managed to get us to go to some bar that he guaranteed a good time. Well, there was a sad bunch of people in the bar, and there was a twenty dollar cover, so got a few drinks to feel like the cover was somewhat worth it, and then went to Shibuya to try our luck there. We wound up at this bar in a basement that played American rap music, and while at first we were a little apprehensive about staying, we ended up dancing there for a long time. There weren't many people dancing, but there were some black guys that were doing some real old school moves, so it was a lot of fun just getting down and trying to mimic the people around us. We left around four or so and got a taxi back to Shinjuku to our pod hotel. On the way, hookers constantly asked us if we wanted massages and hooked there arms in ours. It was funny because by the end of the walk, they just gave up saying massage and just straight up asked us if we wanted sex. We settled for some potato snacks from the convenience story that are my favorite snack here, and we felt satisfied for only a buck. Who needs "massages" when good food is around? Haha, especially from some haggard forty year olds. Even better was getting into the pod hotel, changing into the provided outfits, and climbing into our washing machine of a room. We were pretty drunk and it was wild walking through rooms lined with circular holes in the wall filled with snoring businessmen.

The next day was New Years Eve, and for me, the best and craziest day we spent there. We decided to go to Akihabara, commonly known as Electric City for all the electronic stores and trinkets sold everywhere. It's also known for all the book stores, but sadly, since it was the New Year's Holiday, a lot of the smaller stores were closed so I didn't pick up any new art books or Japanese prints. We checked out a bunch of other things though, and then for dinner we chose some Korean barbecue place. So, I've learned to read katakana and hiragana, and while I can read some things, the whole kanji thing makes any kind of alphabet completely useless. This can be a problem sometimes when it comes to ordering things in a restaurant. We ordered something that looked like chicken and some other things that we wanted to try that ended up being really good. But the meat came out and we cooked it wondering when it would be finished. We both picked up a piece and were very hesitantly moving it towards our mouth until Joe just popped his in. I bit down just a little bit and immediately said," I don't think its cooked." When I looked up at Joe, his eyes were wide and looking around for some place to deposit the food. We came to the conclusion that it wasn't chicken, but we still weren't sure what it was and since we had a huge plate of it and we were hungry, we forced some of it down. It came to the point where it was just plain nasty, and I tried checking out the menu to figure out what it was. Luckily or unluckily, I could read the katakana for guts, so I think we ate a bunch of intestine or something like that. Even worse, since they brought us a big plate of it, we got charged twice as much as we thought. We couldn't believe what we just did, so we decided to clean our palates with some coffee and cake. We had heard about the maid cafes so we picked one out of our guide books and ended up at @home cafe, one of the more famous maid cafes in the city. There was actually a line to get in, and when we finally got inside, it felt like we were in some thirteen year old girls room. All the maids were dressed in costumes that looked like they were made of plastic and were all smiling and laughing with the customers trying to please them. This really wasn't me and Joe's kind of thing, so we made fun of a lot of the people there and ate some cake called Chocolately Sweet Mr. Bear Cake that was actually really good. Every guy there was getting his picture taken on the stage in the front of the place, so we thought we should probably do it too. They asked for our nicknames so Joe became Waffle Jack and I was Pipeline. It was awesome listening to our maid call us up to the stage, and then even better that she wrote the names on the photos. You can check em out down below. It was a strange crowd in there, and even weirder were the little things that they had. Apart from some of the crazy hats some guys were wearing, people had photo albums of them with girls from the cafe. Not just a few pages, but an entire album of them in a variety of poses, and they flipped through the pages with a wishful look in their eyes whenever their maids were away doing something. I think some of them believed that the girls actually liked them, and Joe got a nasty stare from some guy when he got caught staring at one of the girls. Haha, it was absolutely rediculous, and then we discovered the card system that they had in place. I scanned it so you guys can see it for yourselves, its pretty hard to put into words.

From Tokyo

We couldn't take any more of the maid cafe, and it was getting closer to midnight, so drinking. We weren't sure what club we wanted to go to for New Years, but some Australian kids we met earlier in the day called me and told us to go to Womb, Tokyo's most hoppin club. It sounded good to us, so we headed for Shibuya and got lost for about an hour before we finally found the place. The entrance was a tarp covered box with a guy standing outside. There were no signs or anything so it took us a while to find the place, and we finally got inside at 11:57. We checked our coats and got to the dance floor right at midnight, and I was amazed at what we saw. Hundreds and hundreds of people filled a massive dance floor with lasers shooting all over the place, fog machines going full blast, strobe lights going crazy, and a bunch of confetti showering the crowd. It was awesome, but there were so many people there for the countdown that we were just getting pushed around so we decided to get some shots before we went back down and danced. Randomly, in the mix of all the people, we found one of the Australian kids from earlier on. He just got out of high school, and wasn't too bright, because he was swallowing one yen coins for money. The guy ran out of money, and started telling people he would drink a penny for 100 yen. He did that for a while, and then resorted to just stealing stuff from the counter. At one point in the night, he stole a Smirnoff Ice and the glowing stand it was on. Even better was that he was trying to hide the stand in his pants along with a sign that said Banana that he thought was hilarious.
Quick note: everybody drinks Smirnoff Ice and Zima here, even the guys. It makes no sense.
We talked to a lot of people from all over the world, but the best part of everything was dancing. We got really drunk and started getting all crazy on the dance floor, hooting and hollering and just getting into the whole scene. At one point, we got Jag bombs and they gave us the whole Red Bull for some reason, and on the dance floor, during a burst of light and fog, Joe screamed out and launched his half full Red Bull across the room. It really was an amazing experience, and one of the best dancing nights I've ever been a part of. We left the club around 5:30 or 6 and somehow made it back to the pod hotel for round two. We did pretty good, but Joe slept in the wrong pod.

The next day we were in pretty rough shape, so we thought doing a little shopping and eating some good food would be the best idea. So, off we went to Roppongi, a place known for high fashion similar to Ginza to spend some money. A lot of places were closed since it was New Year's Day, but we still found a really cool store called Zara where we both got jackets. My sense of money is kind of thrown off right now, simply because the cheapest clothes you can buy here are around 60 bucks, so when I found a really cool jacket for 120 bucks I thought it was the best deal ever. I really like it though, and I found a good hat to wear with it, so I'm pretty happy with my purchase even though I have to live on a pretty strict budget for the next week and a half. We walked around Roppongi for a while in our hungover daze, and then figured we should probably take it easy for the night to save up energy for our last night. We stayed in a hostel in Akasuka that was really cheap, but everybody that stayed there wasn't out doing anything. The front lobby was packed full of people doing homework and crap like that, so me and Joe just went out to a yakitori restaurant that had a really nice vibe to it with some jazz in the background and then called it a night. And of course, the three other people in my room all were in bed when I got back, and each one had a unique snore that they timed so it was a constant buzz of nasally sounds.

In the morning we went to Senso-Ji, a huge temple in Akasuka, where there must have been at least a thousand people in the complex, then even more in the surrounding streets. It was insanity, you really couldn't do much of anything but go with the flow of the crowd. In the temples, there's usually a little wooden box to throw money into and then pray, but at Senso-Ji it was a massive structure where a huge crowd was launching their money across the room. It was fun, and on the way out I dragged some woman 50 or so feet because my camera cord got stuck on one of the buttons on her coat. I had no clue until I heard a desperate "Sumimasen!" from behind me, and when I looked she looked absolutely terrified. Haha, a good way to start the day. We ate at a little tempura place and then tried our luck at the Imperial Palace, where the royal family was supposed to come out and greet the public. It was all closed up though, and while it was cool just walking around the moat and guessing what was inside, I really wanted to see the inside. Another sight saved for next time. We got some coffee and cake to deal with our troubles, and then headed to Ueno to check out a shopping area that sold trinkets and cheap clothes. This place was packed for blocks and blocks, and the stuff they were selling was really funny, mostly English phrases that made absolutely no sense at all. Another thing we really wanted to do was take the ferry Hibiki down the river. This ferry was designed by a famous manga artist and it looks crazy, but being me and Joe, we arrived twenty minutes after the last one left. It was fine though, we just took a different ferry that was pretty cool and sipped on some coffee, ate snacks, and watched the skylines of Tokyo pass by. We didn't really know where we were when we got off, but after walking for a few minutes we ended up on the Ginza strip. That street is amazing, filled with high fashion, lots of lights, and some great restaurants. We ate at a place that reminded me what good Western cooking tasted like, and accompanied with a nice glass of Shiraz, its probably been the most satisfying meal I've eaten since I've got here. Feeling good and optimistic about the night, we thought we'd try the other big club here called Ageha, a warehouse on Tokyo Bay that you have to take a bus from Shibuya to get there. But, for some reason, there was nobody at the bus stop and no sign whatsoever of any activity, so after waiting for a while, we thought going back to Womb would be the best idea. But, Womb was closed too, so we settled on this other club that had quite a few people outside. This place was filled with guys dressed up like thugs drinking Smirnoff Ice and trying to dance and look hard. The first time we went up to the bar, some guy asked us if we wanted E through some really bad gestures, pointing to his forehead and saying "Blam!" but we settled on beers instead. Our plan for the night was to pace ourselves, stay at the bar until 4:30, get some gyu-don at Yoshinoya, then hop on the first train to Tokyo Station and get on our Shinkansen at 6 something. But since the club was kind of lame, we thought we should just make the best of it but it took a little booze to make that happen. It ended up being really fun though, just dancing on the packed dance floor and yelling stupid things getting the people around us pumped up. Some guys gave us high fives and looks of approval, while some offered us sips of their Smirnoff Ices. I felt honored. Our plan worked out perfectly, and we made it all the way back to Okayama without any hangups.

And now being back, I have barely enough money to get by, but I feel much better about everything going on here. I was just staying in Okayama and working for about a month and a half, kind of getting in a routine, but now its apparent that I need to just go and see Japan. I have three days off a week now, so it'll be easier to go places and still have time to relax. Also, Joe has his two days off during my days off, so I'll actually have someone to travel with.

Well congratulations if you made it all the way through that post, here's a few pictures and a few sketches. I didn't take nearly enough photos, and I want to color some more sketches so more will come when I can afford to come back to the internet cafe. Happy New Years everyone.

From Tokyo

From The Beez Neez

On the Shinkansen to Tokyo...

2008-12-29T04:32:00.000-08:00

So it's been a really long time and once again I have to say that I don't have much to show since I haven't scanned any of my new sketches, but I have been working pretty hard on this months 11 second club animation. So check it out and give me some feedback if you have the chance.

11 Second Club December Comp from Paul Fuller on Vimeo.

But other than that, I'm really pumped for this New Years. Me and Joe are going to Tokyo for like four days and hitting the city hard. We've both saved up money so we don't have to hold back at all, and now that the day has finally come, its all I can think about. On New Year's Day we have the chance to see the royal family at the Imperial Palace, which only opens up twice a year to the public so I think that's going to be pretty awesome. Also, we plan to be in a fancy bar at the top of one of the tallest buildings in Tokyo sipping champagne when the ball hits. There's so much to do, and just being in Tokyo, a place I've looked at photos of for the last five years, is going to be a crazy experience. I'll definitely have some photos and some good stories to tell once I get back, but for now I just thought I'd update with something while I post up my entry for the competition.

8th Place wins a new bike and some friends.

2008-12-07T01:14:00.001-08:00

So I was pretty disappointed to see that I got 8th out of the 108 participants in the November 11 Second Club. I knew I wasn't going to win, but some of the entries above me don't deserve the spot. Anyway, I got some good feedback and 8th place isn't really all that bad. My thumbnail is in the banner on their web page even. Other than that I've just started working on this months competition and after doing some of the layout work I'm pretty pumped about how its looking. After watching some very cinematic shorts like Cid Jones and Astro Mail by some guys from Superinfocom I want to try making a little more interesting clip instead of just one steady shot.

Its becoming harder to focus though because me and Joe are actually starting to make some friends. We met these girls that are studying abroad from England and Australia who are really cool and have the same night available to go out as us. A few nights ago we went all over the town and ended up staying at this little place called the Honeybee Express or something until seven in the morning. This place had a giant Pulp Fiction poster, a neon Ghostbusters sign, and a whole lot of hokey tropical items all over the place. I don't think the worker was too happy we stayed for so long, but we could see that he snuck in a few little naps here and there. Japanese are afraid to embarrass people in public, even if it will make them much more comfortable, and I feel bad saying this, but it makes me feel much more relaxed by taking advantage of this fact. There's no rush to drink as fast as you can before the bar closes, you can just stay there all night.

It feels good to indulge in normal conversation with people who are capable of talking about a lot of different things, and its definitely had an effect on me. I was stuck here for two months by myself and a little reprieve from solitude feels fantastic. Because I feel like I'll begin meeting more people from now on, I'm going to buy a cell phone and I've just purchased the biggest bike they sell here that's still too small for me. It has a basket, a bell, and a light that's powered by the turning of the wheels. I have to say though, its kind of scary riding it through the city.

I have some pictures from my vacation a while ago but I want to put them through some Photoshop beautification before I post them up. I've just been really busy lately, I've even got a lot of sketches I'd really like to post too. Soon my friends, soon.

A small break from the internet...

2008-11-30T01:34:00.000-08:00

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...

2008-11-14T01:11:00.000-08:00

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 The Beez Neez

Takahashi and a few sketches

2008-11-08T01:39:00.000-08:00

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 Takahashi

NEW SCANNER!!!!

2008-11-05T05:37:00.000-08:00

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 Big and Paul

Hiroshima and Miyajima...

2008-11-02T02:03:00.000-08:00

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

Kurashiki and Small Update...

2008-10-25T04:30:00.000-07:00

I know I made promises to post some pictures of my house, but I keep forgetting so you'll have to settle for some pictures from my trip to Kurashiki instead. Let me say, if you ever come to Japan, you absolutely MUST go to Kurashiki, it's one of the most peaceful cities I've ever been to, and thats even with the tourists and on an overcast day. The historical district is filled with some great galleries with Bizen pottery work and some nice museums ( at least from what I read in my book ). I was too captivated with my surroundings to spend the day in museums, so I roamed around the historic district, walked up to a beautiful temple that overlooked the city, and roamed around the ghetto. It's a lot of fun just wandering around with no destination, especially because its so easy to just ask somebody where the station is. Even with my terrible Japanese, I can still figure out where something is no problem. On my way back, I asked this one woman where the station was and she ended up noticing I was going the wrong way and caught up to me on her bicycle and walked me right up to the gate. Pretty tight.

Anyway, the historic district is lined with some amazing trees and has a canal that runs all the way through it, complete with gigantic white carp and swans. The stonework on the canal is great, and the end result is a place that you could just sit and do nothing for hours on end. I'll definitely go back there to take in the sights when its sunny out, and for 10 bucks there and back, its not pricey at all. Even the train ride is fun because you can actually draw on a train and there a lot of crazy people that ride it. It gets even crazier when you can buy sake and beer at the train station, where I've noticed a lot of older men swarming.

About the pictures, some of them aren't the greatest but I thought I'd upload them anyway just to share. Also I want to say that I taught my first kids class today and had to wear a frankenstein mask and have a Halloween party. I was sweating so bad, and by the end of class I really started to smell because the deodorant here doesn't work at all. It just smells like hairspray and leaves a nasty taste in your mouth. I asked Hiromi about it the first day I got here since I forgot mine at home, and she said that men here don't use deodorant. Not only are they geniuses, but they never smell bad either. Oh, to be Japanese.

Some Kurashiki Pics

2008-10-25T04:16:00.000-07:00

Here are some teasers, I set up an album so I wouldn't take up the whole blog with pictures so check it out for the forty or so flicks I took.

From Kurashiki = Ill

The last post before more pictures

2008-10-23T01:02:00.001-07:00

So I don't have my computer with me today, but I'm going to wait to post pictures because tomorrow I'll be going to Kurashiki to check out the old merchant section of town. I guess its filled with traditional architecture and some good museums, and its only a thirty minute train ride from my station so I figure its a good way to spend my day off. I'll post pictures of the trip, and of my apartment on Saturday or Sunday depending if I have time. Today I met some Koreans at the International Center who are want to do a language exchange type thing where I'll help them out with English and they help me with Japanese. Also, at the International Center there are Japanese language classes for only 200 yen (about two bucks) because the government subsidizes them, so I'm going to try and start going three times a week before work. It shouldn't be a problem, because since I've started sleeping on a futon on the floor, waking up isn't too difficult.

Finally... INTERNET

2008-10-20T07:04:00.002-07:00

It's taken a while to find internet access since I've moved into my apartment, and even harder to find a place that I can actually upload images, but I've finally been told about an internet cafe that I can pay 60 yen to plug in my laptop. This is a huge post, since I've been trying to write everyday, but I'm definitely skipping over a lot of things that have happened. I'll try to keep the blog more up to date from now on, and once I get a scanner I'll post some more sketches. I need to catch the last train, so check back in a few days for some more flicks and a little update on life in Oyakama.

The BIG post

2008-10-20T07:04:00.001-07:00

Although things haven't totally set in that I'm actually in Japan, I couldn't be happier that I am where I am. The past four days have been incredibly hectic, allowing me only a few hours of sleep through my entire traveling period. Like I posted before, I needed to go to Chicago to get my finalized visa, but the time I spent there turned out to be really enjoyable. I've never even been to Chicago and didn't realize how much the city has to offer. The architecture is great, the food wonderful, and the people were really helpful. Even better was that I got to see my cousin who I rarely get to see, and we spent the night first at a bar on the 96th story of some building that offered amazing views of the city and some excellent martinis, followed by a restaurant who's food made the whole trip worth it.

The bus rides were pretty uneventful except for on the way back there was some high black guy that kept hitting on every girl he come into contact with, even ones that were asleep. But once I got back, I was lucky to get picked up by a few of my good friends who cared enough to see me before I took off for the great adventure and we had one last late night meal at Mickeys. So Kyle, Casey, and Brandon even though it's cheesy I just want to say thanks for doing that, it meant a lot.

Once I got back home around two in the morning, I still needed to pack everything so I ended up going to bed at around 5:00, having to wake up at 7:00 to get to the airport early and make sure all my tickets were in order. I hopped on the first flight to Vancouver where nothing exciting really happened. I met this guy from Portugal who was pretty cool though, and we talked for a good part of the trip except for the times I needed to fuel my puttering brain with some Sudoku or David Sedaris. I know absolutely nothing about Vancouver, but judging from what it looks like from the air, it seems like a pretty good place to vacation, or even live in. The city is huge, sitting right on a bay and surrounded by really lush forests and mountains. I wish I had had time to explore it a little, but instead I stayed in the airport and drew people for an hour or two. The time finally arrived to get on the plane to Osaka and once I stepped on the plane I already knew it was going to be a good flight. For one, international flights are very accommodating and provide free meals and an unlimited supply of booze for the passengers. Second, the first class seats were egg-like pods with little blue lights and leg rests. I pictured my seat with a down pillow and a comforter, and while it wasn't nearly as lavish as first class, it was a huge step up from how I'm used to flying. There were head rests that wrapped around my head, allowing me to rest my head against something without straining my neck, as well as nice screens on the seat ahead of me for watching movies. I also lucked out and sat next to the emergency exit so I got a lot of extra leg room. It's too bad I didn't have anyone to talk to, but the good selection of movies and strong drinks made the flight really enjoyable even though I didn't get any sleep.

Five movies and a few cocktails later I landed in Osaka, met by the infamous Flemming Lord. He's not what I had pictured at all, he's not even Japanese. He's a tall and lanky Englishman who spoke so quietly I barely understood anything he said. He had spent the last fifteen years in Osaka, but still seemed pretty unsure about how to go about doing anything. He was nice enough though, and helped me out with the money issues that popped up in the Osaka terminal. My last paycheck from the freelance work I was doing bounced, and since it was a huge check, when I checked my balance I was about $ 350.00 in the hole. Either it was the lack of sleep or the excitement of being in Japan that kept me from freaking out, but everything ended up working out just fine. Flemming bought me my bus ticket to Okayama City and gave me some pocket money to get started and then went his own way. Taking the bus was kind of a blur, as I came in and out of consciousness for the entire trip, and after four more hours of traveling I finally arrived at Okayama-Ekimae Station. After retrieving my luggage I was met by two women, both named Hiromi, who worked at Nova, my place of employment. They were really nice, and it was fun to joke around with them after the long trip, even if they didn't fully understand everything I was saying or my humor.

There's a lot that I've taken in starting from the first step in the city, and it's hard to organize my thoughts enough to try and type everything I've been thinking about. Just on the walk from the station the night I got here, I saw where the red light district was and discovered the greatness of beers in vending machines. There are also cigarette vending machines, but they require a card verifying that the buyer is over 20. That's not an issue for alcohol though, and even still for cigarettes, you can just go into a store and they would sell them to you no questions asked. Also relating to vending machines, there's a restaurant I've been going to quite a bit because its cheap and good, but you buy your meal through a vending machine and get a ticket and within 2 minutes you have your meal in front of you complete with a bowl of miso soup. Food can be really cheap, and I even found a place close to where I work that I can get a bowl of udon for 105 yen, which comes out to be just a little over a dollar. Wandering the city has been really fun, but sometimes I wish that somebody was here experiencing it for the first time too. I don't mind too much, but its a lot of stimulus that I can't really express in words and sometimes I want to glance over and get a look affirming that what I'm experiencing is as unbelievable as I think it is. I'm beginning to meet people though, so I'm sure this will all change as I start exploring the country a little more.

Since my visa didn't get processed until the day before I came here, I don't get my apartment until Friday so I've been staying in hotels. The first one was nice, and had a good breakfast. I knew that rice was eaten at every meal, but my breakfasts lately have consisted of pretty much only rice. This first hotel only had really good meatballs soaked in a thick gravy with rice and the hotel I'm at now has the best miso I've ever tasted served with baklava shaped rice things. However, my room in the hotel I'm at now is so small I don't have space to do anything. My luggage takes up 3 / 4 of the available floor space and I barely fit through the bathroom door. It offers a great view of the city though, overlooking both the train yard and the opposite side of the station. The photo taken at dusk is from my window. My apartment is a fifteen minute bike ride from the station so while it's not right downtown, it's close enough that I can easily get there. Plus there are restaurants, bars, and shops sprawled all throughout the city, it isn't really separated into different districts or anything. The apartment is called a 1k apartment meaning that there is one room plus a kitchen. I think that it's about 200 square feet but it has a balcony and a washing machine so I'll be happy. I guess I'll have to wait and see how I really feel about it but I'm excited to have a place to call my home.

My second day of teaching here went much better than I thought it would, even though I still messed up quite a bit. Before the teaching even started, I roamed the city to register myself as an alien to Okayama, but instead of finding the city office building, I found an enormous arcade named Joypolis, located in Joy Town. It's funny because a lot of stores have something to do with happiness. The day before I shopped at a supermarket / everything store called Happy Village and I couldn't help but laugh at the ridiculous posters and signs labeling the different aisles and special sales for the week. Anyway, this arcade was run by Sega, and I was surprised to find that almost the entire bottom floor was dedicated to claw games. I asked my manager Tom about it and he said that claw games, as well as gambling games, are more popular than video games. A lot of the prizes were Dragon BallZ action figures or bug eyed smiling animals giving the peace sign so I stuck to the video game section. I'm really glad I found this place because I haven't been to an arcade forever, and to just mash buttons with no idea what I was really doing felt pretty good. Once I get more confident I hope to take out the local fighting game champions and earn a little respect around here. Back to the teaching.

My first day was pretty rocky, and I wasn't ready at all for what I got thrown into. The first thing I taught was the activity section of the lesson, and me, not used to lowering my word count to give directions, thoroughly confused all of the students. Luckily Tom was there to help out when things went awry, and the second lesson I had to teach later that night went much smoother, mainly because there was only one student. Today though, I had to teach the entire lesson to a group of four, and everything was going good until I stopped the lesson ten minutes early because I misjudged when the lesson was supposed to be over. I'm glad that these students could speak alright English, because I almost got up and walked away before one of them told me that there was still a long time. Besides that little mishap though, I feel pretty good about how things are progressing, and tomorrow will be a new challenge: teaching back to back classes.

I've finished my training so from this point on I am an official teacher of English at Nova schools throughout Japan. While I was kind of looking forward to teaching in my own style, the Nova approach to teaching English will be a good test for me to accommodate what I think is right for what needs to be done. There is a pretty strict lesson plan, and the only variation really comes in a few areas with a couple different choices. What I do hope is to treat the students not like pets, talking in a higher voice and much slower, but like I talk normally. I tried it on the last day of training, and it not only made me feel more comfortable in the classroom, but I think the students felt more comfortable when they could tell I wasn't putting on some kind of act. I had today off, but tomorrow I start my first full day, teaching eight full classes. I think I'm ready, and I know that from here on out I'll only continue to improve.

Work is going good, but I'm still having some difficulties dealing with the change in lifestyle. I moved into my apartment yesterday and I kind of knew that it was going to be small, but I never imagined that it would be THIS small. The kitchen has a fridge that is barely bigger than a mini fridge, one burner hooked up to a gas line, a big sink, and a washing machine. There isn't even a counter to prepare anything on, and with only one burner my cooking options are pretty limited. Connected to the kitchen is my bathroom, that has one of the smallest showers I've ever seen and barely enough room to even sit down on the toilet. And then there's the main room, where I do everything else. Hiromi borrowed me one of her extra futons, and I couldn't help but laugh when she brought it over because it was hot pink and had leopard print on it. The futon takes up about half of the main room, so once I get a desk, I'll have to fold it up and put it in the closet so I can walk around a little. I was pretty bummed today when I woke up really sore from sleeping on the floor and realized that I didn't have any basic living items. No shampoo, no soap, no toilet paper, no clothes hangers, etc. It was my day off so I thought I would just go find some shops and pick up the basics, but my search ended up being a lot more difficult than I thought. The first dilemna popped up when I realized that I didn't have any yen and that I couldn't use the one ATM that is by my apartment. After pacing the streets for a while trying to figure out what to do, I finally just went to the train station and drew out my situation for the guy at the ticket counter. All my pictionary skills paid off and I got on the train for free and once I got into Okayama station I got some money out. I thought things would be easy from this point on, but not being able to ask anybody where anything is makes finding anything ten times harder. After some walking around I found shampoo and face wash as well as an iron. I still didn't have toilet paper or any clothes hangers which I really need since my work has a strict dress code.

I'm still finding out new things about my apartment. For one the entire bathroom is considered a shower. Because there isn't any space, I just have a drain in the floor and in the bathtub, and I'm supposed to stand outside the shower to wash myself and then jump into the tub of clean water once I'm all done. I haven't tried it yet, but it makes sense since there's no place to put a shower curtain and the toilet paper has a protective casing around it. There's also gigantic creepy looking spiders all over the place and today I tried to kill one that was hanging out on my balcony, only to have it curl up in a ball and then spring at me. I thought I killed it on three different occasions but the same thing happened every time. Supposedly its bad luck to kill the spiders here, and even though I didn't kill this one, if I see another one in my apartment I know its little secret now and it definitely won't get away.

Last night I went out with the two Hiromis from work, two of the teachers and one of their girlfriends, and two of Hiromi's friends. To put it simply it was awesome. We went to a restaurant where you sit on the floor and eat and I had a few beers and some really good food. It was a lot of fun just because everybody, even with pretty high language barriers between us, was talking like we'd been friends for a long time. I think the biggest difference between the Japanese and Americans lies in how the females act. Whenever they talk, they sound like they are saying something really important and are excited to get the news out. This applies to when they react to what you say too; everything is an exaggerated expression but it seems to be more of a genuine fascination than being melodramatic. The whole night made it seem like life here will just continue to get better once I make a few friends, and even with the demanding work schedule, the times I have to relax, travel, and meet people are really exciting to think about.

Just a few flicks for now...

2008-10-20T06:27:00.000-07:00

I haven't had the chance to take too many pictures since I lost my camera charger, but I just got a new one so there's a lot more to come. This should give you a little overview of where I'm at though.

Something big coming...

2008-10-16T01:40:00.001-07:00

So I've made it to Japan but have failed to update with anything because I've been staying in a hotel for the last few days and the keyboards here have really tiny spaceboards and enter keys so typing anything takes about twice as long and gives me finger cramps. I move into my apartment tomorrow so hopefully I can find internet easily and steal someones wifi, otherwise the big update will take a little longer. Anyway, Japan is tight and I'll update once I get a little more settled.

Nothing is ever simple

2008-10-07T15:34:00.001-07:00

I leave the country on Friday, and the guy who has been helping me out in Japan just emailed me asking if the thing I got in the mail was a real visa or just a certificate of eligibility to get a visa. I've never worked outside the country, so after filling out visa applications and stuff, I figured that I had a visa. WRONG. I guess after you apply for a visa you then need to send this certificate to a Japanese Embassy to get a visa. At first I tried to change my flight to a later date, but my one way ticket DOUBLED if I did. So now rather than staying here for my friend's birthday and relaxing before the trip, I get to take a nine to ten hour bus ride to Chicago, turn in the certificate, spend the night at my cousin's house, then wake up, get my visa, and hop back on a bus. This is going to be the craziest few days. And here's a WIP of the zombies that I was trying to get done before I left. We'll see if it still happens. Suggestions are welcome.

More Findings and Some Sketches

2008-10-04T17:49:00.000-07:00

I had a little free time today and since I'm in a good mood I thought I'd write a little update and post a few sketches. I've decided I want to start playing the ukelele. I've been learning Beirut songs on the guitar but it just doesn't sound the same and I think ukeleles are just awesome. Also, its come to my attention that according to typography specialists, you aren't supposed to double space after a period. GASP! Why were we taught differently during school if the correct way is supposed to read much better and save space?

Today I bought my first pairs of slacks and my travel book for Japan. It was interesting to find a whole section dedicated to the history of anime and how it is one of Japan's major industries. In Tokyo they have a whole shopping area that is dedicated to manga, anime, and animation, and they even have animation museums where you can watch Ghost in the Shell and Akira. Crazy. The book had a little about my area too, and I really can't wait to get there. The first little trip I'm going to do is a five or six kilometer bike ride through a countryside scattered with old burial mounds, temples, shrines, and gardens. It's a few bucks to rent a bike and then I just take the train back to Okayama. Sounds pretty fabulous, hopefully I'll find the time before it gets too cold.

I was wondering if I could get any comments / critique on the zombie sketch. I'm making it for my friend's band and I just want to get some feedback or any ideas for filling in the background or for color schemes.

The Final Date

2008-09-30T18:56:00.000-07:00

Well after a long fight to get a big city in Japan, trying first for Nagoya and then for Hiroshima, I've finally landed a position in a city called Okayama. I can't find too much information about the city, but I was surprised to find that even though it's not considered a very big city it still has around 650,000 people. It has a castle and one of Japan's three famous gardens, but I'm pretty pumped for the Naked Man festival held there in February. People run around in traditional underwear and then at midnight some priests throw two rods into the audience. Sounds pretty tight to me, those rods are mine. The more I think about it, even though I would still love to live in a huge city, it might be good to live in a little less crazy place at first. I don't know the language and I think that getting used to my surroundings and getting around on my own will be a little easier in a less hectic place. Japan is so small, and Okayama is on a main train line, that I can easily make a day trip almost anywhere so I think things ended up working pretty well. I just went to a figure drawing thing called Dr. Sketchy's in Minneapolis recently so I'll post up the goofy drawings of roller derby girls I did there plus a few other things sometime soon. Oh, and my final departure date is October 10th, it's coming up real fast.

T-Minus TWO

2008-09-22T20:45:00.000-07:00

Well I apologize to those who left comments and didn't get any love back from me. I keep forgetting that I even have a blog, but I'll start checking back more often from now on, I didn't even know that you guys knew the URL. So, my visa has finally gotten processed and I'll be heading out in two weeks. It's really strange knowing that I'll be gone so soon, and it was kind of a shock to me when I got the email. Of course I knew I was going to go, but now that the departure date is so soon it feels weird knowing I'm going to be half-way across the world very shortly. Oh well, I'm ready for it. This week is my last week at work and I'm ready to get out of there. It's good practice, but the budget is too low to make anything worth mentioning and I'm sick of compromising quality due to time restraints and terrible budgeting. I've been working on a komodo dragon, doing the modeling, rigging, and now the texturing and a day doesn't go by without my boss making some snide comment about me taking too long and then disappearing into his office. I'm not a texture artist, and to be asked to jump into Zbrush and make a detailed bump and color map for a thing with a bunch of scales and folds of skins in 2 days is just ridiculous. Bah. Anyway, keep checking back and I'm glad to see that I'll be able to keep in touch with everyone. Oh, and I'm going to start uploading drawings I've been doing. Right now my scanner sucks but once I get to Japan I'm going to buy one and get down to business. Here's two I have scanned right now. Gotta love them prismas.

Intro

2008-08-11T18:24:00.000-07:00

So! It is now official, after two months of going through a bunch of application processes and classes, I finally landed a job teaching English in Japan. Things at the moment couldn't be better, and I can't wait to get going in Nagoya. In the meantime, I've been doing freelance work at an animation studio in Minneapolis that does work for a show on the History Channel called Monster Quest. It's filled with all the great 3D animation you would expect from a low budget show, but I still think it's pretty cool that I'm going to have something playing on national TV. Check it out! As for the blog, I know absolutely nothing about customization at the moment, but very soon I'll be posting up sketches, animations, and my many random thoughts. This is just a primer, but there is much more to come so check back every once in a while.