Hiroki Mafuyu, and Ayumi Again

Today we were invited to the school where Hiroki Mafuyu teaches, Tokyo Communication Arts seemed like a clone of SCAD, but in Japan, of course.

On the subject of Mafuyu, I didn’t recognize his name, but some of his work I had recognized. The cover to “Calling” was the image that struck the chord of familiarity with me.

He himself seemed a very poetic person. I felt most of what he said was lost in translation, and it was a pity, but nevertheless it was still a very good motivational speech. He left us with “Draw until your heart reaches the boiling point.”

After some Q/A over his prints and originals, he invited us to one of his classes. We were all pretty stunned, and rushed to the nearest convenience store to get some lunch beforehand.

Not that it’s very interesting, but I had Takoyaki for the first time, alongside a Final fantasy Dissidia potion, which apparently debuted on this very day. I bought many more later to sell on eBay to other unfortunate Americans. I have to reimburse myself for this trip somehow.

But they tasted really bad. The black ones at least.

The workshop was prety interesting, it was mostly on cross-hatching, but what I was more interested in was seeing the Manga students.

But, I had to leave early as I had plans to see Ayumi one more time.

It was pretty fun to show off who I’d just been with. I showed them photos of the originals for Calling and her mother muttered some awe in Japanese.

We just went around Ginza a bit, specifically to a paper store in he middle. Her mom knew quite a but about calligraphy so I learned a lot about sumi-e brushes and their specific uses.

Animal Noises

So these next ones are being posted ‘post-Japan’, in other words after I got back. Ah, well delays. Sure fire way to get rid of any possible readers. I typed them earlier but never posted because of lack of time to add pictures.
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Back to Ueno Park today for the Zoo, which those of you who know me personally was one of the reasons I wanted to go on this trip. As one of the sequential profs said in introduction “We know that half of you came on this trip to draw dinosaurs and go to the Zoo, so here you are.”

There was a possibility that we wouldn’t have gone, (and doing something else) which the professors were being rather sneaky about, but as I’m writing this later, I have clairvoyant-like knowledge, so anyway, it’ll come up later…

We were also informed that there was another ‘contest’ to be had today, same rules as last time, but the winners get an original Mark Shultz. I sighed at this and ignored it. Today was a me day, and I wasn’t going to freak out about any contest.

The first thing to not is not on the actual zoo, but the little kiddies visiting. We’d noticed this at the Edo Museum, but I didn’t take any pictures then because it felt a little too close and stalkerish of me. This time, we were huddled at the entrance for a while whilst the professors and our single Japanese-fluent student attempted to buy group tickets. The visiting school kids (who all looked about kindergarten age) started laughing and pointing at the group of stupid Americans, and we -elated at for once not being ignored- made a compete show of ourselves and gushed at how adorable they were in their matching hats. Each school seems to have a specific colored hat to keep their kids all identifiable. There was even one group whose hats were white with little green stems, resembling radishes.

Our profs considered getting up shirts or something before the trip, but really. We glow in the dark here. All I need to do if I get separated is to look for someone tall or blond.

The zoo itself was actually not as grand as I expected, though it was still really good. I’ve been spoiled by the Columbus Zoo back home, which seemed to have equally good exhibits, though Columbus’s isn’t nearly as big. Ueno Zoo also had a lot more to offer as far as species diversity went.

The thing that wierded me out was that it was a lot noisier than other zoos I’d been too. Usually the animals in the zoos are bored, and you rarely if ever hear them. In Ueno, there wasn’t a moment when the monkeys weren’t screaming their heads off, and for a while the lion stood and made a ruckus in his exhibit for no clear reason. It was pretty great. Other members of our group also complained of the rowdiness of the kids- but this was a real relief to me. Japanese culture is so quiet. Even when walking through a city, I find there is little conversation, and the bustle of the city doesn’t involve people calling out to each other or the usual rowdiness of human beings in general.

Anyway, the kids were a complete contrast, and were possibly crazier than kids their age in the US. It was really refreshing to actually see some personality. Equally cool was when some older kids (about middle school age) came up to me to try their English out, something also made familiar to me at the Edo museum. Drawing the lions, I let them look over my shoulder and stutter “Nice!” I’d often try to respond, but they were usually mystified by English as I was.

As much as I enjoyed the zoo and wanted to finish seeing the rest of it, it as possibly one of the coldest days of the trip. I was determined to stay, but it started to rain and I took it as a sign.

Ironically, I think I lost my plastic flamingo there.

Ate with some friends at a pizza shop. It was really…terrible. The professors had warned us. Dairy products aren’t a regular thing in Japan.

Then we went back to Nakano to shop a bit, and found far too much cool stuff… again.

I found more Zoids that I’d passed over the visit before, freaked out and thought about it for the next day until more cool things came along.

Noticing the Small Things.

So I’m in Tokyo!

Getting here was a trial in itself, and despite being considerably longer, the flight to Narita was much better. The flight to Atlanta was actually quite ridiculous… I had a two and three year old with their mother seated behind me. The two year old sat on her lap and kicked at my seat the whole one and a half hours. The three year old cried and shouted about wanting to get off the plane for about just as long. Never had such an uncomfortable flight. I just remember another flight with a crabby flight atendant who opened the flight by saying “Hope you have a safe OR comfortable flight.” I suppose I had the latter.

I sat next to a retired schoolteacher and a conspiracy theorist… who was also a retired schoolteacher. That was interesting. He got old really fast.

Getting to Atlanta was delayed, and instead of having lunch there I just had to run to my plane, which I barely made it on. For a while I thought it was just me and one other kid, Zane, which was terrifying. We were positive the rest of our group was going to be late to getting to Tokyo. The thought of being along in a foreign country was… well you can imagine.

The rest of the SCAD group got on the plane about 2 minutes before the plane took off. Thank you Lord.

I’ll admit the flight to Narita was taxing, and not exactly fun in comparison, but at least that kid wasn’t beating on me for the whole fourteen hours. A woman who drank far too much on that flight was next to me, but we had an empty seat between us, at the very least.

I can’t sleep on planes… it was painful. But I watched a million movies on that little console screen. I didn’t read or do any of my own things I brought to entertain me because they took far too much energy. I’d had four hours of sleep before so oy. But I beat Fire Emblem. Wow finally.
The Narita airport I barely remember. I was so tired. I just remember customs making me really nervous for no particular reason. And forgetting my jacket on the plane and a flight attendant running in to get it for me. A blur.

Our hotel is amazing. I don’t think we deserve it, really. I mean, the glass in the bathroom has a section that is heat that doesn’t fog over when you shower so you can see yourself afterwards. Really. More on that later when I actually take pictures.

OH, despite having bought an international plan for my phone for the two weeks, my phone is a paperweight here. American phones just don’t agree with the Japanese airwaves, I suppose. I carry it out of habit and because of my lack of watch (which I’m planning to buy at the Ghibli Museum anyway. :P)

That night was the welcome dinner, but he plans didn’t work out so they told us to just go and find something to eat. Yeah it took a while… and no one spoke English. The three people and myself that went made complete fools of ourselves. Pride isn’t really a factor here when you have no idea how to speak the language. We went to a tea/café something-or-other and had breakfast, which was oddly appropriate since it was around 10 AM at home and we were still screwed up.

Funny because I seemed to only notice the small things, when it came to how different Tokyo is. Everything is just so CLEAN.

Even the manhole covers are decorated, like this one outside the hotel. (there’s the group standing in front of the hotel rather rudely. We later figured out a way to be more polite.) I havn’t seen even a cigarette button the ground. And the streets that are in the US usually paved with flattened gum are non-existent.

Crime is so low, people park their bikes without locking them to anything! It was really comforting.

So I was set to live here from the first few hours I spent here. Everything is so organized and beautiful in an industrial way.

Second day showed a little of the more peaceful, non-urban side of Japan (sort of). We went to the Meiji shrine, covered in trees and just green everywhere. The sound of crows (very large ones) set an incredible ambience for it, especially after Professor Mauer telling us they were the guardians of the temple. They were EVERYWHERE, and dare I say not nearly as mangy or small as the ones I’ve seen back home.

I felt like all they were doing was shouting “American! American!” as we walked through.

The whole place was so beautiful and inspiring... and I was dying to draw through my whole walk around the place, but, interestingly, we weren’t allowed to draw. The police officers that patrolled the area would rush up to us and hurriedly tell us to stop drawing and put our sketchbooks away, despite photography being encouraged. I was told later that it’s a spiritual reason- apparently the act of drawing is seen as taking some of the spirit of the place away. It was interesting to see a culture in which the act of drawing is considered to have so much power.

At the end of a long forest path, we saw the dojo, but before we entered there was a small place to cleanse yourself.

The water was very cool and clear. You’re supposed to take the ladle in the right hand, and wash your left. Then switch, and do the same to your right. Lastly, taking it back in your right hand, you cup our left and ladle water into your hand to cleanse your mouth. I was a beautifully organized ritual.

I watched an old woman, bent over reverentially, run over to the cleansing area and vigorously and devoutly wash herself. He looked so passionate for being so small. When I made my way to the prayer area, I watched her as she bowed over the prayer tables. It was so beautiful…

That’s all for this post, I have to go out for my workshop on the third day. I’ll finish up the account for day two and three tonight, that is if my 24 hours of internet hasn’t run out. It’s 500 yen per day, so I’m trying to log in every other day or something affordable like that.