Inasayama

So...when life gives me lemons, I make... a bike trip? Certain key members of my Goto Island posse got sick, the forecast predicted RAIN ALL WEEKEND, so I saved my ferry & island bungalow money and I climbed Inasayama (Mt. Inasa, overlooking Nagasaki City)instead. I figured I'd chance being out on my bike for as long as the weather held. So far the only rain we've had today lasted about 20 minutes. Apparently, it's not really going to actually RAIN during rainy season this year.

Funny how when the sun comes out everything can magically feel a little better.
(of course, I never underestimate the power of prayers and nice emails, either...thanks :) )
***
This week in my painting class I actually painted from a live subject. I usually paint from a book (twisting every step of the way...but I'm not the teacher...), however, this week my teacher let me paint some higanbana, a flower that's blooming now (& the one in the previous post). I'm going to need more practice with this subject, but I thought you might like to see my first attempt. The red thing is my inkan (name seal). I'll photograph that and explain it a little better in another post.

Here's a photo I took of my workspace at my teacher's house. It's a really interesting place. From what I understand, my teacher lives with his parents in one (Japanese style) house, the grandparents are in a separate one on the same property, and then they have this painting building. It looks like they might have a garden on the property, too.
In my workspace you can see my practice paper on a piece of grey felt, my ink well, water (brush rinse), the porcelain container that holds water to add to the ink to get various shades of grey-black, fude (brush - it almost sounds like "who-day"), blotting towel, my subject, higanbana, and, of course, some delicious tea and treats (this week it was homemade veggie tempura) from my teacher's mom.

Just a couple of reference shots for my sketchbook...



Here's a museum at the botanical garden I visited on a school field trip in Sapporo. It was nice to see something different than the traditional Japanese for a change.















These maple leaves will be turning scarlet soon to herald the arrival of fall...I'd like to see this pattern in fabric.




















Here's a little nod to Weston -
(since I didn't have any peppers :) )
Actually, I'm thinking this could be inspiration for a new kind of potato chip...

竜頭泉 りゅうとうせん

(or for those of you having trouble reading that - "Ryutousen" (ryou-toe-sen).  

I can see why I had trouble remembering the right order of the name, because "ryu" means dragon, and I knew "sento" had something to do with bath/water/springs.  And, when I looked up "sentou" the first definition said "head"...

Well, I've got it now - 

"ryutou" = dragon head, "sen" = springs.  

And now your Japanese lesson is out of the way :)

Here's a picture of one of the "taki" (waterfall) and "sen" near the restaurant.  The surrounding area was gorgeous - good for hiking and camping I hear.  

After living here - with mountains so close, I can't imagine living without them now...