Hey everyone, I just realized that I have some good pictures to post from two weekends ago when my girlfriend Elizabeth came to visit me from Korea, but I don't have time to post them now. I'll post them soon. These scarce pictures are of some artwork I've done (really all of the artwork) since I've been in Japan. The first ones are cartoons I was asked to draw last week by an English teacher at my first junior high school, Ichuu. The older students (san-nensei), who are moving on to high school soon, are preparing to take their entrance examinations and the English teacher wanted me to draw some good luck pictures for them. She said she would make them into stickers for the students. The second batch of pictures are of some Japanese calligraphy I did while staying at Koki and Kazue's house in Tokyo over winter vacation. Koki taught me how to write a couple Kanji (Chinese characters) and did a few of his own. We each drew some pictures beneath them to remember their meaning.
Koki helping me write my first Kanji in calligraphy...
I asked Koki to to teach me the Kanji for 'delicious Tuna.' The top part means 'tuna' and the bottom part, read from the right and down, then the left and down, means 'beautiful taste.' It really fascinated me to find out that Japanese people actually describe tastes as having beauty, and also that I had been using the word that represents these Kanji (oishii) super loosely up to then. I realize now that many of my school lunches didn't deserve that title, even if I said they were only sukoshi oishii (having a little bit of a beautiful taste).
This Kanji, called 'aji,' means 'to taste.' My cartoon makes it look like the Kanji means 'burn your tongue on a cheeseburger...' Anyway I think my cheeseburger looks way better than my Kanji.
Koki, the true Japanese artist, with his Kanji. The one on the left is 'Tuna' (maguro) and the one on the right is cow (ushi). And 2009 is the year of the cow.
Koki helping me write my first Kanji in calligraphy...
I asked Koki to to teach me the Kanji for 'delicious Tuna.' The top part means 'tuna' and the bottom part, read from the right and down, then the left and down, means 'beautiful taste.' It really fascinated me to find out that Japanese people actually describe tastes as having beauty, and also that I had been using the word that represents these Kanji (oishii) super loosely up to then. I realize now that many of my school lunches didn't deserve that title, even if I said they were only sukoshi oishii (having a little bit of a beautiful taste).
This Kanji, called 'aji,' means 'to taste.' My cartoon makes it look like the Kanji means 'burn your tongue on a cheeseburger...' Anyway I think my cheeseburger looks way better than my Kanji.
Koki, the true Japanese artist, with his Kanji. The one on the left is 'Tuna' (maguro) and the one on the right is cow (ushi). And 2009 is the year of the cow.
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