NICE RICE.

As I have mentioned before, instead of having twee gardens, the Japanese have strips of land which they farm for themselves. Like allotments but longer and thinner. These most of them are used for rice. The rice shoots were tiny at the beginning of our stay but now look at them! A field of green.

SUMO.

Yeah thats right we went to a Sumo tournament and it was amazing. I do have a video of the actual fights - although they only last 40 seconds, my computer deems this too long and wont upload them. Ill have to just re-enact them for you when I`m back on English soil.

FRAMING THE WAY.

Some more photos from around printmaking. These brown boxes all have frames in them. You know for your work so that when you have an exhibition, at Uni or away, you can borrow them to put your work in. How socialist is that?! It is honestly the most fantastic system ever and I think we should have it at our Uni too. It is ridiculous the amount of money we have to spend on our degree shows. And dont give me the, oh well just stick it up with blue tack, because you wouldnt tell a Med School Kid to write his final exams in lipstick, would you? Well you might depending on the Med School Kid I suppose. But anyway, it is one of those other costs that they dont consider when dishing out the blanket loan to Art School Kids, and it really pisses me off. Maybe if I stick around Brighton Ill open a Frame Rental Shop and rent out frames to the printmaking department. Or some other people who want to frame their work. It is becoming increasingly common for Art Competitions to ask for work already framed. Anyway, rant over, and I promise there is a very stereotypically Japanese ordering system to these frames...

PRINTMAKING.

Just a few photos of what has been my home for the last few months. Nagoya Printmaking isnt the slickest of departments but it is the bestest. My desk is huge. I can put loads of stuff on it. And I do. I will definitely miss this place, there are lots of things British Art Schools could learn from the Japanese I think. To have a real community at University is really important and wanting to be somewhere will always result in more work being done and students beeing happier. Surely thats what it is all about?

HEAVY PETTING.

These are the printmaking Pets. Mess with these badboys and youre in trouble. Some advice Cameron; PR is a politician`s bread and butter. Stick a few of these round Universities and they might not have been so angry.

Joke, definitely still would have but still, Japan Printmaking Department 1 - 0 English Printmaking Department.

PAPERMATE.

I know I have mentioned this quite a few times, but Nagoya Arts University is the best place in the world. Not only do they let me openly abuse quite a lot of the facilities here, they also let me mess around in there paper making class. Didnt really come to much work wise, but I do have some rather special looking postcards to send out. Coming to a doormat near you. Maybe.

FABRIC OF THE BUILDING.

Just a few student projects around Uni. One of the massive benefits to not having any health and safety or nagging from the only employees of Brighton University who were shirts and suit trousers about the `fabric of the building`, is that if you want to hang something off the cealing to see what its like, do it. First images are of a textile project and the other is KEEP OUT tape used to mock the meaning of barriers and signage.

UNI-HOME.

Here are a few pictures of my new home, Nagoya University of the Arts. I love it here. A lot.

WONDERFUL CITY.

So you can't be an art student without the cool clothes right? We went shopping. Hard.
Wonder City is the local Bull ring and it is fricking ace. Personal highlights were:

Bolo - The first shop we went in, sort of like an earthy All Saints. Bought a calf length jersey floral dress from there. Thought I looked like Annie Hall... If Diane ever came to Japan.

The Ice Cream place: I can't actually remember what it was called but I know it sold ice-cream because there was 30% off. One thing I am learning about the Japanese is that they love to que. Rich coming from an English girl right, no! They LOVE to que. Evidence provided.

Wonder City Department store: Just like the Selfridges of the Bull Ring. Although this one is more like Debenhams on second thoughts. Had to get a puncture repare kit because I had a flat and stumbled across this lovely bike. I know nothing about bikes but this one was pretty.

SAGA Store: Not like the Disney store with loads of crappy stuff with Winnie on, this was a mini arcade but taken with maximum seriousness. Drum game was my favorite.

SUNDAY SCREENING

I know it's not Sunday but I couldnt work out how to do this last night so lets just pretend the time difference is to blame! Here are a few dumb videos I took with my camera. I'm not sure if they are very good quality, but its just to give a better idea of Nagoya and Osu Market.
Enjoy!

A VASE FOR YOUR TEA.

Today was a bit of a surprise kind of day. Last night San Hirano who is our Landlady popped round (Mr Hirano is a councillor or something and has been for a while. That or the photographer on his campaign was a dab hand with the old photoshop), and invited us to go to a tea ceremony with them in the morning. So we did and this is what I thought:

Tea is a funny thing really. In England, well in my house anyway, there are many kinds each with their individual following and way of making. Here is somewhat the same but with a sort of semi-spirituality attached. We walked into what looked like a town hall with judo rooms on either side. A que had formed and I think we pushed in, well, Mr Hirano did and we followed. There was a lot of following and vacant smiling. We took our shoes off and sat around a mat room on our knees. Women in lovely heavy Kimonos brought paper napkins round (although they were much neater and stylish looking than our pastel equivalents). Then an older woman came in and sat on a chair to talk to us all. I have no idea what she was saying, there was absolutely no expression in her voice but the circle of mostly middle aged, middle class japanese, found it hillarious. Then we were given bowls of green tea with a slightly creamy top. We had to bow a few times to the right and infront, turn the bowl and then drink up. There was also this funny roll thing that they gave us but I cant quite remember when we had that. I think it was made of some kind of bean paste, bright green on the outside and purple in the middle. To be honest I thought it was marzipan at first and nearly wet myself (I have a rather inconvenient nut allergy) The tea must have blurred my memory.

Afterwards we went into another room and saw some flower arranging. I have no idea what they were about but that there was an 'old' style and a 'modern' style. See if you can tell.

After all that tea and foliage, we went to this museum about Japanese technology and bits and pieces. There was this cute game at the end where you used photographic paper and an office lamp to expose little images in red and black. I liked the clock faces because of the number 8. Looked cooler than English ones I've seen.

NAGOYA CITY AND SCAPE.

I am staying in Nagoya which is sort of like the Birmingham of Japan - although with more culture... so maybe if Manchester was in the middle of England, thats where I would be. My university and where I am living is on the outskirts towards the suburbs and so theres a nice mix of residential housing, city living and farm land which they farm in strips (like England in the 18th century...?...oh dear, GCSE History is lost on me). I think they also do lots of growing their own here too. An allotment -ist`s dream!

My university seems to have been built in the 60s, or there abouts, and the campus is heaven! Lots of medium sized buildings with open spaces and walkways between. Oh and everywhere is super clean. The Japanese seem to be very hygienic people which extends to their surroundings. Speaking of surroundings, there are loads of fishes hung from houses and trees at the moment. I think it is something to do with Children`s day which is next Tuesday, as part of Golden week - a week of national holidays. I don't really understand much about it, but apparently thats why they are there. Nice to look at anyway.

BEDDING DOWN.

I thought I would show you my flat and surroundings. I have a small but perfectly formed apartment near the train station and only 5 minuets bike ride from my university building (yep, they gave us bikes because we are now adoptive japanese and this is the only way to travel). My room looks a lot smaller in that photo than actually is and everything seems a bit harsher. I think its the light. That is Lucy, who lives next door, trying out the wireless on the loo! And of course, no shoes allowed! The top left is the view from our balcony - the station and a few bars and restaurants. Havnt quite mastered our food vocab so we`ve just been randomly pointing at things and seeing what we got. Makes for a very interesting meal!

JAPAN!

I have made it all the way to Japan! I am now well acquainted with airports of all sizes:

Heathrow, always a bit of a let down

Helsinki was nice, lots of windows and the coolest Reindeer rugs (mental note to save a bit of money for one of them)

and Nagoya, the best one purely for the fact it was in JAPAN! whoooo!

Pictures to follow.