Tokyo.

So, my pictures loaded on the page in a random order. I'll just describe what we have been doing...

It was really rainy in Tokyo today, but we saw some really great things.


This is an exhibit by Mina Perhonen that we saw at the National Art Center, Tokyo.
Here are photographs of Mina's designs (the company designs apparel and textiles).






This is really great. This is a place we found in Shibuya called Sweets Paradise 90 minutes. It's an all-you-can-eat dessert buffet that you pay to visit for an hour and a half. We are going to try it out tomorrow night.

Shibuya...

Exhibit at the Mori Arts Museum. The exhibition was a survey of past Turner Prize winners (a recognition for British artists).

Douglas Gordon's Confessions of a Justified Sinner.
Damien Hirst's Divided Mother and Child.


A picture of me standing in front of a Louise Bourgeois sculpture outside the Mori.




A crowded square in Shibuya...

Cloudy view of Tokyo from the top of the Mori tower.


Monkey pet.

Last week in Kyoto.

Busy day at the sushi track restaurant. Daisy, Professor Kaufman, and me at our sayonara party.
Sayonara party...

A studio shot of an installation by our weaving instructor, Keiko.
So I was having a very hard time sleeping in our new rooms, and it turns out that my pillow is made up of tiny pieces of straw (like the kind we drink out of).

the Big Macs here come with egg.
Local textile store, Sou Sou.
Weaving...


Laura (left) with our weaving instructor.

My friend from the neighborhood...

Update...

So here are a couple of random pictures I wanted to show everyone. We are wrapping up work in the studio so I haven't been walking around and taking pictures as much. But I will have lots of updates when I move to Tokyo, in a couple of days.


Here is a picture of Shindo-san. He is a indigo dye artist that lives in a small mountain town in Japan. We are looking at his vats of indigo dye. He even let us dye silk scarves in them. Here we are dying our scarves...
Here's a view of his home and the mountains that surround his village.




Here's what Japanese school children look like...
Last week we learned the roketsuzome process-- a dyeing technique involving wax resist on silk. Here's my silly swimmers scarf... Laugh all you want...
Here's a snake we saw slithering around on our way to the grocery store. (he's on the fence if you can't see him.)
These are the vibrant trains we take into town.
Fellow traveling companions...


That's all for now. Not very exciting, I know. Hopefully I can find some fun stuff to show you guys when we finish working.

Studio

So, this week we are learning the Japanese process of katazome, which is a resist process. First, we design stencils with our prints. Then, ee make nori (a paste made of rice flour and some other ingredients) and apply it to empty spaces of stencils. After dyeing, we remove the nori to reveal white parts that resisted the dye.




These are some of my designs... arrows and eggs.

Past few days...

Here's an assortment of photos...




A Buddhist monk took us on a tour of the buildings/shrines in Kyoto. Here is a room with walls covered in buddhas. You throw special objects from the balcony and where they land on the buddha's footprints is supposedly a sign of your future.

The walls covered in buddhas.


Zen garden.

Traditional Japanese wedding ceremony.


Daisy on the Kyoto subway.

Tennis court in the courtyard of a former middle school and present day art center.

My new Japanese friends! Takashi and Sanao-- they go to the arts college here in Kyoto.


Uuskay and Takashi! More Japanese friends. (The peace sign is huge here).


Cheesy landscape shot. (For Mom.)