Paray Le Monial

A long journey to ride on a cycle, that was the 60km we rode from Bourg-Le-Comte to Paray. The sights and sounds of the slow creep along the narrow country roads of rural France intrigue me. Here are a few photos of the journey from that September day.

Overdue Art

I have failed miserably to keep my blog updated, as it has been over a year since my last blog. Here in Bourg Le Comte, I am busy working on furniture and making plenty of mistakes in my hand work on furniture. But, I am learning. I have been away from painting for quite a while, and to be honest I did not think that I would miss it as much as I am now. Here in the countryside is so beautiful, I can see now why the great masters became inspired enough to paint something so mundane as a landscape. I mean they really are great views. But, more on that later, when I get some goache and a view pieces of cotton paper. So, here are some photos of my last year's work. Lots of big paintings.

Portrait of the Artist and His Mother

Judas

Mottainai
This was a painting done in 25 plus sections, each panel is 2ft by 2ft, and obviously
a few did not make it to the final installation. It is a large painting meant to lay on the floor, and viewed in the round.

Saru mo Ki kara Ochiru (Even Monkeys Fall From Trees)

We left Tokyo, hopped on the Shinkansen bound for Nagoya, which by the way is the coolest way to travel and we should totally adopt it in America...But, that is another issue. After eating some corndog-sized fried shrimp in Nagoya, We hopped on the bus and rode for about 2 hours far into the mountains of Gifu, a small town of about 15,000 people, it is called Gujyo Hachiman. We arrived at the train stop, it was raining, waiting to meet our next host...we waited...A car pulls up on this desolate stretch of Japanese Highway, it has got to be for us.
I was expecting Richard, the Canadian guy who runs the farm to meet me, instead it is a young hippie Japanese guy, with a few drunk girls. We hop in. After some strange broken Japan-glish in the car, we arrive at a house where I hear guitars and Djimbe drums...definitely Hippies. We go in to find maybe 20 Japanese people sitting on tatami around two tables with heaps of food and copious amounts of alcohol, beer, Sake, Scotch....WOW! What is this place some sort of Oneida Community?
Turns out they were having a community party that was once planned as a barbecue, but it rained so they moved inside. This group of people are part of a web community called Masubu, and I think this was the first time that many of them had met. They promote a self-sustainable type of living, a self-dependence and a quiet impact on the earth. It is actually really really cool, and totally possible to do. I think I am going to like this place.
Today Nick and I drove, yes we drove the Japanese van, up the mountain to collect composting leaves for the garden...and maybe a little sightseeing along the way. It is so beautiful and quiet here. The house is all open and at one with the landscape. Today we stopped at an overlook to see the view. I hear some rustling in the trees, look up to see the some grey-bodied creature climbing in the trees. Japanese Monkeys in the wild! I stopped and looked and the red-faced little guy looked right back at me directly in the eyes. What a place.

The Last Train

Good Morning Tokyo....What a crazy week. This place has got to be the most intense city ever. During the day, it is the most beautifully bustling city, and at night when the last train stops do not catch yourself in the red light district. Strange place, different than anything I thought. But, I am not a great writer, so I will use media to make it better. Here are a few videos while I was in Tokyo.

OK We Go....

So... What to say about WWOOFing.....everyone should do it. It is not only a cheap way to travel, it is a perfect way to immerse yourself in a foreign culture at a domestic level. Today Nick and I arrived in Tokyo city today, in Minowa to be exact in Taito ward, at the bAkpAK youth hostel...We settled in a bit and immediately went to Akihabara. There, the busiest arcades and electronic shops anywhere pale in comparison to the sensory overload that is in Akihabara. Lights, arcades, pachinko, more lights and crazy people, maid bars, which are really wierd, pay to rent a cat for 30 minutes to play with it....oh Tokyo, what a place. But i'll go into more later. What I am trying to say is that, this was already too intense for Gaijin, and we have been in Japan for two weeks. I could barely handle it, honestly. But WWOOFing prepared me for the intimacies that exist in Japanese society, like how to get proper service at a restaurant. I now have a week off, free to myself, maybe I can show my polished Japanese skills off...alright probably not. But I'll try.
Anyway, I will miss the Yamazaki house and all the fellow WWOOFers. My last day, Kazuko and I rode 40 minutes into Hachioji to the Metro super to buy some pork shoulders for roasting. I cooked all day. I made some spicy southern roasted pork shoulder, cole slaw, and baked beans. A gift of a traditional meal cannot be topped. It was a great final night. But, here are a couple videos of the metro and a quick tour of the Yamazaki's place.






But, I would like to go into about the issue of trash and waste disposal very briefly in Japan. Okay, as you know everything is small here, cars are half the size, houses have maybe one bathroom, everything is small because only 30% of land in Japan is habitable. So....there is absolutely no space for waste. But, the Japanese have adapted very well. Many things are built to last so products are expensive, but they dont break. They recycle alot. But, It sometimes costs more to throw away something than its worth to buy. I costs hundreds of dollars to toss a fridge out, WHAT!? I dunno just something to think about.....

A Narrow Fellow in the Glass

I work nearly 48 hours a week, from 10-6 Monday through Saturday. After work is finished we have dinner, which starts at 7, and goes anywhere from 9 o'clock to 10 o'clock. My free time is a bit limited as far as the time I have to update the blog, but I try. On Sunday though, Nick and I had the day to ourselves, and we rode the subway east into Kichijoji, a bustling city catering to the young generation with many vintage boutique shops, bars, and cool art galleries. Some describe the city a mini-Tokyo. And, as with any major Japanese city, sitting directly off of the noisy streets are quiet temples with neatly manicured gardens, and quietly modest landscapes.

After the temple, we wandered around the city, stopped in a ramen-ya, and got some salty ramen and a beer and were on our way. We made it to Inokashira park, which is awesome. After the park we walked through the shopping district, and pretty much everywhere around the city. But I wanted to go to the famous Yodobashi camera. A playground for any electronic enthusiast, and if you are not you will become one there. They have everything from $15,000 watches to more camera tripods than you could use in your life, and every new little gadget in between.

Night came, and the bars were open. So we headed around the shopping district, it closes shops and night and opens delicious restaurants and great bars. We stopped in at a Hawaiian-Okinawan themed restaurant and bar called Jingle-Jangle. It was awesome. We had some delicious Japanese Beef Tataki.

We met a couple of Japanese natives. They introduced us to a new beverage that I have always seen and wanted to try, and I finally did. Habu-shuu, or roughly a rattle snake curled up inside of a bottle of strong rice liquor. Tasted great, and apparently its nature's Viagara too. Or so they say.

"Apples in Tokyo!," Please Don't Surpise

Clare Garden has been much of a surprise to me. It is a little Oasis of Japaneseness mixed with an enthusiasm for everything Western. It is basically a Tudor style house and an English garden with lots of beautiful roses and a very nice koi pond. The inside is an antique shop and a small restaurant/cafe. The cafe reminds me of a french or western style cafe where the dishes do not match, one table is a metal garden table and one is a round oak table, and the food is served in a similar, "Today's-Lunch-Plate,"style. Needless to say, my experience in Japan is a very peculiar one. All of the patrons are Japanese, and I have not seen any Gaijin, foreigners that is, beside the WWOOFers since I have been in Japan, and yet the food and atmosphere is strangely familiar and western

Working there at first was a bit stressful becuase of Kazuko-san's personality. She is a very busy lady, running three households and a restaurant, so her stress comes into everything she does just about. She has been constantly taking in WWOOFers which I am sure adds to her stress. I think so because in Japan, guests are treated with a certain respect, and it may look bad if a someone cannot host a guest and has to refuse them. With that in mind I think Kazuko-san has been bombarded with many WWOOFers requesting stay here, and she only turns away a few.

When we first arrived and began work, Kazuko-san was a bit cold, she would not entrust us with tasks independently, so she micromanaged. But, I had to prove my capability by just working diligently, and she has warmed up greatly. I have enjoyed trimming roses and dead-heading them. One day she told me how to trim roses, probably expecting me to finish all 20 roses bushes rather quickly, instead, I took my time, and worked all day making every rose bush perfect. She liked that, so now I get to work independently. Yesterday, I finished a bit of a dry-stack wall around a garden. And I built a fire in a brick oven and made bread. Finally, some cool shit to do!