Meiji Shrine

Rows of lanterns at Meiji Shrine, Tokyo. 

Chris and I still remember our visit 20 years ago to the huge and famous Meiji Shrine, near Harajuku and Omotesando in Tokyo. We settled onto a bench to do a bid of sketching and with seconds, a guard in a grey uniform came over, hand up and said: "No drawing long time." Needless to say, this time around, I expected a similar fate as I quietly pullout out my sketchbook. To buy delight, I sat for about an hour and to my double delight, the shrine was filled with traditional wedding activity. It was so colourful, serene and stately. And of course, I had to capture a couple of views of those official guys in grey. That day they were too busy trying to keep tourists out of the wedding processions to be worried about drawing infractions.

Getting Started

Getting the sketching started in a new location can take a bit of gumption. Before a trip, I have rosy fantasies of drawing my way through foreign cities but sometimes making the paint hit the paper is astonishingly intimidating.

I had a couple of days in Tokyo on my own, before I connected with Chris and our friends. Jet lag was working in my favour so I was up early and the days were warm and bright. As I wandered around Inaricho, near Ueno, I happened onto one of of the numerous shrines in the neighbourhood. There was a place to sit, where (ironically) local business men and women came to smoke so I got started. As an aside, it is remarkably hard to find benches in public places in Japan. There seems to be a general discouragement of lingering. And also, garbage cans are non-existent. The streets are impeccably clean but it is not that easy to find garbage cans and recycling bins. Hmm.

 So, I sketched, listening to the local salarymen gossiping. The sun came around and pushed me off my bench. And so the day and the sketching began.

Subway Sketching

Inevitably when you visit Tokyo, you spend a lot of time on subways and trains, moving around the mammoth city. I occasionally sketched commuters but with the seats set up as long benches, facing each other, it is hard to hide the fact that you are sketching someone if you are looking straight at them. Shoes are always a good option because it alleviates the stare factor. 

In this case, I surreptitiously glanced at this woman wearing her mask on the train. She was absorbed in her cell phone so was unaware of me studying her. This drawing has a very sketchy quality because, for obvious reasons, I was going fast. 

A Thirty Year Cycle

Text conversation between me and my daughter, B.
This after she drove and dropped me at the Seabus station, heading to the airport.

B: "Feels kinda weird to be sending my mother off alone on a backpacking trip."

Me: "Ha! Just like the old days when my mom sent me off to Japan in 1986.
Gosh that's 30 years ago. One big, cosmic circle."

And I could just not stop smiling…..

You see, my youngest  graduated from high school and is firmly launched at university. My eldest has finished her course and found a great job on the Island. So I have been given my parenting pink slip. I say that in the best possible way.

I and we, as a family, have had many fine adventures since my mom sent me off into the blue yonder all of those years ago. But this trip to Japan, with my backpack, somehow felt symbolic and frankly, great. There is something exhilarating about heading off solo with the prospects of unknown adventures. The other thing is that my kids are capable and independent. That makes leaving them behind really easy. And let's be honest. I was going for 2 and a half weeks. And, I was heading to Japan, my home away from home, to meet up with my husband and our two friends. It was a holiday... with a backpack. There were youthful resonances but also an itinerary, friends and kin,   accommodation  booked and way more Japanese language at my disposal this time around. In 1986, I arrived in Tokyo at 7 pm on a Friday night, with some money in my pocket, accommodation that had fallen through, the phone number of the cousin of an acquaintance, negligible Japanese language ability, no job and only a half baked plan. It all worked out then. And it was a splendid experience. I figured this time around would be also be splendid. And so it was.

What follows will be a few sketches and stories about a trip to Japan.
It all started with a sketch of Bill Reid's Haida Gwaii at YVR.

Yikes! Time for a Catch Up!

What happened?! Oh ya. Summer.

What is it about beautiful weather and blogging? They just don't seem to go together. And it sure was a beautiful summer, and fall for that matter, including an amazing trip to Japan. And now, the leaves are changing, the air feels cool and the light is at a completely different angle. Soon we will lose daylight savings and the evenings will be dark even earlier.

What is it about dark evening and blogging? They go together perfectly:)

Stay tuned for updates from my amazing summer course with Roz Stendhal and, of course, that trip to Japan.

Huangshan

Think of the classical Chinese paintings you have seen of steep, mist shrouded mountains with perfect wind pruned pines clinging to rocky outcroppings. This is the beauty of Huangshan, The Yellow Mountains in Anhui Province. The ever-changing scenes are an inspiration to artists……and also a life's work. It would take a lifetime of daily study to do them justice. The mist rose and evaporated, hiding and revealing stunning views at every point along the beautifully laid stone paths criss crossing the mountains. 

The other thing about visiting Huangshan that must be mentioned is that there are legions of tourists  enjoying the sights. In fact, this was part of the charm for me. In this quick sketch, I tried to capture the sense of the group tours, complete with matching hats, guide flags and leaders with megaphones keeping their charges together. We saw orange ball caps, more stylish yellow hats, pink, Louis Vuitton-esque brown plaids and everything in between.  

Huangshan - Yellow Mountains

Huangshan - Yellow Mountains

Huangshan - Yellow Mountains

The hotels at the top of the mountain allow people to camp in the basketball court for 150 yuan per night. 

Snacks

One morning in Hongcun, Chris was having a coffee in a cool little shop. I got drawing and was having fun with the juxtaposition of old and new snacks. M&Ms are my guilty pleasure. We also discovered these yummy black sesame filled cookies, sold by the village grannies from a big basket. I assume these cookies have been a local favourite for some time.