The weather has been crazy in recent years, with summers getting hotter and winters getting wetter. We’ve been getting hit with typhoons and strange weather spells. This year we didn’t even have a spring season; it went from freezing to sweltering literally over one night in May. Pollen allergies in summer, house dust allergies in winter… But all of that is worth putting up with for the one perfect day in early fall when the air is clean and cool, the sun is warm, and everything seems at balance in the universe.

I haven’t posted anything here for a while and I feel guilty for that. I’ve been busy and as you know when that happens, blogging gets pushed back to the end of the list of things to do. In brief, I’ve been working on a bunch of illustrations for some gaming products, which I’ll post at some point. I finished a very large hanging kakejiku (wall scroll) for my wife’s parents which is currently being “framed” in a cloth hanger, but I will go into more detail on that when we get it back from the framer. I’ve started aikido lessons — something I wanted to do back when I lived in Takefu before, but the times didn’t match with my work schedule. And I’ve begun teaching art lessons out of my studio, which has been quite fun.

We’ve had 2 classes so far and we’ve been really lucky avoiding morning thunderstorms and getting bits of sun and overcast just in time for class, so we’ve been able to sketch outside rather than being stuck in. So far we’ve gone to an ancient temple that was built on top of the ruins of an old castle, as well as a traditional shopping street lined with old buildings that is famous for its woodwork furniture.

Tansu-machi Street, 9/28

The building above is a table and dresser shop, and as we were drawing the owner invited us in for coffee. The shop is full of enormous tables made from single slaps of wood cut from strangely shaped trees. The result is gorgeous solid wooden tables that snake and curve in wonderful shapes. We were also approached by an old dwarf woman with a voice like a frog who stayed and watched us for a little while. Strange things happen in the fall!