Trotting Around Tokyo

Big Buildings, Big Signs

And everywhere were verbal advertisements on loudspeakers, or people in front of shops calling out the benefits of their wares. Many of the signs and billboards were video, so with all the color, the writing, the sounds, the movement of pictures and of masses numbers of peoples, the mental stimuli were enormous.

The Japanese are a very orderly and very methodical and quiet people themselves though. They line up between yellow lines to board the subways, or in queues in front of not-yet-opened stores or busy counters. They are silent on trains and subways. There are even signs telling oblivious foreigners to turn down the volume of headphones so they do not "leak" out and bother fellow passengers.

Here is the famous Shibuya crossing, not at rush hour in this particular picture, where masses of people get from one side of a large intersection to another silently en masse. Before the light turns.....

....and after

Transplanted Christmas

The Japanese, who are usually both Buddhist and Shinto, are adopting Christmas in its commercial and colorful aspects. 

Imperial Gardens

We strolled through the Gardens, which are now much paved and graveled over, but still have picturesque pines and a watery moat, and great black carp that come up to the bridges when young men sit precariously on them to get their pictures taken for social media.

Art

We saw art of all kinds, from graffiti to pop to commercial to architectural to floral to confectionery to paper to finely crafted ceramics (which latter, sorry to say, I couldn't photograph). 

And on we go to Kyoto.

Good Morning

From Tokyo 

Travel:Tokyo

Trip Start

From Zurich 

To Tokyo

And our first Japanese word. I have no idea how to pronounce it. But we know what to look for: a jumping guy and a door OH!

Skyscrapers everywhere.

And pretty green areas amid.

Even growing up walls.

And the moat in the old Imperial Gardens - windy!

Other parts of the Gardens

 

The Train station, a mix of old and new

Other Old and New

Lunch

And,  more to come, D.v. 

Drawings and Illustration

From Leah:

Here's some of the quick timed drawings we had to do in Drawing 201 class. Very stressful and quick, but fun and fulfilling nevertheless! I have a lot of drawings so I'll just post a few at a time!

From Sarah:

Here's some more illustration class stuff from a few weeks ago:

We were showing emotion in a usually inanimate object. The whole class worked on forks, then we were told to pick out something in the room to use for a subject. We watched a video clip of Disney's Aladdin, where they met the magic carpet, for an example.

Projects in Progress

Clay forms 

These are for a nature canvas each of the girls is working on. It would be nice to get them done before winter sets in entirely. Then we have Christmas projects planned.

Winter Coming Down

But so far still only up in the mountains. Snow starting.....

Continuing....

A good day for a cozy library 

The last door of Maria's kitchen cabinets done today.

More Heads

Clay work in progress by Evelyn and Katrina. These are small heads that will, D.v., become full figures.

And their canvases in progress for planned projects.

Other creative work for today by the girls. Would you call this a successs from the emptiness of the plate?

Pumpkin People Painted

Process

From base coat to layers to bright eyes.

Finished (except sealer): Sarah's, Evelyn's, Katrina's 

Then dessert, with sugar hair.

All Saints Day

Today was the birthday of our dear departed one, now a saint in heaven. 

For yesterday's Reformation observance my visiting sprites and I made...... drum rolll...... pies, of course. They were wonderful and I would like to keep the Heinzelmännchen (Mädchen) who made them. 

We would like to get at painting our projects, but are still waiting on drying. Winter is approaching though, so we have fires going now, so maybe drying will speed up. In the meantime, more notes are in progress for upcoming projects for other classes and finishing current ones .