rebekah

saw quite a few embarrassing typo errors in my previous posts *blush*(if you caught THAT one, i swear it wasn’t freudian). sometimes i can be the worst proof reader ever. it’s not particularly in my nature to pay attention to details. i can make an effort to be extra careful, when the need calls. but under normal circumstances, i’m … easily distracted. i’m just so glad i didn’t try to pursue a career in editing, which i nearly did. it’d have been a quite a spectacular disaster.

i’ve been mulling over some things recently. but reduce everything to the lowest common denominator, it’s still about me feeling incompetent. but at least now i understand why i’d had those angry dreams when there was really nothing to be angry about then. and why i constantly sleep-talk, or more accurately sleep-scream. i think i’ve come a fair distance in overcoming my own hyper-sensitive nature and pent-up anger but there’s still more to learn. peace is not just an outward show of grace or serenity, nor is it attained by hiding away in a safe place where i’d be left unchallenged.

everything takes time. and when i stop heaping rocks on myself, i might be able to float just fine.

the final weekend before school reopens. and i’ve got nothing planned. the apartment feels much cooler now that it’s not so hot outside. clothes strewned all over the place. unwashed dishes in the sink. and 2 hamster cages waiting. my thoughts like a room full of soap bubbles all floating around. but poke ‘em and they pop. so i’m just gonna lie in bed this weekend, with my 2 fat novels, and morph into a tare panda.

as the summer vacation was drawing nearer and most Jets were planning to make big summer trips either back to their home countries or to some other nice and faraway places, i was fretting over how not to spend the entire obon period alone in the staff room in school. obon is a period where most of the japanese take leave from work and return to their hometowns; the spirits of their ancestors also making that trip back home for a family reunion.

so i decided to visit a friend who was also returning to her hometown in 佐渡島(sadogashima), an island off the coast of a nearby city 新潟(niigata). she was happy to have me for a few days, and i was grateful not to be cooped up in my stuffy apartment during the time when ancestral spirits roam the land. my host in sado island is nozomi, which means hope in japanese. she’s a junior high school english teacher in aizu and i meet her every now and then for aikido practice. i met her very hospitable father, mother and brother, and also her super energetic, mailman-and-newspaperman-hating miniature pinscher, umi. he seemed particularly interested in my arm or leg when i was there, “hugging” it at every given opportunity.

sado island in summer is as beautiful as one of my colleagues claimed it to be. wide, open beaches, cliffs overlooking the sea, aquamarine blue, turquoise green, all in the same expanse of water

one of the tourist attractions nozomi brought me to was the gold mine. sado island used to be an island for exiles. it served as a place of banishment for difficult political figures who lost in their struggle for power. a famous poet, an emperor, a buddhist monk and a noh dramatist were among the famous ones. in the edo era, a gold mine was found in the island and homeless people were packed up and sent to sado as labourers.

when i stepped foot into the mine, i was surprised at how cold it was. the question many people seemed to be asking was if the mine is naturally that cold. one can only imagine how hard life was for the labourers during winter.

the other place i went to was the Noh theatre. Noh began in sado island with the banishment of Zeami, known also as the father of Noh. i didn’t get the chance to watch a real Noh play, but i don’t think i’d have been able to sit through two hours of slow-motioned shuffling anyway. i was quite contented to watch the star feature of the theatre: dressed-up robots (yes! all robots in the pictures) moving around, crooning, and playing their instruments for a comfortable 15 minutes or so.

out of the all the places i have been to in sado (not that many), my favourite area has to be 小木(Ogi), the place where the Earth Celebration was held. it was probably the atmosphere of the festival i was feeling but i thought even the buildings there felt hippie, in a relaxed, old, japanese way, if hippie, relaxed, old and japanese put in the same sentence makes any sense at all.

and my favourite tourist spot is 矢島経島, also in ogi. this is the place where tourist can ride in wooden-bathtub boats rowed by women wearing cool pointy straw hats with a little red ribbon stuck on it. as we drove down the narrow, winding road flanked by traditional-looking japanese houses, the rain poured down hard and heavy on us for the first time since temperatures started hovering around 36-39 degrees in japan. the rain lent an almost movie-like atmosphere to the place all of a sudden. and when the rain finally let up, we could walk around.

the last picture was taken when i was bopping around in the tub as well. yay for new camera! and did i mention light? perfect for lazy me. before i end, i should introduce you to the guardians of the island. you see, what is an island without masked rangers the likes of ultra-man protecting it. and the name of the squad of gold, blue and red ranger protecting Sadogashima is called the…

サドガシマンSadogashi man!

this is taro and wasabi. you’ll probably be seeing more of them after i decide when to go ahead and make my next semi-big purchase (scannerprinterscannerprinter!). but it won’t be that soon, i think, hope, mm…

it’s been so unbelievably hot that i’m not liking this summer at all. not that i really like summer anyway. but summer is something i should be able to tolerate. after all, it was the only season i knew growing up. but 38 degrees is too much for me and for my two poor hammies.

leaving for sado island tomorrow. i hope the weather will be better there and that i can get the tickets to catch the famous taiko group, Kodo, perform in the 20th anniversary of the Earth Celebration on friday.

and H will hammie-sit for me when i’m gone. ^_^

cool tutorial . probably my first attempt at something vectorish.
question: why did i not stay in the design industry?
answer: no patience and aching shoulders.

finally used my wacom tablet again, after a year. this is what i mean by equipments collecting dust.

でも。。。

d40x 注文しちゃった :p

this is officially the next new thing i’m lusting after. not kimura takuya, though he’s pretty yummy too. japanese boys are usually quite cute. even if they are not, their hairstyles kinda make up for it. but that’s until uncle-dom strikes when they are in their late 20s. kimutaku is already in his 30s and still looking dishy.

back to the other delicious looking thing. the nikon d40x. i’d have easily settled for the original d40 since 10 megapixels means nothing to me when a good quality 6.1 can do the same job. i’ve never really been the more/bigger-the-better type. but over here, they are bundling the d40x lens kit and an additional VR 55-200mm zoom lens for an attractive price.

i love my d70 and the best thing is that it’s still working really well after 3 years. the only gripe i have is the size and the weight. d70 is not something i want to lug around on a casual day out. the d40 looks perfect. and if it’s as light as people claim it is, i can totally do away with the need for an extra compact camera.

i’m really tempted to buy it. like right away. just as i was tempted to buy the scanner-printer combi and a macbook pro right away. but i’m taking some time to think it through. and with time, i realised that some things, like the 超 expensive macbook pro, can wait. i guess a newer and better equipment doesn’t mean anything, just like an expensive, big-ass camera doesn’t necessary make a good picture. anyway, photography, illustration, graphics are still just hobbies for me. i could as easily spend time making rubber stamps with the carving set i bought for a 100 yen and feel just as satisfied.

we had a surprise birthday party for kanako, a girl, or now more so a lady, i’ve known since i came to japan. at first, we were wondering if she would turn up at all, since she was expected to perform a mission impossible for class the next day. luckily, she arrived, in every sense of the word, fashionably late. pretty in her yukata and late enough for us to bring out the cake and break into a birthday song when she stepped in.

her birthday presents from all of us include a drink dispenser shaped as a peeing cherubim and a pointer-thing with a piece of poop on the tip. from the picture, it’s probably easy to guess who were the two people entrusted with the sacred task of buying the present.

there are some wacky pictures of course, for example, of her posing with her present. but a birthday girl should always be presented in the prettiest way possible. happy 2*th birthday Kanako, wonderful teacher, and life of all our young teachers’ parties.

it’s here. and i was just whining about rain when summer smacked me with a 36 degrees the very next day the rainy season was reported to have ended.

my hamsters have become quite lethargic in this heat, preferring to stay in the cage and pretend to be hamster rugs then to come out to play. but strangely, i feel like i’m stirring out of some kind of hibernation.

so my summer is starting with 大掃除. this time, i don’t have the usual urge to throw away or arrange stuff. i just want to wipe all the dust away.

i’ve been thinking of buying myself a scanner and printer combi (canon pixus mp600) so i can start digitising my drawings and work on them. i’ve always been an impulsive buyer, thinking that a new something would motivate me to do things. i guess that’s how i always end up with piles of unread books and dusty equipments.

so this time i’m reversing the order. i have been drawing much more to justify myself a scanner (then i can stop taking crappy photos of my drawings). and if i turn my doodles into illustrations of some sort, consistently, a macbook pro will be next in line. maybe as a birthday present to myself. yay.

and i’m also going to learn how to sew myself and H new tie-pants. and make more cute rubber stamps. and some more squashable toys. and study for my japanese language proficiency test. and improve my english >_< (笑）

理由が特にないけど。ただ楽しいから。

summer vacation is too short.