haha... So I told you how hard it was to really know where that lemon camera store was?

This is one of the signs downstairs. One of the few that has english on it to boot. Happily the people upstairs are all very friendly regardless of race, but they don't exactly roll out the red carpet in the lobby...



and speaking of the lobby... yeah. Nice, but how is this supposed to attract customers?

Then again, the store is always pleasantly busy. Never full, but never empty feeling either. Hrm. Guess they sorta know what they're doing.

Also, the ipod touch isn't coming out in japan for another month. Or rather, it is *techinically* already out here, but nobody can see it or play with it in any of the stores for about another month. waaa. I wanna see it already!!



Ginza at night is very twinkly.



So! I spent all of thursday and absolutely all of friday working on homework for this block class I'm taking. A block class you say? "But harry! You are an illustrator! You make beautiful beautiful works of art using tools of line, not of form!"

And to this I respond, "I dunno. it came recommended. *shrug.*"

Also so far it has been all sorts of awesome, so I'm definately not complaining.

But anyways, Yeah. I spend a good solid six hours on thursday, and then another *solid* eight hours on friday.

And I'm not talking "yeah, I spent like eight hours man. oh, and I grabbed some pizza too. And watched a movie. And took a nap. But like, really I worked alot!"

No. Solid. My spinal cord was probably suffering from internal bleeding by the end.

And I wasn't alone either. Because we work with little foam block cutting machines me and a few other students were working solidly the whole time in one of Musabi's many classrooms. And man, musabi students have some *major* work ethic. They just sat right down and worked and worked.

No complaining, no trying to cut corners, just solid work. Made me try a hell of alot harder to live up to the standard they were setting...

And in the end I had a bunch of blocks that all interlocked and went into a ridiculously overly complicated box I also had to make to put them into.

The whole purpose of this was just to get us accustomed to the foam cutting machines for our *real* assignment this upcoming week. Yeah. 14+ hours to get the hang of a machine. AWESOME.

But the point of this story isn't to bitch, but rather to PRAISE!!

So I come into class with my little box of blocks. I'm pretty happy, no major failings had occured, and I had worked hard. Everybody else had their little boxes too, and so we all seemed pretty happy.

Now what I was expecting was for the teacher to come around and carefully inspect every tiny little block for flaws, and then give a critique and then yadda yadda yadda etc. Like at Pratt. You know, you do the work, then spend the rest of the class doing critiques.

NO. He told us to dump the blocks out on the table in front of us... *AND THEN HAVE A RACE TO SEE WHO COULD BUILD THE TALLEST TOWER FIRST.*

FUCK YEAH! haha, while we did this he came around and inspected them, but in a very friendly way. He also had us make designs with the blocks, portraits, and elements of musabi.

Everybody had worked their asses off and they had *known* that they were just doing it for themselves. Not because there was a fear of getting yelled at. I found this to be awesome.

now what I'm going to do with all these blocks I have no idea...



and to end! A semmi.

I love semmi! Even though they are loud, they are also adorable, and very very stupid.

By the way. If you didn't figure it out, a semmi=cicada. But really stupid.

Well I'm finally getting that familiar feeling of too much to do, not nearly enough time.

Still, this is a good thing. The only thing worse than having too much to do is having too little.

And I do love my illustration class here. It's about as different from Pratt as you can possibly get.

The teacher continues to emphasize doing things in an "unnatural" way. He feels that too many people have a complete seperation from the physical aspect of their work these days, and so tries to force us to feel that connection again.

for instance...




yesterday we put up another giant sheet of paper, and then proceeded to draw ourselves at giant like stature with very unwieldy sticks.

This might sound completely ridiculous, but I found myself surprised at some of the lines I was getting, and in the end the results were very impressive, or at the very least amusing.

I've also been working on a series of interlocking cube things in another class as well. Have yet to take any pictures of the chaos that is that room, but I'll try and remember to do so today.

um...



I've also decided I want a macro lens. It is *way* too hard to take photos of tiny things with a zoom lens, and there is a ridiculously large amount of spiders around here.

I MUST CAPTURE THEIR SUBLIME BEAUTY.




also... clouds! Just taken while wandering around the Musabi campus. Because of work I've been a bit restricted from going into the city. But, oh well. Maybe I can be a good boy and get a bunch done today?



And this big beautiful building is also a part of the Musabi campus, (again, this place is huge), but I really have no idea what's inside of it.

Clubs maybe? A gym? I don't know, but I like it.

ALSO!

haha, almost forgot.

So the japanese LOVE festivals. I mentioned it before and I'll mention it again. THEY LOVE THEM. So it's not very suprising that Musabi has a big ol' student art festival just for itself every year. No real reason, they just do.

The big art event that Pratt has every year is survey. And that's only really for a part of the school as it is. And it only takes up one building. And it's all very academic. But still, we get to look at other peoples art work, and that's a pretty cool thing.

And it is completely put to shame by what Musabi does.

According to students here, musabi's art festival is HUUGE. It takes up every single room in every building, has over *500* completely seperate galleries all with at least three or four students in each one, all with original work.

They have lightshows (use to have fireworks but the cops kept getting called), parades, wrestling matches (apparently sometimes nude...), rows and rows of alcoholic venders, rows and rows of food stalls, a huge student run and made fashion show, esteemed famous japanese artists come in to give speeches and again, more original artworks that you can shake a stick at.

Over the course of THREE SOLID DAYS.

And all of this is not only allowed by Musabi, but both teachers and students collaborate to bring it together each year.

needless to say, I'm quite excited by the whole thing.

it happens at the end of october so it's still a way away though.

Ok. well I've got work to do, so ja ne and whatnot!

well I more or less figured out what I want to do. A massive scene featuring crazy shit.

Very surprising for me I know.

Anyways, here's what I mocked up to use as my reference. In the end I'm going to make a completed colored illustration, but I figured I should have a solid idea of what I wanted to do with it.

Pictures are a crazy of collage of pictures I took, google image searches, and photos from photo forums I lurk at.

Hopefully they won't mind me using them...

And that's that! I'll update with drawings later.

Mmmmyup!

MRGMGM....

procrastinating.

I have a very interesting assignment for my illustration class.

And it damn well *SHOULD* be an interesting assignment since I was given absolutely no restrictions over choosing what I wanted to do the assignment on.

What I have to do (and what I chose to do) was to find interesting elements in technology, machinery, etc, and combine it with organic life forms (animals, humans, plants...).

I proposed to do this through taking pictures of both sides of the equation, and then to draw out these new combinations in interesting scenarios using the pictures as references.

I thought this was a fun and interesting idea. The teacher thought this was a fun and interesting idea.

But now I find myself against a mental block.

It's *too* fun and interesting!!

I have no idea where to start!

ha...

oh well. I'll manage.




(maybe these two would go together nicely?)

And uh, here's some pretty pictures too![



Yeah, landscapes are boring, I know. But I like the coloring on this one.



Natural lensflare! Woo!



Baby jesus and a tombo! (hint, tom bo means flying stick).


Oh, so I went out with Cilian and a girl we both know from Musabi into the city yesterday to go check out Musabi students friends boyfriends gallery. Yeah.

The artwork was really pretty incredible. Large, strangely nightmarish, and yet almost cute. Sadly they didn't allow photography inside or else I would have very happily documented the whole thing.

But on the way out of the building we ran into the artist himself! A very nice guy who was suitably embarrassed when complimented, he happily showed us around the area.

Anyways, I said I was into strange japanese paraphernalia so he took us to this strange little hole in the wall store on a side street that led to down twisting dimly lit stairs.

And like all things in Japan, the harder it is to find, the better it's going to be.

This place was very very cool. I managed to buy a very strange and beautifully drawn artbook, and almost bought an evangelion kewpie doll. (it was very cute. maybe a little too cute).

I always get this feeling that there is so much more in the city that I'm not seeing, things hidden just one floor away, something that I would find so incredibly cool, but would be impossible to find anywhere else.

This can be a little aggravating, but at the same time, there is always the knowledge that I *haven't* found everything yet.

I'm absolutely sure the same applies to N.Y.

So I finally got around to "developing" (haha, putting them on my computer) the pictures I took around Musashino's campus...

Ok! So this is the sight I see when I park my bikes. Um. Yeah.



Ok, these pictures are pretty self explanatory. I'll pop in when you need help kay?




yup.





Oh! So in illustration class the other day the teacher pulls out a huge stack of large white sheets of paper and tells us to tape them all together. So we do so. Resulting in a very very large sheet of paper. Hmmm?

What are we going to do with such a huge sheet of paper?



RUN BACK AND FORTH DRAWING ON IT LIKE THIRD GRADERS YAAAAAY!



but no, seriously. We also put on some *tape* before hand, so that when peeled back would reveal fantastic negative shapes. CAN YOU SEE MINE HAHA CAN YOU??




Anyways, here's the cafeteria. Home to some very tasty and VERY VERY CHEAP (usually around 3~4 dollars american) japanese foods.

Seriously though. Pratt cafeteria? Your food isn't too bad. But really, lower the prices down okay?




Outside of the cafeteria! Haha...




*Everyone* has a bike at this school. I mean it. There are so many places to park your bike I have yet to find them all. And they are always full too.

I'm really growing to love biking here though, very very relaxing, and very convenient too!




And after class I decided to head over to Ginza to check out some camera stores. And so this is the view from where I park my bike. It's a nice little park area, and it's free too!



(photo taken on my rebel with the stores 60mm macro lens)

Okay, so the reason I'm going to camera stores is to try and find out where I'm going with my own camera.

Do I buy a prosumer point and shoot (and sell my rebel?), do I find a good cheap lens that's lighter than the one I currently own? Do I just wait to see what comes out?

egh... maybe the questions don't seem hard to you, but I've been mulling, *MULLING*, over them for quite some time now.

I essentailly have it worked down to the canon powershot g9, a 60mm canon macro lens, and a IS canon lens that isn't out yet.

All of them are in relatively the same ballpark. (I'd buy the powershot new, the 60mm lens used, and the IS lens new if I bought any of them at all).

Still, I have time, so It's better to wait and know exactly what you want than to blindly spring forwards and regret it later.

But I did find an *AMAZING* camera store! So good, so cheap... It thoroughly *trounces* B&H photo video in price and quality. (like, by a hundred dollars or more. damn.)

Unsprisingly however, it has a very high turn over rate so it's hard to find the used lens you want, and of course it is like an hour and a half away by train. It's also ridiculously hard to find. (Located on the eighth floor of a building dedicated to some japanese shrine or something? There is also no sign directly outside, and all of the signs are in japanese.)

But it's definately worth it. Whatever I buy, it's going to be from there. hoo yeah.



That night I went out for a delicious sushi dinner. And as usual at sushi dinner that are out of the normal tourist walkways, this one had quite a few business men lounging around inside.

But not the sort you see in the U.S. No sir.

These are a very special brand of Japanese business men. Designer suits. Expensive cigarets hanging *just so* out of their slightly wry lips. A feeling that not only could they mop the floor with everyone in that room, but that since it's so obvious they won't even have to.

THESE ARE SOME VERY COOL BUSINESS MEN. The ages vary too. Go from high twenties, to high fifties.

And not all business men here are like this. Only a few. A select few.

Damn. I have to go train under one of these guys or something. Seriously, they look like something Spike would draw.

*bloob*

...

It's a picture I could take anywhere in the world, but I took it here. So that makes it special.



A pretty fountain right by where I park my bike when I go to the train station. I put a high shutter speed to freeze everything.

Why you ask? Why not I reply.




Ah, the place where they sell very fine, and *very* cheap anime cells. And lots of other nerdy things too. Mmm.

Sadly it's almost overkill. I only let myself buy one or two small things when I go out shopping, so it's like being at a buffet and not being hungry. Luckily it's always there, so I'll keep pecking at it.



My japanese peeps getting off a station. Bought my rice cooker from a giant camera/electronics/etc store right near here. Yodibashi camera. Very nice store. A+. Will shop again.




And the usual nightime crush. I mean, this is at like, 7:30 or something. It's still this crazy at 11:00. Every freaking time there's this many people when it starts getting late. I don't even live in a very populated area! Where do they go?




Oh yeah! So today I finally socialized a bit! For one of my classes I was supposed to go to a (fancy and expensive) toy shop over the weekend. Happily the girl that translates for me in the class invited me to go along with a few of her friends.

They were all very pleasant and friendly, and I probably chatted their ears off (and the fact that they only sort of understood english certainly didn't stop me!).

The toy shop itself was very nice and cozy, and more german than japanese. Though still quite cute.




I saw this bunny at the toy store and was very keen on getting it for v. I picked it up, put it on my hand and waggled it's little paws and thought to myself "That's it, V would love this and I'm getting it for her." So I looked down to see how much I should shell out, "Surely a fine bunny like this will cost 15, NAY, 25 dollars, but so be it, for I am a kind and loving boyfriend."

IT FUCKING COST 120 DOLLARS. THE FUCK.

So I put yon cute bunny down upon the little wooden pedestal it had come from, backed away slowly, and took a picture instead. Enjoy V!



and speaking of cute furry creatures, remember stitch? From that disney movie awhile ago? Sure you do. It was a pretty decent movie. Good even. Also, the guy who designed the characters? Freaking amazing artist. Really, take my word for it. I've seen his sketchbooks on the interwebs.

Anyways, my point is, Stitch is a character from an american movie from a few years ago. In america, the land he originated in, you will no longer see this character virtually anywhere. Probably not even that much in disney world. Sorry stitch.

HOWEVER. In Japan it is a *completely* different story. You see this little bugger EVERYWHERE.

I mean it. I probably see him twice a day if I go into the city. At the very least. Backpacks, cell phone charms, puzzles, posters, gacha gacha machines (like gumball machines for toys. Very very very popular), t shirts, action figures...

EVERYWHERE. I don't know. Maybe disney found the perfect character to worm its way into the japanese heart, but seriously, they must be making a mint off of it. Freaks me out man.




phew. Well, anyways. I ended the day on a nice note, as the friends of the translator girl showed me a very pretty park located in the midst of tokyo. Actually I had gone here before with Cilian, but It was still very nice.

People enjoy parks here. Parks are nice. Nature is nice.



yay nature!

Oh jeezus I'm tired.

I have some pictures I took yesterday that I keep meaning to upload, but I reaally cannot be bothered right now.

I have spent all freaking day in my very uncomfortable chair slouched in front of my computer.

WHY YOU ASK????

BECAUSE I LOVE YOU AND I WANTED TO MAKE YOU SOMETHING NICE OOOOKKKKKK????

...

and here it is!

tada!



...

what.

you don't like it?

a;lkdjfa;ldsfj

7000000 HOURS IN MS PAINT.

Yay, I colored it.

And I found a new way I think I can improve on.

But I'm also pissed because for some reason when I save it out from photoshop all the colors get diluted.

WHAT. WHY.

rg.

Also, a new sketch I hope to flesh out...



He's chewing on meat.][]

Agghh...

when it rains in new york it usually lets up. eventually.

haha, well not so much in japan. So, I've been hesitant to bring my camera outside and have it's insides completely fried.

In any case, I've had a few classes and they've been great so far, but sadly I don't have photos of the campus to show off yet.

Hopefully it will clear up soon.

Oh yeah! Fun little story!

So I've got class at 9:00 this morning. It's pouring outside, and I don't have the control or the time to hold up an umbrella while riding.

So I throw on my grey hoodie sweater, somewhat limiting my peripheral vision, and start pedaling through the rain towards Musabi. I'm going down one of the dirt(ish) roads to the school, and I see a business man is biking in my direction on my side of the road. Figuring I'll be polite I'm going to ride over to the other side, but first I look back to check for cars and such.

I see a car is in fact coming up behind me, and the business man is still on my side of the road. No problem I think, I'll just slow my speed down a bit and wait for the car to pass me. The business man is still coming directly towards me, obviously reading my mind (or something).

Just when I'm getting ready to go to the other side of the road, as the car passes by me it hits a *massive* puddle, absolutely drenching me with water. I'm momentarily blinded by this, and I believe the business man was too, so I collide head on into the business man and his bike.

Luckily both of our bikes locked into each other and we didn't go sprawling into the mud, but ugh.

Happily I dry out fast.

...

But anyways, the classes over here are coming along great. I've been very busy the last few days between final adding classes and trying to make my schedule work, but hopefully things will work out fine.

Everyone over here has been incredibly helpful and friendly so far. Hopefully this isn't just a newcomer syndrome thing, and they'll be able to keep it up for the whole semester, but it's made things very pleasant so far.

Um... and since I don't have any camera pictures...

uh, drawings?




Just two that I really ought to finish...

Um. With classes starting I should be getting a bunch of new work soon, so hopefully I'll be able to give both photos *and* drawings!

Opening membership fees to this website will start at a very reasonable 4.99, and perhaps as it gets more popular might see an increase to 6.99 in order to stave off rising bandwidth costs.

Ergh... reaally sleepy, I'm just going to do a photo dump and edit explanations in when I wake up.

This is the area around my house/dorm/apartment thing.

See if you can guess what I'm going to say about the pictures before I do! No Prize!



Ah, so more or less what I see when I walk out of my room each day. I say more or less because there is a plastic divider that is also between the door and this view as you'll see in the next picture...


I mean it *has* to be here. Cause otherwise it would be unsafe and all. blah. Maybe they could have made it out of glass? Or for less clarity, but more awesome, ulexite even? mmm...



So the area I'm in is most definately *not* like the inner parts of tokyo. More suburby, but the houses are are close to eachother (no backyards). It's a very quiet area with a lot of bikers and a every once in a while a slow moving car.



And speaking of bikes... Musabi in it's infinite kindness allowed me to have one! Thanks Musabi! It's got a lock, and pedals and a seat and everything!

Also because I'm biking everywhere here and enjoying it so much I'm really thinking about doing it more when I get back home too. There's something about hoping on a bike that's very satisfying. I think it's the combination of you getting to sit down, while at the same time moving about as fast as a normal run, while getting to feel a bit healthier too. Laziness, increased productivity, justification. A holy triumvirate of sorts!



Biking to buy some groceries... dum de dum.


Yeah, I don't know, I like seeing this sort of stuff as I bike along. I'm like, "YEAH. JAPAN. WHAT NOW.".


Groceries! A very good little store. Um. yeah. Not that exciting.


An area of fenced off wilderness. Why does it exist? It's got barbed wire all around it...

tanuki breeding ground perhaps?


bike bike bike... home I go.


Oh yeah, the Japanese love detail work. Behond, a manhole cover.

Every manhole cover I've seen has beautiful decorations on it, and they have different ornamentation's every time as well.

Some have been painted though. I don't like them as much.

I'll drag my carcass down to the area I usually eat food at later, and hopefully I'll be able to whip up a drawing or two today as well.