In late April, Paul and I were invited by Tsuguo Yanai to go with him to the small papermaking village, Nishijima in the Saitama Prefecture, near the city of Kofu. I had met Yanai-san in February through Emiko. He took me on a tour of some of the galleries in Ginza and later, I visited his studio in Hanno.  In April, we were both busy preparing for our exhibitions that would be held in May (for me) and in June (for Yanai-san).  We both needed kozo pulp for our work and he arranged a visit to the Yamaju Seishi Papermill. […]

I have never found coming home easy. Something about change makes the adjustment period hard and a part of me would prefer to just keep moving on instead of stopping. So, I was happy to arrive in Montreal without having managed to finish reading one of the two books I had brought with me. And little wonder I hadn’t finished; it is Murasaki Shikibu’s one-thousand-page-plus novel, The Tale of Genji.  I saw the book as a bridge – a bridge connecting me to where I had just come from: another time and another world – a culture and people I […]

In early May, Emiko arranged an amazing afternoon with Seiki Kikouchi at his family papermaking studio, Kami no Sato.  http://www14.ocn.ne.jp/~kamiya3/ Kikuchi-san had agreed to show us how he makes paper thread. It was an hour or so journey north of Tokyo by train, through Mino to Nishinouchi and a 5 minute walk to the studio. The studio is a large rambling building on the side of the highway. We entered through the gallery space of the store and were led to a smaller room to the side. Kikuchi-san invited us to sit and coffee was brought; we talked before being […]

There is probably nothing I can say about Hiroshima that has not already been said. I can only respond with my personal feelings. Everyone should go there. And when I say everyone, I mean if everyone in the whole world made a point of visiting Hiroshima, maybe the desire for nuclear weapons would be dampened. You cannot stand by the remains of the Dome, cross the river and walk up through the vast Hiroshima Peace Memorial park and visit the Memorial Museum without imagining how it must have been, seconds before the bomb landed, and all the time since. For […]

“Soft” is a word I’ve heard Emiko use often to describe anything from textiles, to gestures, to landscape. After 5 months of pushing the screens of the exercise machines at the gym to my endless frustration – I now realize that,  gently and specifically  is how they must be touched. Indeed, almost a fingernail flick to a very tiny sweet spot, does the trick. With things, I am used to prodding, poking, pulling and pushing – hard and harder when something doesn’t respond. That does not work here. Yet, there is an underlying violence – that potential thrust of volcano, […]

This post is a kind of visual listing of things that I found extremely unfortunate and extremely fortunate in my travels here. The first is more just something unusual. It is rare to see garbage on the street. People just don’t seem to litter. So it was both beautiful and odd to see a single empty pop can in the middle of a stairway. Something I have found extremely disturbing is the multi-layering of the highways. Almost all of the rivers and there are many in Tokyo in the downtown core are smothered over with a highway. All riversides are […]

When it comes to clothes, there is definitely a creative flair in Tokyo  and men are not afraid to play the game. Very refreshing. Colour, lots of patterns and a sense of personal style seem quite evident. Here are some things I’ve been able to catch on the street. Here are some great textile and fashion designs I photographed at a student exhibition at the Spiral Gallery in Omote-Sando. Some storefront windows in Tokyo.

In one word- delicious.  Eating is so easy in Japan. There is good food everywhere. Even the food at the cornerstore is surprisingly good. Some of my best lunches have been salads grabbed on the run for 298 yen ( about 3$).   There are lots of kelp and seaweed included in salads and hot dishes as well -very tasty and nutritious. Hot sweet potatoes are available in many places – the odour is distinctive. When French is used in public signs, it is usually to indicate a restaurant or a bakery or surprisingly a hair salon! I rarely see people […]