A New Challenger Approaches!! (Day 3) - The Exhibition, a baby, and Nabe

Friday morning, Jillian left for her trip, so it was just Kaori, Charlie and I. Our first errand was for food, and also to pick some 差知れ（さしいれ、SaShiIRe - after-event gifts) for Midori. The way Kaori explained it, sashiire are kind of like the oranges or treats one brings to a soccer or volleyball game for the players onces its over. They're both congratulatory, and refreshing!

We stopped by the mall to get refueled and pick up gifts, then made our way to Wind Farm, where the exhibition was taking place.

Wind Farm! Cafe and Gallery

Because Jillian was unable to attend, I promised I'd take lots of pictures. The exhibition was for Midori and her classmate. Midori does sculpture and metalwork, while her partner does photography.

Some of Midori's sculptures placed next to their clay molds

Some of Midori's classmate's photography

The center of the exhibition room, that's Charlie and Midori chatting on the left

We received programs for the exhibition, but they were entirely in Japanese so I was having a hard time reading them. Midori explained to us that her partner was working with [] (HiBi, or cracks) while she herself had taken on a plant motif. I can only imagine how much work they both must have put into their work, especially considering how much bronze needs to be worked and polished before it's ready for presentation.

This one was my favorite of Midori's classmate's work. I like how the crack branches out kind of like roots.

Charlie, Kaori and I were discussing the cracks, and how evocative the project was. It was interesting to see how much attention was being paid to something not only usually overlooked, but often also considered ugly, or even dangerous. Looking at them so closely brought about questions of how those cracks came to be, and about the general wear and tear of life. The weaving path of pictures on the floor are a collective photo of one large crack, which the artist suggested we walk upon. Charlie thought it was interesting that walking along the crack, which was haphazard, was more similar to the path of life than a typical road, which are usually fairly straight linear. I thought that the crack was interesting because it reminded me of when I was a kid and how the game wasn't to step on cracks, but didn't say anything. (This comes up later)

鈴木さんの「あいさつ」 Midori's "Aitsatsu," or "Greeting" I thought this would have been Jill's favorite if she had been able to come.

This one was one of my favorites of Midori's, since it reminded me of seaweed beneath the ocean. She said that it's Japanese title could be loosely translated to "rhyme," which she chose since the was inspired by sound for this one.

I really liked the way that the light fell on these two

What are these? That's for the viewer to decide!

Midori asked me about this piece in particular, saying that some of her friends had said that these reminded her of birds. I told her that my honest first impression was that of slugs, since there's a lot of them in the northwest. She seemed kind of surprised, but I assured her that slugs aren't a bad thing! In fact, there's lots of funny songs about slugs. She let us pick them up an investigate them more closely as well. One of the first things I noticed was how heavy they were, and on the bottom side, they'd been sand-papered to have a really rough texture. From a different angle, they look a lot like leaves, and from another angle, they can look kind of like cupped hands as well. I explained that Jill probably would've seen birds, where I saw slugs. Still, it was really interesting how many different things they could appear to be.

Kaori, Charlie, Midori and I at the exhibition. Midori looks a little upset... I hope it wasn't my slug comment! Although she assured me that it was a valuable thing to hear from an artistic standpoint.

Goodbye, Exhibition!

After the exhibition, Kaori, Charlie and I went to go visit Kaori's friend Keiko, who Jillian and I had gone with Kaori to go visit before. Charlie had visited Keiko and Nagomu (Keiko's baby) the last time he came to Miyazaki, back in November. He was surprised to see how big the baby had gotten!

Charlie goofing around with his hatamaki outside of Keiko's apartment

At first, Nagomu was not happy to see us. He was bawling and screaming and crying so much we didn't know what to do. Even Kaori's amazing charm couldn't get him to stop! Kaori explained that Keiko thought it was likely that he's hit that age where he just kind of cries about everything, but eventually he got tired and fell asleep. (We'd also tried feeding him, changing his diaper, playing with him, and many other things, but he really seemed to just need to wear himself out.

Aw... he's so cute when he's sleeping

I'm embarrassed to say that due to a late night and an early morning, (Thanks, Shiva) I was pretty tired, too.

I'll just close my eyes for... a... minute... zZz...

I was pretty mortified that I'd basically passed out on the floor, but Keiko and Kaori insisted that I sleep, and brought me a pillow and blankets, even! I felt really bad, but was too sleepy to refuse. While I slept, Keiko, Kaori and Charlie chatted and drank tea and ate some snacks that Kaori had picked up at the mall.

Don't worry, we both woke up eventually.

Nagomu likes Kaori a lot!


He likes Charlie, too, but mostly he likes pulling his hair, I think

After thanking Keiko for being such a lovely host, (I still felt bad for falling asleep!) Charlie and I hung out for a bit while Kaori and Tomomi prepared dinner. Kaori picked up a bunch of things for an amazing Nabe soup. (I bought some alcohol, since we had decided it was going to be a drinking night) It was just the four of us since Rumi was working and Jill was on a field trip. On my way to the store to get the booze, (Smirnoff Ice - reminds us of Evergreen) I ran into Midori's partner from the exhibition. She recognized me first, and thanked me for going to see her photos. I thanked her, too, and told her that it was really interesting.

As I was walking away, though, I realized that I wanted to say something about the "don't step on a crack, or you'll fall and break your back, (or your mother's back, depending)" thing. I couldn't decide if I should go back and try to talk to her about it, or if I should just let it go. I decided that I would regret it if I didn't tell her, so I went back and luckily found her just right where she was before. (I think she was waiting for someone) I did my best to explain in Japanese (since she said she wasn't very good at English) about the childhood game, and how her art was really impressive, and we chatted for a while about her pictures. She told me that she Midori had told her that I'd said that the one with the flower was my favorite, and she said that it was one of her favorites, too. We talked a bit about how it was neat to look closely at things that you don't normally pay much attention to. It was difficult at first, but I was really glad that I'd gone back to talk to her.

Dinner with Kaori, Tomomi and Charlie was amazing. We talked about all sorts of things, (Charlie is really easy to talk with, in English or in Japanese) and the Nabe was delicious. Kaori and Tomomi had put in mushrooms, noodles, chicken, beef, tofu, cabbage, daikon radish, mochi... probably more, too! It was a wonderful way to spend our last night with Charlie.

Kaori, Tomomi, Charlie and I enjoying some tasty Nabe at Kaori's place

The next day, Kaori and I dropped Charlie off at the ferry terminal. I was sorry to see him go, but was also preoccupied with how soon I'll be returning, too. Charlie, having been in Japan for a year, has had lots of crazy experiences, and has also dealt with all of the ups and downs with traveling aboard. It was really a blessing to be able to talk about a lot of things, things both at Evergreen, and in Japan with him. I was also really grateful to have someone to spend time with while Jill was gone, since Shiva, while sometimes friendly, isn't much of a conversationalist.

Farewell, Charlie! Have a safe trip back to Kobe!

As things are starting to wrap up here, and my trip comes to a close, there's... a lot that I want to say. But! I'm rushing out the door right now, since I want to meet Jillian at the bus stop when she comes back from her trip! So... that reflection will have to wait! (Sorry!) Thanks for reading, and whew! Lots of writing today. Sorry it was all kind of slapdash and a little rushed. Until next time! (Other stuff happened that I missed, too!)

PS Note Disclaimer Thing - Some of the pictures I've used were originally taken by Charlie, Midori, or Jillian. Just f.y.i. They're probably the good pictures, since my pictures usually turn out kinda blah. That's all!