February, Spring is coming to my classes

It is the end of February today.

Every year I thought I need two more days in February.

My students have been working hard for our spring show.

The spring show is from March 28 to April 1.

I heard cherry trees will bloom about that time.

A boy student is painting indoor plants with little figure of horses.

February, Shutter project

I have been working on painting on a shutter with my assistant.

It is the entrance of my classroom.

I am going to move out end of March, but I had to paint on it by a building owner's request.

We started this project end of last December.

It took hours to clean and remove rust, then hours to paint on a shutter.

It was a difficult work for me.

I had to use chemical rust remover.

I have been busy with running my classes, so my time is limited.

We even work after snow. 

Finally, we completed shutter project yesterday.

I thanked my assistant.

February, Catching up ...

It has been warm and sunny since this Monday.

There are some snow piles in the shady area, but it is melting slowly.

My students are catching up with their paintings for their spring show.

Spring has come to our classroom.

8 years old girl completed this painting in 3 hours!

It is fun to teach wet- into-wet for children.

I wish if I could paint like children.

This is 17years old girl's painting/drawing.

Her sence of flower arrangement is just like her painting/drawing.

February, Painting on shoes

Children are painting on shoes for their spring show.

We are going to have "deco-uwabaki contest".

Deco means decoration, and Uwabaki means indoor shoes.

In many Japanese schools, students are supposed to wear indoor shoes.

Those shoes are made of white canvas cloth, so it is very easy to paint on it.

Children are enjoying designing shoes, and working hard to get a prize.

12 years old boy painting on her mother'ｓ shoes.

I like his Egyptian design.

February, Getting ready for our spring show

My students have been working on their spring show, from March 28 to April 1 in Kawagoe.

We are behind of our schedule because of snow storms.

Those are 5 years old girl's works.

I like work with little artists.

This is her first wet into wet painting.

She loved it.

Those are my demonstration and senior students' works.

We are using sumi sticks for drawing.

Adult students are also working on painting of Provence scenes from my photographs.

My demonstration. I miss my summer in Provence!

I used salt for an old wall.

February, Snow Storms

We had a big snow 8th and 14th, two weekends.

It is Thursday today, but still lots of snow on the ground.

I took this picture after the snow when I commute by bus.

Mt. Fuji was beautiful.

I have been working on painting on a shutter of my classroom.

The owner of building requested me to paint a shutter and paint on painting on it.

I have never done it. It was not an easy job, but I had no choice.

I worked with my assistant yesterday. She is a great helper.

We painted letters, a the trunk of a tree and leaves today.

You can see pile of snow, an umbrella for dripping water from the gutter above the shutter, and a heater. 

I want to complete this project in February.

I am closing this classroom end of March and moving into an another place in April.

2014/02/09 Heavy snow hit eastern Japan yesterday

The snow started on Saturday morning.

I took those photos on Sunday morning from my condo.

It was beautiful.

Snow accumulation reached 26 centimeters in Tokyo according to news.

  My little garden covered by snow.

  I took a bus to my classroom.

  I only had two children because of the snowy road.

Yuzu-lotion

In my adult's class we were chatting about Yuzu-Lotion.

Yuzu is a Japanese small aromatic citron.

Because of its aroma we put and set afloat in a hot bath.

It's called yuzuyu which is a seasonal word of winter.

Grated rind of Yuzu be used for Japanese winter cuisine.

Yuzu is also very good for skin care.

Yuzu seed oil, skin and fruit help our old skin cells shed off easily, and prevents melanin from being produced and retained while helping our skin to produce collagen.

I have learned about yuzu-lotion from my student, and I made Yuzu lotion. I thanked about it for her. 

I put yuzu-lotion my hands, my feet and even my face. Not only their aroma, my skin become smooth. 

A silted yuzu and seeds soaked into Shochu, clear distiller liquor.

 Shochu stops itchy skin, can be used as a moisturizer too.

I made yuzu lotion and rosemary lotion. It took 2-3 weeks to extract essence.

I put Yuzu lotion in a tincture bottle.

Painting of Good luck Mt. Fuji

First Chiba class of this year we painted Mt. Fuji on a postcard size paper.

We drew with a sumi stick which I learned from my artist friends in Oregon.

How to draw with sumi stick is fun. It is only dip a sumi stick in a little water and draw directly on a piece of paper.  This is very new to us. 

Water poured on a ink stone and rubbed with a sumi stick to produce ink is a traditional way.

A bottled  liquid sumi is popular now.

Those paintings only took 40 minutes.

It was very good warming up for them.

Hanna's classes for 2014 started

Kids class started  on January 6.

This is the first child project of this year.

5 years old girl painted on a large cotton bag.

She was very happy about her work.

My Winter Garden & Sunset in my neighborhood

I live in large multi-unit apartments near by a big river.

I live on the first floor (the ground floor). I like it because I can have a little garden.

I have several plant-boxes on my balcony.

My peas have already flowers.

I am going to transplant some of them on the ground.

The name of the river is Ara-kawa which continued to Tokyo bay.

I have a time to take a walk today.

I like this open space very much.

Winter sunset

Hatsumode

On New Year's Day we went to Hatsumode which refers to the New Year's first visit to a (Shinto) shrine or a (Buddist) temple to pray for the safety and good health of one's family and of one's own.

The local shrine was 15 to 20 minutes on foot. It was good exercise after our feast.

2014 New Year's Day

Happy New Year!

I visited my cousin and his family for the New Year.

Most of people eat osechi, traditional New Years food, New's Day morning.

Actually, many Japanese took many hours to cook osechi on December 30 and 31.

We had 'osechi', New Year's Food on New Year's Eve, because the osechi dishes which my cousin purchased from his habitual Sushi restaurant looked so good. 

We can't wait until New Year's Day.

Various kinds of beautifully prepared dishes are set in three-tiered lacquer boxes.

       ↓top of the box.  寿 kotobuki is 'long life'.

  Tuna sashimi, big shrimp, abalone, crabs, herring roe, salmon roe, Japanese omelette and lotus root...

Another traditional New Year's dish is zoni, soup containing mochi, vegetables and other ingredients such as chicken or seafood.

   ↓toasting 'Mochi' on a wire grid on the cassette gas stove 

    ↑ celebration chopsticks in the beautiful chopsticks bag with letter of kotobuki, 'long life'