Winter birds

I had a birdwatching weekend, one day as a job and one day for fun.



茶色い枯れ木の中で一点、鮮やかな黄緑が目立つ。ウスタビガの繭だ。下に大きな穴があいていて、中は空っぽだった。



Rong-tailed Rosefinch
アキニレでお食事中のベニマシコ。「草木の実をたべているときはおしゃべりをしないのがマヒワのマナー」と鳥のおもしろ私生活で読んで覚えていたが、ベニマシコも同じマナーらしい。



アトリ(Brambling) It was my first sighting of the brambling this year.



シロハラ（Pale thrush）
People says that this year, we have less winter visitors and I do feel the same. But some are there if we look for them carefully!
のんびり、充実した鳥見デーをMさんありがとうございました！

Cabbages and Snow

I spent a memorable long weekend at Iori village in Otari, Nagano, where everything was covered under a meter of snow.



縁あって東京農大の武生雅明先生が借りていらっしゃる小谷の古民家に遊びに行く機会を得た。家に入るにも、車を止めるスペースを確保するにも、まずは雪かきをしなければならない豪雪地帯だ。先生自作のロケットストーブの周りで暖をとる生活。家に帰ってスケッチブックを開けたら、まだ煙の匂いがした。



I wanted to paint water colour out in freezing snow. Because I was so inspired by Darren Woodhead, who told me his experience of painting outside in Norway in winter. He said he had to heat the water bottle to paint, yet the minute he put the brush on the paper, the colour started to freeze and he could get ice marks on the painting surface. I wouldn't be that brave to try painting in such circumstances but at least, I pulled out my water colour in the snow. And yes! I could get those ice marks on my paper, where snow dropped on my paint. Although since it was not as cold and I flaccidly went inside right after I got the rough sketch, the ice on the paper melted and not many of those marks remained. Anyway, I tried and it was fun! (and very cold indeed.)



I stayed in an old Japanese cottage, which is renovated all by hand by an associate professor at Tokyo University of Agriculture. He even made a rocket stove by himself! It was primitive and hard but very beautiful lifestyle.
ここで学生が何もない中で生活する力をつけ、ライフスタイルや人生の目的について考えてくれたらと思って、このプロジェクトをはじめたのだと先生はおっしゃってた。ここで大学の研究室時代を過ごしたら、世界を見る目が変わりそうだ。



繭玉をどんど焼きで焼いて食べた。
Mochi decoration for Koshogatzu (15 th Jan) made of rice flower. For this one, people dyed the mochi with turmeric and curry powder (yellow) and cacao powder (brown.)
That evening, we had Dondo bonfire. People piled up grasses and decorations for New Year such as pine branches and rice straw ropes, and lit the huge stack after the sunset. We baked this mochi on the bonfire and had them.



この地域の名産、雪中甘藍（越冬キャベツ）。
The last day, we went out with a shovel in hand to the field and started digging the snow in the certain area. Digging and digging about a meter, the snow looked transparent and here we dug out fresh green cabbages! It was such a joy and what a contrast of colour it was! The vivid light green balls in a pure white snow field!



寒さで糖分が増して甘いキャベツ。生で味噌をつけて、いくらパリパリ食べても飽きない。

Illustration work

My illustrations are on the February issue of the BIRDER magazine! It is an advertising article on the Nikon's binoculars, the Monarch series.



このバーダー2月号のグラフィックページにはYoung探鳥会仲間の菅原貴徳くんがノルウェー留学中に撮影したすばらしい写真がたくさんのっているので、書店で見かけたら、ぜひお手にとってご覧ください。

お正月

This year I did several New Year's things, being Japanese! It's a relief to have no deadline for the assignments on the forth of Jan!



The first sun of 2014 at the nearby croft. There are not many places where we can see the open horizon. So even though it was just a small field, several families gathered around. An old lady stood right in the middle to praise the first sun. Many people said she was in their way to take photos but I decided to put her in my sketch.
初日の出。今年の初鳥はカワラヒワだった。



せっかくなので、箱根駅伝を見に1号線まで降りた。1位の東洋大はぶっちぎりに速くて、なかなか次の2位の選手が来ない。そのあと3位までもずいぶん間があった。テレビで見た方が選手の様子はよほどよく見えるけれど、実際にどんなスピードで走っているのかや、選手と選手の間にどのくらい時間差があるのかは、沿道に立って見送らなければわからない。
My house is very close to the natinal route 1 or Tokaido road and every new year, Hakone Ekiden, a round-trip Tokyo-Hakone relay road race among university students is held on this road. So I went down to watch and cheer the runners passing by. Of course, I drew them!



数年前に友達からお正月の飾りにもらったセンリョウに根が生えたので庭に植えたのが、今年はしっかり実をつけた！

A Happy New Year!

あけましておめでとうございます。
สวัสดีปีใหม่
It was very special to spend the New Year’s Day in Japan with my mother and grandmother. The New Year holiday in Japan is just like Christmas in the UK, very family oriented time.



This image was the view on the train from Cambridge to London in 2010. Snow fell during the night and whole field was covered with snow. A party of ten or more people was trotting in the cold, fresh air. I felt that I was in a fantasy.
午年の一年、楽しく駈けられたらと思う。
今年もどうぞよろしくお願いします。