Train Trip to Tohoku

It was right after I came back to Japan but I visited Fukushima, Sendai, Ishinomaki and Kesennuma, the area where the earthquake and tsunami hit. I was in England when the disaster happened and I only knew the stories through the internet news. So even after two years and a half, I thought it was very important to learn what had happened.

At most of the destroyed sites, rubble was already cleared and only the bases of the buildings remained. Some area in Ishimaki was covered by water. I wonder if it was rain water or seawater or underground water. But some cattails were growing and dragonflies were laying eggs. I felt that nature is much much bigger than human.



気仙沼市、津波によって750メートル内陸に打ち上げられた漁船、「第１８共徳丸」。訪れた日はちょうど解体直前だった。
This sixty-meter-long fishing boat was stranded 750 meter inland because of the force of tsunami. Now it is in the middle of old residential area next to the road. They have just started to demolish the ship since the day we visited. The vast summer blue sky was right above it.



青春18切符での鈍行列車の旅。金色に輝く田んぼがきれいだった。



In Sendai, we saw some of the gigs as a part of Sendai Jazz Festival in the rain.

What I had been working on

Since this spring I have been lazy not to put anything but sketches. But here are some more illustration type, final works.



Pattern I came up with from the sketches of Halimium flower in Spain. I love creating patterns and I am thinking of making a series of wrapping paper or something of that sort. Do you have any idea what I could do with these?



I made a painting of my friend's dog.



This was my entry for a book cover competition in Japan. I love this quirky children's book about wildcat restaurant by famous Japanese author Kenji Miyazawa. Because it is in Japanese, the front cover is on your left and the back on your right!

◇◆◇ お知らせ ◇◆◇
日本ワイルドライフアート協会展
Date:2013年9月11日（水）−18日（水）※15日、16日は休館。
Place: 山脇ギャラリー　東京都千代田区九段南4-8-21。市ヶ谷駅より徒歩1分。
わたしも2点出す予定です。お時間のある方はぜひいらしてください。

Farewell to the beloved country

I am sorry for being quiet on this blog. But somehow I was having trouble logging in to this blog. It was something to do with my blog account and the internet provider.
Now I can open the page and log in because I moved...back to Japan.


I finally decided to come back to Japan although I wanted to stay in England much longer! But it was time for me to wake up from the lovely, innocent dream and sort out my life, money and jobs.
The last three years, I had the most wonderful time in Britain. It was such an eye opener to live in a foreign country on my own and make friends with people from all over the world. And I have to say, I was extremely lucky with my friends! Thank you all of you who shared wonderful time!

Some memories from the last few days in England....



The RSPB Cambridge local group kindly organised a farewell field trip and a big BBQ party! It was all thanks to the group and people I met through the group that I visited so many wonderful nature reserves and watched more than 200 British bird species. I wouldn't have enjoyed the three years half as much if I didn't join the group. Thank you so much!



At one of the last birdwatching occasions, my friend kindly took me to Cavenham Heath to see these strange but lovely creatures, stone curlews. My favorite flower, heather was all in purple. I will miss these heathland!



Another occasions, we visited Lakenheath, where we always had amazing sunset show. Just after the sky became pink, we found a young marsh harrier with green tag. "LA" was written in black letter. It seems that the young was tagged at Sculthorpe Moor in 2012.




And my Japanese friend family in London kindly made my dream come true! On weekend, we visited Selborne, where the 18 century natural historian, Gilbert White was born and spent his life observing and recording nature.


Recalling all the things I have experienced and all the people I met, I can not think of anything better to happen!
And I am sure that we will get together again! We must start another voyage someday soon, my dear shipmates, hopefully in the country where we all love!

Drawing day at Titchwell

On Sunday, three members from the Seabird Drawing Course, Daniel, Richard and I, got together and had a wader drawing day at Titchwell Marsh. We spent whole afternoon until the light had gone at the Parrinder Hide.



Lots of black-tailed godwits, daniel's favorite birds, were there! Some where still in beautiful summer plumage, some were already dull gray and quite a lot them were in between.



Black-tailed godwit. We all found it a little bit difficult to start getting the hang of sketching birds compared to the seabird drawing days in Scotland. Waders are not like gannets sitting in front of you. They were at binocular or scope distance and moved too fast! We also only had a day to get to know their shapes and movement. But we were so happy that we were there together and drawing!



A shoveler feeding with ruffs and a godwit.



A flock of golden plovers reminded me that it was already closer to mid-August, the start of migration season. I felt it was just a few days ago when I saw them with chicks in Scotland. But time is passing ever so quickly.



Lapwings, avocets and some more godwits.



Evening light was especially gorgeous. Lots of waders and gulls came back to the marsh and there were a lot going on as well.


It was nice to spend a long time at one place and concentrate on what could be seen from there, putting colour on location. And it was great to have artist companies! I must keep doing this from now on!

Visiting Oxford

I visited Oxford a week ago. I had lovely time staying with my friend's relative's place and seeing my housemate from uni days.




It was the day when the Oxford Uni had graduation ceremony and I could see many students in the gown and the hat!



They looked really nice and I wished I attended my graduation ceremony last October. My friends and I held back to sign up to attend the ceremony because it cost so much and we completely forgot about it after all.



There were several Indian mothers in beautiful dress as well.



The view from Ashmolean Museum. I was so happy to find the gold coin from Lydia with lion and bull stamp in the museum because I was just reading about it in the book, A History of the World in 100 Objects.

Peregrine Falcon

I know that I have been so slow in up dating my blog. It is not that easy to do it constantly. But here are some sketches from June.



A female peregrine falcon brooding her chick.





And this is the chick when it got bigger!
After the Seabird Drawing Course I was so inspired that I went to sketch the pergrine falcon chick with a set of water colour! I must keep doing this.



The mother brought a rock pigeon to the chick. The chick ate and ate and ate and it flew away somewhere. It could already fly very well. After a few minutes, the mother came back with another prey but the chick wasn't on the cliff. So she had to go and find her with the prey!



The mother peregrine.

Birds in scenery

I've always wanted to draw birds in scenery rather than a detailed portrait of them. Maybe because I am more interested in nature as a whole and the interaction between species and the habitat. St. Abbs head is certainly a place to make such large scale paintings. And I just love the place so much!



Guillemots（ウミガラス）
When the sun shines on the rocks, the lichens gleam in yellow and orange and the sea turns to be in beautiful blue green. It is beautiful but it only happens for a moment when the sun is out.



Guillemots were all trying to sit on the tiny rock sticking out above the surface of the sea. The ones swimming tried to climb on and pushed those standing on the rock and the ones standing pecked them back into the sea.



This year, we were lucky enough to be able to go on to the Fidra, an island also in the Firth of Forth and owned by RSPB. I learned that Robert Louis Stevenson spent many childhood holidays on this island. It is said that he got inspiration for the Treasure Island here!



And Fidra has some breeding puffins!

Trying new things

The Seabird Drawing Course gave us motivation and inspiration and opportunity to try something new. Even tutors seem to be taking it as a chance to do something new. We were all influenced by other artists! It is so lovely to work with other people.



I played around a little bit with colour paper. Crayon on some scrap paper that my friend left behind.





Painted on the coloured paper, which I made by rolling out the leftover ink.



水彩で描いた後に、鉛筆の線をのせてみたもの。



Kittiwakes at Dunbar. They are nesting at the Dunbar Castle, the remnant of the one of the biggest castles in Scotland. Now it is a very popular apartment for kittiwakes. It was so hot that day and the kittiwakes were opening their beak, sticking their beautiful orange tongue!

Bass Rock Gannet

I joined the Seabird Drawing Course again! It was as amazing as last time, or even more! I had been looking forward to it since it finished last year.


When I arrived at the campsite, I already found a familiar face, Greg Pool, one of the tutors and I was welcomed by all the other campers. I can not explain how happy I was when I entered the hotel and saw some familiar faces from a year ago! It was incredible to feel at home at this amazing place with all the amazingly talented people.



From the very first day, we went on to the Bass Rock, where it snows in summer. The millions of gannets were there calling, fighting, sleeping and preening to each others as they were last year. But because of the late spring, we didn't see any chicks. Parents were still incubating their egg.



ジョン・バズビー氏をはじめ有名なワイルドライフ・アーティストをチューターとして迎えて行われる、海鳥を描く一週間のコースに今年もまた参加してきた。このコースの目玉は何といっても、シロカツオドリの島、バス・ロックに上陸して一日絵が描けることだ。この島は実は私有地で研究目的などでないかぎり、基本的には一般の人は立ち入れないらしい！　



I love going back to the same place and doing the same thing. Because I know what to expect and have some more knowledge about it, I start to see things that I miss at first. Since I read part of Bryan Nelson's The Atlantic Gannet to write my picture book idea, Snow in Summer, I was thinking of their habitat and motions with meanings rather than just a beautiful, incredible scene or postures to draw.




"When you draw gannets there, you have to think about the energy of Bass Rock itself. Gannets are merely tiny things flying about on its surface," Mr. Busby was saying. To feel the energy and try to include it in the works, you have to be out there in the field. And maybe that is why sketches from life are often stronger than those works made in the studio.



The second day on the Bass, it got windier and windier. Gannets were flying and enjoying the wind. But because the normal boat couldn't come close to the Bass Rock, we had to be rescued by a rib. And since even the rib couldn't stop by the rock, we had to jump on to the rib one by one when it came closer. But it is this wind that allows gannets to nest on this island.

pencil drawings

Drawing the same species again and again, I started to understand its shape better and became able to draw it with a single or at least with a few lines. During this trip I realised how important it is to stick on to the same subject, theme, material until I feel confident about it. You have to be a bit crazy to be a really good artist, it seems!



Fulmar（フルマカモメ）



Guillemots（ウミガラス）
長いこと観察していると時々抱いている卵が見えることがある。個体によって卵の色は異なり、空色だったり、白くて茶色い斑点があったり。崖の上で隣の個体とくっつくようにして抱卵しているため、卵の色や模様を変えることで、隣近所の卵と混同せずに自分の卵を認識できるようにしていると言われている。



Puffin（ニシツノメドリ）



Gannet（シロカツオドリ）


Wheatear（ハシグロヒタキ）