Happy Halloween!

Missing my friends from Cambridge, I had to do something for Halloween! Every year, we carved at least a pumpkin, decorated our house, ate some butternut squashes and roasted pumpkin seeds. So here they are! My jack-o'-lanterns for this year!! The Spectrum sprit is still alive here!



ハロウィーンのきびだんごランタン



Since the huge orange pumpkin for the lantern is not common in Japan and the big kabocha squash which we normally see in the super market is rather hard to carve. So I decided to get a small one intending to make a small but proper jack-o'-lantern. But I became busy and... hungry. So it turned out to be Sankaya Fakton, the Thai pumpkin custard pudding instead! It was quite easy and it was yummy! Better to be delicious than just beautiful!

Shrikes and persimmons

While I was stuck at home working, autumn had finally arrived here. For the last two days I managed to go out with my sketchbooks for an hour or two! It was lovely to be out in the fresh air!



柿とモズ、近所の秋の風景。
There are several orchards around my area and now they are all in orange with persimmon fruits.



This female brown-headed shrike decided to take this orchard as her winter home. From morning till the evening, she is singing aloud at the top of trees claiming her territory.



棚を整理したら、農工大を卒業時に美術部の後輩からもらった水彩用のスケッチブックを見つけ、いまさらながらではあるが使いはじめた。良い紙のスケッチブックは、高いからなかなか買えないけれど、やっぱり発色がよいのでうれしい！　美術部のみんなありがとう！



近所の遊水池を多い茂っているセイタカアワダチソウの中にもモズがいた。
I also visited a small river near my house, flowing right behind a bread factory. I used to go there often to watch birds when I was in the junior high school and the high school. While I was sketching this shrike in the field of goldenrods, I suddenly felt nostalgic. It was the smell from the bread factory! Unconsciously, I must had been sniffing the bread whenever I was there!



Kingfisher (female) is always a star. But today, I was more happy to spot a daurian redstart for the first time this season!



道路を歩いていて、母に連れて来られたナミアゲハ。

Festival Season

千葉県我孫子市の手賀沼で開かれるジャパン・バード・フェスティバルが来週末に迫っている。今年は3年ぶりに「きびだんご」に新顔が！



菊団子
A new face, the goldcrest, joined our bird juggling ball series!
Autumn is the festival season. I am going to join the Japan Bird Festival at Teganuma lake in Abiko, Chiba and the Shukuba matsuri at Oiso, Kanagawa.

◇◆◇ ジャパン・バード・フェスティバル2013◇◆◇
日にち: 2013年11月2日(土) 9:30-16:00、3日(日) 9:30-15:00
場所：千葉県我孫子市手賀沼湖畔

◆ ワイルドライフアート展
今年6月にスコットランドで参加した海鳥を描くコースの最中に描いたスケッチを3点、コースの様子とともに紹介させていただきます。
会場: 我孫子市生涯学習センター「アビスタ」 １Ｆロビー壁面、１Ｆ工芸工作室。
千葉県我孫子市若松26-4。我孫子駅南口より徒歩10分。JBF巡回バスまたは路線バスで「アビスタ前」下車。

◆ブックカバーや「きびだんご」シリーズ、アオバトやカワウのモビールなどの物品も販売予定です。わたしが関わらせていただいているのは、
・水の館前　ワイバードのブース
・水の館前　Hobby's Worldのブース
・アビスタ　エントランス　日本ワイルドライフ協会のブース



My mom and I have been working hard making juggling balls, little purses, book covers, crow card and so on. Our house is like a mini factory these days!



今年は「世界一賢い鳥、カラスの科学」の出版を記念して作った動くカラスカードやクリスマスカードなども新しく販売予定です。

◇◆◇ 第20回　大磯宿場まつり ◇◆◇
今年も、こまたんの『あおばとや』に鳥グッズを置かせていただきます。
日にち：2013年11月10日(日) 10:00 - 15:00。
場所：大磯町大磯　山王町旧東海道松並木

冠白無垢

地元、横浜の友達の結婚のお祝いに！
The Japanese name of this Bali Myna from Indonesia is Kanmuri-shiromuku. "Shiromuku" literary means a white starling but it also sounds like a special white wedding dress for brides. So here is my gift for my friend who got married recently in a traditional Japanese style!
In Yokohama, the captive-breeding program of this endangered Bali Myna has been quite successful and I read that 25 birds born in Yokohama were released in wild in the forest in Bali this year.

I found that this bird is also called Rothschild’s Mynah from Walter Rothschild who is the brother of Charles Rothschild, who made Wicken Fen and Woodwalton Fen as nature reserves.
I love writing articles on the blog because I always find something new! But since I start to look up information one after another, it takes much too long to post one!

Life in Japan

I am having hard time adjusting myself to the life in Japan. Everything is rather stressful here! There are little space in the house and little open common space outside and September was extremely hot for me after spending summer in cool England. I have to wake up and eat and go to sleep in tune with my mother's schedule. On top of that, I have allergy to something in this house or flying in the air so that I am sneezing all the time!
Having too many things to do doesn't help me either. Time here seems to fly three time faster than it was in Cambridge. I also feel like things, especially food, are a way too expensive. Where is my 89p bag of carrots and the reduced bananas with 30p per a kilo? When I look up the sky, there are always electric wires or huge ugly signboards in my view, which bother me a lot.


Before I went to England, I was really fine living here with all these situations perhaps because I wasn't even aware of these things. Or I didn't know anything else to expect.
I know that the best thing to do is to get used to the situation and let my mind and body become oblivious. It is not easy to change some of those things and there is no point in feeling stressful or being irritated all the time.
But at the same time, I am scared of going back to where I was and just being satisfied!



Marsh Harrier chicks from the field trip to Cley Marshes. I made this images with wooden engraving tools on a piece of vinyl! When I get some more time, I am going to practice and explore this media! (Thank you so much, Colin and John!)



Although I sounded quite negative, I do enjoy my life at home in Japan. The best thing is to work with my brilliant mother! We made a movable crow card out of my illustration for the book cover. We printed them as one of our paper bird series like bird mobile. We will be selling them at the Japan Bird Festival!



We also made the sparrow rucksack!



The gray heron sleeping. I haven't got enough time to go out birdwatching and sketching but I at least painted this one by the tiny river near my house.

世界一賢い鳥、カラスの科学

My linoleum print of the Jungle Crow was used for the Japanese version of Gifts of the Crow! My mother translated this book into Japanese and I got the chance to make the book cover illustration.



母が翻訳したカラスの本が昨日、ついに書店に並んだ。ジョン・マーズラフ、トニー・エンジェル著「世界一賢い鳥、カラスの科学」だ。わたしもまだ読み始めていないのだが、最も身近にいながら、たいがいは邪魔者扱いされ、視界の隅に追いやられてきたカラス類が、いかに高度な知能をもち、人間とよく似た思考パターンで行動し、逆にわれわれを観察しているかを思い知らされる本だそうだ。
邦訳版カバーには、私のリノリウム版画を採用していただいた！ 　中の挿絵は共著者でもあるトニー・エンジェル氏によるもので、緻密に描かれていながら動きがあってとても素敵だ。



They used my illustration for the back cover and the tittle page as well! I am so happy about this.

◇◆◇ 世界一賢い鳥、カラスの科学 ◇◆◇
ジョン・マーズラフ／トニー・エンジェル著、東郷えりか訳、河出書房新社
書店で見かけたらお手にとって見ていただければ幸いです。

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!