"Fireworks in Kashiwara"
In 2001 we moved from Tokushima to Kashiwara. I worked at a small private school from 13:00 til 9:00 most of the days. The life was very slow there. We had no car and we cycled everywhere. It usually took us about 1 hour from our town to get to downtown Osaka. We would go through little towns full of old industrial houses where factory workers lived. It was a sad and dark group of neighbourhoods. So when we got to Osaka we would see the difference of the architecture, the way people dressed, more colour and just over all healthier looking place!
Osaka is a very industrial city. But it also has an incredible art and architecture scene. Some of the sky scrapers look like spaceships or footballs or bullets! I loved living in our old house. Anything outside of it lacked colour and happiness. Maybe I was tired then. Maybe working evening hours clouded my perception. I hope I get to see Osaka again someday. I keep watching Anthony Bourdain's programs about Japan and he makes a lot of references to Osaka. They have the best takoyaki and BBQ awful for sure!
"Sketching whatever is on the coffee table..."
Kashiwara was also close to Nara, the ancient capitol city of Japan. We cycled there too. Usually it took us about 3-4 hours through some heavy mountains so we would get up at 4 a.m. and leave when it was still nighttime. I would pedal on my bicycle thinking how scary it would be to be crossed by a group of monkeys at night. But i was wrong. We shouldn't have been afraid of monkeys! They sleep at night. One time we left very early at night to see the sunrise at one of the temples there. At some point my husband noticed a dog. He got of his bike and started walking but soon we noticed there was a whole group, a pack of stray mountain dogs. We both jumped on our bikes started yelling and screaming to make as much noise as possible and pedalled with the top possible speed our knees could to get away. And we did.
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