Japan- A Fond Memory

 Hi everyone. 

This week's theme at Rains Art Date is a Fond Memory. I'm in travel bug mode right now. Since the last April trip I took was to Japan in 2018 with school,  I thought I'd share some fond memories from that adventure as well as some journal pages I made when I came home.

Some sketched in my journal memories, mostly from the Nichinan area where we started our trip.

Here's a few photos from Udo Shrine in Nichinan.

And then we're onto the famous Inari Shrine in Kyoto. You might have seen photos of this.

And here's the bamboo forest as well as the Golden Temple also in Kyoto.

And finally, we're on the bullet train to Tokyo (Mt. Fuji was actually clear that morning which they say doesn't happen very often) and a few snapshots of that big city.

Here's a photos of saki barrels from another shrine, this time in Tokyo. The  barrels were beautiful works of art.

In a book store.

And finally for today, the view from my hotel room at sunset.

OK, that's a fraction of my photos and journal pages but this is already a long post. I would love to go back to Japan. It was definitely culture shock, but the people were so helpful and kind. 

I'm not sure if putting this post together helped take care of my travel bug much either, but it was good to look back and relive a few fond memories as well as seeing some details from this adventure.

Thanks  for visiting. 

Kinnichiwa

Another Sunday night here in New Hampshire. This weekend was busy with my daughter home, and Saturday we took a trip down to visit my Mom which is a little over 2 hours in each direction. It was a good visit and we ran some errands on the way home which all worked out even though when we got home we realized our basement deep freezer had stopped working. Ugh! A few things that were still frozen  we packed into cooler bags and put outside in the cold, but most of the rest of the contents were thawed and other than what we kept to eat the next couple of days, had to be thrown out.  It's couldn't have been off too many days because I had just put a couple of things into it last weekend and it was working then.

So even though I had no art time this weekend, I have been on a creative roll, and one of the projects I am working on is finishing up my Japan travel journal from last spring. This year's school trip is going to be a huge group with over 20 kids compared to the 8 that went with us last year. I wish I could go again but I also understand why they want to open it up to other staff members.

 I made a paper collage on the cover as you can see. I am not sure if it is finished yet or not, but it looks a little unfinished yet to me. I guess it depends if I get inspired to do anything else.

Here's a few other pages I recently made and also a few older pages that I don't think I showed you. 

 Don't you love my inky fingers in this photo?

 This next page may or may not be done. I found these fussy cut elements in a magazine I brought home and I really think they are super graphics. I don't know what they say, but hopefully nothing horrible.

Time is flying with January ending this week, and that's the current challenge at Try It On Tuesday You still have lots of time to participate so think about joining us.

Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend and has a great start to the new week.

The Moss Museum Page, and Some Other Items

 Happy Saturday everyone. It's cloudy here and they say we have a good chance of rain, so I am doing my rain dance because it is so dry we could use a good soaking.  Besides, if it's going to be cloudy, we  might as well get rain. 

I also want to mention that I was reminded our first day of summer is the first day of winter in some parts of the world. So those of you below the equator, happy winter. And I do mean that.  But since our winter was very very very long this year, I will sarcasticly remark that I am glad it is you having winter because ours will be back way too soon and I can't even think about that word right now. :)

The hubby and I are going to try to catch a noontime showing of the new Jurassic World movie. I heard from my daughter it wasn't as good as the first one, but I still want to see it.

So you can see more of my hand carved stamps in these 2 pages from my Japan Travel Journal. The green image is a first attempt, as if the brown block image. I have gone back and finished carving out the brown image, although you can't see it here. And the red one is my re-attempt at the green one that came out much better.

I brought home a postcard from the Moss Museum which I included by taping it in, and then underneath I have this stamped sheet of paper. Many places we went to had rubber stamps you could stamp I guess in some type of stamp booklet. I thought it was rather cool so I included in my travel journal.

And a couple of other not so exciting pages for you.

Keep in mind this is  travel journal so I am saving bits of paper I brought home as well as using a flight magazine I napped from the pocket on a flight which I am collaging items I cut from it. I also bought a couple of lots of inexpensive used Japanese postage stamps from eBay as they make great additions to finish off my pages.  What surprised m was how expensive some stamps could be. I know there are collectors and all that, and many Japanese stamps are beautiful, but these are not collectors editions. 4 used stamps for $12.00-I don't think so. 

And speaking of bargains, I went into Hobby Lobby yesterday before I hit the grocery store and they had some marked down craft books which I was excited about. Excuse the shadows in this photo. 

2018 has been the year of hitting Hobby Lobby bargains for me. They had a bunch of other books, but these looked like ones I thought would be more what I could get something out of. It is always fun to find some spontaneous bargains.

I am linking up today to Gill's challenge Inspired By at Art Journal Journey. I know my art hasn't been very varied lately, but I should now have time to start doing other things.

Anyhow, enjoy your Saturday everyone. And happy weekend.

T Stands for Eel

Hi ladies. Another Tuesday is here.  The brutal summer weather arrived, but luckily left almost as quick as it arrived and  it is supposed to be a little bit better on this Tuesday.  I don't like the humidity, even though the gardens sure do.

OK, when we were in Japan we went to eel restaurant. (Sorry to overwhelm you with Japan things, but it is really all I have been working on. I want to finish it so I can move onto new things. I am ready.) Now the idea of eating long slimy eels didn't sound that good to me at first. I'm not really that fussy an eater, and I like to experiment with various foods, but somehow eels, well that made think twice. But we asked a sample before we ordered, and the eels didn't taste any different than other grilled fish, and it looked like fish, not long slimy eels, so I soon go over my squirmies. 

Now the munchies they brought with our beers were a different story.

My first thought was fired insects. No thank you. These turned out to be the spines rom the eels, and I did try one. It was just a salty crunchy bit, but still didn't do much for me .
So I ordered the eel dish that way similar to Koran bibimbap. This dish was served in a very hot stone bowl, and had rice, spinach, bean sprouts, eel and egg in it.
And it was very very good. 

Since it is Tuesday I am linking up to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to join in the T day fun where we link our drink related posts.
My art at the top of the post is more from my Japan Travel Journal. I drew a cartoon version of the Japanese local eels and added the label rom some peach flavored water I purchased a bottle of while in Japan. There were so many different drinks in Japan you could make the goal of a whole trip trying different ones. I can't remember where the Japanese script paper strip came from, and who knows what it says but it makes a great design element.
I am linking up once again to Gill's fun challenge at Art Journal Journey  She has chosen Inspired By as herr challenge.
And I mentioned earlier how the gardens were loving the heat and humidity. My roses are looking fantastic right now.

This is the big bloom of the summer. They will continue to bloom all summer, but they never seem to bloom as many blooms as this first round.
This is one reason why I love summer.
Have a happy T day everyone.