tanuki

talking about dog-like animals i have to tell about the "tanuki". this forest animal which is something between a badger and a raccoon dog (and in finnish it's probably mayra) is very present in japan, at least in mythological and symbolical way. right in the beginning of my stay here, i was invited with my fellow ars-residents to visit the living room of one old lady who was keeping a restaurant in the nearby village. the most precious thing in this living room was a fullfilled tanuki inside a glass vitrin. this animal was standing on its hind legs, wearing a straw hat and carrying a sake-bottle. we were to admire this tanuki and finally to touch its balls! it felt little bit strange at the time but now i start to realise what a big honour we were given...in the various songs telling about tanuki, he always has a pot-belly and these huge testicles. it's also a shape-shifter; it can for example turn into a tea kettle. so, i felt the necessity to learn some tanuki-songs.

green is the colour!

i have very active time. maybe the activity is in the air here. without any strain my days became full of nice happenings and creative steps. but then again, that's how it's supposed to be in an art residence, isn't it? i have also thought that maybe it's the amount of green tea one drinks per day. i have lost the count of cups...i cook it myself and it's been offered to me in every occasion. furthermore, you can find green tea leaves in buiscits, nuudels and in a kind of jelly-like thick drink which is suppose to be very healthy. apart from tea, i enjoy the various kinds of green leave vegetables you can find here. every time i find some new forms in the market. they often have a kind of slightly bitter but very fresh taste. so, all this greenery i get inside must cleanse me and keep me crispy light awake:)

creative wild boar

i have started my project here. i'm listening to japanese people talking and mimicking. i'm sitting in my room for hours with my finnish-japanese-finnish dictionary (the only one i found!) and picking up funny words. i find more and more japanese words which exist in finnish as well. mostly they don't mean the same, but sometimes the meaning is actually close in a surprising way. it's a nice game for me. here are some appetizers (specially for the finnsih speakers):
hikari= super quick express train ari=ant
hoho= cheeks
hana =nose
niko niko= smiley
sora= heaven
and so on...

just now i was sitting in a jury, choosing the prize-winning postcards of the year. people from yamaguchi area, young and old, had sent their postcard drawings to this competition. i was pretty impressed about the devotion and accuracy they presented. they were often graphically skillful, combaining text and picture.lots of drawings of animals, specially wild boar which is the animal of the soon starting new year, the winner.
lot of creativeness around.

japan dog

japan japan, here i am! and finally got access in my blog after a hassle with computers changing from japanese writing to roman. the two first days in this country have been a lot about adjusting into their system. it started off with their heating system. too many oversensitive buttons for me. in the first night, jet-lagged and all, i succeeded to mix it up completely and in the end the blowers started to push cold air into the already freezing rooms! desperation. and the blowing machines make hellova noise.but slowly i adjust to this. my flat has a western style and a japanese style room. very nice. i keep the japanese room with tatamis as a singing space. i already created 2 songs mixing japanese and finnish:)
the nature is beautiful here and the air like honey. yesterday i climbed up the hill, passing through bambu forest. i didn't know they grow so tall and tight. the light was mystical green under and they make a great sound when you bang them. up the hill i was sitting in the sun, just breathing in the air and the landscape. i felt blessed.
so many impressions already. again my cheeks are burning but probably it's the amount of fresh air this time. i will soon write more.

first words

berlin, on the day of the white rhythmical dog.
according to mayan calender that is my sign. so, a good day to open this blog. my new website also got ready today and we activate it soon. my cheeks are burning with excitement! the new website gives a form to my thoughts and concepts i have developed during the past year. this blog nicely supports and comments the website, giving it more life. it is a new experiment for me but i promise to myself to just simply keep on writing and see where it leads.
there will be adventures coming, inside and outside the web -i can smell it!