well bloggers it's been a while… all recouped from our trip to japan and what an adventure it was! i have to start out by saying thank you to everyone in japan for their kindness, graciousness, and hospitality – it was truly an amazing week. mario and i started off meeting margie in san francisco for our connecting flight to japan. she too was teaching at CKU-J so that was exciting we were able to travel together and we also met up with stacy julian and her husband geoff at the airport as we all boarded the same 13 hour flight to osaka. we landed in japan, and met by catherine, one of the translators for CKU-J as she escorted us to bus for our 1 hour ride into osaka. we arrived at our hotel, checked in, and met our translators for the first time…
each american teacher was paired up with a translator for the week. mine, was the lovely reiko (right), and margie's was the adorable aya (left). our two translators happened to be best friends too, so we all hung out together. they were two of the most unconditional, genuine, and thoughtful people i have had the pleasure of knowing in my life. never have i connected with two people so fast. then we all headed over to the convention area to see our class space, boxes, etc. and then met for dinner. we were all pretty tired, but it was the first time we got to meet up with our hosts for the event naoya and megumi from sun-k who put on CKU-J and have made this event possible in japan, they were so kind, organized, and well prepared for the event!
each morning we walked to starbucks which was right around the corner from our hotel – so perfect, and then headed across the street for CKU-J. i taught 6 workshops to 250 wonderful students who were eager to learn, try new things, and were reminded to not think, just play! and play they did! the projects were beautiful, colorful, and creative…and everyone finished in class too. thanks again to reiko for her tireless translating of my sometimes worded technique descriptions. she was flawless! i also had the best, and i'm serious when i say the best assistants ever who made sure every student learned what they came to learn – inking, painting, crackling, stickling, and grunging techniques!!! after teaching each day, reiko and aya made sure we had our evening agenda all set. the five of us set out for incredible shopping adventures each night into downtown osaka, took the underground trains, walked, walked, and walked some more. we checked out the local craft shops, stationary shops, electronic shops, boutique shops, and any other shop we could zoom in and out of. then we would head out for a local nightly dinner adventure including bbq, noodles, and of course sushi. we even ate at two places where we had to take our shoes off – loved it!
after 3 days of teaching at CKU-J, we finished up with a closing ceremony where each teacher got to go on stage and thank all of the students. i was presented with this incredible ATC collage quilt made by some of the students there. all of the projects on it were using my stamps, i was touched beyond words and thanks to all of them once again for this priceless artistic treasure – it's hanging in my studio now. after CKU-J wrapped up, we were scheduled to stay an extra day so i could teach some bonus workshops at sun-k's store in osaka. i had about 60 students that day where we created a 3-panel canvas piece where they learned about collage, perfect pearls, distressing, fragments with cosmo cricket's earth love collection (which everyone in japan flipped over!), and yes grungepaper flowers! it was a fun day and even margie, stacy, and the cutest megumi took some time to play in the class…
of course words can never describe our experience of the japanese culture and people we were able to meet during our journey to japan. the friendships we've made are truly ones that will last a lifetime. the five of us (mario, margie, reiko, aya, and i) were inseparable – you all hold a very special place in my heart. a very sincere thank you again to everyone in japan for welcoming us there with open arms and your creative spirits – until next time…t!m
(*i'm working on a video blog of the trip too….i'll post it soon!)
