Konbanwa!
What an AMAZING couple of days!! I can hardly believe im actually in Tokyo!! But its true and it is more than I ever could have asked for!! Sunday we arrived in Tokyo and took the train from Narita Airport to where our Hotel is in Shinjuku. After a group of us went and had adventure time trying to locate a place to eat dinner. Fun Times. The restraint we ate at the waiter spoke zero English and we had to order food through a touch screen where the first couple of pages were only in Kanji!!! We all headed back after that for some much needed rest.
Monday we had our first artist workshop with Shane Glines!! What an amazing artist!! I feel my work hasn’t been up to par since ive arrived here….so I feel like I have nothing good to show him when he assigns us work to do. But his lectures are awesome filled with super good advice and from the way he talks about starting and working on a piece I feel we share a very similar work ethic. Next we went to this awesome art store called Sekaido!! Floors and Floors of Art supplies..need I say more!! The group then split half went straight to Meiji Shrine and the other to TMS ( I went in the TMS group). Sadly though the guy never showed up so we sketched for an hour and a half at the train station before heading over to the shrine. What a beautiful place!! After the shrine I ventured into Harajuku for a bit by myself…it was interesting absorbing in the surroundings. (and being stared at allot!) Jeremy found me wandering around and a small group of us headed over to Nakano to visit Nakano Broadway! BEST EVER!!
Tuesday we started with another workshop and then went to Ueno. We visited the National Museum and saw lots of dinosaurs and school children. Everyone here has AMAZING bags and are always dressed amazingly. I feel like a slob most the time. Then Goto took us to this awesome toy store think toys r us on steroids with anime merch…yeah awesome!! Next Akihabara!! Wow is all I can say for this place….Lots of lights, lots of Maids, Lots of guys ( there were barely any women walking around….i mean I was expecting then men to outnumber the women but not as much as it did.), Lots of Porn, Lots of Manga, Lots of Electronics, and Lots to see. We got lost looking for the Mandarake flagship store but found it and was well worth the work trying to find it. Caught the late night JR and felt like a sardine!!
Wednesday another artist workshop in the morning followed by the Asakusa Kannon Temple. Another beautiful building but I much preferred the atmosphere at Meiji shrine. We were set free to do whatever we wished after that. Jeremy and I ran around and shot reference photos in Asakusa before catching the train back to Nakano. Ate at a Sushi-go-round for lunch!! Best Sushi ive ever had for cheaper than a meal at McDonalds!!! Then we explored the fourth floor of Nakano Broadway can you say cheap art books. Yeah fun times. There were also animation cells and backgrounds which I may check out again quickly (a Beatrice Character bible which im seriously thinking of getting) when we go as a group next week. Then we met Spalding and headed back to Shinjuku for Dinner. Ate at a pretty cool place, got a little tipsy, and wandered around a giant store called Tokyo Hands. Got some more art supplies and headed back to the Hotel for the night…..fun was had by all.
Thursday woke up and went to a bread store for breakfast and then it was our final day of class with Shane and I finally feel im starting to get better at this sketching fast thing but not by much. I better do something good for Hiroki tomorrow or I will cry. Then we went to the Edo Tokyo Museum in Ryogoku!! One of the best museums I have ever been to. I took far too many reference photos and my memory card filled up before I was halfway done with the museum. And adorable little japanese girls telling me my hair is "Kire!" and "Kawaii!!" wanting to get pictures with me! haha! After the museum Jeremy, Steven, and I headed back to Shinjuku for dinner. Yoshinoya!! It was very good for the price…think of it as a Japanese McDonalds!! Now back at the hotel gonna get some sketching/character designs done and then hit the sack. Tokyo is AMAZING and I can’t believe ive only been here for four days!! So look forward for another update within the next week….cant guarantee any sketches since I don’t have a scanner.
Sorry for the large update!
Oyasumi
