Sketchbook

New Blog

2007-03-03T21:43:00.000+09:00

Hey I've moved.
Go here from now on for all the exciting news.

http://www.kateoleary.com/blog/

Hair Dye

2007-02-27T16:22:00.000+09:00

I have the winter blaaaahs.

I met with my neighbor today and it was really interesting.
A couple of weeks ago I brought her an article that my Mom sent me about Blythe dolls.
They have a renewed popularity in Japan and America since a company started to make them again.

Yumiko was interested in this and did some research on the dolls and also shared with me the Japanese version of Barbie, Licca-chan. When Barbie was first introduced in Japan they thought she looked too adult so they made this doll with more child like features. I told her that in America there was movement to make Barbie reflect the more ethnically diverse population and if there was any concern for that here. I’m not sure she really understood what I was saying. All the dolls here are Caucasian and don’t look Asian.

For some reason hair dye has been a popular subject for us lately. It’s a recent trend in the last ten years for young Japanese people to dye their hair. A lot of schools use to have rules that your hair had to be black. It was also common for older woman whose hair was turning white to dye it brown. When it first became popular to start dying your hair brown she had a hard time understanding why. I told her all the different colors that I have dyed my hair and she thought that was funny.

Here is a line of hair dye that uses Blythe dolls.

She asked what color my mother’s hair was. I told her that her that my mom dyes her hair brown to cover the gray. Sorry Mom, I hope that’s not embarrassing. But it brought up a really good point. Yumiko didn’t know what I meant by gray. She asked, White? I said no gray. She asked me to find a color to show her in the house. In Japan their hair doesn’t turn gray it turns white. I had never thought about it before. Sometimes you get white hair and sometimes it’s gray. She hadn’t realized this either and we both agreed that it’s a good thing for us to visit each other and learn about other cultures. This sounds like an after school special but it was really fun.

Check this out

2007-02-19T22:03:00.000+09:00

This is a photo from our weekend in Sapporo.
I have no idea who these people are but they wanted to get their picture taken with Dan and I.
Seriously. There are photos of us with every member of their family.
Maybe they thought we were Brad and Angelina. HA.
Any way .

Check out Brendas blog.
http://japanesebrenda.blogspot.com/2007/02/yuki-matsuri-yo.html
She was with us that weekend and it was tons of fun.
She's way more together with updates than Dan or I and you get a entertaining take on our week.

Note to our sensitve readers there is some strong langage involved.

New Work

2007-02-15T16:09:00.000+09:00

Here are some acorn friends that I've been working on.

One Morning

2007-02-07T22:41:00.000+09:00

From Jan 31 to Feb 7th I didn't have email. So if you emailed and didn't hear from me, that's why.

Here's one of my mornings.

This is what I see when I wake up.

Take a shower. This is interesting because it shows how we have to get hot water. See the black knob on the far right. Turn that on to open the gas. Then the right beige knob on the top of the black is pushed down and turned. As you hold that down you turn the crank directly under it and look in the window to see if you light the gas. Then slowly let the top knob up and turn in again. Then you can turn on the water.

This is the kerosene heater that heats the house. I huddle in front of it when I get out of the shower cause it's COLD.
Our bedroom is to the left there. Our laundry is hanging there too. We don't have a dryer.

The sink outside of the shower.

We have a washing machine. This is how we do laundry. You can start to see how the room fits together. The sink is on the far right, then the shower, washing machine, kitchen is beyond that and if you turn left you would see the heater and bedroom.

Breakfast. Those are Dan's Pringles not mine.

Walking to the bus.

Waiting for the bus.

On the bus.

The art supply store. It's combined with a frame shop. This is pretty common. This is the biggest on in Hakodate and it's really small but it keeps me going.

Back to work, my desk.

This is my computer desk. I was going to show the view out the window (a mountain) but it there was too much condensation.

A challenge

2007-01-31T12:18:00.000+09:00

What? You want me to only eat things that are cute?
Okay.

This is a bao bun that was pink, filled with something yellow and had a face.
This photo looks a little gross but it was really cute.
It didn't taste so good. But it was cute!

This was a bag of dried beans(?) with little pieces of hard candy mixed in. Pretty good.

Kyoto

2007-01-25T11:45:00.000+09:00

Before Seoul, Dan and I went to Kyoto.
He posted some beautiful photos of our trip on his site.
http://danhenrick.com/

Happy Birthday to me

2007-01-22T22:02:00.000+09:00

I got to spend my birthday roaming around Seoul doing whatever I wanted.

I wandered around the arty neighborhood and found these awesome earrings.
They were my birthday present to my self.

They are just too perfect. The packaging was wonderful.

Then I had this. I slyly looked at the other dinners to figure out how to eat it. You crack the raw egg into the stew. Give yourself a portion of rice from the big stone bowl(it's not shown). Then pour water into your rice bowl to eat after the meal. It was good but spicy.

Then I went to a giant shopping plaza where there are all these high rise shopping malls. Tons and Tons of them. The way to the malls is lined with food stalls selling all sorts of food. I didn't feel comfortable taking photos if I wasn't buying something.
So I don't have any photos of those. I really wanted to see a movie and Blood Diamond was the next showing.

It was awesome. The ticket seller didn't speak English but we figured it out. It's assigned seating so you pick where you want to sit. I got some popcorn and settled in. I cried through a lot of it but it has a good ending. Leo is my new boyfriend.

I tried to window shop after the movie but was getting some very hostile stares from shop girls and they wouldn't let me look at things. I couldn't figure out if it was hostile shop girls in general, or anti American/Western hostile stares or maybe I wasn't cued in on proper Korean etiquette. It only really happened in smaller independent shops so I'm going with anti-Western.
A birthday girl can only take so much so I called it a night.

Thanks to Dan's family for sending a care package to Japan that had some birthday goodies for me. Pirate Booty! Grape Nuts! Candy! Tums! (it's a calcium supplement) Thanks to my parents for the gift card, I used some of it to buy dinner in Seoul!

Signed yours truly,
Kate Depp Damon Owen Farrel Fillion DiCaprio O'Leary - (Amy G., Did I forget anyone?)

Where I stayed

2007-01-22T21:39:00.000+09:00

The guest house I stayed in was off this alley.

This is the courtyard and my room. You left your shoes on the little ledge where my bag is. All the rooms are warmed through heated floors. It was really cozy and warmer than here in Japan where we have a big kerosene heater in the main room.

My room.

She sat out in the sun all day. The house phone is there next to her. I'm not sure how this works when is rains or snows. Maybe they bring it in.

This is a little touristy candy shop. They sing songs and make the candy in front of you. It's lots of fun.
It's a traditional court cake called Kkul Tarae (honey skein). It's made of ripened honey and malt, which was once presented to the king and valuable guests.

It's sweet and once it melts in your mouth it forms a hard block over your teeth like taffy. I got the almond flavor.

Good things about Seoul

2007-01-22T21:03:00.000+09:00

Can anyone tell me which way to go for line 3?

I'm going to focus first on what was good about my visit.

The subway system is amazing. It is by far the easiest subway system I've used and I'm including foreign and domestic.

You would have to be extremely drunk or mildly learning disabled to get lost and even then if you can identify colors you could find your way around.

Basically it was built with the English speaking tourist in mind.

All the stations have maps with English and Hangul. There are 8 different subway lines all of them with a different color.

All the transfer stations have these big, bold lines on the wall with arrows pointing you to the transfer site. I've been in so many airports and subways where you wander around looking for a little sign or they word things in a strange way with a vague arrow.
This was perfect. Giant color coating is the way to go. I never once got lost due to the subway and the tickets were easy to buy and cost about a dollar a ride.

On the trains they announce all the stops in Korean and English and some of the trains have T.Vs.

Yaay.

Now the annoying.
I was warned that Koreans shove and that they are a proud people.
I'm glad I was prepared for the shoving but that didn't make it any less aggravating.

In Chicago on a packed rush hour train you have to shove on to fit. That's to be expected. It was the same in Korea.
No problem.
The difference is at home when navigating a tight space you maneuver around people avoid bumping into a should here or a bag there. In Korea rather that moving the couple of inches to avoid you they just throw the shoulder.
At home this happens but it's considered a little rude and the person is in a hurry or careless. Here that's just the way it is.
I couldn't help but feel the constant invasion of personal space as a rude. I felt so harassed every time I went out in a large crowd. And it's always a large crowd. I was so overwhelmed by the people everywhere. Everywhere just walls of people.
Getting to any major destination required being emerged in a giant mass of people for at least 40 minutes. There wasn't any break. No side streets that were less crowded. Just people everywhere.

Throw in the fact that I had cramps and back aches the whole time I was pretty miserable.

Back from Seoul

2007-01-22T20:50:00.000+09:00

As some of you may or may not know I just got back from Seoul South Korea.
Why? I had this little issue of not having a visa to stay in Japan longer than 90 days.
But.
If you leave and come back it renews.
Technically I wasn't doing anything wrong. But I did get some hard stares from Customs officials and confused questions by airline employees. It's all good and I'm here from another 90 days.

I choose Seoul because it was the cheapest easiest country to get to from lovely Hakodate. Hakodate has one international gate and it goes to Korea. I got a deal but had to stay for five nights!

Five nights in a big city that I didn't really want to be in.
Don't start boo hooing what a terrible life I have. I know that I sound selfish or something but I really don't enjoy big cities.
I'm also not making a lot of money right now so I have to be conservative with what I do.

I lived in Chicago for seven years and I have developed opinions about cities and why I don't like them.

I like to travel to places that interest me in someway and or inspire me. I've never been that curious about Korea.

I got a Lonely Planet and started researching what would be interesting there to me.

But basically it's a big Westernized city of 10 million shoving people. The next few posts will be about my trip.

Cool Link

2007-01-16T09:07:00.000+09:00

This is a cool link with some really interesting stuff.

http://www.paumes.com/

email

2007-01-15T23:46:00.000+09:00

Yaaay
I think I figured out the problem with my email and hopefully it's fixed.
So I should be getting emails now. Yaay.

K

Email

2007-01-15T13:13:00.000+09:00

It seems for the past couple of weeks I haven't been receiving a lot of email. I think it started around Christmas.

It was confirmed when I was working on a freelance job and missed some important emails.

This is really upsetting because I love getting email. I really appreciate it when people take the time to write because it gets lonely here sometimes. It's especially frustrating knowing something was sent and still didn't get it.

I try to respond to people in a timely manner. I've lapsed on a couple of people but I'm pretty good about getting back right away.

So if you have sent something and haven't heard back from me please try sending it again.

Okay that's it. thanks

Hello

2007-01-09T15:29:00.001+09:00

I've updated my website
http://www.kateoleary.com/

I've also added some products to my cafepress shop
http://www.cafepress.com/arsonistcow

This guy is available on Postcards (package of 8 for 7.99)
Come on how can you resist? Just in time for Valentines Day!
Cafepress offers $5 flat shipping rate for the first five items. That should cover all your Valentines.
You can cover them all with Monkey Poot.

We're off to Kyoto for a few days and then I'm going to Seoul for a week.

:)

Christmas in Japan

2006-12-26T20:38:00.000+09:00

We went down to the port to enjoy the lighting of the Christmas tree and fireworks. But we missed the fireworks because they were two minutes long.

We then walked around and window shopped and ended up at the Hakodate Beer Factory.

For Christmas Day with slept in and opened presents from each other.

Then that night Dan's coworker invited us over for dinner. It was really good. Lots of food and sweets so I did get to overeat on Christmas. They have a two year old who is really cute.

I made no bake holiday wreath cookies and buckeyes. We decorated the wreaths with licorice bows from Dan's stash of candy from home. So far it's been a real hit. Most Japanese people haven't seen anything like it. Especially the licorice. They always ask first what is the green color of the wreaths? Then what is the licorice.

Hakodate is Halifax's sister city and they sent over this tree.

farm1.static.flickr.com/88/333801996_82a78bff2b_m.jpg" width="180" height="240" alt="Christmas Japan" />

What's in my Parfait?

2006-12-25T18:08:00.000+09:00

Cornflakes?!

That's okay. I approve.

Totoro Doughnut

2006-12-25T18:07:00.000+09:00

Watercolors

2006-12-23T12:04:00.000+09:00

Illustrations

2006-12-22T12:58:00.000+09:00

Here are some illustrations I did for an Australian company based in Japan.

Dan made it into the paper

2006-12-20T18:15:00.000+09:00

So did my neck. That's me standing on the other side of him.

Twice a month there is a Nihon-go salon where foreigners can practice and learn Japanese and it's followed by some cultural lesson. Such as talking about the Japanese New Year and Sumi brush painting.

Well the week we chose to go it was learning how to Rhumba. That was interesting. I can barely learn how to dance when it's taught in English. It was fun. The dance instructor was almost a cliche of what you would think a dance instructor would be. Let's just say he had flair and a three piece purple suite.

This article talks about the salon and how many different countries were represented.

Suggestions

2006-12-20T17:57:00.000+09:00

I meet once a week with my neighbor she teaches me a little Japanese and we talk in English so she can practice.
This last week we were talking about confusing English phrases. Such as, He's not cut out for business. Or to do something on the fly. Can you think of anymore more that would be useful? I get stuck when I have to think of example. You can leave suggestions in the comments.

thanks

A taste of home

2006-12-18T13:19:00.000+09:00

Sushi

2006-12-18T13:14:00.000+09:00

There is a sushi place by house where each plate is 150 yen. You just grab what you want off of the conveyor belt. You can request an order over the speaker at the table. You can see the powdered green tea on the table. You pour some in your cup and there is a hot water spout at each table for the tea. It's in the right hand of the photo.

One of Dan's teachers asked me where I bought this sweater. They said that you would never see this color in the stores in Japan because this color doesn't look good on Japanese women.

House guest

2006-12-18T13:09:00.000+09:00

We had a house guest over Thanksgiving weekend. A friend of Dan's needed someone to watch her cat over the long weekend.
Chica is a little old lady cat who just wants to be petted and stay warm. She's very sweet and needy. It was fun having a cat around again.

Mochi

2006-12-18T13:07:00.000+09:00

I bought this not know what it was. I just thought the images on it were cute.
It ended up being MOCHi, my favorite.

A hike on Mt. Hakodate

2006-12-18T12:41:00.000+09:00

A couple of weeks ago we took a hike on Mt. Hakodate. We didn't go all the way to the top but to one of the peaks on the way.

We parked the car at the bottom of the mountain (see previous post) and walked through some neighborhoods to get to the trails.

I'm wearing a Fraggle on my coat.

Christmas shopping

2006-12-04T21:47:00.000+09:00

Hello,
I'm not sure who's reading or how often but I wanted to post that I created a cafepress shop. It's really small and very plain looking right now but here it is.
www.cafepress.com/arsonistcow

I thought I might try to help out with any last minute stocking stuffing. I have a postcard set that would be a good stocking stuffer. That's all.
I'm not on the ball enough to get Christmas cards together.

Here are the details for shipping.

Method Ordering Deadline
(11:59 p.m. Pacific
Standard Time)
Estimated Delivery
USPS December 7 December 22
$5 Flat Shipping December 7 December 22
Standard December 11 December 22
2-Day December 18 December 22
Next Day December 20 December 22
Canada/International December 8 December 22

Here's the color version

2006-12-04T21:31:00.000+09:00

Going to Onsen

2006-12-04T18:43:00.000+09:00

Trip up the Mountain

2006-12-01T23:25:00.000+09:00

Hi here's a little sketch of when our car stalled out on an incline. There's something wrong with the car and we couldn't get it up the incline. A Japanese man hopped in the car and slowly drove it up the hill and parked it. I must reiterate that fact that he had a very hard time doing it as well and said/gestured that there was something wrong with the car.

From Yumiko

2006-11-30T20:47:00.000+09:00

I left my pencil at my neighbors house. When we came home from dinner this little package was in our mailbox. She wrapped it up and returned it.

This has nothing to do with Japan

2006-11-30T12:39:00.000+09:00

Happy Thanksgiving

2006-11-22T22:42:00.000+09:00

Daiko

2006-11-20T12:29:00.000+09:00

Byou-uchi daiko are typically hollowed out of a single piece of wood. The preferred wood is keyaki due to its density and beautiful grain, but a number of other woods are used, grouped under the generic term meari (目有). Byou-uchi daiko cannot be tuned, and their sizes are limited by the diameter of the tree they are made from.
The typical byou-uchi daiko is the nagado-daiko (長胴太鼓, long-body taiko). It is roughly shaped like a wine barrel, and is available in a variety of sizes, from 1.0 shaku (12" in head diameter), to 3.0 shaku.

Our Japanese teacher invited us to her practice session. It was awesome.

Countries I've visited

2006-11-17T16:16:00.000+09:00

create your own visited countries map

Ice cream!!!

2006-11-13T22:22:00.000+09:00

Some friends of Dan’s were in town to visit so we did some sight seeing.
We went to this open air fish market in search of squid ink ice cream.

Here’s the sign. Notice that he’s blowing out some ink and inviting us to have some ice cream.

I am allergic to squid. I found out the hard way. I ate it and got really sick so I didn’t have any ice cream.

But here is Henry enjoying some.

They sprinkle it with ink powder. I hear that it tastes mildly of squid. I don’t know, I had melon ice cream.

For some reason my head looks really big here.

Cantaloupe is also very popular here. They go for about 25 bucks a melon.

We walked around for a bit and ate our ice cream. Which is a major faux pas. Walking around eating and drinking is like picking your nose. It’s a lack of self-control.

We then went to the top of the mountain and took some pics.

Drunk Japanese Teachers

2006-11-13T21:55:00.000+09:00

Dan and I were invited to celebrate the 120th anniversary of one of the high schools that he works at. It was a three day weekend due to Culture day. Culture is a day for the promotion of culture and the love for freedom and peace. But the festivities for the anniversary were all day long starting that morning at school for Dan so he didn’t a three day weekend. We met up at the high school and they bussed us downtown to a hotel. We had lunch and lots of drinks and many many speeches.

I learned a few things. It’s a compliment if someone tells you that you have a small face. I have a small face, thank you very much.

At a big party like this there is a practice when serving alcohol. First you never pour yourself a drink. You wait for someone else to serve you. You never drink until the first Kampii (cheers). Then through out the night people from the party will walk around refilling glasses. But they will refill it even if you don’t need it refilled. One person will fill it to the very brim and another person will be right behind them. You are supposed to take a few gulps to make room for that person to fill it up to the brim. This will go on throughout the whole night. I am hesitant to translate what this means. I think it’s a sign of respect to be able to serve you.

I met a lot of nice people and everyone that knew a little English talked to me. Since everyone got drunk pretty quickly this was interesting. One teacher had me guess his age. They thought it was really funny to ask us when we were getting married. Then they just started to refer to me as Dan’s fiancé and laughed and laughed.

We then went onto to a second venue for more food, drinks and speeches. We somehow got put at the drunk table. We weren’t drunk but everyone at our table was sloppy and kept almost causing a scene during the speeches. Then there was singing and Dan joined in.

At some point someone found out it was his birthday and they pulled him up on stage and sang Happy Birthday to him. They also pulled me up on stage when he gave his speech. I can’t show you any photos because Dan thinks he looks dumb in the ones we do have.

The night ended for us around 6 pm but they were going on to another party.
I was exhausted and just wanted to be quiet for a while.

Photos from around where I live

2006-11-02T21:35:00.000+09:00

I took a walk to a national park kind of near where I live. It's about an hour walk up hill to get there.
These are some shots of what I saw along the way.

On the hill up to the park

These machines are EVERYWHERE! If you remember Lost In Translation you know that's it's always Suntory Time.

This was halfway up to the park. It's a really steep hill. My Japanese teacher suggested I bike to the university to meet her.
I don't think I could make it. Walking it was enough.

This is on one of the paths at the park.

Apples

2006-10-30T21:54:00.000+09:00

One of Dan's coworkers brought him some apples from Aomori.
I just wanted to show you how giant they are. And check out my awesome hat (it haaas eeaars). Thanks to Fuzzy for the hat.

Japan update

2006-10-30T21:28:00.000+09:00

This past weekend Dan and I were invited to two Halloween parties. So we, of course, had to get costumes. It was a tough choice between an eggplant or a takoyaki. The takoyaki won out. I think you can tell why. Dan went as a squid so we could have a seafood theme and because he looks pretty darn cute.

It seems a little inappropriate that I hadn’t actually had a takoyaki yet when I bought the costume but I didn’t care. It’s a fried dumpling with a piece of octopus in the center. It was a big hit at the parties we went to. Most Japanese people didn’t quite know what it was but after a little explanation, they got it. The big thing sticking out of the side is supposed to be the octopus, but people thought it was a horn. That kept throwing people off because actual takoyaki is completely round. I think it may be the equivalent to wearing a hotdog on my head.

You may not be able to see in this photo that my lower lip is a little red. When I had an actual takoyaki it was hot off the grill and I burned the frack out of my lip trying to eat it. It was very yummy once it cooled down.

I encourage you to visit my flickr page for more seafood modeling madness.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/arsonistcow/

Beecup

2006-02-28T09:18:00.000+09:00

Illustration Friday - Song

2006-02-23T12:27:00.000+09:00

Illustration Friday -Simple

2006-02-13T08:55:00.000+09:00

Illustration Friday - Chair

2006-02-09T12:51:00.000+09:00

Everyday I sit and stare at my shoes before I go to work. It's the final thing I do before I leave and I know once I put them on I have to go. I never want to go so I end up sitting there looking at them.

Imagine finished

2006-01-05T13:14:00.000+09:00

Illustration Friday - Imagine

2005-12-22T14:41:00.000+09:00

This is just a sketch. Not finished just yet.

Illustration Friday - Blue

2005-12-06T23:05:00.000+09:00

Illustration Friday - Strength (Parker)

2005-11-17T14:54:00.000+09:00

ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY- BROKEN

2005-11-03T22:56:00.000+09:00

broken broomstick

2005-10-25T13:38:00.000+09:00

Illustration Friday - Remote

2005-10-24T11:07:00.000+09:00

Broomstick

2005-10-20T12:57:00.000+09:00

Illustration Friday - Roots

2005-09-06T12:45:00.000+09:00

I think of roots in terms of home and family. All of the people that are victums of hurricane Katrina now have no home and are missing family members.This drawing is the immediate absence of roots. But I would like to think that as long as they have each other that they will never feel truly rootless.

Illustration Friday - Dreams

2005-09-02T10:44:00.000+09:00

Illustration Friday - Empty

2005-08-08T10:41:00.000+09:00

gazer

2005-07-22T12:20:00.000+09:00

2005-07-21T14:38:00.000+09:00

Grumpy

2005-07-21T11:35:00.000+09:00

Illustration Friday - Karma

2005-07-18T10:11:00.000+09:00

Illustration Friday-Metropolitan Rats as big as cats

2005-07-15T08:45:00.000+09:00

Illustration Friday: Sport

2005-07-07T12:05:00.001+09:00

Score Cards

2005-06-23T21:47:00.000+09:00

Waiting for my turn

2005-06-23T09:54:00.000+09:00

When you said I was quiet...

2005-06-23T09:53:00.000+09:00

envy

2005-06-03T13:02:00.000+09:00

Beepers looking evil

2005-05-23T08:02:00.000+09:00

Being liked can be over whelming

2005-05-23T07:59:00.000+09:00

scary

2005-05-17T10:55:00.000+09:00

Nourishment

2005-05-17T10:53:00.000+09:00

ambitious

2005-05-06T13:15:00.000+09:00

a little fun

2005-05-04T12:25:00.000+09:00

trying to paint the drawing

2005-05-04T12:22:00.000+09:00

man on train

2005-04-21T10:54:00.000+09:00

sleeping

2005-04-11T11:23:00.000+09:00

testing the new blog

2005-04-09T12:44:00.000+09:00

testing the post