I have joined the world of blogging! 

Several people have been asking me to write a blog so here it is. I hope mine is slightly different to others, and makes you keep reading it. I want to blog about my time in Japan through my art work. 

I have arrived in Japan!!! I have been here for two weeks now and what an experience it has been. 

I am in a country that is the polar opposite of England, everything from food to language, day-to-day etiquette to weather, everything is so different. However, since I arrived in Numazu City, I have felt so welcomed by everyone. The Hosaka family (the owners of the school I am working at) have taken me in as one of there own, and all the locals from shop keepers to business men try to help you in one way or another. 

Pretty certain I bought the great British weather on my arrival, so exploring was delayed a day-or-two. But when the rains cleared, the sun shone revealing the most spectacular view, right on my door step. It truly is a view I doubt I will get sick of, I have spent several hours sitting on the sea front looking out to Mt Fuji, just thinking how lucky I am to have this experience. My first piece of art, of course has to be of Mt Fuji. 

What a view! An acrylic painting of Mt Fuji at sunset. 

Luckily, for the first few days, Mrs Hosaka cooked me some lovely traditional Japanese meals. Now, however it has been a case of food roulette in the shops. I have no idea what most of the packaging says, many a time I have hoped that I had just bought chicken, more often than not it is in fact fish. 

But I have checked out several restaurants, all incredible  Amazing sushi and traditional dishes,  ordering the food however has been extremely amusing. Yesterday our inability to speak Japanese and therefore order food resulted in us being the evening entertainment for the whole restaurant. But its all part of the fun. 

I am almost a natural at chop sticks now! 

The 4th April was one of my favourite days yet. I was totally emerged in culture and tradition. I spent the morning at the Ose Festival and Uchiura Port Festival. It is an annual event where locals pray for their safety during fishing and for good catches all year round. It was a great atmosphere. All men dressed in kimonos and painted there faces, there was lots of singing and dancing, and local foods. I collected a few flyers to incorporate into the next pages of my scrap book.

Ose Festival and Uchiura Festival

Teaching has been going really well! I love it! I am so glad that I took the leap to come out here and teach. It really is a truly rewarding job, and makes you realise that a stressful money making job in London is just not worth it one bit!!!! I teach students ranging from juniors right through to pensioners. I have already received a few gifts, two massive apples (literally the size of my head) and I was taken out for dinner by a student last week. He is a very intelligent man, now enjoying retired life with his wife. He loves to learn English, and has a half an hour free conversation class with me each week. My students generosity and friendliness is mirrored in many Japanese people.

Anyway that is a short blog entry about my first couple of weeks. I aim to use my blog to illustrate my time here through my own art work.  I hope to blog at least once every two weeks (hopefully more), your comments are welcomed! 

Have a good evening! 

Marion xox