Comments (0)

By admin, April 26, 2010 9:27 pm

I never get to this low in clay.  One box left.  I am getting the delivery on Wednesday.  I have tested the batch I am getting.

Recently we went New York City by car, and stayed Meadowland, NJ and commuted to the Manhattan by bus. I heard about it, but never done before.  We drove to NJ, 6 hours, and stayed the hotel in Meadowland, and take the bus to the Port Authority in New York City.  We do not necessary to drive inside the New York City, avoid the expensive parking fee as well as the hotel fee. Hotel in New York city is expensive and its tax is very high. Cost of the bus is 3.20$ one way, and takes 20-30 minutes.  The bus depot is in front of the hotel, and bus departs every 20 to 6o minutes until 1 am.  Going back to NJ at the Port Authority was a bit tricky, as there were no clear sign where to ride.  Arriving at the Port Authority after 10pm did not help as the information booth was already closed.  We saved over $100 a day this way.  Get the information at the hotel before you leave the hotel. That is very important.  We went the Mitsuwa (Japanese grocery store), just before leaving and bought fresh fish (we brought a cooler) and other stuffs, made me smile.

Comments (0)

By admin, January 3, 2010 9:52 pm

We started 2010 with lots of snow and frigid weather. I am sure very exciting and interesting year ahead. I felt 2009 was 10 years long, and am glad it was behind us. I finished the last two moths in good notes, my daughter smiling again and my kiln firing better.

Comments (0)

By admin, March 24, 2009 9:01 pm

The other day, I was looking for a Japanese pension card, and digging through boxes of albums. My daughter wanted to see the albums, so we browsed through them. We were looking at a picture of Varanasi , India, and she said this is 30 years ago today. After traveling around the US in Greyhound buses, I took my father to Nepal and India for a month for his sketching trip. We did not make any reservation in advance, and went where we wished. I hated it when I got home, but strangely I wanted to go back very strongly, six months later or so. I have never gone back though. People were very pure and seemed happy, except ones exposed to foreigners. Toward the end of the trip, I was negotiating for a long time over 1 cent. I thought that was a very important thing to do. The value of the money was different, I heard they earned $30 a month, and if you give a dollar for tip, they just became beggars.

Went Kathmandu, Pokara in Nepal, Varanasi , Taj Mahal (Agra), Jaipur in India. They had gorgeous and beautiful landmarks, but the market (Bazaar) and people fascinated me the most.

At the Varanasi , we went to see the River Ganges early in the morning. Probably we shouldn’t have, due to the Sacredness of it. Anyway, by looking at the people’s activities, bathing, cooking, praying, playing and cremating within a stone throwing distance. Life was just concentrated in one spot. The cremation, I still vividly remember today, how people looked happy around there. I thought that ’s the way to go. I probably did not see sad part of ceremony.

In Nepal and India, literally mountains of bisques potteries were displayed on the street. We went to a pottery town, they were using a truck tire as a pottery wheel for making cups. They were serving the chai with these cups at the market, or even in the train, and they just smashed it once they finished drinking. No plastic or paper cups. Anyway, I saw a potter making large water storage jars, by coil building. He was making them very quickly and preciously. He was an unknown crafts person. He started to build a top rim of the jar, and built up a cylinder. He widened and rounded the shape by using a wood block. Once dried enough, it was flipped over to the bowl shape mold with sand and a slab of clay, and joined together.