Firstly thank you for this amazing opportunity, already it has been an amazing visual feast!
The house in Kyoto is in a really good position, there are so many great things to see just wandering around the local streets. You have to be a little careful along these refreshingly quite roads as the electric cars are very quiet and cyclists abound. The amazing Nijo Castle is just down the road, we are planning to visit one evening when it is all lit up. Next door to the castle is an art gallery , yesterday we saw a really interesting exhibition there of the work of textile artist Nobuko Hiroi, very thoughtful work , beautifully executed. Upstairs she had her amazing textile archive from around the world on display, this was a wonderful addition to the exhibition. We also had the privilege of meeting her and she is going to join us at the opening of our exhibition next week. She is a weaver!
After the exhibition - Yuki, Larrisa , Paul, Lauren and myself enjoyed our first meal together in a traditional Japanese restaurant. we sat at low tables our feet in a foot well, in a screened booth. The food was delicious, but I did pass on chickens ovaries and various other bits of the chickens anatomy that we are not accustomed to eating !
This evening we had our welcome party at the gallery, we had a very friendly reception from the Japanese artists we will be exhibiting with.Yuki , our lovely facilitator made wonderful sushi, we ate, drank,talked and laughed a lot. We extended our meeting back at our house , it was really good fun.
The gallery we are exhibiting in is in a traditional Kyoto town house designed during the Edo period. At the back of the gallery are the traditional living quarters of the family who own the gallery, with tatami mats, screening and hanging scroll, absolutely beautiful. I am really looking forward to seeing all of the artworks, I think the standard is going to be high.
It is now after mid night and definitely bed time, I will sleep well after good food, good company and lots of walking, especially up and down steps at the temple and the rail and subway stations.