JAPAN CROSS SECTIONS

Living in Japan was amazing on so many levels. Up in the north country I found a warm community and a kind host family who made me feel like one of their own. I taught English in the Morioka area for about four years overall. There is a great sense of design in Japan, which you can see in the way everything is manufactured and presented. This extends to the how spaces are set up, as well. I often felt conscious of moving through environments that were groomed with loving affection. On a more personal level, I also enjoyed how safe and friendly it felt to live in that society. I've never understood or related to the way men particularly behave in the US, which I often see as pretty aggressive and competitive. It was a relief to be in a place where kindness was the cultural norm. It was also great to soak up traditional and modern culture. My curiosity to seek out interesting books and music flourished, and my inner landscape was forever defined by festival dances, koto and shakuhachi, kabuki, and artists like Ryuichi Sakamoto. I enjoyed spending weekends traveling around with friends, playing guitar, and searching shops for treasures. One neat discovery was finding a series of books that showed cross sections of classic tv/movie monsters. Ultraman was the reigning king of kids books when I was there, so it was pretty common to find cool stuff devoted to the many kaiju developed for Eiji Tsubaraiya's classic series. Cross section illustrations were traditionally printed in black and red and they included cool little details around each subject to identify various scientific details- what a fun way to engage curious kids about their favorite kaiju! Here are few samples (Toho's Godzilla and Gamera appear last). Enjoy!