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bekijk ook het algemene dagverslag van 6 - 23 september | 24 september - 7 oktober | 8 - 21 oktober | 22 oktober - 4 november lees ook het persoonlijke dagverslag van Alex| Kees |Marie-Claire | Marieke Dagboek: Marieke Bolhuis (mozaïek) Friday October 6 For Claire has been written a nice diary about the two of us traveling to Hirado, I suggest you read that. In the general diary, you can read our day to day businesses, but for the personal notes please continue. Leaving is a dualistic thing, specially with leaving Pet ill at home, pet is my horse. Emile brought me all the way to the customs.....Emile is my love. Marie-claire is cool. We adjust each other, survived 9 hours waiting on London airport, also thanks to the pounds my mum gave to me. Saturday October 7 We ate a delicious sashimi, ordered one got one...from two kimono designers who where sitting next to us and tried to communicated with us by translating words on their cell phones! After that I took a bath and felt a sleep.....to be clear awake at 3 in the morning.... Sunday October 8 At the airport I decided to take one, I have two, suitcases (Emile’s) with me in the plane for it was broken down a little... then they wanted to screen my suitcase and where asking if I had any nail-tools with me.... I thought, nail tools me? only a very little one of 3 cm.....and then the bell was ringing; my mosaic tools were in there! I could not take them with me the man said....but that was no option to me so the airport staff give me tape to tape my suitcase and I went back with to give my suitcase as cargo.... In the plane we had due to the delay of the other day, no window seat....but I saw three rows back two empty places and asked the stewardess if I could sit over there, Claire didn’t wanted to move, the stewardess answered ‘no, it’s a matter of balance and the captain has decided’. So I couldn’t move..... I was astonished, persuaded her, please let me sit over there, I am a photographer....please.... she went away, and I had difficulties not to laugh loud over this balance story... my weight to be crucial to the balance of a plane.... but the stewardess came back and said it was ok, I could move just after the take off... and I am so grateful, because two minutes after I sat on the other chair we flew over mount Fuji and I made 6 pictures looking into the volcano! WHOW! We had a very warm welcome on Hirado. We arrived by boot and I felt like Sinterklaas, with all those people waiting with flowers....lovely people brought me to my apartment opposite to a temple...so I can’t get lost. Then we had a great welcome party at a cafe located at the harbor. We ate a delicious locale speciality.... hmmmmmmmm....... then had a brief view of my studio/atelier and Marie-Claire managed to skype at Machida’s place in the meantime, so when I also got there I spoke and saw Emile on Claire’s computer! By that time the jet lag really got on to me, I had to sleep... Monday October 9 Alex left me a note and some food and a lot of drinks, thanks Alex! Feels good. At 8.45 ruriko calls me up, I just had opened my eyes, thanks to the melatonin I slept the whole night. ruriko asked if she could pass by to bring me a vase and some vegetables her neighbors grow, super! So sweet. Then I went to the supermarket for breakfast and lunch and and and....what a choice! Mushrooms, all kind of fish, take-away meals, shusi, yakatori, you name it... I only couldn’t find the cereals, but who cares. For lunch I ate a triangle rise with huge watercress tuinkers en lime juice of Yoriko....super! At one o’clock we met with Koteda-san for a tourist walk through the town. It was very interesting to see the historic sites. They just started with a project to rebuild the Dutch trading house... but besides the views the best place to me was the Matsura historical museum. Mr. Koteda-san could tell interesting facts which brought everything alive. I specially liked the two big painting on golden surface kamerschermen, and the watercolors about the northern people of Hokkaido. After that we took a foot bath in a public hot feet pot, nice. Claire and I had dinner in Hanna a sweet little restaurant with three very hard working women who run the place... We just looked at what other people were eating and pointed then that we also wanted that....very amusing and nice food! Tuesday October 10 this morning we had a appointment with the mayor, he is a very friendly men we sat down drunk tea, got a very nice present a replica of my favorite painting of the museum. he said that we really had to enjoy our self on hirado. after that we had a meeting with the organization to talk about our work and we ended it with some delicious locale shusi who were enormous. I won’t lose any weight here !!!! then quickly home to change, for i was pick up to go shopping for cement etc. that took the whole afternoon, at 6 I was finished.....went to Claire and suggest her that we would again eat out and go to a rotenburo.....outside hotpot, is warm water bath...it was nice!!!!!!!!!!! there were 4 Japanese ladies who instructed us or actually we were imitating them. we saw flying fish and the lights of the bridge and shore........ Wednesday October 11 today it’s the opening of my studio, but because i was up very early i first decide to go for a walk around the temple opposite of my house...it’s a beautiful very large temple with a large graveyard around it. All situated on a hill. so i was walking there when a monk all dressed in gray invited me for a drink after he showed me the grave of the matsura ,so i went with him into the temple, he introduced me to the high priest, and we sat down for cafe, tea ,cake, but we had no conversation .... so i thought a can better run home pick up my name cart and catalog so there’s at least something I can show to him...so a ran down hill from the temple up hill to my house ,and reverse.....I really had my exercise that morning! then I had to finish hanging my giclee prints and the copies about the history of art. I took only very small giclee prints with me. at one it was ready. i went home to change because at two the opening starts, at 15 to two marie-claire phones where are you ,everyone is here......she played the violin after my speech . at 3 all the people went home or back to work, i stayed and mosaic-ed on my examples for the school children. a nice old men visited my exhibition, he was a pottery maker and really really interested in my work, such a pity we couldn’t talk at 5 imke ,a dutch girl who works here picked me up and we went to sado, tea-ceremony lesson, on a beautiful spot in the countryside the lady hotta-sensei lives in a temple complex with her family. she is so nice! the tea ceremony combines the best of arts, like pottery, calligraphy, flower arrangements , kimono, conversation. It takes discipline and love to do the things from the heart, showing elegance and beauty from the sol of the performing lady.... I could sit on a little chair for my upper legs have big blue spots of sleeping on just one foam bed and my air-bed ..... Hotta-sensei was so nice to inform if I was sleeping well.... and if I had enough things in my apartment to invite guest.... so when ymke and I went home the whole car was packed with 2 futon beds, glasses, plates, pan, knifes etc.....so nice!!!!!!! Thursday October 12 this morning I started with looking for a thing my adult group can mosaic on. and went to a few shops but is was all so expensive, so i asked matchida if he know some cheap shop because with mosaic on it everything will look beautiful. we went to the place of the calligraphy teacher and bought nice plates. then i went to my atelier started some writing to get into the mood, means concentration to start working on mosaic. Ruriko passed by to talk about organization things and after that I could get concentrated anymore, so I went to machida to finish the dairy and went for a walk after that. On the castle hill I ate a late lunch and went back to the studio to finish 2 examples for the school children I have to teach tomorrow .I wonder how long it will take until the cement is firm..... Then Ruriko picked me up to go to a agriculture school. I will go for 4 times to this school. We have talked with the art teacher and the municipal and vice-municipal of the school. was nice, I got a little tour to the sport club . all girls were busy shooting with bow and arrow, very impressive, got a whole bag of eggs as present. at 21.30 claire and ymke came to my apartment and we had dinner. I cooked macaroni with fresh vegetables from Ruriko and tuna...the ‘girls’ brought wine....and cake.. Friday October 13 my atelier is in the shopping street of hirado, so every one passes by. By bike it’s 5 minutes from my apartment. This morning I first worked in my studio, then Ruriko picked me up to go to my first teaching job...13kids of 13 year, 11boys two girls all dressed up in blue school uniforms. Ruriko had been surging the other day for pebbles and shell on the beach, lovely round stone she and her company found ! I start my lesson with a brief view of the history of mosaic ,from Mesopotamia up till now, For I had only 50 minutes this lesson, I was in a big hurry.... I explained the in -direct technique to the kids and they started working, Ruriko translated every thing and took pictures in the meantime, she did a great job , my compliments! I made some blue cement/concrete and 10 minutes before time I could start filling the flower shape molds the kids had been working in. They had to tremble the cement so the air bubbles can escape and put in a hanging rope. the bell went and every one was ready ! then the teacher asked several kids to tell me what the thought of my lesson, and they thanked me all, and finally I had to say something to them. Ruriko brought me and all the heavy sand and cement bags back to my studio. I worked till 4 on my last school example and did the diary, then I was so hungry ,didn’t had any lunch, that I went to the supermarket to buy me a shusibox and green bean salad mix.....suddenly the thought occur to me that maybe their was a whale-sushi in my box and I don’t want to eat whale! Then I went walking for a hour along the road going out of Hirado, my parents phoned.... home again I decided to go to the rotemburo....and their was no one in, great to relax there with to waves smashing to the wall just beneath me. when i got out 2 hours later, 5 women went in... Saturday October 14 woke up very early, so the house was done at 8.30 cleaned, laundry done, you name it, so I went for a straw,short walk, at 9.30 Ruriko pick me up to go to the insect garden.....the happen to have enormous insects down here.....brrrrrrrrrrr.... the real reason is the I’m looking for a motive to make a mosaic for Hirado. It’s difficult to select in such a short period a motive...so I wanted to study the insects.... in the center their are samples of large butterflies, dragon flies, bugs etc. A very nice little old men come to us to explain. With him we went into the garden were a huge variety of plants attracts all different kind of insects. He also really could find them! there were also glass containers with water were he took out dragon flies etc. and showed with the living animal how his mouth is working....so interesting! the only stupid thing was that I ran out of battery for my camera....the batteries ,I had 6 with me, were not charged, reloaded .....so my battery loader is not working. I could use Ruriko camera and she burnt a c.d. for me that very afternoon! so sweet! she’s a great help. after that it was lunchtime I bought again a different but nice meal at the supermarket and ate at the harbor-site, then the dairy and some glue test in my atelier...at 4 Took the free bus to the beach, a completely empty beach, Japanese people don’t like a tan I’m told..?? so i walked searching for material but it was high tide , didn’t find much, had diner in hanna with claire... Sunday October 15 i started with a walk to the large three storied pagoda and when I was standing on top Machida called if I could come. he wanted to show me some craft work at the bunka centre....claire had a performance there. was nice I bought some origami work and made photo’s of collage. we had lunch and yuki picked me up to go to an other island to look for stones i can use in my mosaic work....the weather is always nice here ,the nature beautiful, so it was no punishment to go looking for stones on the beach....because it’s just a small island we road a circle tour. then i saw fire in the forest, yuki had to keep his eyes on the bends in the road so he only saw the smoke ... and said to me ; their will be a farmer burning down a small rice field or so. I said ; no, it’s really fire we have to back and alarm the fire-brigade.. so we went back, he saw I was right and 10 minutes later their were about 11 fire cars and 40 fire men up on the mountain and 40 men down at the waterfront to make a waterline up the mountain..... they killed the fire in 10 minutes we went back just in time to see the sunset on our way home. I made some great pictures! I phoned claire and she also came to Machida, who invited us for dinner because his wife had cooked to much...it was delicious, and actually it was his son who we had thank. then we watched a television quiz about manners, and we realized that we are doing not so bad! a lot of Japanese also don’t know how to open a door , or enter a house..... Monday October 16 so I went again for one hour walking, i try to do this every morning for I want to lose 2 kilo’s....and try to take a different road each day. So today I took a small hiking path at the back side of my house. Again there were a lot of graves, it seem to me that you are allowed to bury some one every were you like. So that gave a very high Temple of dome’ atmosphere to my walk. the roads lay deep between two walls of earth roots and stone then above you tree ,bamboo and grave stones..... so you got the picture? .... then I worked on the diary and made a design for a mosaic with the beautiful thin tiles. went to the school workshop on the agricultural school, was fun ,each kid made two flower shaped mosaics ,nice kids, sweet teacher. went home to pick up my phone, I had forgotten this morning, and saw in a glimpse that there was a cockroach in a empty sake bottle .... yak!.... so I placed a heavy tin on top ! and end of story for my room mate. went back to the atelier and started to mosaic until claire pick me up around 6 for rotemburo and dinner Tuesday October 17 made my morning walk in the out skirts ,meaning that I walk out of the map again , did some preparation and shopping for the workshop and the dairy,telephone calls from the organization, and had the appointment to meet at 12.30 to go to the school and now I’m dead ......... had 58 kids ,two people from the organization and 4 teachers to ‘entertain’ and the result should be some mosaic work..... only one spoke some English and one a bit ....... we were working inside on the mosaic and outside on filling the molds ......... and again no strong people who can deal with cement. so I had that job as well. until the boy come who’s father lend the cement mixer, he took over, the sports teacher was in the back ground but she helped me with the second bucket cement. I’m talking about 30 kilo cement and 90 kilo sand........... the kids made one, two or tree mosaics and I finished right in time before the bell it was all over and done, I thought, but in the car the organization had so many questions that for me the teaching job went on for another hour. I haven’t seen the landscape........ difficult to find yourself after such a day. so I went for some good food to the supermarket, after diner in the apartment I had the brilliant idea to go viewing all the photo’s I took up till now ..... made a cup of tea ate some chocolate and was back in this world again. Wednesday October 18 Slept only for 4 hours, so was very early in my atelier, was to tired to go walking. worked whole morning on the mosaic tray. A nice older lady came in to bring me empty boxes and other ‘trash’ I need for my school workshops, it was the second time she came but this time she brought me also a huge box of very nice cookies!!!! so sweet, I just needed a gesture like that. at 1 Yuki picked me up for the second workshop at the agricultural school . We arrived before the teacher, and saw all the cement flowers baking in the sun.....aiiiiii..... making cement is a chemical process , it needs water to get firm, solid. if it dries to quick nothing will happen and you end up with lose sand ..... I thought this was common knowledge. we placed the flowers in a water basin and now I’m praying ........ the new works they made we placed in plastic bags so the water can’t evaporate. it was fun working with this group and yuki and keisuke. this time keisuke was dressed up in sport clothes so he was dressed right to mix the cement, the previous time he was all dressed in fine black office clothes, not the right dress code to mix white cement. I really wonder if the cement works on the other schools got firm ..... in my studio it’s cool so my examples didn’t had this problem. we went to in insect museum again because I wanted to make photo’s of dead butterflies with my own camera, the woman at the entrance recognized me so she led me in for free. at 5 imke pick me up for tea ceremony . Hotta sensei wanted me to perform but I was so tired I asked imke to take over from me. at 8 I was back and didn’t want to cook, so went to Hana restaurant, ordered sake and yakatori, and then the nagasaki photojournalist came in . we played a kind of memory, he showed me a photo , then I try to find the same in my camera, and then off course ‘who took the best shot’, was fun, marie clair dropped by with calligraphy works so we switched to ‘looking for words’. nice Thursday October 19 slept again only 4 hours so again early ,to tired to go hiking, in my studio. worked all morning on the tray and did the diary. Went for lunch with claire and imke. visit with claire the print collection cees nooteboom wrote about. it’s now in a small museum. the two beautiful erotic leporello’s , roll drawings / paintings with ink and a little color are beautiful , but they are for show in bright daylight so the won’t last for to many years anymore ..... such a pity back to the atelier and took the bus at 15.30 to ranpu beach. was preciously at four on the ranch where a saddled quarter horse was waiting for me. the place is beautiful situated looking over the sea, a paddock with red heavy sand which don’t make dust clouds and was not deep for the horse. the horse was a extreme strong beautiful quarter horse, it’s a small American horse, originally selected for working cows. the trainer was very gentile and so the horse, I had a wonderful 20 minutes ride in the paddock, made a kind of sliding stop, spin, was making circles in all gaits... nice. the only pity is the price had to pay 2625 yen , about 18 euro meanwhile michiru arrived and she made some nice photo’s! she also went on the horse and walked with the trainer for a few minutes. and then we went to the rotemburo in hotel ranpu.... the most luxurious one of the whole island. was great and so relaxed! Friday October 20 it was raining this morning, so another reason not to go hiking ,and again I was early on my atelier. at one ruriko passed by to introduce me to a very nice men ,who going to give me cooking lesson ! he is nice ,we have the same interests in not only food but also stones shell and hiking.... they went away and then ruriko came running back I had to come because they were starting to cut a huge ara fish and cook it... very rare. so I went ,their were 3 tv camera from different stations. and other people and photo journalists... was beautiful to see how the men cut the big fish, first the skin, water over it, then the intestines, the head in several pieces, the jaws are considered the best part were put a side. then an other men cut the meat into pieces and cooked it then in a bouillon. the serving started and they gave me the first cup and two chopsticks .... I felt very hon nerd and thought the first day I put on my working trousers ,jeans with a whole in it, they put 3 camera’s on me eating soup with chopsticks asking questions .... but it was delicious! at 6 I had an appointment with ruriko to go to the yokagura fest. it’s in the park of the castle on top of a hill and to road leading to the castle was illuminated by hundreds and hundreds of candle lights .... so beautiful ...... the fest itself included tea ceremony, their were a lot of ladies dressed in kimono, but also a few men wearing very special cloths . there was ara soup, from that very same fish, and later dancing, we were expected at reiko-san place so we went, the party is two nights so I will definitely will go here tomorrow. At reiko matsuda’s home a half hour by car from town, we were expected by a large group of family and friends who were all gathered around a table, siting on the ground. and the table was full with the most delicious things, like hirado beef, sushi, very special vegetable dishes , were I got the recipe from! and fish eggs with pepper I never tasted before, even the cucumber dish was oishi ! and i’m not a fan of cucumber. two men of ikuski island told me that the fire discovered by a foreigner is still the talk of the ‘town’. they have only twice a year fire in the woods. which seam to me very little for such a dry place. It was a delicious evening with very sweet people ! I spend the night their . Saturday October 21 in the morning reiko made a delicious breakfast with soup. and her husband showed me the surrounding of the house. so we had a beautiful walk , up hill down hill to the harbor, a lovely little village and at all the religious places women were cleaning. reiko brought me to imkes place with a super delicious pic knick lunch basket! so sweet. imke and I went for sightseeing the island, was lovely. their ’s one amusing thing; every time we, clair and I, go out with some one locale ask them have you ever been her before ? they say most of the time ‘no’, so we are a kind of excuse to do things, in dutch;’ excuse truus’ in the evening I went with jeroen, claire’s husband, to the yokaura festival, he was to impressed. we saw heard a Japanese drum band with singers ,who reminded me to the chanting Buddhist monks do. Then different forms of temple dancing, I thought the last men dressed in a emerald Green trouser dancing with 3 swards was best. Sunday October 22 oke it can happing here too. worked all day on my tray. hope the people, the mayor particular, of hirado will like their present , it’s a lot of work ... three young girls come in and liked the mosaic very much, now every time the pass they say hello ... all my neighbours too so a lot of ‘konichiwa’ claire and jeroen just dropped by and they made a reservation at 8 for us at hana.... .did my laundry this morning, wrong timing Monday October 23 was again around 8 at my atelier, so I finally finished the tray, put purple joint in, never used purple before, it’s difficult to mix, but i think it worked out well took the 11.30 bus to the beach were i wanted to photograph little crab and shells. i really enjoyed working their until my camera blocked. it’s not opening anymore. i phoned imke and she asked reiko to pick me up and bring me to a photo shop ... it can’t be repaired because it’s an American camera... it will take a month , now i feel depressed. first workshop for adult at 6. about 18 adults and 5 kids worked on a small tray. ruriko translated , everyone enjoyed working. Tuesday October 24 started a new work in my atelier. it will be a huge,50?80, tile with pebbles from the beach. bought a mold . then machida called me that nobuyuki tamigawa had brought a camera i can use !!!!!!!! thank you, so sweet!!!!!!!! at 3 a teacher from the school in sasebo picked me up, its a 40 minutes drive from here. it was the art class, sweet girls very enthusiastic, all wanted to make two pieces of mosaic, and even made something of a left over cement. at 8 i was back in hirado , ruriko was waiting for me to take me to a festival ,reiko joined us . i had to buy a ticket and then we could go to three different places at peoples home to eat and drink, it had to do with Shinto ... we maneged to go to two places, it had started at 5 and stopped at 9, so we were a little to late .... but it was fun . the second place was takashi’s, so he also come along to a restaurant where we met marieclaire and jeroen. a few sake further we ended up in a kareoke bar, having a private room, singing ‘the tide is high’ by Blondie... Wednesday October 25 early in the morning their where all ready dace groups in the street. circling the town. i thought i had seen it so i went to work in my atelier when keisuke come around telling to go outside ... and around the corner in the alley next to my atelier a huge procession came .... hundred maybe two hundred people dressed up beautiful caring all kind of things passed by ... very impressive. i followed keisuke, as a reporter he must know where we to go , and in the center of the shopping street this huge procession met two smaller dancing groups, one performing the lion dance and one the dragon, including smoke and fireworks, beautiful !!!!!!!!!!!!!! at 1 school workshop, for the 3 time the agricultural school, they worked with tiles today and didn’t wanted to stop when it was time ..... back to the work in the studio, it’s exiting to work with the pebbles, never did before, we don’t have them on the beach. at 6 machida and his family invited us because of the festival, it’s a custom. so claire, jeroen and i enjoyed a typical kunchi meal. was nice. at 7 new dace groups started in the street, a very hypnotically sound of clapping saucers and bamboo filled the streets . the streets were illuminated with hundreds and hundreds of candle lights , nice atmosphere Thursday October 26 takashi inoue arranged a day to oosima for me. I took the boot at 8.40 and nobuyuki tamigawa joined me. for him it was only the second time he vised osima and he went with me to translate. at the harbor we were pick up and brought to the museum. we had a lovely day in osima seeing beautiful views of surrounding islands, a temple and shrine, a nice old village and roads so narrow no car can pass,i thought .... we had a delicious lunch at the house of the director of the fish cooperation, who took us together with the men from the city hall all over the island. thank you all very much!!!!!!!!!! at 6 my last , at least i taught, workshop for adults started. yuki picked me up and carried all the heavy materials up stairs ... they all worked very hard to finish their trays and we just went on till they were all done. we made a little exhibition out of them and i held a last review on their works. every one went home happy... the trays will be exhibit in the city hall on the 3 of November. and those who missed come Sunday at 3 Friday October 27 yuki came at 9 to the atelier to help me filling the big mold. we worked hard whole morning. very stressful work making large amount of cement , filling, putting in the stainless steel grid, more filling. shake the air bubbles out ,hoping the stones are still on their place..... at 12 I was pick up at the city hall with reiko and imke to go to an elementary school. we started with lunch, very sweet 8 years old. we ate in the classroom and it was all very disciplined. then we went for some sightseeing and at 2 we started, 40 kids in the gym ... making a collage or Mosaic with colored paper of their favorite animal and what the would like to do with it. so they also had to portrait them selfs. they worked very hard till 4 but couldn’t finish it, so the teachers will spend an other lesson on this work and i gave them an idea to end the lesson. by making a fairy tale of it , starting with ‘once upon a time’ , then a child explains about his work and the teacher says ; ‘and then what happens’ and the next child tells his story . went for shusi and rotemburo after this day Saturday October 28 started this morning on my atelier with cleaning ,when a teacher from the first school came in ,she brought photo’s of the results, nice . luckily it all went well. then she started to ask me questions about the direct technique and i demonstrated it for her. then she wanted to make a work .... so i invited her for the next workshop, which will be held on Monday evening at 6 instead of Sunday afternoon. then I started working on my last big work, a second huge tile. ruriko picked me up at 12.10 to go to a cooking workshop. reiko also came along. we drove to the center of the island and the road got very narrow, when we found ourself in the yard of small farmhouse, few black cows, some chicken... all build on a steep hill, on the next terrace their was a shed . when we entered it turned out to hold two kitchens and about 6 women cooking .it was their cooking factory... they put me an apron on, and learned me to cook a special shusi, you make in a wooden mold, very delicious. and then the most spectacular a kind of rice flavor /sweet bean cookie. they make it by cooking small balls of flavor first in water, which later on were smashed in a huge wooden bucket and an enormous hammer with herbs in the yard. they performed this for me, because they actually have a machine to do the job. it was wonderful!!!!!!!!! now i know where to go if i ever need a strong hand. after the cooking we went to the home of one of the sweet lady’s, looking over a beautiful bay and empty beach and ate a very late ‘home made’ lunch. super!!!!!!! got many sushi, cookies, vegetables and eggs as a present. so sweet , thank you all Sunday October 29 a real Sunday today, drinking tea at a very classy tea party at lord matsura place. hundreds of people beautiful dressed in kimono attended. in small groups one could go in a tea house, three different houses one could visited. students from the mainland come to learn about their tradition, very interesting. we got a private explanation of the lord himself. went for a walk, some house keeping, to a viewing point at sunset with a group by car, ate sashimi can’t get enough of that the fish is so fresh!, visited the rehearsal of the musical. Monday October 30 did two workshops, the last one on the agricultural school, was so nice! kids kept on working, made a lot of nicer tiles and the photo journalist of the Nagasaki newspaper made pictures! yuki come along for the next job with machida, i needed two strong men to get the cement object out of the mold. ... was exciting ... turning over such a big piece of cement ,hoping it won’t break, and that every one is strong enough to keep everything under control ... well the men did a good job, it’s still one piece. at 6 the next workshop started at my atelier with the women who couldn’t attend the last time. at the same time my boyfriend called me that he finally got in touch with the travel agency to change my return flight. I had planed to go back at the 10 after visiting tokyo and kyoto, but working her for one month was enough experiences I need to go home to give this all a place , to feel and place everything that happened. sorry Kyoto and Tokyo I’ve no room for you ... so after this confusing start we had a cozy last workshop ,Claire come along and every one finished his tray. Claire and I went at 10 for the indoor hot bath in the hotel, amusing for one time ,there are big aquarium with turtle and fish ... Tuesday October 31 started at 9 looking with people from the city hall for a nice place in the park on the hill side ,to place the two big mosaic tiles I’m making. at 10 yuki came and we started working on filling the new mold. I made a mosaic of a hana - meaning flower and inspiration- same size as the other one. we worked hard, keisuke made photo’s for a poster ...... machida took me to the bunka center to look for a place to exhibited the tray’s of the mosaic workshop. and brought me to the temple for a excellent cooking workshop ..... we started at 13.30 ... made most marvelous dishes with a lot of unknown ingredients. the master Harada, 71 years, kept on working , even when we started eating , he kept on bringing oishi dishes .... felt very hon nerd . thank you !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! left at 00.30 and was not the last Wednesday November 1 Yuki pick me up at 9 , with the very comfortable car Takashi Inoue was so nice to lend to us, Thank you !!!!!!!!and after a 3 hours drive unzen was there !!!!!!!!!! was always my wish to see a active volcano and it was more impressive then i thought. we went up by rope car as close as possible ..... unbelievable power of earth . no words for this then we went a little down the road to the place were steam mixed with sulfur is coming out of the earth , it’s called hell ... we took the ferry and saw the sunset next to the volcano from the boat, beautiful Thursday November 2 next morning after the rotenburo a nice real Japanese breakfast we went on to the next volcano Aso. the largest active volcano on earth. first we stopped at a beautiful gorge were Autumn colors made a beautiful scenery. walk around along the river for a hour ... aso is huge , we drove around , i made a lot of photo’s and we drove up to the most active volcano. unfortunately he is to active, toxic gasses made it impossible to come close .... felt lost so close and not allowed to go. then I said to yuki lest go and ask what the helicopter down the road will cost . and so it happened we went over the volcano by helicopter!!!!!!!!! for 5 minutes, was so amazing, beautiful, unbelievable, etc, inside he was light blue, filled with water .... never expected that Friday November 3 slept so well last night with all the impressions of the volcano trip in my head, was a real climax of my stay, everything has been so exciting day after day this month. started throwing away things this morning I can’t take with me, cleaning the apartment , then yuki phoned for taking out the last big mosaic cement piece out of his mold. so half hour later with machida all dressed up for the bunka center cultural day, we ‘ freed’ the last piece, a big stone hana. together with the first stone which resemble a fish ,the sea and the sun, it’s my impression of hirado. hana means in japanese not only flower but also cool, with esprit. packed the things of the atelier, home changing in a dress for the ceremony of giving my presents the hirado. bunka center, home packing, bunka center beaming the photo’s I took of Hirado and worked on with photoshop as background scenes for the musical. home finishing packing, to marie claieres home putting the photos with the borrowed camera in her computer, then ruriko came to pick us up for the far well party .... was very nice every one was there, even mister harada and my ‘horsemen’, felt very warm. after some speeches ;nice food and drinks. then of to the karaoke .... I went after an hour or so, walked marie claire home, said goodbye and thanks for all to machida and his dear wife, last glimpse on my works in the atelier, it always feel if I leave a piece of my heart behind if I can’t take my work with me. then last walk trough the empty streets of hirado Sunday November 5 at 3.30 in the night Takashi pick me up for the long drive to the airport. but close to the bridge he stopped at harada-sans house. he wanted to say goodbye .... so sweet. i won’t forget at the airport it took a half hour to check-in due to the overweight of my luggage , to many sushi saucers, and the change of my flight. takashi kept waiting until it was all right , so sweet and reassuring not to be their all alone. thank you ! I left hirado with a sad feeling of leaving so many dear people. thank you all , really felt homesick both ways, for hirado and holland the island is also dear to me because it reminded me of the island my grandparents were living on and were i spend all my summer holidays with my mother and sister. 6 weeks. my dad was mostly working on cargo ships sailing over the oceans of the world as an engineer. at 19.00 dutch time ( 3 at night hirado time) the plane landed ... my love was waiting at the airport, I was back home. bekijk ook het algemene dagverslag van 6 - 23 september | 24 september - 7 oktober | 8 - 21 oktober | 22 oktober - 4 november lees ook het persoonlijke dagverslag van Alex| Kees |Marie-Claire | Marieke