What a Curious World

In this post, I'm introducing some organic food shops in Kagawa Prefecture which I often go shopping at. Chirorin-mura (in Takamatsu city) Chirorin-mura was opened in 1984, and it is one of long-established natural food stores in Kagawa. They sell organic vegetables, fruits, bread, drinks, a variety of packaged foods, and many others. I also bring vegetables and herbs grown in my organic farm (chinmyo batake) to this shop every week or every two weeks (depending on the season). Some of my favorite items sold here are Oheso Cafe's  bread and Terada Honke's naturally brewed rice wine.  Kasuga Suijin Marche (in Takamatsu city) Kasuga Suijin Marche has a variety of fresh organic vegetables all through the year. I often go shopping at this shop, as well as Chirorin-mura, to buy vegetables I don't grow in my garden. The store has a bakery in it, and my favorite is a bread with sprouted brown rice (and without sugar). Another favorite of mine is  Radish 's boxed vegetable ...

This xylophone, named Hinokkin,  is made of Japanese cypress timber from forest thinning. I'm a member of Foresters Kagawa, an NPO engaged in forest activities, and this xylophone was made by an architect in this group. It has a range of one octive. Each bar was mode of the trunk, being cut into quarters and tuned up by scraping off from inside or shortening it. The more you scrape off or shorten it, the lower its pitch goes. The timber needs to be dried for about one year before being processed.  Hinokkin is made mostly of thinned cypress timber, except for strings used to hang the bars. Its mallet is also made of cypress branches. If you fell the Japanese cypress in autumn, you can easily peel its outer skin; It is hard to peel it by hand in winter, and in summer it usually go moldy after being peeled.  We, as members of Foresters Kagawa, visit kindergarten and nursery schools in Kagawa Prefecture to tell children about forests and trees. In this project, I play this th...

For my handmade books , I've used paper named "Biwako no mori no kininaru kami (meaning paper that turn into trees of Lake Biwa)" produced by kikito.  This paper uses Japanese cedar and cypress timber from forest thinning, so choosing this paper encourages forest thinning, which has been delayed. In many forests in Japan, cedars and cypresses were planted after the Second World War, and now they have grown and in a time for thinning. However, thinning has been delayed as the prices of the timber is now lower and thinning is not a lucrative job, considering the costs of felling, carrying out, and transporting the thinned timber. If artificial forests are not properly thinned, they become dark as trees get too dense to let in sunlight. In consequence, bottom weed doesn't grow, making it difficult to store water underground with increased risk of landslides.  Part of the proceeds of this paper is donated for fostering forests in Lake Biwa.  This paper is not stark white ...

I became a vegetarian about 10 years ago. My partner stopped eating meat before I did, and I started to wonder if meat was really necessary for my diet. At first, I tried eating soy meat instead of animal meat. I soon found that soy meat was tastier than animal food. In those times, I began to eat organically grown vegetables and avoid chemical condiments. I think my sense of taste was getting delicate. When I started eating soy meat, I realized that I didn't like the taste of animal meat so much. When eating vegetables, I chewed a lot to get a good taste of them; on the other hand, I started not to want to chew animal meat for many times. When I was chewing animal meat, I sensed vividly that I was eating part of the body of an animal. I sometimes made a sketch of dabbling ducks when I went for a walk in a park near my apartment in Tokyo. They looked cute, and as I got to feel more affinity with them, I started to think that birds are not for eating (at least for me).  Some people ...

One of my favorite painting materials is beeswax crayons of Stockmer. I also use colored pencils and ink pens, I started to know that I feel most comfortable when I use crayons.  The colors of these beeswax crayons are milder than ordinary paraffin wax crayons. Then don't smell bad at all, and have subtle aroma. These days I started to choose color with my left hand ―it is said that our left hand is strongly connected to the right brain so using it helps us to access our feelings rather than thinking logically. I noticed that I can choose different types of colors that look fresh to me with my left hand. And interestingly, I feel that my brain get less tired when I use my left hand in painting. It seems that beeswax crayons are slower to wear off than ordinary paraffine wax crayons. In the winter they may be harder than in the summer as beeswax gets harder at low temperature. If you want to paint in deep colors, you will need to put some muscle. At first, I put so much muscle and s...

I started to use a crayon named Kitpas.  It is made of rice bran wax and pigments. It doesn't smell like ordinary crayons made with paraffin wax. Comparing with my favorite beeswax crayons, I can paint with less pressure. Kitpas has bright colors, and I also like its smooth writing feeling. At first, I bought a 6-color set. I tried painting with it for a few minutes, and it was enough for me to know that I needed to buy a complete 24-color set. It is fun to overpaint and mix colors. I painted the tulip on the left by mixing white and red; and the tulip on the right with red and yellow. As it is easy to mix colors, the small set of six colors has allowed me to paint a variety of things with different colors. And, this kind of limitation can stimulate creativity. This rice wax crayon writes so comfortably that I can't stop panting.