Yesterday was my last hula class. I only started in June but I really enjoyed my short time there. 🎈
We took a nice photo to remember our happy times together. I am especially thankful to Hiromi (striped tank top) because we found this school together and she always drove me to our lessons.💕 
I hope to find a hula halau as soon as possible in Chicago!
🌺Bobbin
After picking green tea leaves, we enjoyed a wonderful meal at the local tea-themed restaurant.
Every part of our meal incorporated green tea. We had green tea soba noodles, green tea tempura with green tea salt, green tea stir fry, and green tea shaved ice! 🍨🍧
If you ever come to Shizuoka prefecture in Japan I recommend visiting a green tea farm! 🌱
🍵Bobbin
Hello dear Bisous!
Yes! I’ve been hearing about the heat wave in Seattle. ☀️ Here in Numazu, we’ve been dealing with the threats of a typhoon. ☔️ Lots and lots and lots of ☔️☔️☔️☔️☔️🌂🌂🌂😦😧😑 but the typhoon has passed and we are back to a sunny and humid place.
So we’ve missed you here on our blog! Sounds like we are both in a big state of transition! Job hunting is no fun 😦 but I wish you all the best🍀 I can tell from your Instagram that you had some fun at Pike’s Place!🐟🐙
This week will be my last full week in Numazu. I have a few days left to pack up but alas I will procrastinate to the end. I’m still crossing off things from my Shizuoka bucket list as well. I’m pleased to say that I crossed two things off that list just this week!
I live in Shizuoka Prefecture (a prefecture is like a state in the USA) and Shizuoka is the too producer of green tea in Japan. Before I said sayonara to Shizuoka I had to experience tea picking at least once.
So I did!
My friend WH (a fellow expat🍁) went with me👫 We drove from Numazu to Makinohara- a 2-hour drive! Luckily long drives are pleasant in good company🙆
The tea farm made a special exception to pick the leaves that day.
Miles and miles of tea… 🍵🌱
After tea picking we had lunch at the local tea-themed restaurant. 
The tea cups are actually Chinese style. They are the exact ones I had in our home as a kid so they remind me of my late father.💕
Then the food! ..but my phone blogger can’t handle all the pix and keeps crashing so please check the next blog post 🙂
🎀Bobbin
Good morning from Japan!
It seems it’s been really nice weather in Seattle. Clear skies, wow, 29°
It’s been ☔️☔️☔️ everyday since July started here in Numazu. The ☔️☔️☔️ has put a damp on my mood😪. Not to mention I caught a cold this week😷.
Packing✈️ with a cold😷 was like 👇
But it’s finally FRIDAY!
The thing about this particular Friday is… Hard off, the second-hand shop, is coming to get both my couches. My apartment will feel very empty without the couches *sniff*
More Hair Salons
Because of ☔️ I haven’t been venturing out to photograph salons as much as I had hoped but here are some from this past week-
Indoor Salon next to my Japanese class- “hair color kezomeya” means house of colored hair. My Japanese lessons are paying off! 🙂
okay, this isnt a hair salon. this is the spooky showcase next to hair salon kezomeya.
Salon Ripo-so (the po is extended like “poh”) . Is it just me or is that mini van parked too close to the front door?
awkward parking!
Salon Alcolic- “alcolic” is the japanese way to (mis)pronounce the English word “alcoholic”. Alcoholic as in the adjective to describe food/drink containing alcohol, and not the type of person addicted to such food/drink. 🍻 Sounds like another nominee for best salon name😛
Salon Michi- came across this salon for the first time yesterday. The person living in this house turned the front part of the house into a small salon space. Really random location!
💕Bobbin
Good morning from Japan! ☀️ (it’s actually R☔️I☔️Y today)
I’ve been packing my things up! I did start a few months ago but now I’m at the hard part of packing my art things. I took some pictures to show my recent work before they get packed away.
Do you remember this monoprint collage? I posted a photo of it in my Totoro wreath post. <click to redirect
The inspiration of this print came from a story from the Bible actually. The story probably most popularly known from the Broadway musical, “Joseph and the Technicolor Coat.” This is a scene depicting the end of the story where Joseph finds comfort in not only worldly possessions but in the love of his once-estranged family. At the end of the story, he seems to possess everything a man could ever hope to possess.
I don’t have a name for this piece (yet) but the idea of a wild garden in a sunny dessert reminds me of finding the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. It’s kind of unreal but the idea in itself is comforting, even refreshing. Maybe I should call it “Oasis.”
Another collage I finally got a frame for is getting packed away as well. I’ve already bubble wrapped it.
This piece was made on a whim with a few sheets of origami paper and very little thought. I’ve been told this pattern should be screen-printed onto a t-shirt and sold at Urban Outfitters. :0)
Back to packing! I’m wondering when Bisous will share more about her new book! 😬
❤︎BObbin☆〜（ゝ。∂）
In less than 2 calendar months I will be a brand spankin’ new resident of Illinois!
Until then, I will be very busy moving and travelling. I want to do my best updating here (on my iPhone). I know I haven’t been on the ball recently because all the moving and shuffling.
First of all, I want to introduce my project to countdown the days in Japan specifically in my town of Numazu. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do and I plan on spending as much of my remaining time in Numazu to do it. That is, to photograph all the various local hair salons. I hope you will take note of not only the outer appearance but their salon names. Tell me which stand out to you and why 🙂
Numazu Salon Photo-journal Day 1
Komadori- if I had to guess, komadori means small bird.
Lala heavenly- Looks like they are specializing in eye lash care/extensions and weddings too.
This barber shop has no apparent name and features men’s hair cuts for about 12USD.
Au fix? This is where I got my hair most recently cut and colored. Honestly I don’t know how to spell the name or even pronounce it.
Day 2
SalonVIP sandwiched between a stamp shop (as in rubber stamps) and a chiropractic clinic.
Best name award nominee Salon Something!
Salon Angie looks like a house because it is. Without stepping inside, i can tell that the salon is on the first floor and the second and third floors serve as a fully equipped abode.
Hello! Hello Bobbin!❤️
Tempus Fugit!! It’s already, the end of June and almost July! Summer has started with a bang! There’s been a heat wave here in Seattle and I’m currently in a torrid relationship with my fan. The nights have been sweltering but…I love warm weather so I’m dealing…sorta
Two and a half weeks ago, was my birthday …🎉
and three days later I receive a gift from you Bobbin! 🎁
And three days ago I finally opened it…I’m a bit slow…😝
I went to the cafe, and slowly opened The ‘My Neighbor Totoro’ themed envelope you sent and discovered the most adorable ‘My Neighbor Totoro’ puzzle enclosed.
I was at the cafe, brainstorming my final illustration (in a series of illustrations for the novel I wrote)
And was presently faced with a little ‘mental block’ and the puzzle was a perfect diversion from my slump!
It took only a minute to complete, but it left me with a lasting feeling of satisfaction and relaxation that I carried over to my sketch pad! Thank you again my friend and I LOVED looking at the post about your Birthday adventures in Hong Kong!
Expect some snail mail from me shortly 😉
-Bisous
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Hello Bobbin!
I wanted to do some more outdoor painting…but the drizzle/ rain prevented such from occurring…and so the story goes…
(Insert BBC News Voice) The amount of rainy/cloudy days in Seattle, Washington on average, gets 220 days of measurable rain/cloud coverage a year…
Making normal spring/summer out door activities, an elusive wish rather than a practical reality.
(unless you are a real Seattle-ite and do Everything in the drizzle/rain then the sideways wind induced horizontal rainfall can’t hold you back!)
I’ve lived in Seattle, Washington since I was 8 years old…and love rain…but do grow very tired of it at times haha. While a thunderstorm or heavy rainfall will motivate me, and afford me a dark and stormy night writing/painting ambiance, those are few and far between…its the usual grey drizzles-like a gigantic sneeze -filling the air and dominating most of the weather regime, that does nothing for the ol’ self motivation. I default to hermit crab mode & I want to just burrito wrap into a fuzz blanket and let Netflix console me.
But, somehow I fought this feeling (plus I’d binged watch far too much over the weekend) And I decided to venture to a nearby coffee shop and get some poetry reading done.
The poet Wisława szymborska poems move me. 🙂
The disappearing/ reappearing act that the sun began performing sparked the idea that a museum visit was in order and I made my way to the Seattle Asian Art Museum for one of their Free Admission Thursday sessions (they do monthly). And I got to marvel and adore the work of Artist Chiho Aoshima
A stroll through the gallery was an instant remedy for grey Seattle blues. 🙂 Her work was the perfect blend of fanciful and hauntingly beautiful with a hint of aspirations of greatness .
I put a few of my favorites below. (Click on them to get a better view:) )
hope you fancy them as much as I do!
-Bisous ❤
I just participated in a recent gift exchange through Reddit. I was a Santa to a girl in Poland!
The Reddit exchange was Simpsons themed. To apply to participate we were asked questions like who our favorite Simpsons character is and what our favorite episode is.
My favorite Simpsons character is Lisa Simpson. As a kid, I watched Lisa Simpson and related to her in many ways. Like me, she had a vivid imagination, and passionate beliefs about certain ethical issues. Sometimes she gets carried away with her strong imagination and passionate personality, which affects her relationships. We are both artists in our own right, too!
I was matched with a girl in Poland who likes Homer Simpson the most. She said it’s because she likes to eat just like Homer.
Being in Japan, I don’t have much access to Simpsons merchandise. However, I thought I’d appeal to the Homer within with a bunch of SNACKS! I made sure to get a variety, but also those with cute packaging. It’s not hard to find snacks with characters on them here in Japan. I got some popular Japanese anime ones and some other more widely recognizable ones like Moomin and Frozen. (It’s scary how popular Frozen is here!) And threw in some anime stickers as well.
My favorite episode is “Lisa goes Gaga” photo source:www.public.fr
All hail zee SNAIL MAIL!
I’m excited to do another Reddit gift exchange (although my Santa has not sent me anything yet). A girl in Singapore saw my post on Instagram and asked to do a gift exchange as well! #shoutout if you see this @littledays_
I think it’s important to keep the joy of snail mail alive! Of course, this is one of the things Bisous and I are trying to do here on BnB! So if you ever want to be a snail mail buddy please let us know! ✴︎ ☆*:.｡. o(≧▽≦)o .｡.:*☆
♥︎ボビンBobbin
‘ello Bobbin!
I’m still in a state of astonishment, induced by the intense color of that matcha ice cream you showed me a picture of in your last post! 🙂 Epicness it was, a beautiful sight that not only enraptured my emotions but rumbled my tummy (^_^)
That trip you took seemed to be a lovely excursion as well, I’m elated to read about the moments of inspiration you are experiencing…
I am still working on some side projects of water colors at the moment, but hope to get back to illustrating characters/ideas from my favorite fandoms soon… The other day, I was met with another ‘creative funk’ and feeling uninspired and retreated to nature.
I walked around my favorite park, devoid of any expectations of a wild or unexpected moment that could ignite or spark ‘creative inspiration’ and happened upon a wild flower bed.
Nothing was particularly stunning about it, besides my appreciation of the beauty of flowers seasonal existence. But my gaze lingered upon them as the sun beamed on the dainty petals…
and slowly, I became transfixed on the colors and shape and their movement in a breeze.
all at once Images of some of the works of my favorite painter came to mind: Claude Monet. I didn’t get the opportunity, to visit Giverny, France when I visited France last year, (but it will happen one day ) but the little flowers were teasing my imagination with what Giverny, is actually like.
Hmm this little bed of flowers was reminding me of Monet’s work…
And simultaneously inspiring my desire to paint! Yay! So swiftly and unexpectedly the inspiration had come! My muse this time, was in the form of purple, blue and periwinkle petals. Hope to have something to show this inspiration soon:)
-Bisous ❤
Profitez de la beauté et laissez vous inspirer
Bobbin & Bisous 