Japan 2014

More Fun in Tokyo....

The Ginza-Kaiga School

So, we finished up the first show, and as usual I had made a plan to
meet some Japanese Artists and learn something new. I googled up The Ginza School of Art (http://ginza-kaiga.com) and found it that it was located just 4 blocks from the Peninsula Hotel. The concierge helped me sort out the details and found out that it was $50 per hour so I could have two classes for $100.
I opted to take a calligraphy class and also drawing. It was an exciting event for me. English was spoken there so I felt comfortable about the adventure. Ameba Shogain was my instructor.

Ameba Shogain

His English was limited, but he guided me through the materials. Showed me how to dissolve the ink block and hold my brush properly. Then, he did a demonstration for me. My first word was river...I like that as I live close to the Ocmulgee River and it reminded me of home. Then we did several other single sheet words and this was done on a very find grade of rice paper about the size of a sheet of regular paper.

Calligraphy

I learned Forever, Spring, Car, Year of the Horse, Me Painting, the date, and several others. We did multiple repetitions of these and ended up doing a scroll with several characters going from right to left. At the end of the class I got to choose my favorites and affix the Ginza stamp and also Japan Stamp signifying the place. It was a very rewarding lesson. I loved the simplicity of it all.

Painting and drawing class

Painting Class

My time was up for that class and I moved

Rose Lane's Charcoal.

across the foyer into the waiting class of men and women who were doing various paintings and drawings. I chose to do a charcoal since it had been years when I had learned to work with charcoal while studying with House Smith in Macon, Ga. Alas, my two plus hours was over, and I retreated back to the hotel. I marveled at my opportunity to learn new ideas and network with people. I made a promised that once I returned to America and had a chance that I would buy a book on Japanese calligraphy and explore it further. A very worthy outing for me....
The next night was a really fun event. Keith Richards hosted a Rabattinaki dinner for the tour girls. Of course, he didn't attend but Patty was our hostess. There are 24 women on tour with The Rolling Stones. Over the past few years we have all become very good friends.
It was a riotous evening. The restaurant was Inakaya and the cuisine is grilled meats, veggies, and lots of sake....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfOfPVUhgso.

Inakaya

Lordy, we had a riotous time. The food just kept coming! and we were having loads of fun. More sake; more fun! So, there were 24 seats around the cook station and at the beginning they kept out the two seats to the far left of the bar. The management was adamant that we should not sit there. Cheryl Ceretti and Elizabeth Curran had not arrived since they were still at The Dome.

The Rolling Stonettes

We all sat down and started eating and drinking. Along comes a Japanese couple to take the seats???? They had no idea what a party they had come upon. After a bit the gentlemen realized that we were Rolling Stonettes and that he was the only guy in the midst of a bunch of women. He stood up and pounded his chest.
Bravado! Then, he realized he was sitting close to Lisa Fisher who had just the night before won the Oscar (along with others) for 20 Steps From Stardom. Personally, I thought she stole the show, but then I am partial!!! It was all a good laugh after them realizing what was going on. Elizabeth and Cheryl finally came in so we were all there. Amazing.

Chefs at the grill

Finally, we had our fill and started saying good night around the table. The crew girls were staying outside our district. The rest of us had about a 5 block walk to the hotel. As we were leaving we all made a comment on how beautiful the basket/cask was that held the Sake. The server told us we had drunk the whole cask!!!!! Fun, fun, fun. Thanks so much to Keith Richards.

Back to works as usual. We had 2 more shows to do at the Egg Dome each sold out, and it was just get on with it! Chuck and I had some more lovely meals in town, and one was with our friend Toshie Onishie. We have know here since the 80's when Chuck was hired to record with The Privates. We enjoyed meeting up with her again. She was doing private tickets for the promoted and was working at the show, too.
So, now it was time to leave for Macao, China. Bernard Fowler had mentioned that the Chinese breakfast at our hotel was great. In honor of our going there we opted to have that as our parting meal. It was great, and we left very happy.