Jim O'Neil's photos with the keyword: 2010

watercolor and ink on 140 pounde coldpressed

I had to take a morning walk to see how things were going at the shrine. Ink and watercolor on 140 pound cold pressed.

Haneda airport on a rainy night in Japan

Kobo Daishi was the founder of Shingon Buddhism and responsible for the 88 temple pilgrimage on Shikoku Island. It usually take a couple of months to complete the pilgrimage on foot. This statue of him is at Hantaji Temple, temple number 50 on the route.

Matsuyama countryside; upon arrival at the airport, I hit the ground running, we immediately headed in to the hills to visit one of the 88 temples and then to a museum of modern art.

Bento is Japanese boxed lunch.

While in the mountains above Matsuyama we caught sight of two or three wild boars scavenging oranges in a grove on the side of the mountain. Cool! Watercolor and ink on 140 pound cold pressed.

Ok, yes, there's a story here. I was riding in Datesan's automobile with 2 of her friends. They are mature ladies or Obasan. Here in Japan Obsans tend to be a special class, -do what they want, when they want and how they want, you understand. Well, one of the ladies, obasans, was talking about her motorbike, a 125-150 cc machine. Suddenly I had in my mind the image of a little old lady biker gang, dressed in riding leathers, astride their hogs, red bandannas on their heads, cruising the highway of Japan wrecking havoc and leaving mayhem in their wake.and, and, and, and, of course having cute little 'hello kitty' tattoos on their arms. Sooner or later I want to paint it so hence this sketch as a reminder.

Sun setting over Matsuyama and the Seto Inland Sea.

The young lady next to me is wearing a kimono that is part of a collection and just may have been made back in the Edo era (I know it dates back at least to the Meiji era.). I'm heading, slowly across Seto inland sea and across the main island of Honshu toward the Noto Peninsula, so this may be my last post for a while.

So! Here is my friend, Mariko, hard at work on her 元旦 ,gantan, New Year's day kanji. Yea, yea, we make quite a mess, -but it cleans up easily!