Japanese with Rintaro

Today we're going to learn some Japanese. Here, Rintaro says: "Dozo." As in: "After you. Please take this bowling lane, I insist." Any questions? (Besides why are Japanese dudes and Johnny Depp the only people who can pull off long hair and nerd-o glasses.)

Slug Attack!

Last weekend, I came home from a great Golden Week vacation to find my house taken over by slugs. Oh my god. They were everywhere. Thus, I've begun my slug extermination campaign. In English Club today, I drew this little scene to illustrate the my current position in the war on slugs. On one side you have slimyness, rain, and general unhappiness. On my side, I only have a salt shaker and a tendency to freak out.

At times, the problem at hand appears unsurmountable. They can hide in tiny cracks that I can't see. They are slimy and icky. When I kill them, they dissolve into a sticky pool I have to clean up. But take heed, slimy ones! You may be constantly lurking in the moisty places waiting to strike, but I have dogged determination and LOTS of salt (and don't forget slug poison).

A page in the life

Ok, this is a semi cop-out because it's only a page from one of my sketchbooks. But I find these doodles pretty amusing and have no recollection of drawing any of it. Looks like I had birds on the brain that day...

Universal Traveler

Ah, travel. The sights! The smells! The characters you run across! I love people watching in general, but when you're travelling, it's like someone bringing a smorgasbord to your front door. And you end up find a lot of similarities between people. Some folks are really interesting and some are complete morons who you wonder how they managed to get to this side of the world when they should be choking on the flies falling into their stupidly gaping maws. Here are some sketches from the Cambodian leg of my Thai adventure.

On the left is a big Italian guy with a big round gut that I couldn't help but stare at on the bus ride from Poipet back to Bangkok. He was sporting a very impressive diamond ring and probably also had feet but I don't recall what they looked like. In the middle is a nice Englishman staying at our guesthouse in Siem Reap, with whom we shared a cab ride to Poipet. He told us stories about his carpenter son who "was not gifted in the brain cells" and his daughter working at a ski resort and her imminent descent into lazy alcoholism.

The girl on the right is my favorite, in that love-to-hate sort of way. I think she was from Austria, travelling with her friend and a perpetual scowl (debilitating underbite?). They were on the same bus as us on the way to Cambodia, and held the group up at the border by a good half hour. I did not appreciate this, as it was high noon and close to 40 degrees C, and Poipet is not a very happy town. A couple days later, as we waited at Aranyaprathet to go back to Bangkok, our bus group was delayed again. This time by an hour. "Two more, two more!" the driver kept telling us. "Wouldn't it be bizarre if those girls were the ones holding us up? Ha! Ha! But that would never happen because we live in a fair and just world, don't we?" I chuckled. Oh no. Oh yes! There they were, piling into the bus an hour after it should have left without their sorry asses. Now I'm officially allowed to hate them. I guess it would have been more fair to draw both of them, but I can't remember what her friend looked like and I don't particularly care.

Myawn....

My thoughts exactly, cat. My thoughts exactly....

Not a skull, not yet a mullet

So Ms. Brit has shaved her damn head. When I saw these disturbing photos of her in the act, I was filled with remorse. Remorse for what could have been. If only she'd stopped halfway, she could have brought back the skullet. Or maybe not. Or maybe the skullet was never "in" to bring back in the first place. In any case, she lost a golden opportunity to get back in touch with her trailer park roots (ooh punned!). Maybe she can still get a rat tail extension...

PS- I was drawing Britney at school, and a passing teacher looked over my shoulder and said "Kowai!" (Scary!)

You've Been Warned.

Dear Loudspeaker-Truck-That-Continually-Drives-Round-My-Neighborhood:

Shove this up your pie-hole.

Oh you think I'm kidding, don't you? Think you're safe, you little steel box on wheels, eh? Well think again. Next time you come rolling down my block, ruining my morning/afternoon/evening with that incessant, obnoxiously cheerful high pitched voice of yours, I am going to take you DOWN. You watch. Once I've got the bloodlust, I will get so "Naomi Campbell" on your ass.

Some guy

Snap, Crackle, Gag

I normally don't drink milk. I'm one of the few people who are happy to crunch on a bowl of cereal sans the white stuff. But a couple of months ago, I got a package from my mom containing two huge bags of Rice Krispies, which were a welcome treat, as cereal in Japan is on the pricey side (for a ridiculously small amount, I might add). However, since I've started eating Rice Krispies, I've been forced to buy milk, because this is what happens when you don't.

Like a saltine.... Like a saltine.

My living room

I've since rearranged everything, but here's what my tatami room looked like several months ago. You can tell because the table isn't a kotatsu yet.

Foooood!

Food pervades everything in Japan, especially television. Think of Iron Chef, and then think of every tv show as Iron Chef. Food's in your face all the freaking time. If there is no food, then it's not entertainment. Tonight I saw a show on the top ten conveyor belt sushi restaurants in the country. It was insane; there was a nigiri sushi with a 26cm long piece of toro. 26cm. That's my shoe size.

Anyway, I'm always awed/repulsed by everyone on tv stuffing their faces with food, usually in one bite (even the 26cm sushi). They just... stuff the entire thing in there. It's basically food porn.

PS: Sorry for my bad hiragana... It's supposed to say Umai! but I guess the "i" looks more like "ri"....

Euro Trash

I felt like putting this up because I watched "Borat" tonight. This started out as a portrait of Mike, but ended up looking sleazier than I intended it to. So now he's a nameless Eurotrash gigolo who wants to making the carnal relations with the ladies.

Nyan Nyan

So there's this cat I'm kind of obsessed with. She's one of two that live on the school grounds. It's nice to be around animals from time to time, and the five minutes I take to feed the cats is a therapeutic break from work. At first, this cat, Nyan-Nyan (which is the Japanese version of naming your cat Meow-Meow), shunned my advances. What a tease. But now, true to her namesake, she's learned to come yammering to my door of the teacher's room for food. I think she likes me...

OOIOO

I really liked their hair.

How to draw Britney Spears

I love Britney Spears, as much as anyone who loves a train wreck. She's become a constant source of amusement for everybody lately. It's sad too (to an extent) because girlfriend used to be cute. As I often do when I'm bored, I doodle pictures of celebrities du jour, and recently I've discovered that even though many of my drawings of ol' Brit-Brit start off pretty mediocre, a few special touches always hit it right on the mark. I'll share this secret with you today. Look closely:


Do you see the similarity? Basically, by adding ridiculous sunglasses and a double chin, you can turn virtually anything into Britney Spears. My teacup, a bag of Cheetohs, and just for kicks, Justin Timberlake. That last one's pretty scary, ne? Originally I was going to include cheap extensions, but that just makes my job way too easy.

Horseman

Not much to say about this one... An idea I had.

The Beckhams are coming!

Bringing her fabulousness to this side of the pond.

bull

Trying out the calligraphy brush pen. Needs work, but I like the direction it's going.

Sheep

Inspired after reading Murakami's A Wild Sheep Chase.

Wildebeasts: Secret Geniuses

And why not?
Have a great weekend everyone. : )