I have been interested in Zen and I study in books etc for 10 years. The number of people who practice meditation, mindfulness, breathing methods are increasing, so I am happy as a Zen lover. I sometimes practice Zen meditation, today is about that.

Chokokuji (zen temple in Nishiazabu, Tokyo) offers its Zazenkai (group Zazen session) from 6:30pm to 8:30pm every Mondays. Participation fee is 100 yen. For participants who need language assistance in English, it is highly recommended to come with an interpreter on the first day (introduction) and the second day (the first Zen session) since we cannot provide translation service. From the third day, you could come by yourself.

I can do “Just sitting” at my place but the reason why I go to Zazekai is I like the atmosphere. Despite the city center of Nishiazabu, the temple is very quiet, the air is clear and fresh feelings. In the Kannondo on the right after going through the gate, Azabu Kannon which was built by carving Kusunoki, looks gentle with a calm feeling. And the buildings where for Zazenkai, the dimmer space, incense scent, tatami mats, monk’s black robes, Buddhist decorations… Straighten up but I feel calm with the nostalgic space somehow.

There is a letterpress printing studio that I go there often several years ago.This time I went to the workshop “Arabic typography card workshop” held there.

I am interested in the language Arabic, also my name in Arabic on my business card workshop! It was very exciting one for a printing & language & design & culture lovers.

Initially I had a lecture on Arabic culture and letters, just listened to the food, customs, culture, religion, languages, etc. It sounded very exotic. The teacher who gave a lecture can speak Arabic, and sounded the language extend the endings so that was also exotic.

What I was interested in Arabic is that letter (shape of) and sound. By the way, three of the languages ​​I’m interested in now (sound version) are below.

– Hawaiian
– Hebrow
– Arabic

A few years ago I knew Mr. Teiichi Sato at the contemporary art school event. He operates a seedling shop (Sato Seed Shop) at Rikuzentakata-city in Iwate prefecture, Japan and who is victim of the East Japan great earthquake tsunami, and he recorded the first edition of the disaster issued on March 11, 2012. The title is ”The Seed of Hope in the Heart”, it is written in English. Despite being not good at English, the reason why he wrote it in English was too hard to record it in Japanese (mother language). He said that he wanted to put a little distance between heart and word. Mr. Sato thought that it should tell the fact and he wanted to tell that in his own words. The English version is now 5 version (as of 2017), and he records it in Chinese and Spanish as well because he wanted to tell his thanks to people who gave huge supports in those whose own languages.

I was very impressed by his action “Leaving the facts and tell” and “Writing in English (other language)”. I respect for his sense of mission that telling the fact, and I’m touched by the honesty of writing in English because it is too sad write it in Japanese, also I sympathized for his choice.

I was in Tokyo at the earthquake, even in Tokyo I was panicked by an unprecedented disaster and I remember the fear of death. After that, there were opportunities to go to Tohoku several times and there were times when we talked with the victims. I felt the strength of the core that they take the facts and go live, and the kindness who had various experiences from people in Tohoku. I have never met Mr. Sato directly, but I feel his personality through the movie (Mr. Sato’s activity was also a movie “Traces of Breath“).

The opportunity to actually write letters decreases because the advent of computers that can input characters, such as word processors and personal computers. It has been becoming convenient and the accuracy of convenience increases. On the other hand, I do not think that the opportunity to actually write letters will be completely lost, and I do not want to lose it.

If I say so, I sometimes forget about how to write Kanji (Chinese character), make mistakes to write kanji or sometimes I am stunned by the poor character I wrote. It has been a few years since I need to face to write letters by hand… I tried practicing with the pen writing exercise book, but it does not last long and loses the temptation of convenience.

While watching Japanese paintings, ukiyoe prints, picture scrolls, old documents at the exhibition of the times, I thought “Vertical writing looks beautiful” as I felt restless with my hand writing for a while. And I thought, okay I try! then I went to the stationary shop. It is high level to write Japanese with brushes, and I found a nice fountain pen. I bought a nice one, it is perfect for writing comfortable, the appearance and the price is good. ” rel=”noopener” target=”_blank”>This one. It is very easy to write because the pen tip is heavier, and the look is cool.

As a one of picture book lovers, I am happy as long as many picture book of animals or plants titled “The most beautiful xxx” have been published recently in Japan. The charm is the plant illustration, it catches the veins faithfully and seems to draw vividly up to one of the hair growing on the leaves. For the insects, the detailed description of the captivating eyeballs or delicate touch that dramatically reproduces the iridescent beauty color. I am attracted to the mysterious beauty that appears in the microcosm.

Great museum for picture book lovers is “The Intermediatheque” where is near from Tokyo station Marunouchi exit. The feeling that the heavy and academic atmosphere is very nice as if I entered the university’s laboratory. I saw the current exhibition Special Exhibition“The Art of Natural Science in Sweden — Treasures from Uppsala University”.

It is anniversary year 2018: the 150th Anniversary of Japan–Sweden diplomatic relations. And this presents the world of Natural History which bloomed in 18th-century Sweden, as well as its connections with Japan.

My job is designing printed matters or digital stuff (websites or apps), today is about typeface which is indispensable to my work.

Commercial design has the role of “telling”, so each product has a message, and the ways to tell it will be images such as pictures or illustrations, and texts. And selecting which typeface should be used is important to design.

There are typefaces that already installed and you need to purchase for a fee. Paid typefaces are high design and quite elaborate.
*Designing typefaces is a highly specialized and delicate world, there are typeface designers.

Both already installed and purchased are displayed on the character palette of professional editing software (illustrator, photoshop etc) when designing it, and you can select it.

There is a typeface genre I have never used before even though I see it on the character palette, I’ve been engaged in work in various industries so far and I think that the number of things you probably made is four digits though. I wrote about my “Oh I see!” discovery of “that one”.

I often go traveling but I haven’t been to Hawaii never before even thought it is very popular and easy to get there. I thought perhaps I will visit there sometime but I had a chance this time.
Because Hawaiian airline start to fo into service from Haneda to Kona directly! I thought that I had to go there after Golden Week (long holidays in Japan), first Hawaii and first Hawaii Island!

I got on Hawaiian Air for the first time but it was very comfortable. I don’t know why but the world “Hawaii” is magic, it makes me feel better. Hawaii Hawaii Hawaiiiiiiii.
And Hawaiian language such as Hawaii, Aloha or Mahalo sounds gentle and cheerful, it pas power people to make feel good.

I heard that there is fulled with Mana power as you get off at the Kona airport, and it was true. The airport is small and open-air, I had a homey feel.
My journey stared feeling so good!

I have many things to write but today is about breakfast in Hawaii Island.
I’m usually get up early, and earlier when I travel (don’t want to wast of time!). I was happy because morning starts early in Hawaii Island! Starbuck coffee shops are the earliest to be opened in the world, it’s 4am! It’s because the nice weather, also it is said that it was remnant people who worked at plantations stated early in the morning.

Today is about color.
First the meaning is here.

Color
Color (American English) or colour (Commonwealth English) is the characteristic of human visual perception described through color categories, with names such as red, orange, yellow, green, blue, or purple. This perception of color derives from the stimulation of cone cells in the human eye by electromagnetic radiation in the visible spectrum. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associated with objects through the wavelength of the light that is reflected from them. This reflection is governed by the object’s physical properties such as light absorption, emission spectra, etc.

Wikipedia

I am interested in the explanation about color in Japanese Wikipedia, it is something like this.

“Even with the same color stimulus, the same color perception is not necessarily established, and the results are different depending on the perception of the surroundings and the state of the observer.”

And also the explanations related to the above sentenced in English Wikipedia:

Individual colors have a variety of cultural associations such as national colors (in general described in individual color articles and color symbolism). The field of color psychology attempts to identify the effects of color on human emotion and activity.

If you have been a designer for more than 15 years, you will also be naturally aware of the feelings of “creator” other than your genre design (graphic & digital).

I wonder what they are made of? How did the creator did it? What the purpose of it? something like I wonder the background of the creation. I feel happy when I find something common feeling even our genre is different, or it is also happy to find new learnings.

I love any “creators” from designers or craftsmen very much, and I would like to introduce love expressions from designers/creators which I can see from the finished products, so that I named the title of today. In addition to the purpose as a function, there are other purposes such as culturally appeal to emotion or they have social sense of mission. I would like people to look at other roles than functions.

Vol. 1 today is about “Shoji (Shoji is a sliding screen with white paper on thin
wooden laths).” designed by Korin Ogata (he was a Japanese painter, lacquerer and designer of the Rinpa school).
I visited the MOA museum of art in Atami the other day, there are facilities except for the museum such as Noh theater, Tea garden, Tea house etc. And I write about the Shoji of Korin’s Residence (reconstruction) which he spent the last five years and drew national treasure paintings there.

I continue where I left off last blog unexpectedly went long.

About how to read and understand the picture book “The Giving Tree” in English. The sentence that with interpretation “And tree was happy…. but not really”.

Mr. Kiichiro Honda who translated it before Haruki Murakami.
According to Mr. Honda (Here is my translation Japanese in English again, funny)
“The tree was happy… but is it really?” (something like that, I translated it directly)

And, here is Mr. Murakami’s
“And the tree was happy… no she can’t” (something like that, I translated it directly)

Mr. Murakami denied clearly, she wasn’t happy.