New company

Well, i bit the bullet and made a move to a new company as a contract worker, and I must say so far its been great. The new company is in Azabu Juuban which is a really nice/trendy area, although i have to ride morning packed trains now (gack!). The artists there are really skilled character animators (think Pixar-ish) and that's not so much my thing, however the environment is great since a few of the people worked on some big Hollywood movies doing CG effects and so I am gaining some great skills. It's definitely more relaxed then my previous place with a more western-style environment - kind of working and joking around too, like a lot of studios in the States. That makes the long hours much more bearable. The one owner is a great cook and she even cooks some awesome lunches/dinners for us often right there in the office!

I am having to learn Maya/Mental Ray (3dsmax/V-ray you are still my number 1 and 2!) for doing 3d lighting/rendering for these character animations, so i guess I am working as a Maya lighting artist, for now. It's really cool to work in a high-level CG environment again, especially learning the production pipeline in the same flavor as movie-style CG. What is also nice is its a very international atmosphere with a mix of Japanese, French and Americans (me) working there. Many languages are flying around over the course of a day. I am also doing some freelance work over the internet with my former company in the Philly which is really great. Overall, I think it was a really good move and so far so good. Keep ya posed : )

Hiroshima & Miyajima: Part 2 - Miyajima

Continuing from the last post, I left Hiroshima after just 2 days there and made my way to Miyajima. Miyajima (also know as Itsukushima) is about 30 minutes down the inland coast from Hiroshima. Being an island (the name literally means something like 'God Island') you need to take a ferry for the last 10 minutes of the trip. Miyajima is a world heritage site which means it deemed very important to world culture and is recogized as such (certain protections and funding I think too). Anyway, its a damn pretty place which i hope to illustrate with some photos : )


The first thing you see upon arriving is the famous torii (or gate) that is a signature of the island. When the tide is low you can walk out to it. At night when the tide comes back in, both the toori and the shrine seem to float on the water. It's really very scenic.


The other thing that is quite noticeable when arriving is that there are wild deer everywhere! Trust me, these are not your shy bambi deer either. These guys walk right up and start nibbling at you (at least they did me and even started eating my souvenirs!) It's believed that the deer are sacred and are kind of inert gods of the island. It definitely adds to the feeling of being in a not-so common place.


The Gojunoto (5 story pagoda) is another landmark and has some really cool architectural details. Something about that bright orange against all the green and blue of the island just seems appropriate for some reason...works for me. I had a pretty nice view of all this from my hotel which was a bit higher up on the mountain. I stayed at small ryokan which has tatami rooms, but this one didn't have in-room dining so i had to eat in the common eating area (geessh, terrible isnt it?!) lol. Nice place and pretty reasonable for a ryokan. Some of the food specialites of the area are momiji manjuu (sweet bean cakes in the shape of maple leaf) and fresh oysters. There is a big shopping street where all this and other souvenirs can be found. Pretty fun.

The following day I decided to do some hiking and see the other notable attraction of the island, namely Mt. Misen. There are some famous historic shrines and temples that date back to 800 A.D. that are spread out along the accent to the top of the mountain which weighs in at about 1,600 ft. /535 m. above sea level. The top can be reached by ropeway/cable car. Even with taking the cable car, getting to the top is a decent amount of hiking (at least a couple hours).


On the accent, I stopped by to see an amazing temple called Daisho-in. Daishō-in was founded by a monk named Kukai in the year 806. Kūkai was the one of the most famous monks in Japan and the founder of Shingon Buddhism. I think this might be one of the most beautiful, interesting and scenic temples i have ever visited. The steep stairway has sutras (or prayers) inscribed on cylinders embedded in the handrail that, it is said, is you touch and spin each one as you ascend, you will have very good luck.




The temple has many different styles of statues of which all blend naturally in the wooded surroundings, as well as incredibly intricate wood carvings. There was one part with miniature statues of 500 different monks, all with different facial expressions and gestures!


Very close to the summit is the Reika-do Fire Hall. This is where the monk Kukai spent 100 days in meditation and the fire he lit has been burning (no joke) for 1200 years! it was used to pilot the flame at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial that I mentioned in the last post. It was really kinda smokey in there so I just took a quick look. That's a pretty long fire, eh?


The last bit of business was to go the the very top and take a look around (anyone remember that scene in National Lampoon Vacation where Chevy Chase is looking at the Grand Canyon). Was kind of like that. Nice view, beautiful in fact, but in the end, the island is so full of beautiful views so not so earth shattering. There were lots of really cool and weird rock formations at the top. Even a small restaurant up there to chill out and have a cool drink before the long sweaty descent.

Overall it was a perfect 3 day trip for me - lots of nature, culture, things to eat and do (I'm not much of a beach lounger :P). But really, this is THE most beautiful scenic natural area I have ever seen, so its up there on my recommend list if you ever visit Japan : )

Well, back to reality : /