Kjell Hahn

(sasayama firing finished, heading back to gunma on the train now)

spring painting 6

(the firing should be finishing today or tomorrow)

spring painting 5

(still firing kiln in sasayama)
the kiddies do the drawing, they certainly do.
some drawings i really like that students gave me.

now i am working with john dix and helping to fire his anagama kiln in tamba sasayama japan. even though i havent been around to help him since moving to onishi he let me put a couple sculptures into the kiln.
before the loading i took photos of the greenware sculptures. I’ll then post the results after the firing.

the weather couldnt have been better today. i headed out on my mountain bike looking for some more ridable trails in the area and came across a network of pretty good courses on the mountain range next to my house, called Sakura Yama. its hard to find trails in japan where you dont have to walk you bicycle,but this place has promise. at the top of the mountain the trails just kept splitting and crossing over one another so there has to be something in that maze. too much too explore in one day. Also, since the top was just fire roads, most motor vehicles cant make it over the mountain pass. so there is zero- absolutely no – thru traffic up there even on the paved roads. i know most mtn bikers hate fire roads but its still about a billion times better than city riding. ill take it for next door.

as for the map of the course; im just going to take a photo from a real map next time… google earth seems like a great program on the surface but when you really need detailed information about an area its faults really start to stand out. the program makes it almost impossible to figure out where anything is unless you zoom all the way in. and for some reason none of the streets want to line up if you try to combine images. anyway im not going to use it again for cycling courses.

less than appropriate image:

two oni.

went for a walk in the mountains between Chichibu and Onishi today. Found a couple tiny caves occupied by mountain gods.

i like painting stuff

“spring painting 1″
graphite and acrylic on MDF
45×60 cm
2009

more cycling to work.

might have been a slightly mistaken thinking that you can get anywhere on a bicycle.

today i visited a school in chichibu again for a one day class. the school was significantly farther away from the other schools i’ve been to. nice scenery and all but on the way home tonight there were some snow flurries that just continued to get heavier and heavier as I rode. the combination of the wind and wet snow made the ride far less enjoyable than it should have been. Bike computer on the fritz so i dont know the exact distance- probably in the neighborhood of 50km one way. I definitely will do the course again when the weather is more cooperative.

note: keep clicking on img to zoom in