Cat and cherry blossom

 

Rain season starts over here and so I sat down and finally finished this painting I started a while ago. It was really challenging to shape the fur out of the dark background.

Done with acrylics, pen, watercolor and airbrush on paper.

Size is about 24x17cm

****Original available*** 

2 commissions...

No, I haven't given up painting. I was just very busy working on two commissions.

The first one goes to a good old friend. It is the mountains in Fukuoka area...

...the second one goes to my beloved "Japanese sister", who will give birth to her child soon :)

 

and here is another one, a "work in progress", which will is not finished yet, but will be available later... happy Spring to everyone !!! 

 

Katy Perry - Firework ( Lyrics )

For Yumi ^___^
http://youtu.be/F7tqq1PPR5Q

Golden week 2013 Part 1

Spring and Autumn are my fave seasons here in Fukuoka. It's still not to hot and we can do a lot of hiking. Last weekend we hiked Nijodake and had an awesome view.

Some days ago, we went for Koshidake, which is not so high as Nijodake, but the view and the walk where a great experience.

Here you see bamboo sprouts...

...and the little shrine of the valley at the feet of the mountains. There was a castle there about 500 years ago and the village is as old.

On our way back, we saw some Koinobori-flags

and a "Tanuki"

Today we did some hiking as well, picked Udo, Taranome and Warabi

enjoyed the flowers...

...AND picked a lot of woodruff for woodruff wine. :)

 

high up on the mountains we still found some Camelia blossom...

Now I'm looking forward for next weekend. Friday and Monday are public holidays and there is still so much to see and pick.

Happy Golden Week :D

Cooking with Yumi :)

 

Cooking with Yumi is fun :) I did the Pasta, Yumi the rest, I'm really proud of her, because she is very eager to learn how to cook delicious food. :)

We cooked

Salmon, spinach, spinach soup with egg, pasta and salad...

A glimpse of Spring

Today is just one day before Setsubun. The day, where people drive the Winter out.

But this year, Spring has already arrived.

We drove to Hakozaki Shrine and enjoyed the beautiful flower garden there.

The plum blossom has already started...

and we also saw Fukujusou, the first Spring flower in Hokkaido. It's very rare here, but at Dazaifu and Hakozaki Shrine, you can see it, too. 

And this is the shrine itself, about 1000 years old.

That holy tree over there is 800 years old.

and here are Koi and Sagi... the Sagi was sitting so peacefully there and I thought, maybe it's a little "Kami" relaxing and enjoying the beauty and serenity of the Koi.

 

Moji and Shimonoseki

One week ago, we went to Shimonoseki and Moji. Both lie across each other. Moji is the end of Kyushu, while Shimonoseki is at the end of Honshu. The tide and current of the sea runs very quick through this small channel, so it's said fish and seafood is especially delicious there.

Shimonoseki is famous for blowfish (Fugu) and it has a famous fishmarket, which is open for tourists at weekends.

 

 

Here you see the fishmarket.

 

And I tried a Fugu menue, which was really delicious !!!

 

 

Later, we crossed the channel via tunnel and went back to the other side to Moji in Kyushu.

Moji really impressed me.

 

 

 

There are many historical buildings there...

 

 

...and it reminded me much of Hakodate or Nagasaki.

 

 

No, this is not Hakodateyama... but it really looks like it on this foto :)

 

I hope I can come here agian... it's not such a famous sightseeing spot, but the atmosphere made me feel very nostalgic, like in a "Hakodate state of mind"...

Winter in Fukuoka

I'm often asked "How is Fukuoka in Winter?" Well, when you look at this, you hardly think of X-mas or Winter, although this pic was taken last weekend.

but, it can get quite cold, as you see here... this was 2 weeks ago at Aburayama and it also snowed down in Fukuoka.

and yes, even it's hard to catch the X-mas mood, because of green trees, palm trees and Sasanqua blossom, we DO have awesome X-mas illumination downtown.

and the even better thing is, it's also still mushroom season.

This is Pleurotus ostreatus, Oystermushroom.

and here this was actually my very first find of Catathelasma.

In Germany, it's called "Hartpilz" or "Wurzelmöhrling". It can be white, but there is also an orange color type of this species.

Already too old to eat, but I will pick it next year.

Oh and while we went downtown Tenjin, we discovered a new and delicious restaurant.

It's specialized on Salmon, smoked with Bamboo coal.

The restaurant is quite new, the personnel friendly, excellent service and the food is totally delicious !!!

It's called "Bambù Salmone"

Please check out the homepage for further info:

www.bene-p.jp

We will go there again ^___^

Back to art again :D

Some of you wondered, what has happened to my art...

don't worry, I don't intend to stop, I just was so busy this Summer and Autumn, but now I'm back.

I just finished a comission for a wonderful friend.

A portrait of a lion 60x60 cm, Acrylics on thick paper...

Was my first Lion and it was so much fun to do it.

If you want to comission me, please contact me:

martoo1973@yahoo.de

 

After X-mas I will also work on a piece for the Spring Exhibition in the "Tokyo metropolitan museum", so stay tuned ^^

Mikaeri waterfalls in Saga

These photos are actually about a month old, but I never had the chance to upload them...

This is Mikaeri waterfall in Saga and it's really a beautiful spot. Nearby is an Onsen and we took a bath there after our walk.

And on our way back, near Raizan we found a lot of "Akebi". Those are fruits of a vine, which climbs the trees.

The fruit is outside very bitter, but the pulp with the seeds is very sweet.

If you fry the mantle of the fruit, the bitterness goes away. Anyway, we were very lucky...

due to weather conditions there were only a few Akebi in other places, but here we found so many.

 

Mushroom hunt in Karatsu

Last weekend we went to Karatsu area and picked a lot of mushrooms.

On the left, there are Suillus luteus and on the right Suillus bovinus.

Suillus luteus fir perfectly with Misoshiru (miso soup), while Suillus bovinus make very good cold pickles. They turn violet, if you boil them and they also tase delicious with "Ikura" (Salmon eggs) and a little soysauce.

Here, I cooked some japanese/european tapas with them.

Photos from my cooking-class

Thanks to the EU Association in Fukuoka I was able to give my first German cooking class this weekend at Shokubunka Cooking studio

http://www.syokubunka-studio.jp/

There were about 20 students with 10 of them I cooked German food (Potato salad,

potato soup and Jägerschnitzel with cream sauce)

and 10 of them learned to cook Spain cuisine from their spanish teacher Maribell.

Unfortunatelly I forgot my camera, but Yoko-san, one of the students, was so kind to lend me the pictures she took.

Yoko-san, arigatou :)

Here you see the Schnitzel and potato salad... we had great fun preparing everything and the people from the EU Association did a great job, organizing everything.

Here is the Spanish food, which was delicious, too.

Hope to do this again someday :)