What a view

Yesterday evening, all the way from Yokohama City at the Nogeyama City Zoo, I caught a glimpse of Fuji-san. That was the treat for the day on top of the zoo visit. It's a small little zoo about three stops and a 15 minute brisk walk away from the Yokohama Main Station. Spent a little time sketching the animals there, and boy did they look cold and sad. :O(

Today, I head back for Singapore. It's been a pleasant trip. A little cold at times because of the winds here. But the food was good!

Well, see you back home! Cheerios! :O)

Something smells

Yesterday, I woke up pretty early (yeah, what's new?) to head out for the famous Tsukiji Fish Market. Some of you may have seen on either Discovery Travel and Living or Japan Hour (Singapore TV programming) how auctioneers conduct early morning bids to local fish buyers.

I realized that the bidding area is closed to the public only because in the recent years, due to the influx of tourists in the area, it has create more of a distraction than business.

Great experience! Not was there sea food, also, fruit and vegetables! And everything fresh from the local farms! Had an authentic ramen breakfast within the area too! Yum yum... :O)

Siggraph starts today. More updates later!

Yokoso Japan!

That's a picture of my bed for the night.

Yes, I am in the land of the rising sun, only that the sun sets pretty darn early because of the winter solstice. I have my sketchbook ready to go... how to draw in the dark now? I guess it's Art History Term paper time right after this posting.

So what am I doing here in Japan? Siggraph Asia 09. It's some Annual Animation Conference held this year in Yokohama. A bunch of my classmates will join me tomorrow morning. I got here first because of the different timings Northwest Airlines (now merged with Delta) has with their mileage claims.

I arrived in Narita at 2pm today and will be spending a night at a neat cozy hostel. The host, Mr Yama, is extremely helpful! Do check this place out if you are in the vicinity!

Tomorrow I will meet my classmates back at the Airport before we head on down to Disneyland... or is it DisneySea? Oh the dilemma! :O) Just another day being a student.

And the winner is...

This past Monday was our last Still Life drawing class. (Yikes! So fast!) It's sad to know that this is the last time Philip will be teaching us as his contract expires soon. We'll definitely be missing his patience, warmth, humour and character - something I bet you don't get very much from Hollywood. He's very down to earth and humble about his skills.

We chanced on the opportunity to award our favourite instructor, Philip, with a couple of items: a tee that says, "Voted number one instructor by Cohort 6" with our signatures on the back, a picture of all of us at the zoo and an honorary scout's badge. :O)

Hip... hip... hooray!

Drawing to a close

I spent a good half hour plus running through my drawings with Philip yesterday. He guided me what to put in, what to leave out for the coming assessment on Dec 29. Everything is slowing snowballing to that date. So, the only thing is to start early whatever that can be cleared first.

Three more exciting, crazy weeks!!!

ipod this

Today we continued working on modelling the iPod. For me, some days are better at Maya. But all days are for being picked at by Serbian instructor, Borko. My nickname is Harry. He gave that to me after that wonderful magic trick that nearly burnt down the school. :P

I have been looking hard to find some more time to go beyond homework, because homework only gets me at the same level as everyone else. If I wanna be really good, I know I have to just go that extra mile. The trouble is that finding time for that extra mile. A hint I hear from other cohorts is that semester one is always the honeymoon period. Oh man! Sometimes I wished that work wasn't in the way. But that'd be the easy way out.

Did I mention that since many instructors are taking time off this Christmas, there have been quite a bit of make-up classes this the past week, stretching classes from 9am to 7pm past in the next few days. An art history presentation next week, a five-page Art History term paper, a flash animation, two slow moving digital art projects and one traditional animation short is on my plate right now. Keep moving forward as Walt Disney once said...