Art By Tali Landsman

Hakata Dolls, and First Impressions Of Fukuoka, Kyushu Island, Japan The Airbnb apartment that we rented in Fukuoka is small, but full of light and centrally located. We have everything we need to be comfortable in the city for a few weeks. At our request, they installed a washing machine, and we have a good shower, a small but useful kitchen, a light-filled living room and comfortable and clean beds. We have enrolled in WAHAHA Japanese language school, and every week we get to arrange our schedule. We chose to study at WAHAHA, instead of at the more well-known Genki language school, mostly because they were able to offer us an extra curriculum of Manga drawing classes, which the Genki school does not have. From the pictures we've seen, Fukuoka Genki school looks a little nicer, with its own cafe where you can sip tea and mingle, which the WAHAHA school does not have. In fact, the WAHAHA school has a somewhat shabby lounge which at first, put us off a little, but we qui...

The Karatsu Kunchi Festival, and The Sights Of Karatsu, Kyushu Island, Japan From Nagasaki, we took a train north to Karatsu. Karatsu is a seaside town with a long history of producing beautiful earthenware pottery. When a ceramic artist or a potter comes to work in Karatsu, they do not use the term "Establish a studio," but say instead, "Establish A Kiln." This is because many potters can form dishes from clay, but the knowledge of how to successfully glaze and fire clay is paramount to this art form.  A Kiln is the heart and soul of this craft. Today there are many kilns in active use around Karatsu, as well as ruins of old kilns scattered throughout Saga Prefecture. Many of the kilns are 'Climbing Kilns,'  or kilns that you can walk into. Karatsu earthenware is made from a local clay that is high in iron, and is often left undecorated, or simply decorated with an iron-based underglaze. The unadorned ceramic is very granulated, earthy, and s...