Welcome to the next entry in my Japan Adventure series! These posts recap the
days my husband and I spent in 2023, cruising around mainland Japan, and our
time in Osaka before and after ✨
Last time, we departed from Niigata and sailed to Akita! A lot happened during our
single day in the prefecture, so this post will focus only on the guided
excursions that were organized by Silversea. Let's go!
Wednesday 23 March 2023 - Akita Excursions
As became my wont, I took another photo of the beautiful morning sea 💙
"Welcome to Akita" at the Akita Cruise Terminal!
This unmissable landmark is
Akita Port Tower Selion
😮 More about it in the next installment 😉
Our ship was welcomed with an awesome performance of traditional music
💖
A delegation of stylish and friendly "Akita Tourism Ladies" greeted us,
too 🖤
It wouldn't be a trip to Akita without meeting some of the namesake dogs
🐶✨
A huge theme in this area is the namahage 👹 In front of two massive
namahage statues, this sign states their
UNESCO designation as intangible cultural heritage. Also captured in this photo was something I loved seeing all over
Akita: wind turbines!
Our first destination was the Mt. Kanpu "Panorama Sky Park" Rotating
Observation Deck (寒風山回転展望台) in Oga. We took a tour bus up the mountain.
At the top of the observatory, you can sit and literally watch the world
go by, as the seats revolve around the room 😮 There are several maps
which point out visible landmarks. This was one of the few opportunities
I had during this trip to simply sit and sketch the scenery 🖊️✨
There was much more to see inside the observatory, which is also a
museum. These included a huge kokeshi doll, a dugout canoe, and this 3D
map of the area!
I loved this adorable sculpture outside the building. It's called
Namahage-kun (ナマハゲ君) which in this case can be translated to
something like Little Namahage.
The museum helpfully offers an English information pamphlet ✨
There were tons of cool exhibits, including this room with screens
displaying a variety of videos, installed in these wooden posts 🤯
Part of the museum included a namahage experience inside a traditional
thatch-roof house!
We were offered tablets that let you choose your language and read about
the experience before it unfolds. This is an incredible feature!
An exhilarating and unforgettable experience 👹✨ I highly recommend it
if you get a chance to visit the Namahage Museum!
I learned that the straw that falls from the namahage's traditional
coats after their visit is considered lucky for study if you tie it
around your head 🤓✨
My husband, Sean, posing with some namahage 👹
And my pose!
One of the most breathtaking exhibits was this room full of namahage!
At the shrine shop, they had namahage masks you could don for photos!
Namahage Sean 👹✨
I adore the lion-dogs (こまいぬ) at Shinto shrines. Today I learned the
Japanese name for them means Ancient Korean Dog 🤯
That's it for this post but not for our adventures in Akita! I'll be back soon
with part 2, including our self-guided exploration of Akita Port Tower Selion.
Please look forward to it and, until next time, stay happy, healthy, and
safe~❤️
Spring is already springing here at Studio Mikarts. The temperatures have
warmed up so much that I had to reduce the number of blankets on my bed in
order to sleep well at night. I usually don't have to do that until late March
🤯 The sound of birdsong the past couple days has been so vibrant and
energetic 🎵🎶 I'm very much looking forward to the first flowers' blooming 🌼
Not much longer until the March Equinox! But the purpose of this post is to
take a moment to look back. Here's what I got up to in February, the last full
month of winter.
Patreon Rewards
Last month, I started and finished another Maginaturalist's Sketchbook
illustration. This one depicted Gaasyendietha, the Nessie of Lake Ontario.
Studio Mikarts Patreon members who are signed up for physical rewards
received giclée prints
featuring this fiery dragon enjoying a starlit dive into the lake.
Patreon is the best way to support my creative work. Members' presence alone
provides social proof to those who might be on the fence about joining, the
funds they contribute help with costs such as digital art programs and
physical art supplies, and most important of all, their belief in my work
helps me keep creating!
Click here to become a Patreon member today
💌
deviantART
The only piece I finished in February was Gaasyendietha, which makes it the
default choice for my dA feature 🖼️
deviantART is another place where you can support my creative work.
Commission me
for a chibi caricature or
become a member
to get printable coloring pages! Thank you for your support 🤗
Livestreaming
I streamed three out of four weeks in February, having lots of fun making art
and chatting with viewers on Twitch 😄 Here's the recording of the last stream
of the month:
Check out my
schedule on Twitch
to see when I'll be streaming this month. The first week of March (starting
tomorrow!!) is going to be super special, so I hope to see you there! If you'd
like to support me on Twitch, and get cute Studio Mikarts emotes in the
bargain, just
click here to subscribe
❤️
Charity Fundraising
Each month I use my Twitch streams to raise funds for a pro-animal charity.
For February, I selected
Vegan Outreach.
Excitingly, Studio Mikarts supporter Wolfaxe2 donated the entire
$10 to our fundraiser!
Thank you so much, Wolf, from me and all the animals that your donation
helped!! 🥰💕 On top of that, each month I use my unique viewers count on
Twitch to calculate my own donation to our featured charity.
I had 23 unique viewers in February. Using the formula $0.10 USD per viewer,
min $10, max $100, that meant another $10 donation to Vegan Outreach 👏✨ (As
usual, I covered the processing fees, as well.)
Thank you to everyone who donates to my fundraisers and visits my livestreams
on Twitch. You truly help make my work so much more meaningful 🥹
Gryphia Progress
I'm excited to report that I finished the second draft of chapter one last
month! Only eleven more chapters to go 😆
One of my goals for 2025 is to work on this project every workday. I managed
to keep the streak going all through February!
As of today, I'm about halfway through draft two of chapter two. This part of
the process is super fun, so daily work has actually been rather easy. In
fact, I often find myself lamenting the fact that I can't spend more time on
it!
Other News: Spring Cleaning
The last week of February was a Rest Week, which meant no livestreaming. I
used that time instead to work on some miscellaneous tasks that have
been languishing. The biggest of which was tidying my studio!
There's still plenty of tidying to do before I can call my workspace
completely organized, but this is a huge improvement! There is no longer
anything on the floor that doesn't belong there, which means I can access all
of my supplies and tools, without shifting piles of stuff, for the first time
in a couple years 😅 I'm looking forward to tidying more during my next Rest
Week!
🌟🌟🌟🌟
That's all for this roundup, thank you for reading until the end! It's getting
nice and stormy outside, my favorite kind of weather 🤩 Is this a reward from
Mother Nature for staying on task and getting this post done in a single day?!
😆 Anyway, I'll be back again soon, probably with another Japan Adventure
post! Until then, may you stay happy, healthy, and safe 💖
It's been almost two years since setting out on my two-week cruise around
mainland Japan. I hope to return sooner rather than later, so this year, I am
focusing on completing this blog series! I want to share this trip with you
before I embark on my next one 😉 In the
last installment, I shared my daytime adventures in Niigata. Now it's time to reveal the true
highlight of the day: the Geisha Dinner Experience!
Kappou Daizen was AWESOME because they had no problem offering vegan
food 💚
Having the best time with Sean! We enjoyed chatting with our tablemates
throughout the night.
One of my vegan courses: konjac sashimi and grilled tofu 😋
It was mesmerizing to watch the geigi (芸妓; Niigata geisha) dancing 🩵
The long kimono sleeves show that this is a junior geigi.
This dance had two geigi performing together.
The synchronized dance was enchanting!
In another dance, a senior geigi joined.
You can see the shorter sleeves that the senior geigi wears, as well as
the subtler accessories.
After the dances, we were taught about various aspects of everyone's costumes.
Here you can see the white makeup that continues even around the back.
We had a wonderful interpreter helping us understand the information that was being shared 👏
This geigi looks so elegant in this photo! 💖
Group photo with the geigi! Sean forgot to put his mask on 😆
Group photo of the beautiful entertainers 💙
This geigi had just debuted! She gave us stickers featuring her new
geigi name: Sachiko (咲地子) which could be translated as Child of the
Flowering Land 🌸
I'm not 100% sure but I believe this was steamed yuba!
Fried butterbur and fatsia sprouts 🤤
For dessert, a wee chocolate cake and strawberry 🍓✨
(In this post, I've only included a small selection of the plentiful food & drink I enjoyed!)
The room we were seated in was decorated richly; this was one of my
favorite pieces.
After returning to our cabin aboard the Silver Muse, we were greeted
with our breakfast menu, an end-of-cruise travel arrangements form, and
our daily newsletter, along with more tasty chocolates 🍫
So ended our fantastic day in Niigata. One of the employees of Kappou Daizen
invited me to return, and so I shall, someday! I hope to see Sachiko again and
ask her how work as a geigi has been going. Sooner rather than later, if
possible. I still have the sticker she gave me; I keep it in my clear phone
case, where I see it every day 🥰 But that's all for my adventures in Niigata
in 2023. Next time, we'll be visiting Akita! Please look forward to it. Until
then, may you remain happy, healthy, and safe 💖
