I mentioned these paintings a little while ago but they’re finally dry enough now that I feel confident putting them on my scanner. These three landscapes were done of places around me in Japan where we took my family after they came to Japan for our wedding — the famous Todaiji down in Nara, the not-so-famous Mt. Hino in Fukui prefecture, and the even less famous teahouse Yokokan in Fukui city.

Yokokan, Fukui

I love this teahouse. It was burned down in the World War 2 firebombing of Fukui, but rebuilt in the 80’s when the foundations were discovered underneath a road. It’s in such a beautiful neighborhood, and it is one of the most tranquil places in Fukui prefecture. If you ever come to Fukui, you should go there.

Mt. Hino, Echizen

Also known as “the Mt. Fuji of Echizen province” (by I-don’t-know-who), Mt. Hino is a huge mountain that towers above Echizen and is always beautiful. If you’ve been reading my blog since I lived in Takefu, you’ll know that I’ve loved Mt. Hino since I first saw it. So this is one of my favorite views of the mountain, from the Hino river.

Todaiji, Nara

Todaiji is probably the most famous landmark in Nara. It’s an enormous wooden temple which houses an enormous seated Buddha. The park by Todaiji is famous for its tame deer which will walk right up to you and bite you over and over until you throw food on the ground and run away while they’re distracted.

It’s been a long, long time since I’ve had any update here, and I’m sorry for that. I’ve been working pretty hard, and besides working not much particularly notable has happened recently, so I haven’t really taken the time to write anything. I’ve been doing my taxes — Japanese and American — and teaching a bunch of English classes to save up money, and studying Japanese as well, because I really want to pass level 2 of the JLPT this summer.

But I have been painting! I’ve been working hard on 3 landscape oils, which are almost dry but still tacky enough that I don’t want to place them on my scanner. (I’ve still got some green smudges on my scanner backdrop from the last time I scanned something too early.)

Today’s post is a piece I’ve had in my mind for some time now. As you may know, there are two dinosaurs named for Fukui prefecture: fukuiraptor and fukuisaurus. They’re fairly unremarkable dinosaurs, but I like them a lot. I was impressed by their displays at the Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum, and I’m fairly certain that’s the only place in the world you can really see them. Last year they finally began selling little toy fukuiraptors and fukuisauruses, so I bought them both.

Well, besides just liking them, one of the top keywords that leads people to my website is “fukuiraptor.” I have no idea why — I think I only briefly mentioned fukuiraptor in a post a long time ago. Yet it remains among the top search terms, after my own name. So I’ve always thought maybe I should paint a fukuiraptor just to satisfy all these searchers who come here looking for it. And being that Fukui is big on dinosaurs, and Japan is big on trains, I thought that I should do a series on dinosaurs riding trains. So here is my first one: Fukui Raptor at Takefu-shin Station.

Fukuiraptor at Takefu-shin Station (Click for a larger version.)