Alexis met us to catch a train or two from Kyoto to Osaka where we got on the subway to meet our guide/helper Nobu. My talented painter friend Ethan became friends with Nobu, a jovial Japanese baseball-loving sculptor at Bemis, an artist residency out in Nebraska, and kindly connected us. About an hour and a half trip from our apartment later we arrived in the outskirts of Osaka close to Nobu’s studio space. He has access to his uncle’s land where he conceives and builds impressive giant playful metal sculptures. Nobu and his black lab Engine, met us at the station. Nobu impressed us immediately with his diligent determination to practice and improve his English. His tactic was to say everything out loud in Japanese first and then follow it with his English translation. Very successful and fascinating for us to hear both versions. (I had such a hard time wrapping my head around the language in Japan and mostly used the words for “excuse me” and “thank you” over and over again so was impressed with Nobu’s skills).
Our new artist friend seemed up for any adventure that was for the sake of art and though we sadly had to drop off Alexis to take a train home because she wasn’t feeling well, we ventured on to a mountain Nobu had described to me earlier over email. I had no idea what to expect but had described what I needed, so about 40 minutes later we arrived at the base of a park. We paid a fee, got a map, and wound our way up. One side of the mountain faces the city Nara and the other the sprawl of Osaka.
Our first Osaka-side-turn-out was perfect, another swath of Japan blanketed with light. I set up a shot with some of the hillside included and Gayle and I shared our usual picnic of Japanese snacks in the car with Nobu and Engine; fun times talking art, life and baseball. It began to sprinkle and for the last half hour I sat out with the camera in the cool quiet, sheltering the lens when short spells of light rain fell. Around midnight we packed up and figured out we had probably missed our last train. Our unbelievably kind new buddy insisted on giving us a ride all the way back to Kyoto. At 1am Nobu pulled away from the drive of our apartment toward Osaka. So appreciative of the ride home we gladly hit the hay.
(Check out Nobu’s website on the sidebar under link.The sculpture up top is his.
This is his pup Engine:)
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