weekends

Well! I have been a bit busy the past few weeks teaching. It is a blast, but it definitely leaves me tired at the end of the week. I would like to talk a little bit about my weekends.

I LOVE having natural light in my home, so I intentionally don't have any curtains in my apartment. I wake up around 7 or so on days I am not working. I usually take my time waking up -- doing yoga, meditating, having a big breakfast. I then put on some really loud Bowie or Clash and clean my apartment. By that time it is a beautiful, sunny day, the whole city coming to life from the beautiful view near my apartment. Last week, I went down to the port where I painted 2 boats. I then found this idyllic spot:

I went down to the very tip of it, about 3-400 ft. out into the ocean, and just laid on the edge with my feet hanging over. Very idyllic. There are lots of fishermen hanging about, and every now and then you see a little crab walk past. I decided to buy a bottle of gin, and I will mix my own drinks at home, then walk down to this spot to sit in the sun and drink. As a cultural ambassador, I would like to represent to the world that it feels great to lay in the sun near the ocean and have a damned delicious drink. I digress. I sort of dozed off .. upon waking, I had a total hankering for a good coffee. CJ told me Japan has amazing coffee, so I ventured out into Usuki in search of said treasure. I found a small building with some katakana コーヒー, kohii, or coffee. I paid my 300 yen and took a seat on the patio. Within 5 minutes, the staff brought me this ..

Yum! Delicious pourover with some cookies to boot. They then brought me some free Japanese iced tea .. wow. I painted a little street scene from the cafe's patio. By this time, I was getting hungry. 3 paintings, a nap, and one coffee later, it was time to head home for some lunch. I picked up some shrimp straight from the ocean and went home to cook. We have these "fish grillers" built into our stoves .. it is basically a miniature grill that is about 4 inches tall, a foot deep, and 8 inches across. So I coated my shrimp with olive oil, garlic, and chili powder .. et voila:

Really yummy. I went back out for another cup of coffee, this time at the bar Portugla. Not sure how it came to be spelled as such! Anyhow, had another delicious pourover (I was quite decadent that day) and ventured out for one last painting. By then, it was nighttime. I walked home and found this amazing view from my balcony:

Very lucky to be here!

So, this weekend I foresee a repeat. Big breakfast, cleaning and listening to Bowie, pourovers and cookies, sitting, laying, drinking (?) at the port, ahh. Living the DREAM!