Written on September 14, 1991 [Permalink]

September

I guess it must have been about two days before we left Mie that Michiyo got the news that she had been accepted at UBC, and she spent a ton of time on the phone to Tokyo, trying to set up her flight. We got back to town on the 30th of August, and by the 4th of September she was gone. I'm not sure what to say about all this. I'd been encouraging her to go, as I'd rather have no wife in the house than the unhappy one we'd been living with, but it's certainly not the way I'd like to organize a family.

* * *

Update from Dave in 2026, while putting this journal into the 'Timeline' ...

I see now that I included only the barest minimum of information about this whole 'school' thing into this journal at that time. It was a huge event in our lives, and this 'temporary' separation (spoiler alert!) would lead to divorce two years later.

As anybody who has read this far in this journal is aware, I myself have no problem with being pretty 'open' when talking about my activities. I'm kind of proud of the accomplishments, and that leaves me with a good 'leeway' to talk about the things that I didn't do so well at. But my ex-wife is a much more private person than I, and I have no right to sit here and tell everybody 'our story', about what was good, and about what went wrong.

In the autumn of 1994, by when it was very clear that our family was irrevocably broken, and that I was a single parent 'for real', I sat down to write about those personal events, referring back to notes and journals and receipts, etc. to get the events clear in my mind. I produced a book, to be left for my daughters - 'Your Father, Your Mother' - that would bring them into the story and let them know just why their parents were not able to continue living together. I printed three copies, one for each of us. They know of the existence of this book, but even now in their 40s have shown no interest in reading it, something I completely accept, as they are understandably concerned that a 'one-sided' version of the story would harm their feelings for their mother (with whom they lived some years later, during their late teens).

So my apologies if - here in this printmaking journal - we are able to touch on these events only peripherally. Not all stories need to be told!

* * *

The immediate effects of her departure were kind of 'plus/minus'. The evening before she left, we took a walk around to all the English students, and told them that there would be (could be) no more classes. This was tough. The older ones accepted the situation with no problem, as they mostly have other chances to practice English, but the younger ones all resisted. This is understandable, as they have invested years of money and time with me, and don't want to lose what they have learned. These were very difficult conversations, but I really didn't have any choice. There's no way I could continue with English classes in the evenings, and handle the household chores also. In the end, they understood this, and my five year long career as an 'Eigo kyoshi' came to an end. (Actually, two of the classes are still coming, but on a 'free-talking'/no teaching/no preparation basis. This was their 'counter-offer', and I wasn't able to find words to refuse it. The money from these two groups just nicely pays for the kids' piano lessons and 'Kumon' fees).

As far as I can remember the printing of Ryozen Hoshi [3-7] went without mishap, and Akazome Emon [3-8] followed suit. Carving is a different story. Getting woodblocks out of Shimano-san has become a big problem. They had recently been taking about a week after my phone calls, but the November block took more than three weeks, throwing me seriously behind schedule.

Off and on I've been starting to get the next promo ready. I had the idea of taking all the prints made so far, lining them up in a row, and using one of those new 'panorama' cameras to get an interesting picture. Easier said than done. I bought a camera and took the prints to Fujimi Park, where I set them up and got some passers-by to shoot off a bunch of shots with me in the picture. When they were developed a week or so later, they turned out to be all too gloomy, as I had posed in front of a woody area, and the background came out completely dark. Next week I tried again (I could only work on windless, clear days), this time posing in front of a 'cleaner' area in the park. Of course, everything came out hopelessly over-exposed, and full of thumbs over the lens. For the third try, I got Ashida-san to do the shooting, and we used the parking lot of the shopping center across the street. This batch was acceptable (barely), and I'm having dozens of copies of the best one run off for use in the upcoming blurb.

Printing in September proceeded as usual, but in October and November, I never did get around to doing the second run of 60 (to make up the hundred copies). There were just too many other things waiting to be done, writing articles, cooking, you name it. I have the idea that I'll catch up with this printing in January. (Will he make it? Who knows?)

Now that I remember, there were problems with the printing this fall. One of the runs of the Ryozen Hoshi printing got interrupted for some reason or another and took more than the usual couple of days. When I tried to finish it off, I noticed that the entire stack of paper (washi and newsprints for moistening) had become moldy. I couldn't see anything there, but could certainly smell it. A quick call to Matsuzaki-san for advice. The solution, allow everything to dry out and then re-moisten, this time with lots of formalin in the water to kill the stuff. Up to now, I've only been using formalin in the paste mixture, as it sits there for months at a time, but Matsuzaki-san tells me that he used formalin in all the moistening water. As most of my printing has always been done in at most three days, I've never had a problem, but will have to be more careful in future. (The probable cause of this little episode actually was the fact that I've been using the same stack of newspapers over and over again to moisten the prints. They're continually being re-moistened, and obviously have been a breeding ground for the mold. I didn't have the nerve to admit that to Matsuzaki-san. I'll have to make sure I use 'fresh' newsprint for each print batch from now on.)