Written on March 12, 1992 [Permalink]

March 5

Again no work. English ladies visiting in the morning, and off to Ome to file my tax return in the afternoon. The bill this year is not too bad, just over 100,000. (That's for national taxes, the prefecture and local will be paid later). Just as in every previous year, the guy just accepts what I put down for income, and never asks questions or checks any of the stuff. I've got everything worked out to the exact yen, and take along all the receipts, with everything documented, so I feel somewhat frustrated that they don't seem to care. Michiyo wanted me to take hers in as well, but as all of her remittance slips aren't in yet, and I don't have access to her tuition fee receipts, she'll have to do it herself when she gets back. I don't know if being late will be a big deal or not ....

March 6

Spent most of the day working on the newsletter proofing. Ashida-san came over in the morning and then again for a couple of hours in the afternoon, and we edited the Japanese half together. This really stretches my Japanese understanding. She tries to explain why she thinks something is not clear, or should be altered for some reason, and I try and understand whether or not she understands the original ...

Carving in the evening.

March 7

Saturday, so not 'supposed' to do any work, but as Fumi was sitting quietly and reading (unusual!), I started the paste up on the newsletter. Finished it in the afternoon, after we came back from piano class.

As it'll be mailing time soon, spent a few hours in the evening getting the mailing list straightened around. This would really be easy with a computer, but that'll have to wait for a while ...

March 9

A mixed day, carving plus bank/post office stuff. Got all the under sections of the kimono finished, and ready to start the main pattern itself.

March 10

Ashida-san brought back the pasted-up newsletter pages from her last proof-reading, and I got them over to the printer.

Worked for a while on the blurb for the 'gift box' idea. I had been thinking about a little book/pamphlet to include with the set, but as there's no way that I can afford to put that together for such a speculative deal, I thought about using a single sheet, Japanese on one side, English on the other, that would give a nutshell description of what the prints were about. Made up a sample, using phrases cribbed from other pamphlets we've done. If I choose the phrases carefully ('priests', rather than 'two priests'), I will be able to use the same sheet for any of the sets ...

Got a phone call from the Japan Times, and set up for an interview on Friday afternoon. I've been waiting nearly three years for this phone call! I sent them their first blurb in spring '89. Jean Pearce gave me a write-up, and they also mentioned the first two exhibitions (but not the latest one), but they've never 'featured' my work. So why are they calling now? The guy on the phone (arts editor?) saw the write-up in the Kosei Shimbun last month, and thought it might be suitable for him. That's kind of a round-about way to get in touch, but I'll take it anyway it comes ...

March 11

Carving ...

March 12

Got a call back from Usui-san in Niigata about the paulownia boxes for the sets. He says 5000¥ each, 10% lower for ten or more, and 20% lower for 100 or more. He's also sending a couple of sample knife blades that he made from some super expensive (6,500,000¥ per ton) new kind of steel he has.

Carving continuing on the kimono pattern ...