JAPAN BLOG: Kaiju Shonen, Good Friends, Food.... and Farewell to Japan(For now)

A group of us at a Chinese restaurant, in Yokohama, run by one of the Iron Chef guys(no kidding!). The top shot has me, John Davis, his wife Kim and good friend Trey-all people we were travelling with for a time. We're really hungry too. Kim and I are sporting Gama-Go T Shirts, which are these cool west coast shirts designed by Tim Biskcup.

Below shot, is the other end of the room, mostly Japanese friends. I was teaching them how to say "Art du Jour" and what it meant. To the right of this shot is Hiroko Sakurai, Norman England and Kim's sister Paige who claims she "became a superstar at parties by saying I am travelling with Bob Eggleton". What parties were those? I'd like to know!

This smiling man on the left s Yuji Kaida, only one of Japan's finest SF artists, and specializes lately in Godzilla and Kaiju art for toys, packaging and so on. Met him in 2002, and we've known each other ever since.

This is me with Mark McCrory, a friend who I have known a long time, since 1980, precisely. He and I corresponded with letters and tapes(back in those pre-internet days) and met in London in 1983, and saw RETURN OF THE JEDI for the first time together. I again saw him in 1988, and like all people at one point or another, he disappeared and we lost touch. Flash forward to around 2003 and he emails me out of the blue asking is this the "same Bob Eggleton". And he explained he was living in Japan, teaching English. Well, he's now married and, he's still the same person I knew. This is one of the great thing about science fiction. It brings people together...in the back you see the amazing Yokohama ferris wheel, kind of

symbolic as ferris wheels come right back to where they started.

Kaiju Shonen!! Left to right John Davis, filmmaker, Shinichi Wakasa, monster suit maker, and me, art maker! We created a term about five years ago called "Kaiju Shonen" meaning "Monster Kids", so all emails have to be signed "Kaiju Shonen" in some fashion when we talk. It's a great friendship that stands distance and time. One of those things you realize you have something really good in life.

So we're at the end of Japan on Art Du Jour. Next is England, and lots of new paintings, and art to come. Stay tuned.