Author: Ian

Sometimes I Have Adventures in Japan – Series 7

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Toyama’s prefectural animal is the kamoshika, a subspecies of an Asian animal called a serow in English (though no one here calls it that). Its appearance is similar to a goat or antelope, and it’s actually the most primitive member of the same family, with fossils dating back 35 million years.  Sadly, this is only a stuffed replica from the Buried Forest Museum in Uozu, though I saw a real one from far away during my second trip to Kurobe Gorge.  Though endangered at one point in the 1950s, the kamoshika has since recovered and can often be seen in the mountains throughout Japan.

Also, if you’re just joining in and want to see more Japan pics, check out the rest of my Adventures in Japan series, or follow me on Instagram. Continue reading »

New Hampshire Folks: Come Hear Me Talk About Life in Japan!

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Hey all,

No post this week since I’m back in New Hampshire enjoying some much-needed time off and doing a whole bunch of things I haven’t been able to do for the past 12 or so months.  In no particular order, here’s a quick list:

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Can You Trust Your Coworkers With Your Creative Goals?

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Last week I wrote about how, during a night out with my Japanese coworkers while mildly under the influence, I revealed to one of my superiors that I wanted to be a novelist.  In addition to helping me reflect on my personal goals, the episode got me thinking about the question in the title: when is it OK to talk with your coworkers about your creative goals?

I’ve written at length about how and why I’ve kept my creative goals a secret at my different Day Jobs, but there have also been times when I’ve felt comfortable telling coworkers, and even bosses, that my real goal was to be a writer.  This was usually because I’d developed comfortable relationships with them, so revealing more of who I really was felt natural, and helped strengthen those relationships significantly.

There’s a few things to consider when debating whether to tell your coworkers about your creative goals, so here’s a quick list: Continue reading »

A Kind of Short Post About Why I Want to Write Novels

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Two weeks ago I was at a work party with a lot of my Japanese coworkers and some of the higher-ups.  As with most Japanese work parties, this one involved a fair amount of drinking, which meant that everyone felt more relaxed, which in turn meant they could have more open and honest conversations.

One of these conversations was with an older coworker who’s not quite my boss, exactly, but is definitely my superior.  He asked me about my goals and general life purpose, and as one thing led to another I ended up telling him about my novel writing and showing him this photo of Eikaiwa Bums for sale in an actual bookstore, which interested and excited him in a way that felt genuine.

I wouldn’t have told him these things if I didn’t trust him (at least to some extent), and while he clearly responded positively to my quest, he also seemed confused Continue reading »

I Used to Have This Weird Afterschool Addiction to Computer Minesweeper and In Some Ways I’m Still Dealing With It

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I haven’t played Minesweeper (or any preinstalled Windows game) in at least five years, and probably longer than that.  Back in the days of Windows 3.1 though, Minesweeper was definitely the shit.

This would have been back in the mid- to late-‘90s when I was in middle school and my computer use was restricted to the family desktop we kept in the computer room (which is itself a laughable concept now) and that I had to fight my younger brothers for on a regular basis.  This was in the days of dial-up internet when doing anything online required real planning and thought, so most of my computer use back then consisted of games and word processing.

…except that we didn’t have that many games because our outdated, clunky PC had trouble running them.  So I found myself playing Continue reading »

Summer Progress Report – How Am I Doing?

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It’s been…a busy few weeks, which, as I talked about last month, was entirely my own fault for taking on too much.

I’m realizing that more than anything else, my tendency to say “Yes” to things (sometimes with an exclamation point attached) is really having an adverse effect on my productivity, because not only does having more things to do quantitatively reduce my amount of free time, it also pulls me in multiple directions, giving me more things to juggle and making me exponentially more stressed.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how to make this problem better, and though the solution definitely involves taking on less things, making this happen Continue reading »

Sometimes I Have Adventures in Japan – Series 6

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Cherry blossoms in Japan bloom at the beginning of April, and symbolize not only the coming of spring but the beginning of all things new.  It’s a time for the new school year to start, kids to go off to college, new fiscal years to begin, and new employees to be hired.  People feel refreshed, invigorated, and full of energy.

It’s also a time to stock up on booze and get drunk in public parks.

Hanami has been a Japanese tradition for a long time, as people bring blankets, food, and yes, plenty of alcohol out to wherever the cherry blossoms are and enjoy the spring weather.  I took this photo in Toyama City’s Kansui park on a weekday evening when only a few people were out, Continue reading »

I Don’t Drink As Much As I Used To, and I’m Cool With That

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At no time in my life was I ever a marathon drinker, but I definitely went to my fair share of parties in college and the years after.  The most drinking I ever did was probably during my first time in Japan, where I used to meet coworkers and friends for drinks almost every weekend and fairly often during the week.  Drinking during the week back then wasn’t much of a big deal, since I started work at noon and had plenty of time to sleep a hangover away.

More recently, back in America most of my hangouts with friends and family included drinks of some kind, though never to any kind of excess.  I also used to pick up new beers to try at home, usually with dinner, but occasionally after a hard day (or a very hard day) at my Day Job.  Drinking alone wasn’t (and still isn’t) appealing to me unless it’s a new, interesting, or Continue reading »

Sometimes I Have Adventures in Japan – Series 5

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I had a few days off for New Year’s and decided to take a trip somewhere off the beaten path.  One of the nice things about Japan is that every prefecture usually boosts something famous and/or unique that’s worth checking out.  Sometimes this thing is a castle, shrine, food, or animal, but in Tottori, it’s sand.

I don’t remember when I first heard about Tottori’s sand dunes, but my interest in them spiked after reading Kobo Abe’s 1962 novel The Woman in the Dunes, a grim existential novel reminiscent ofWaiting for Godot with more plot and way more sand.  Abe visited Tottori for inspiration before writing his novel, and the 1964 movie of the same name was filmed here also, which was enough to convince me to check it out.

The dunes are a natural phenomenon on the western Japan coast where sand was carried down from the mountains via the Sendai River into the ocean, and over time the currents carried the sediment back to shore, forming enormous dunes.  The dunes became well-known after the novelist Takeo Arishima wrote about them Continue reading »

Sometimes I Have Adventures in Japan – Series 4

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こんにちは and welcome back—if you’re just joining in, welcome to Part 4 of my series of pics from around Japan.  You can start with Part 1 or browse the rest of the series here.

I take a LOT of pictures of Japanese English that’s just a little off—sometimes because the grammar itself is mangled like in this sentence, but more often because even though the grammar’s completely correct it’s a phrase no sane native English speaker would ever say aloud.  (Another sign at this same restaurant read “Take-outs are impossible.”) Continue reading »

Life Update: I’m Swamped With Work and Things Are Crazy

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All right, gang—this is going to be quick, because as the title implies, it has to be.

I’ve had a lot going on spread across multiple fronts the past few weeks—Day Job work, creative work, daily life maintenance, and just about everything else you can think of.  On top of all that I had some friends visiting from the States last month, and while it was all kinds of awesome to see them again and take a sweet trip, taking two weeks off from creative work hit me hard.

To give you a better idea of what I’m dealing with this month, here’s a snapshot of the most pressing items: Continue reading »

Sometimes I Have Adventures in Japan – Series 3

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I’m a sucker for old Japanese movie posters like these that you can find reproductions of outside trendy pubs, though originals are a lot harder to come by.  (Perhaps someone whose Japanese is better than mine can translate them for me???)  I find it striking that in Japan, most things are either REALLY old (like, hundreds of years old) or come from the last forty years; there’s very little remaining from the post-war period into the 1960s, though I occasionally stumble upon pockets of older buildings or advertisements in larger cities.  (If you’re interested in 1950s Japan, I highly recommend this Atlantic collection of cool period photos of daily life.)

(Also, if you’re just joining in, this is Part III of my own series of Japan photos, so you can start with Series 1 here.) Continue reading »