Coronavirus Update: What’s Going On in Japan?

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Over the past few days I’ve gotten a barrage of texts and calls from friends and family back in the States who’ve heard the Coronavirus news from Japan and wanted to reach out.  I’m grateful that so many of you have expressed concern, and thought a blog post might be a better (i.e., time-saving) way to keep you updated on what’s going on with COVID-19 in the Land of the Rising Sun.

Last Thursday night, Japan time, Prime Minister Abe announced his request that all Japanese elementary, junior high, and high schools close for the next month to prevent the spread of Coronavirus.  The move came at a time when about 200 cases of the virus have been found throughout Japan (excluding the passengers of the cruise ship docked in Yokohama).  Around 50 of these cases have been in the northern island of Hokkaido, Continue reading »

Sometimes I Have Adventures in Japan – Series 10

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A lot of towns in Japan have mascots (my town’s are a pair of anthropomorphic firefly squid), and the police force in Toyama prefecture has one too.  Tateyama-kun is a literal mountain in a police uniform, so named after the area’s most sacred and important peak.

It’s been a little while since my last Japan Adventures post, and if you’re just joining in, I occasionally share random assortments of pics I take in Japan.  Most of them are from weekend excursions and longer vacations, but this month I’m featuring odd signage and items I’ve stumbled across on Japanese streets and store shelves.  Enjoy! Continue reading »

Working on New Stuff Always Gets Me Excited: Miranda Reeder of Minyan/Harlevin Visual Novels

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Miranda Reeder writes and draws visual novels (kind of like graphic novels, except you play them on the computer) under the name Minyan and the label Harlevin, where she has over 1,400 followers on Itch.io.  Her VNs include Arena Circus, The Pretenders Guild, Mnemonic Devices, and Lilith Hall, and her current project with Fablesoft Studios, Twisted: A Dark Fairytale, raised over $2,300 on Kickstarter in October 2019.

I first met Miranda in Toyama, Japan, where she spent three years in the JET program teaching English.  After leaving Japan she returned to Ohio to pursue a master’s in Japanese translation at Kent State University, and over winter break we talked via Skype about staying motivated, balancing creativity with Day Job work, and sharing her passion with her family. Continue reading »

Sometimes I Have Adventures in Japan – Series 9

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As many of you know, I love board games with a passion that far outweighs my skill at playing them, though sadly the board game craze hasn’t taken off in Japan like it has in the States. In the toy section at a bigger department store I found this Japanese version of Settlers of Catan with alternate cover art (the three Japanese characters in the title literally spell Katan), plus Japanese versions of Pandemic and Azul you can see on the left. I love the random black dude playing with the Japanese family in the lower right.

If you’re just joining in, Sometimes I Have Adventures in Japan is a monthly series where I post random pics from Japan (many of which are also on my Instagram) with commentary.  It’s easy to forget sometimes that I live in a cool foreign country with lots of amazing things to see, so I try to keep my eyes open and camera ready rather than staying in my apartment working ;-) Continue reading »

Sometimes I Have Adventures in Japan – Series 8

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Yep, that’s a whole lot of snow.

Last April the Japanese Heisei emperor stepped down from the throne, the first time in over two hundred years a Japanese emperor has abdicated.  This was momentous for a few reasons, one of which was that it occurred during the Golden Week holiday season, with the extra holidays from the emperor’s abdication giving everyone in Japan ten consecutive days off.  Score!

I spent part of the vacation traversing the Tateyama-Kurobe Alpine Route, a mountain route connecting Toyama prefecture (where I live) with Nagano prefecture in the southeast. Normally the only way to reach Nagano is by traveling north around the massive Hida Mountain range that separates the two, but the Tateyama Alpine Route connects them more directly via a series of cable cars, buses, electric trolleys, and a brief walking route, shown on the map below. Continue reading »

Recap: I Gave a Book Talk and It Went Super Well!

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I just flew back to Japan, and boy are my arms tired *drum fill*

For those of you just joining me, last Sunday I gave a presentation and reading at MainStreet BookEnds, the independent bookstore in my hometown of Warner, New Hampshire, about what it’s like to live and work in Japan.  The owner had agreed to stock my Japan chapbook, Eikaiwa Bums, back in March, and offered to let me do a reading when I was back in the States.  I’d planned to come back for a three-week August vacation anyway, so doing a reading while I was back seemed like a great idea.

In the interest of showing you how the sausage was made, here’s a rundown of the entire event from start to finish: Continue reading »

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 »

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 »

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 »