Back in my early teens, I was a big fan of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Season 1 of the show had just finished airing in my home country, and in the US, Season 2 was about to start. Wanting to get more info about the new season was what made me join my first English-speaking online community, the Avatar Spirit...

General happeningsAn unremarkable week. I really got into Pokemon for some reason, especially Fakemon design. Many YouTube videos following the "[number] artists design Pokemon [insert stipulation here]" format were watched. I also found a new favourite Pokemon, Spewpa. I'm thinking about getting some trading cards...

I like to drum along with my fingers when listening to music. But not in a "just tapping to the beat" kind of way. Instead, I pretend to play some imaginary instrument, probably one with keys ... so something like a piano or an accordion, depending on the orientation. There are no hard rules, but over the time, some...

General happeningsVery art-heavy week. I've been consistently doing more than my self-mandated daily sketch, which is good! I also gave myself some hand / wrist pain from drawing too much (or maybe too long with awkward hand placement / movement), which is not so good. But overall I'm happy with where I'm heading,...

I rarely watch anime anymore, except for the occasional movie. However, as mentioned in one of my weeknotes from last month, I occasionally get bouts of nostalgia for shows that I watched in the past. The most recent one is Shin Sekai Yori, or From the New World. I've watched the anime series twice, and also read...

I a movie that I recently watched, the weather (a typhoon, to be precise) plays a key role for the progression of the plot. To foreshadow this, weather reports are used as background noise during establishing shots throughout the movie. The camera pans across a room in a house, and somewhere, a voice on the radio...

A gentle rocking The train glides through the rice fields World of blue and green

General happeningsFirst half of Golden Week is over. Unfortunately, it started off with rather bad weather this year - three days of grey skies and rain. Still, I managed to not "waste a day" (= just staying at home and listlessly watching YouTube). The second half looks like it's going to be better! The blog I...

I did it! In April, I did one month of daily blogging, one new post per day. Usually I put all my blogging thoughts into the thought-log, but I think a milestone like this warrants its own entry. I wasn't really planning on doing this challenge; it just "happened." I read a post on another blog and thought "why...

For the second day of Golden Week, I went to see "A New Dawn" at Cinemalice in Jinbocho. This is an animated movie directed by Yoshitoshi Shinomiya. Shinomiya is a nihonga artist1 and worked under Makoto Shinkai; A New Dawn is his directional debut for a feature-length film. *This is a spoiler-free review. I won't...

Golden Week started off rather silvery-gray with overcast skies and some light drizzle. Did another hike with some friends today. The destination was Mt Hiwada in southern Saitama. It's more of a hill than a mountain, only 300-something meters. There were some swallows near the station; the nest was on the wall of...

Some of my favourite Japanese place names, mostly from the greater Tokyo area. 001 - Maihama (舞浜)Maihama station is best known as the main access point for Tokyo Disney Land. I've only been to Disney Land once (and don't intend to go again), but I really like the name of the station. Its comprised of the kanji for...