It’s been a minute since I’ve posted. I’m still here, haven’t abandoned the blog or anything, but I have been wrestling with a wave of depression recently. As I emerge from it, things are picking up steam again little by little.
It is important to be patient with oneself and one’s circumstances at times like these.
In the interest of covering ground, let’s have some bullet points:
- I am blogging steadily on over at Somewhere in Japan, where there is a new post every Tuesday and Friday at noon JST.
- Last week, I started a Patreon page for Somewhere in Japan, in the interest of covering basic costs of upgraded hosting so I can do more with the site and give visitors a better experience. Currently just one tier at $3/mo, so that it’s an inexpensive but effective way to support a working artist. Check it out: Somewhere in Japan on Patreon
- I am thinking a great deal about what I want to do with Somewhere in Japan after 2021. Posts will keep being posted on a regular basis, but I want to diversify the content there, experiment with different things, and also do more actively researched, longer-form work.
- I am currently in the final stages of compiling the first 35 posts of Somewhere in Japan as the first volume of the Journal, of which I will publish three volumes this year. It’ll be available for e-readers and possibly as a paperback.
- An idea I’ve been interested in for a very, very long time is finally getting its due, and I’m working on creating a page that will hopefully attract the interest of potential investors, or at very least get other people on board with what I’m trying to do. Imagine something like a hostel, but with attached studio space, maybe recording facilities, gallery, etc, that also works hard to build connections between local and international creatives. Sound interesting? Sign up at The Creative Place and I’ll email you when the site is ready.
In other news, the Olympics are all but upon us. They should be cancelled (really, should have just been postponed again), but it seems unlikely at this point. There’s still a state of emergency in Tokyo, only a small percentage of people have been vaccinated, and most people oppose the Olympics. In the face of a potential super-spreader event that could create crazy new strains of the virus, the incompetence of the Japanese government and the abject corruption of the IOC are laid bare.
It is all very, very frustrating. I’m not vaccinated yet, and in terms of rate of vaccination, Saitama is I think ranked 40th out of 47 prefectures. If I am vaccinated before the year is out, I will be surprised.
My new job is going as well as it could be for a job I don’t want to keep any longer than necessary, in an industry where I do not wish to remain. On July 1, I will be transferred to a different school, however. I like where I am. It’s a good fit. And I was not given any option in the matter, just notified that I’d be working at a much bigger, much busier school in three weeks. Hoping it’s still a decent fit and that I can come back to my current school when hiring picks up again.
And now kids are about to start arriving, so I’m going to finish this up get it posted. I’ll be back with less of a delay than between the last post and this one, I promise.
