Long Time Expat In Japan
Book Review: Seveneves by Neal Stephenson I became an Stephenson fanboy back in the 90s. Snowcrash and Diamond Age were nearly mind altering experiences. Interface, written collaboratively under a pseudonym, also really made me think. Cryptonomicon was awesome in its story as well as its length. But it was the beginning of an unfortunate trend, … Continue reading Book Review: Seveneves
Tried it once. Only got about 30k words. This inspired me to write shorter bits. In the last year, I joined the Tokyo Writers Workshop, a great bunch of people who have been kind enough (and appropriately not so kind when necessary) to critique my short stories. I've written and work-shopped a half dozen since … Continue reading NaNoWriMo
This last weekend I joined the Japan Writers Conference at Tokushima University. An annual event, about a hundred educators, journalists, poets, writers, and hangers-on like myself gather at a host university and spend two days giving and participating in presentations, panels, workshops, and readings. It all started on Friday night with a dinner party at … Continue reading Japan Writers Conference
Film: Grüße aus Fukushima (Greetings from Fukushima, aka Fukushima, Mon Amour) Director: Dorris Dorrie Starring: Kaori Momoi, Rosalie Tomass Note: Some Spoilers I mentioned in an earlier post that last year I worked on a German Film set in Japan. It was released in a film festival in Germany back in February to pretty good … Continue reading German Film Review
My daughters love this new viral video. When I first watched it, I steeled myself. I was used to Japanese comedy. While I was certain I couldn't influence my kids too much, I was hoping that I could show them that Japanese comedy was at best low brow. Confronted by this insurmountable task, I chose … Continue reading Pen Pineaplle Apple Pen
Kana seems like my strong suit, 4th kyu. But I'm stagnating these days, not seeing any progress. I'm sure I know what it is. I just practice once a week. And I only do kana one of the weeks in the month. Time to make a decision, double down or maybe more. Not just this … Continue reading September Shodo
So what does summertime fun have to do with floating melons and submerged plums, you might be wondering. Well, I'm glad you asked. Another four character idiom for shodo this month. See the bit of kanji below (yes, my brush was a little too soaked with ink, but it was the best of the bunch): … Continue reading End of Summer Fun
The word "semiconductor" changed my life, but it has nothing to do with computer chips, the Internet, or cat videos. It's just me. This blog is a little long and very navel gazey. Forewarned. I got a real kick outta learning languages back in the day. I'm feeling like I lost that a bit, which … Continue reading On How the Word “Semiconductor” Changed My Life – and not in the way you think
Last week I started to carve my own hanko. My Sensei found me a stone. Don't know what kind. But one thing I can tell you is that it is very soft. You can smooth it down with sandpaper. Which is how I flattened it out to prep the surface. First with rough sandpaper. Then … Continue reading Making a Hanko
China has the badass-iest computer in the world. Had the spot in 2010, lost it for a couple of years, and got it back in 2013. Now, in 2016 they took the number one spot again with the TaihuLight. That makes people nervous. I'm not sure why. Technology is a wonderful thing. We use technology … Continue reading ChauJi DianNao (Chinese for Supercomputer)
B.S. Donovan 