Long Time Expat In Japan
Flew my drone over the town tonight. The future is now. Of the eight people that read this blog, six of them are my good friends from school. The rest are family. I am blessed. These friends and family know me well, some more than I would like to admit 🙂 Some know of the … Continue reading Makuhari From the Air
Played board games with my friends from college today. Eclipse, a game I played for the first time last November. On the surface this doesn't sound too unusual. After all, these are some of my best friends, we're gamers, it's the Fourth of July weekend. Normal, right? Only, I was in Chiba, Japan, while my … Continue reading Board Gaming Weekend
Finally made it up one level in kanji. It has only taken me... gulp, 7 months to get here. Kind of a long time, but I can feel a big difference in my ability. This last week at my lesson, I had to write a month's worth of kanji, kana, andpenji. While it wasn't great, … Continue reading Kanji – level 9 !
5-Minute Screen Play Adapt or Die FADE IN:  EXT. THIRD WORLD SLUMS, DIRT ROAD – MORNING Morena, a young woman, walks briskly toward a bus heading toward her on the dirt road. The bus is packed with people, some are sitting in the windows. Others are hanging off the sides. The top of the bus … Continue reading Adapt or Die
I'm starting a new series, a creative one. I find myself with a lot of short story ideas lately. Not sure whether I want to flesh them out or not, I will at least write down the ideas in screenplay form. I think of it as a way to write story outlines. Those I like, … Continue reading 5 – Minute Screenplays
5-Minute Screen Play A Human Being Should SCENE 1 FADE IN: INTERIOR – BABY NURSERY, FARM HOUSE – MORNING The morning sun shines through the venetian blinds and paints bright yellow grill marks on the wall and ceiling. A woman, Roberta Anson, steps into view, smiling despite the dark circles under her eyes. She looks … Continue reading A Human Being Should
Surprisingly, I leveled up in the kana section of Shodo! Again! This was doubly unexpected because it is both hard for my classmates, or so I'm told, and also because I have never had any formal education in Japanese. I studied Kanji in Chinese, and even took a couple of lessons in Shodo (which they … Continue reading Level Up! Lvl 8 Kana
In February I was really pleased to say that I was, again, not last. As you can see below, I'm plugging along well enough. The first is kanji. https://bsdonovan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/janfebkanji.jpg Then here is my pen submission. I must admit, I'm kind of struggling here, but still not last. https://bsdonovan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/janfebpen.jpg But below is the really exciting part. … Continue reading Level up!
My good friend, Christian Storms told me about a job he had down in Kagoshima. He's doing a corporate about some research on volcanoes and ash. The research is related to the volcano eruption in Iceland that grounded airplanes in Europe back in 2010. He invited me to do some drone shots for the project, … Continue reading Volcano Eruption in Sakurajima
https://vimeo.com/119314965 In 2012, the empty land next to us finally got built out. It's a rare thing in Japan to have undeveloped land. My neighborhood is pretty rare that way. The reason is simple though; it's all reclaimed land. 20 years ago this was ocean, or harbor anyway. Originally, that land was supposed to be … Continue reading Building Time Lapse
B.S. Donovan 
