Long Time Expat In Japan
Happy Year of the Mouse! Apparently in China, they call it the year of the rat, but I'm in Japan... and I like mouse better. Every year, I do a Hatsumode (pronounced hah-tsu moe-day ) , a little pilgrimage to the local shrine. Literally, pilgrimage is what the "mode" part of Hatsumode means. I think … Continue reading Japan is Awesome – Hatsumode
My kanji for the month is part of an 8 kanji phrase, like many are. See below for the whole thing. I wrote the last four. 天地玄黄 宇宙洪荒 But I’ll start with the first two. Tenchi means sky and ground, or for the poets out there, heaven and earth. It basically means everything and everywhere. Then … Continue reading Shodo – Universal truth (not a fortune cookie)
My Shodo Sensei is too cool. She’s a master of the craft, of course. Her specialty is modern style. You have a lot more freedom, and has a lot more “meri-hari” which means curves and bumps, sort of. She’s creating a piece for a museum exhibition, and rather than just go for the traditional stuff, … Continue reading Ride the Wind of Flowers
There was a fire drill last Wednesday. I was in a different building from where I usually work. And I had no idea they were going to have the drill. All of my meetings for like 3 hours got cancelled and I’d have zero access to the network. You see where this is going, straight … Continue reading Fire Drill
Been in Japan long enough to be able to read quite a bit now. But English still has a more direct line into my brain. I see the meaning without having to process the words. With Japanese, I have to concentrate, go from top level words to lower level meaning. So if I see a … Continue reading Japan is Awesome – Translations
Cherry blossoms peak like Olympic gymnasts, young and fast. It's over before you know the best of it was last weekend. This week the petals are falling like snow, replaced with a new green that's almost yellow. And I stop wondering why the aesthetic of Japanese poetry is sad and ephemeral.
In 2016, I joined a writers group so I could flex my old dream into maybe more than a hobby. Writing. The long-term dream is still there, but the skill is not much more than a hobby. I've published one short story and sold another (still not published, but sold, I cashed the check). Over … Continue reading My New Pen
About a year and a half ago, I discovered a weird free magazine that inspired a "Japan is Awesome" post about mascots. The magazine wasn't about mascots, but the cover kind of looked like it had one on it. Who knows how the mind works. The magazine is like a public service. I'm sure that … Continue reading Japan is Awesome – Creativity
Kanji is deep. Okay, all Shodo and Japanese language is deep. And it comes from Chinese, so Chinese is deep. All language is deep. What I'm trying to say is that this months kanji took me down a rabbit hole. The words are literally "one step thousand gold." There's got to be a good fortune … Continue reading Brushes
I haven't been away from the brushes, to be honest. I just haven't posted about it. I still go every Saturday (except Xmas and New Years was damned busy at work). All the kanji I write seems to contain a lot of wisdom, so I figured I'd share. Below is my kanji for December. It … Continue reading Back to the Brushes
B.S. Donovan 