Long Time Expat In Japan
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
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
June was a lean month in shodo. I go with my littlest to the classes on Saturday. Really just going to the sensei's house around 10, writing, getting pointers and leaving around noon. But June was filled with events for both my girls. Chorus, piano, chorus again. I think I only went to shodo once … Continue reading Anniversary
I spent the day in Shizuoka today. Despite having lived in the country for 18 years or so, I'd never really spent much time here. One time I visited a friend in Hamamatsu, but I never got outside the city. This time I drove. A lot of it highway, but then I got off the … Continue reading Tea Leaves
Leveled up in kana and kanji, both. Still giving the pen a break. Below is the kana that the powers that be liked. Lots of pre-hiragana, semi-kanji letters. Now 4-kyu, which means I ranked up 6 times. I need about 7 more to reach a dan. Here is my kanji that leveled up. It's … Continue reading More leveling up
Went away last weekend to Nagano with the fam. I asked them where they'd like to go if they had a weekend and this is what they picked. They picked it because of a TV show, Taiga Drama. It is a period drama, usually with lots of swords, horses, armor, and the like. This one … Continue reading Nagano
Fuji. Never climbed the mountain, only looked at it from afar. Feels wrong, having spent 20 years or so in the country. But I do get nearby for work. So I took a detour on the way back home last time. Took a couple of pics from a lake in Yamanashi. It wasn't the perfect … Continue reading Mount Fuji
I give myself one day a week to eat junk food; cake, ice cream, pasta carbonara with extra bacon. This past weekend I went McD's before meeting some friends in Ikebukuro. I'd thought for the longest time that McD's should make a Big Mac with Quarterpounder burgers. Then they advertised the Grand Big Mac. I … Continue reading Mega Mac
I love my sensei. She's a peach, really. She also doesn't pull punches. Been plugging away. Ranked up in kana a bunch of times, kanji a little less. But my pen writing just hasn't budged. Last month sensei likened my pen writing to that of stroke victims she knows. I think it is time to take … Continue reading Break Time
Last month, I submitted some hiragana that was in a really old style, more like really cursive kanji. It was a lot of fun because you can kind of see where modern hiragana comes from. To be honest, half the time I didn't know what I was writing. I just copied what I saw. Still, … Continue reading Hiragana
B.S. Donovan 