![[sticky entry]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/entry/sticky_entry.png){kind=small}
Hello, everyone! Are you a fan of The Moffatts? Do you live in Japan, or plan to travel here in the future? If so, this post is for you!
This is a project that has been in development for over five years, but I was unaware of what it would become at the time that I sent my first email to Frank. I have been spending much of my off time working to get Music Travel Love and Dave Moffatt Music (formerly known as The Moffatts) to Japan. It has seriously been a privilege!
I work as a teacher here, and I quickly realised that most teachers from the Philippines are fans of The Moffatts, or they are at least familiar with the band due to their massive popularity over there. It became apparent to me that there is a market for the band here. So, what can we do to make a concert or an extended tour here a reality?
There are a lot of things that I have been working on behind the scenes that I cannot disclose yet, but I still thought it was important to start making some noise about it on social media to bring the fans in Japan together.
In order to do this, I started with a video that I took back in September where I documented the Traveler's Company Caravan event in Kyoto. There, stationery fans were given a chance to customize their very own notebook. Please watch the video below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZPZhBjh6AA&t=23s
I know that some of you might be thinking, It's just stationery. Who cares?
On the one hand, I understand this line of thinking. It is just a notebook after all. But, it is so much more than just a notebook.
Traveler's Company (formerly under Midori branding) is a subsidiary of Designphil. The brand started in 2006 as a line of diaries focused on a travel theme, which encourages users of the products to document their travels - even if it's just localized travels in your creative mind, or in your community. It doesn't matter! The goal is to have fun documenting your life in your notebook. There are no rules, and there are plenty of creative examples on the #TravelersNotebook and #トラベラーズノートhashtags across social media. I have also posted my most recent entries from a YouTube community post below as my own samples:
https://www.youtube.com/post/UgkxD-v8J8-VCQBmYD0kDla0EcKAikgULf2l
As you can see, the Traveler's Notebook is so much more than just a notebook. It is a record of your life. The diary is a leather journal that uses an elastic system where notebooks known as refills or inserts can be added and removed as needed. The leather covers themselves are produced in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and the majority of the inserts are produced in local Japanese factories. The company encourages users not to stress over damage to the leather covers, as the wear and patina from daily use enhances its beauty, and tells a story.
I eventually followed up from the Traveler's Company Caravan video with a series of videos that I created on the #MusicTravelFans playlist on my YouTube channel as seen below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2gUeEoeTwk...
What I am asking you to do is to please spread these videos far and wide, and let's show Music Travel Love, Dave Moffatt Music, and Traveler's Company that there is a market for the band in Japan! Also, please feel free to add to the conversation with your own fan covers, fan art, and other creative things by tagging it with the hashtags #MusicTravelFans, #ミュージックトラベルファン, #MusicTravelLove, and #ミュージックトラベルラブ on your social media. Please make sure to keep your posts PG-13 and tangibly related to the band. Use your common sense, and do not post anything you would not be comfortable sharing with your grandma!
If you are located in Japan, or intend to come here for a future show, please come and join me at the new Facebook group I created, Music Travel Fans 🇯🇵. This way, we can provide a head count for future collaborators, or sponsors.
If you're able to, please buy Traveler's Company products.
https://www.tfa-onlineshop.com/ (Japan only shipping)
https://travelerscompanyusa.com/ (US and international shipping)
This is not sponsored, but please do tell them that I sent you if you are able to! This, of course, is not required. If you can only help by spreading my message, I appreciate you!
If you have watched all the videos, and read this far into the post, I cannot thank you enough. You are a real one. I want to see the band in Japan 🇯🇵, and I know I can't be the only one. Let's make it happen! 💪
Cheers from a Canadian expat in Japan. 🇨🇦🇯🇵
MOVING STREAM!! (Plan and pack with me!)
Jun. 13th, 2024 08:44 pmMOVING STREAM!! Come pack and plan with me! Chit chat and life updates!
This may be the last or one of the last streams from my current location. Come hang out with me, plan, pack, and maybe do some art if there's time.
https://www.twitch.tv/meghan9436
(I know this update is long overdue, and I need to make a comprehensive proper update about what has been happening in my life.)
This may be the last or one of the last streams from my current location. Come hang out with me, plan, pack, and maybe do some art if there's time.
https://www.twitch.tv/meghan9436
(I know this update is long overdue, and I need to make a comprehensive proper update about what has been happening in my life.)
March is Here!
Mar. 1st, 2024 10:22 pmI forgot to mention that someone stopped me during my work commute yesterday to ask me about my guitar! The first thing the passerby asked me was it was a Fender! I took the time to explain the aNueNue brand from Hawaii, and how the line of guitars is pretty new from 2020.
Today had its ups and downs, but mostly ups. But I was super distracted this afternoon, and I missed my transfer. I backtracked and made that transfer. But I was disassociating so much that another passenger noticed and asked me if I was lost. I couldn't tell her what really happened obviously, but I said that I came here seven years ago and that my head was in the clouds today. She asked me where I was going, and I replied that I was going to work. She said that she was going shopping, and we had a nice conversation about coffee shops. The conversation was a much needed distraction, honestly.
During my travels, I picked up some stickers and things for the next craft. It's been difficult to find clover stickers for St. Patrick's Day! Can Do has a pretty good selection of stickers, but I'll have to try Seria or Daiso next.
It was funny after I posted the video update where I discussed my Nirvana fanart, I found 10,000 on the ground during my work commute home. I returned it to the train station staff, and I may or may not get a payout in three months from now depending if it gets claimed. That's what I gathered as I stumbled my way through my Japanese.
Today had its ups and downs, but mostly ups. But I was super distracted this afternoon, and I missed my transfer. I backtracked and made that transfer. But I was disassociating so much that another passenger noticed and asked me if I was lost. I couldn't tell her what really happened obviously, but I said that I came here seven years ago and that my head was in the clouds today. She asked me where I was going, and I replied that I was going to work. She said that she was going shopping, and we had a nice conversation about coffee shops. The conversation was a much needed distraction, honestly.
During my travels, I picked up some stickers and things for the next craft. It's been difficult to find clover stickers for St. Patrick's Day! Can Do has a pretty good selection of stickers, but I'll have to try Seria or Daiso next.
It was funny after I posted the video update where I discussed my Nirvana fanart, I found 10,000 on the ground during my work commute home. I returned it to the train station staff, and I may or may not get a payout in three months from now depending if it gets claimed. That's what I gathered as I stumbled my way through my Japanese.
Happy Leap Day!
Feb. 29th, 2024 11:20 pmFebruary got away from me too... but I have an extra day!
It didn't seem like that long ago since we had our last Leap Day in 2020. My one year DreamWidth anniversary also passed this month, and I am well overdue for an up. My apologies for leaving you hanging! With March literally under two hours away from us now, it's fair to say that this year is well under way.
It didn't seem like that long ago since we had our last Leap Day in 2020. My one year DreamWidth anniversary also passed this month, and I am well overdue for an up. My apologies for leaving you hanging! With March literally under two hours away from us now, it's fair to say that this year is well under way.
I hope that everyone's new year is going well so far.
Up until recently, I had been putting my artwork on the back burner in order to make more time to study guitar. I have made a lot of progress so far. Over the years, I listened to Nirvana casually. I even made a post on Twitter here, commenting about Kurt's gender fluidity.
Then the December holidays came and I was at home sick with nothing else to do. It was at that point that I really started deep diving into Nirvana. And I ended up falling down that rabbit hole really hard. So hard that, my most recent YouTube uploads have been related to the band in one way or another. Here, here, and here.
Those aforementioned videos do a great job in effectively summarizing how my year has been so far.
I mentioned in the Tokyo vlog that I originally started studying Nirvana because The Moffatts were really big fans of them, as well as Silverchair. I thought this would be a great way to build a foundation in my music education in order to better play the songs off The Moffatts final studio album, Submodalties and the songs of their B-Sides collection.
But what I did not expect to happen was for Nirvana to affect me so profoundly on an emotional and spiritual level.
I'll post a followup soon about how things are going. Gnight, folks!
A Very Brief Music and Life Update
Feb. 6th, 2024 09:04 pmToday was mainly a stay in day.
This afternoon, I finished the extras for Put On Your Shoes/Hurry Up. It was cool jamming along with the song, and having it sound decent.
The next song I plan to do for the kids classes this month is Skinnamarink. My favourite is the Canadian take on this song from The Elephant Show with Sharon, Lois, and Bram.
I also started jamming a bit because I had an original song in my head for the last few days.
It was really hard to stay focused on anything because of a crisis with a friend that blew up on Discord this morning. I got the song transcription finished, but I didn't get anything else done after that.
I wanted to go to a café to get some writing done in my Traveler's Notebook, but I decided against it and did a grocery shop instead. Recently, McDonald's Japan stopped accepting the D Point card, thus completely eliminating any incentive to eat there any longer. The prices on meals were expensive, but at least we were getting points for them before.
When you work in eikaiwa/juku style schools, your hours are usually from 13:00-21:00 or somewhere along those lines. Those hours make it hard to find time to cook, and when the McDonald's is right there, it makes it hard to say no. I know it's stupid that it took them taking away the point card to get me to stop going.
I'm posting this mainly so that I don't lose my train of thought because time is going by faster than I can log it. It's barely 21:00, and I am both physically and mentally exhausted.
This afternoon, I finished the extras for Put On Your Shoes/Hurry Up. It was cool jamming along with the song, and having it sound decent.
The next song I plan to do for the kids classes this month is Skinnamarink. My favourite is the Canadian take on this song from The Elephant Show with Sharon, Lois, and Bram.
I also started jamming a bit because I had an original song in my head for the last few days.
It was really hard to stay focused on anything because of a crisis with a friend that blew up on Discord this morning. I got the song transcription finished, but I didn't get anything else done after that.
I wanted to go to a café to get some writing done in my Traveler's Notebook, but I decided against it and did a grocery shop instead. Recently, McDonald's Japan stopped accepting the D Point card, thus completely eliminating any incentive to eat there any longer. The prices on meals were expensive, but at least we were getting points for them before.
When you work in eikaiwa/juku style schools, your hours are usually from 13:00-21:00 or somewhere along those lines. Those hours make it hard to find time to cook, and when the McDonald's is right there, it makes it hard to say no. I know it's stupid that it took them taking away the point card to get me to stop going.
I'm posting this mainly so that I don't lose my train of thought because time is going by faster than I can log it. It's barely 21:00, and I am both physically and mentally exhausted.
Hurry Up ~♪
Feb. 5th, 2024 11:58 pmI didn't get as much done today as I was hoping to, but I still accomplished a lot!
I posted a large update about my weekend this morning here. I want to say it took me a good hour and a half to hammer out those details.
After that, I planned my next moves very carefully. First, I did some tidying in my apartment, getting my sewing projects off the floor. I still have more to do, but I appreciate the floor space.
It took me 20 minutes to work out the basic guitar chords for Put On Your Shoes/Hurry Up from Super Simple Songs. The chords are not hard, but I was proud of myself that I was able to pull together the basic backing melody within hours of a scheduled class. When I got home today, I started writing the tabs for all the extra bells and whistles for the song.
Happybeatsss on YouTube got me kick started on the kids entertainment side of things this year, because they had the chords posted for the Hello, Hello! (Can You Clap Your Hands?) song and the Bye Bye Goodbye song, both from Super Simple Songs.
I previously taught Music Travel Kids content at other schools with just the video support and no live music. I think by going back to the super basics with Super Simple Songs content (and even as cliché and overused as they are), it will help me work my way up to playing the MTK stuff.
Again, I want to talk about the music stuff in a dedicated post, so that I can keep these updates concise and on topic.
Following the super quick and dirty guitar tab writing, I took my shower. After that, I packed my stuff for the day, and left my house. On the way, I grabbed some onigiri from my local convenience store, and I shipped some Nagoya sweets to my flatmates in Tokyo as a surprise thank you. Two weeks late, but I'm sure they will appreciate them.
It was pouring rain all day today. I heard from the post office staff that the package delivery might be delayed due to the snow.
More life updates to come!
I posted a large update about my weekend this morning here. I want to say it took me a good hour and a half to hammer out those details.
After that, I planned my next moves very carefully. First, I did some tidying in my apartment, getting my sewing projects off the floor. I still have more to do, but I appreciate the floor space.
It took me 20 minutes to work out the basic guitar chords for Put On Your Shoes/Hurry Up from Super Simple Songs. The chords are not hard, but I was proud of myself that I was able to pull together the basic backing melody within hours of a scheduled class. When I got home today, I started writing the tabs for all the extra bells and whistles for the song.
Happybeatsss on YouTube got me kick started on the kids entertainment side of things this year, because they had the chords posted for the Hello, Hello! (Can You Clap Your Hands?) song and the Bye Bye Goodbye song, both from Super Simple Songs.
I previously taught Music Travel Kids content at other schools with just the video support and no live music. I think by going back to the super basics with Super Simple Songs content (and even as cliché and overused as they are), it will help me work my way up to playing the MTK stuff.
Again, I want to talk about the music stuff in a dedicated post, so that I can keep these updates concise and on topic.
Following the super quick and dirty guitar tab writing, I took my shower. After that, I packed my stuff for the day, and left my house. On the way, I grabbed some onigiri from my local convenience store, and I shipped some Nagoya sweets to my flatmates in Tokyo as a surprise thank you. Two weeks late, but I'm sure they will appreciate them.
It was pouring rain all day today. I heard from the post office staff that the package delivery might be delayed due to the snow.
More life updates to come!
Writing a Lot About... Nothing!
Feb. 5th, 2024 10:35 amI have a pretty busy day today, so I'm going to see how far I can get with this entry this morning. Let's see...
Let's start with the weekend. I worked on Saturday morning, and I had the afternoon and evening to myself. I was feeling the itch to update my Traveler's Notebook in a café setting, but literally every one that I went to was completely full. I decided to go home after that.
On my way home, I ran into my neighbour. I mentioned to her that I still often hear her dog barking outside. She apologised again for the barking. But, I reminded her that I always think, "I want to meet the dog" whenever I hear it. Indeed, the dog serves as a great deterrent for the neighbourhood to keep the criminals away. She asked me what I did for my job, and I said that "I'm an English teacher, of course!" We both laughed because that's usually the case with foreigners who come to Japan.
My neighbour went on to mention that there are at least three stray cats running around, one of which is pregnant with a litter. I replied that I can hear these cats screaming at night. She said that she hears them too.
I mentioned seeing a racoon in the neighbourhood a few months back, and she mentioned that there are a lot of animals around here because of all the nature. Weasels have also been known to roam in the area. I said that in Canada, we have a problem with wolves sometimes coming into the city limits. But my pronunciation of オオカミ was not great, and she didn't understand what I was talking about at first.
Changing the subject, I asked her what her plans were at the moment, and she said that she was going shopping. I gave her the heads up that the malls were packed, and how I wasn't able to get a seat at any of the cafés.
After I got home, I realised that I never explored much of my neighbourhood in the nearly four years that I've lived here. There was another mall a short walk away from my house that I decided to check out. It was more or less the same as every other mall in Japan that I have been to, but it is nice to know that I have it as an option available to me. While I was there, I checked out another school to see if I can get some work closer to home.
I concluded the day by learning She, by Green Day on guitar. It's really too bad this song was never released as a single from the Dookie record. The song is more relevant to my life now than ever before because I'm able to look at it from a different perspective. I'll talk more about this later in a dedicated music update post, I think.
<Much of the following is transcribed from my TN.>
Yesterday was Sunday. I had some morning lessons, and I had the rest of the day to myself again. After work, I stopped by Nagoya Dome to go window shopping, and see what's new. The mall entrance had a new display for QUEEN from nico and..., featuring shirts that I saw from weeks ago.
Along the way, Gap had dwindling stock from their 90s collection, and the new items were just.,.. meh. I purchased some 70s/90s reissue jeans from them two weeks ago, because I have been waiting decades for these to come back into style. I loved the flared jeans from my high school years in the early 2000s. I modified these jeans to have the same aesthetic that Kurt Cobain wore during the In Utero era, but I will talk about this in said dedicated music post.
Nothing really stood out to me at Rodeo Crowns. nico and.. shifted their stock around, pushing the QUEEN and music merchandise to the front of the store. Spice Girls, The Beatles, and Sex Pistols merch was also displayed among the QUEEN items.
Gradiant/ombré pastel cartigans remain in the store with new styles being introduced. They also brought in new striped T-shirts. I noticed that one was quite similar to the one that Kurt wore in the Smells Like Teen Spirit music video But the green/grey ratio wasn't quite right. Regardless, I still appreciate that the 90s style in retail continues.
I was happy to see that nico and.. was getting more Canadian designed/Canadian themed items in their stationery section. They had some business card size notebooks, vinyl decals, and stickers in the theme of camping/travel. There was one sticker that stood out to me in particular that read, California Beaver Lumber. Even though it is a reference to the US, I saw it more as a throwback to the old, defunct Canadian DIY company, Beaver Lumber. I really want to come back to these items at some point. But realistically, I should use up all my existing supplies before I get any more. At the same time, buying Canadian will encourage nico and... to bring in more.
While I was at the mall, I looked around at the gacha-gacha station and there was a violinist performing an instrumental version of I Was Born to Love You. Hearing this took me back to the live action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon episode, Act 29. During this episode, we meet the new villain, and the girls had a volleyball game during their gym class with the song playing in the background. I loved it a lot! Unfortunately, and undoubtedly due to music licensing restrictions, and limitations, the song was removed from the DVD release. It was replaced with some of the iconic action bgm from the show. It worked pretty well, but a lot of that original feeling was lost from the change. Too bad.
Seria, the 100 yen shop at this mall was busy, and the selection was not quite as good as other locations. I decided then, that it was time to leave. They had some kiosks set up immediately outside the entrance to the mall with binoculars and LED lights. I took the time to ask to find out who was playing, confirming that QUEEN was indeed performing in Nagoya last night. The staff member mentioned that the crowds might come.
LOL, of course the crowds will come. I recounted that I got caught in it a few times during the months of November and December. So, I was not going to stick around, and I was going home. The staff member laughed, and I wished him luck on his shift.
Staying home yesterday was the best decision ever. I got caught up a lot in my Traveler's Notebook, but I still have a long way to go. I even wrote a lot in this update, but I still feel like I have barely even scratched the surface of what has been happening in my life.
Since I started writing this, it started raining outside, ruining my laundry that I had drying out. I currently have my laundry drying out in my shower, but I'll have to rewash everything. What a waste.
Because it is supposed to rain all day and all night, this might actually change my plans for the day. And I may want to put off some things until tomorrow. Or, I might get these things done today. There's that saying that goes, rain or shine, or something like that.
The rain would just serve as more of an excuse to procrastinate more on things, so it would be better not to do that.
I hope to post another followup with more specifics about what has been happening in my life so far. I hope that the new year has been treating you well so far.
Let's start with the weekend. I worked on Saturday morning, and I had the afternoon and evening to myself. I was feeling the itch to update my Traveler's Notebook in a café setting, but literally every one that I went to was completely full. I decided to go home after that.
On my way home, I ran into my neighbour. I mentioned to her that I still often hear her dog barking outside. She apologised again for the barking. But, I reminded her that I always think, "I want to meet the dog" whenever I hear it. Indeed, the dog serves as a great deterrent for the neighbourhood to keep the criminals away. She asked me what I did for my job, and I said that "I'm an English teacher, of course!" We both laughed because that's usually the case with foreigners who come to Japan.
My neighbour went on to mention that there are at least three stray cats running around, one of which is pregnant with a litter. I replied that I can hear these cats screaming at night. She said that she hears them too.
I mentioned seeing a racoon in the neighbourhood a few months back, and she mentioned that there are a lot of animals around here because of all the nature. Weasels have also been known to roam in the area. I said that in Canada, we have a problem with wolves sometimes coming into the city limits. But my pronunciation of オオカミ was not great, and she didn't understand what I was talking about at first.
Changing the subject, I asked her what her plans were at the moment, and she said that she was going shopping. I gave her the heads up that the malls were packed, and how I wasn't able to get a seat at any of the cafés.
After I got home, I realised that I never explored much of my neighbourhood in the nearly four years that I've lived here. There was another mall a short walk away from my house that I decided to check out. It was more or less the same as every other mall in Japan that I have been to, but it is nice to know that I have it as an option available to me. While I was there, I checked out another school to see if I can get some work closer to home.
I concluded the day by learning She, by Green Day on guitar. It's really too bad this song was never released as a single from the Dookie record. The song is more relevant to my life now than ever before because I'm able to look at it from a different perspective. I'll talk more about this later in a dedicated music update post, I think.
<Much of the following is transcribed from my TN.>
Yesterday was Sunday. I had some morning lessons, and I had the rest of the day to myself again. After work, I stopped by Nagoya Dome to go window shopping, and see what's new. The mall entrance had a new display for QUEEN from nico and..., featuring shirts that I saw from weeks ago.
Along the way, Gap had dwindling stock from their 90s collection, and the new items were just.,.. meh. I purchased some 70s/90s reissue jeans from them two weeks ago, because I have been waiting decades for these to come back into style. I loved the flared jeans from my high school years in the early 2000s. I modified these jeans to have the same aesthetic that Kurt Cobain wore during the In Utero era, but I will talk about this in said dedicated music post.
Nothing really stood out to me at Rodeo Crowns. nico and.. shifted their stock around, pushing the QUEEN and music merchandise to the front of the store. Spice Girls, The Beatles, and Sex Pistols merch was also displayed among the QUEEN items.
Gradiant/ombré pastel cartigans remain in the store with new styles being introduced. They also brought in new striped T-shirts. I noticed that one was quite similar to the one that Kurt wore in the Smells Like Teen Spirit music video But the green/grey ratio wasn't quite right. Regardless, I still appreciate that the 90s style in retail continues.
I was happy to see that nico and.. was getting more Canadian designed/Canadian themed items in their stationery section. They had some business card size notebooks, vinyl decals, and stickers in the theme of camping/travel. There was one sticker that stood out to me in particular that read, California Beaver Lumber. Even though it is a reference to the US, I saw it more as a throwback to the old, defunct Canadian DIY company, Beaver Lumber. I really want to come back to these items at some point. But realistically, I should use up all my existing supplies before I get any more. At the same time, buying Canadian will encourage nico and... to bring in more.
While I was at the mall, I looked around at the gacha-gacha station and there was a violinist performing an instrumental version of I Was Born to Love You. Hearing this took me back to the live action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon episode, Act 29. During this episode, we meet the new villain, and the girls had a volleyball game during their gym class with the song playing in the background. I loved it a lot! Unfortunately, and undoubtedly due to music licensing restrictions, and limitations, the song was removed from the DVD release. It was replaced with some of the iconic action bgm from the show. It worked pretty well, but a lot of that original feeling was lost from the change. Too bad.
Seria, the 100 yen shop at this mall was busy, and the selection was not quite as good as other locations. I decided then, that it was time to leave. They had some kiosks set up immediately outside the entrance to the mall with binoculars and LED lights. I took the time to ask to find out who was playing, confirming that QUEEN was indeed performing in Nagoya last night. The staff member mentioned that the crowds might come.
LOL, of course the crowds will come. I recounted that I got caught in it a few times during the months of November and December. So, I was not going to stick around, and I was going home. The staff member laughed, and I wished him luck on his shift.
Staying home yesterday was the best decision ever. I got caught up a lot in my Traveler's Notebook, but I still have a long way to go. I even wrote a lot in this update, but I still feel like I have barely even scratched the surface of what has been happening in my life.
Since I started writing this, it started raining outside, ruining my laundry that I had drying out. I currently have my laundry drying out in my shower, but I'll have to rewash everything. What a waste.
Because it is supposed to rain all day and all night, this might actually change my plans for the day. And I may want to put off some things until tomorrow. Or, I might get these things done today. There's that saying that goes, rain or shine, or something like that.
The rain would just serve as more of an excuse to procrastinate more on things, so it would be better not to do that.
I hope to post another followup with more specifics about what has been happening in my life so far. I hope that the new year has been treating you well so far.
Not Enough Hours in a Day
Feb. 4th, 2024 10:54 pmAfter work today, I made some good headway on my analogue Traveler's Notebook, as well as some routine cleaning around the house.
I am very glad that I elected to stay in today because the crowds were starting to trickle in at my local mall. I found out that QUEEN is playing in Nagoya tonight, so you know it's going to be a full house.
I also managed to squeeze in 19 minutes of guitar practise tonight, which I'm really thankful for.
I'll make another update in the AM, and see how far I get at that time. Thanks for tuning in.
I am very glad that I elected to stay in today because the crowds were starting to trickle in at my local mall. I found out that QUEEN is playing in Nagoya tonight, so you know it's going to be a full house.
I also managed to squeeze in 19 minutes of guitar practise tonight, which I'm really thankful for.
I'll make another update in the AM, and see how far I get at that time. Thanks for tuning in.
January Got Away From Me
Feb. 4th, 2024 07:41 amI took cues from a mutual to make time to update in the mornings before I go to work. So much has happened in the month of January, but I had been neglecting to update my blog or my Traveler's Notebook. I didn't update my YouTube until just the other day. I have emails, and DM's piling up. I have even fallen so far behind on my Reading Page that many updates have fallen off the feed. I promise all of you that I'm doing my best today to get caught up!
But to be fair, I've had this cold that has lasted for over a month. It really put me out of commission, and I heard from other coworkers/bosses that this stronger strain has been going around.
I have also put my art and planning in the back seat to make more time to study guitar seriously. Having so many hobbies, I find that I keep cycling through them because there aren't enough hours in a day to manage them all.
But, I want to get better at my time management so that I can pursue all these different things. Even if it's just between 10-30 minutes a few times a week.
More to come later today.
But to be fair, I've had this cold that has lasted for over a month. It really put me out of commission, and I heard from other coworkers/bosses that this stronger strain has been going around.
I have also put my art and planning in the back seat to make more time to study guitar seriously. Having so many hobbies, I find that I keep cycling through them because there aren't enough hours in a day to manage them all.
But, I want to get better at my time management so that I can pursue all these different things. Even if it's just between 10-30 minutes a few times a week.
More to come later today.
Life Update
Dec. 31st, 2023 05:40 pmHello, LiveJournal!
It's crazy that it is the last day of 2023 as I write this. This month and this year just flew by, hasn't it? To summarize the month...
I ended up not going back to Book-Off to return the faulty cables because I determined that it would cost more in train fare alone. During that week,I went to the supermarket before work to get a snack, and my coffee tumbler exploded in my backpack. There was coffee everywhere in the drink aisle where I was standing. 💦 I hate being that customer, and I apologised profusely for the mess.
It is interesting how music gets in our head before we realise it. I was at my local convenience store, and I was humming Skinnamarink to myself. I wondered why that was, and I realised that the instrumental was playing in the background.
Maybe about two weeks ago, I finally met the neighbour whose dog keeps barking at everything in the neighbourhood. She was chatting with other dog owners, and I introduced myself as the neighbour. She mistook my commentary about her barking dog as a complaint, and she apologised. I clarified that I love dogs, and I said that when I heard the dog barking, I thought that I wanted to meet it. From what I could gather, she said that her dog wasn't too big on strangers, and it takes it some time to warm up to people. But the dog is great at keeping thieves away!
She's certainly right about that! My neighbours also have CCTV cameras around their property, so any attempted crimes around here wouldn't go very far, I would think.
Earlier this month, a new video about plagiarism from hbomberguy dropped. This is from the same guy who exposed Tommy Tallarico last year. Big oof, indeed. I was pretty late to the party because the plagiarism video is a 4 hour time investment. But it is an important watch because of how far the big YouTubers went to plagiarize off smaller ones for their own profit. The last two hours were dedicated to James Somerton, with another YouTuber called iilluminaughtii at a close second. It was really wild to see them reading from stolen material word for word. This reaction video to the situation made me laugh. Of course, plagiarism is going to continue. But if the video causes people to think twice before they steal content from others, I think that is a win. You could probably get away with listening to the video like a podcast in the background while you do other things. The only part that you need to see the screen is towards the end where he puts the script on the screen with a colour code guide to show how much was plagiarized, and from who.
It's crazy that it is the last day of 2023 as I write this. This month and this year just flew by, hasn't it? To summarize the month...
I ended up not going back to Book-Off to return the faulty cables because I determined that it would cost more in train fare alone. During that week,I went to the supermarket before work to get a snack, and my coffee tumbler exploded in my backpack. There was coffee everywhere in the drink aisle where I was standing. 💦 I hate being that customer, and I apologised profusely for the mess.
It is interesting how music gets in our head before we realise it. I was at my local convenience store, and I was humming Skinnamarink to myself. I wondered why that was, and I realised that the instrumental was playing in the background.
Maybe about two weeks ago, I finally met the neighbour whose dog keeps barking at everything in the neighbourhood. She was chatting with other dog owners, and I introduced myself as the neighbour. She mistook my commentary about her barking dog as a complaint, and she apologised. I clarified that I love dogs, and I said that when I heard the dog barking, I thought that I wanted to meet it. From what I could gather, she said that her dog wasn't too big on strangers, and it takes it some time to warm up to people. But the dog is great at keeping thieves away!
She's certainly right about that! My neighbours also have CCTV cameras around their property, so any attempted crimes around here wouldn't go very far, I would think.
Earlier this month, a new video about plagiarism from hbomberguy dropped. This is from the same guy who exposed Tommy Tallarico last year. Big oof, indeed. I was pretty late to the party because the plagiarism video is a 4 hour time investment. But it is an important watch because of how far the big YouTubers went to plagiarize off smaller ones for their own profit. The last two hours were dedicated to James Somerton, with another YouTuber called iilluminaughtii at a close second. It was really wild to see them reading from stolen material word for word. This reaction video to the situation made me laugh. Of course, plagiarism is going to continue. But if the video causes people to think twice before they steal content from others, I think that is a win. You could probably get away with listening to the video like a podcast in the background while you do other things. The only part that you need to see the screen is towards the end where he puts the script on the screen with a colour code guide to show how much was plagiarized, and from who.
I was disappointed, but not surprised to see that Cinemassacre made it to that list. I was a huge fan of the Angry Video Game Nerd during my first years of college. I have very fond memories of those days, talking with my friends and looking forward to the next nerd episode.
Then, I got busy with university, work, and life in general. As time went by, I stopped watching the AVGN as much. But it seemed that the videos were declining in quality every time I checked back. James Rolfe, the founder of Cinemassacre apparently wanted more of work life balance, which is fair. But in order to do that, he hired this media company known as Screenwave to help him. I guess one of these clowns decided to cut corners when writing the scripts for the AVGN episodes. This iceberg video explains everything better than I have here.
From there, the YouTube algorithm brought my attention to Dancing With Ghosts, who explains the Rex Viper saga on his channel.
There really isn't anything I can say here that hasn't already been discussed. If you watch recent AVGN videos, it becomes clear that James isn't into the role anymore, and the episodes simply don't have the spark that the early episodes did from the golden age of YouTube between 2005-2010 or thereabouts. Rex Viper is clearly a misguided passion project.
I mean.. just look at the Eye of the Tiger Electronics music video. Everything about this video is so cringe. Everything from James' tiger print shirt to the green screened tigers, to the lyrics themselves. Eeesh. Luckily the comments haven't been disabled like what has happened on the dedicated Rex Viper channel. If you check the comments from the music video, the consensus is that this is a midlife crisis project/ a dad band.
I think that the Rex Viper project can be redeemed, but it would require a huge overhaul. Get rid of Screenwave, and replace the band. Maybe go solo. Bring back Mike Matei. James should do everything he can to make things right with Kyle Justin, the original songwriter for the AVGN theme. Kyle allegedly left Cinemassacre because he wasn't paid out for the construction work he did on a set. If these allegations are true, James should pay him out. Plus interest, and a little extra as an apology. But, I think that ship has sailed, and my guess is that Kyle would want no part of Cinemassacre in the state that it's in right now.
I don't know. I think we could analyze how Metallica presents themselves, and still sells out shows regularly.
It is important to acknowledge that the Millennial generation is very quickly approaching middle age, and we have to accept that we are past our prime, and we are not teenagers anymore. Because of this, it is important that we adjust how we present ourselves as we age. I understand what James is trying to do, and it is inspirational. I think he turned 43 this year, so he is roughly six years my senior. It makes me feel that I can still pursue guitar while in my late 30s. I think I can learn a lot from the Rex Viper project, and hopefully I can pursue my own dreams with more grace.
I finally released the vlog from Kariya here (720p version) and here (1080p30 version). These are a soft release, which will eventually be replaced with the 4K version. I'm still having some issues exporting the 4K version, but it is planned. In that vlog, I said that the next video to release will be the Tokyo vlog. However...
In the interim, I will be releasing some other videos. This will include footage from my first gig for Christmas, and from collecting the Nagoya Subway stamp rally on account of those being shorter videos, and thus being easier to export.
I ended up spending Christmas Day alone because I caught another cold, which I'm still recovering from. It sucked, and I had to cancel a bunch of classes because I was unable to speak louder than a whisper.
Catch Up Stream
Dec. 17th, 2023 09:52 pmCome join me live on Twitch for a catch up stream where I work on preparing Christmas crafts for English class. I'll be working on some 2024 Traveler's Notebook stuff if there's time. Hope to see you there!
Technical Issues Continue to Persist
Dec. 13th, 2023 10:36 amYesterday, I went to my local Book-Off. It took some digging through boxes of cables, but I did eventually find two third party cables that appeared to be compatible with my iPad. I went to plug them in when I got home... and neither of them work. My original cable that is just hanging on by a thread was sufficient enough to charge my iPad. Although I only paid 220 yen for the cables, I'm still going to try to return them. No sense in paying for something that doesn't work. I previously returned a non functioning MD player years ago, and had no problems making the return.
But I got my iPad charged up and ready to go, and I realised that it doesn't support AirDrop. Then I realised that the iPad that I have is an iPad2, which is considered to be obsolete worldwide. So, I'm basically back at square 1 again. Lovely.
At least I can still play Doom on it! There's nothing quite like shooting monsters to a kick ass soundtrack to blow off some steam.
Edit: Despite the technical issues, my guitar progress has still been going strong in the background. Last night, I finally started putting in the time to practising the spider walk in earnest. I feel like the spider dropping by to visit on Halloween while I practising Misery was a sign.
I have shelved the traditional art and painting recently to focus on editing the Kariya video, as well as revisiting graphic design. It is hard to strike a balance with every creative outlet because there isn't enough time in a day.
But I got my iPad charged up and ready to go, and I realised that it doesn't support AirDrop. Then I realised that the iPad that I have is an iPad2, which is considered to be obsolete worldwide. So, I'm basically back at square 1 again. Lovely.
At least I can still play Doom on it! There's nothing quite like shooting monsters to a kick ass soundtrack to blow off some steam.
Edit: Despite the technical issues, my guitar progress has still been going strong in the background. Last night, I finally started putting in the time to practising the spider walk in earnest. I feel like the spider dropping by to visit on Halloween while I practising Misery was a sign.
I have shelved the traditional art and painting recently to focus on editing the Kariya video, as well as revisiting graphic design. It is hard to strike a balance with every creative outlet because there isn't enough time in a day.
Persisting Technical Issues
Dec. 11th, 2023 09:09 pmHello everyone! As the title says, persisting technical issues have delayed the approval process and release of my next video.
Truthfully, this whole situation has been a nightmare. The editing process is complete, but I have not been able to export my video either directly to my phone or via Airdrop. When I try to save it to my phone, I get an error message. When I try to transfer it to my computer via Airdrop, I get the download/transfer bar, but I get an automatically declined error as soon as it completes.
I suspect that a large part of the problem is because of insufficient storage on my iCloud. I have been deleting stuff where I can, but to no avail, and I still get these error messages. It has been immensely frustrating.
And then I remembered that I still have my old ipad that I've barely touched since I got it in 2013. I thought that maybe I might have a chance to export the video to that iPad and upload the video from there. But the 30 pin cable is shot. I saw that the Apple website still stocks the old cable, so I thought that maybe I'd have a chance getting one at the store.
I made two different stops around my work schedule today. First, I went to Bic Camera. There, I was able to replace my modern iPhone cable without an issue. But the young employee who was helping me told me he had never seen the old cable input before. I commented on his youth, and he told me he was 24. I mentioned that I was 37, and I had the cable for ten years.
After work tonight, I went directly to the Apple store. There, I found out that they no longer ship this cable to stores. The employee referred me to another electronics store up the street, but I didn't feel like going on a wild goose chase. I thanked him, and I left the store.
I don't want to order from the Apple website or Amazon because I don't want to pay full price for this cable, or wait for shipping times. But my local Book-Off sells obsolete electronics, so I think I have a good chance of locating a cable there for a good price.
But, I could get this cable, and then the video could still fail to transfer...
At the end of the day, I need to replace my entire rig because this is such an inconvenient way to edit. Let's rewind to last year.
Last year, I was having numerous issues with exports on desktop version of iMovie. It took literally days, and dozens of tries to get the videos to export. Eventually, it all went kapoosh. To this day, I cannot load iMovie on my Macbook without getting the forever pinwheel, and having to force quit the program because it wasn't responding.
I made the switch to the iOS version iMovie, even though the mobile version heavily lacks the features of the desktop version. Probably the biggest complaint about the mobile version is that there is no way to timelapse your videos. You can only speed up your video X2. There is a workaround using the screen record function, but that is a hassle to have to do, and uses up the precious space that you need to function!
And here we are. I've reached a point where I can't export my videos anymore. I was able to export a 540 px version of the video, but that won't be suitable for a public release.
I guess I can continue to try to tinker with it to export the video. I can also try to get a cable tomorrow, and hope that my iPad works as a backup plan.
Update: FINALLY! I somehow managed to export a 720p version of the video to my computer! It's not 4K, but it is acceptable for now if I am unable to export the 4K version for whatever reason. I could always publish the higher resolution version at a later time too.
Truthfully, this whole situation has been a nightmare. The editing process is complete, but I have not been able to export my video either directly to my phone or via Airdrop. When I try to save it to my phone, I get an error message. When I try to transfer it to my computer via Airdrop, I get the download/transfer bar, but I get an automatically declined error as soon as it completes.
I suspect that a large part of the problem is because of insufficient storage on my iCloud. I have been deleting stuff where I can, but to no avail, and I still get these error messages. It has been immensely frustrating.
And then I remembered that I still have my old ipad that I've barely touched since I got it in 2013. I thought that maybe I might have a chance to export the video to that iPad and upload the video from there. But the 30 pin cable is shot. I saw that the Apple website still stocks the old cable, so I thought that maybe I'd have a chance getting one at the store.
I made two different stops around my work schedule today. First, I went to Bic Camera. There, I was able to replace my modern iPhone cable without an issue. But the young employee who was helping me told me he had never seen the old cable input before. I commented on his youth, and he told me he was 24. I mentioned that I was 37, and I had the cable for ten years.
After work tonight, I went directly to the Apple store. There, I found out that they no longer ship this cable to stores. The employee referred me to another electronics store up the street, but I didn't feel like going on a wild goose chase. I thanked him, and I left the store.
I don't want to order from the Apple website or Amazon because I don't want to pay full price for this cable, or wait for shipping times. But my local Book-Off sells obsolete electronics, so I think I have a good chance of locating a cable there for a good price.
But, I could get this cable, and then the video could still fail to transfer...
At the end of the day, I need to replace my entire rig because this is such an inconvenient way to edit. Let's rewind to last year.
Last year, I was having numerous issues with exports on desktop version of iMovie. It took literally days, and dozens of tries to get the videos to export. Eventually, it all went kapoosh. To this day, I cannot load iMovie on my Macbook without getting the forever pinwheel, and having to force quit the program because it wasn't responding.
I made the switch to the iOS version iMovie, even though the mobile version heavily lacks the features of the desktop version. Probably the biggest complaint about the mobile version is that there is no way to timelapse your videos. You can only speed up your video X2. There is a workaround using the screen record function, but that is a hassle to have to do, and uses up the precious space that you need to function!
And here we are. I've reached a point where I can't export my videos anymore. I was able to export a 540 px version of the video, but that won't be suitable for a public release.
I guess I can continue to try to tinker with it to export the video. I can also try to get a cable tomorrow, and hope that my iPad works as a backup plan.
Update: FINALLY! I somehow managed to export a 720p version of the video to my computer! It's not 4K, but it is acceptable for now if I am unable to export the 4K version for whatever reason. I could always publish the higher resolution version at a later time too.
YouTube Update
Dec. 8th, 2023 10:34 amHello internet! I know that it has been a hot minute since the last time I updated, so here we go! To quickly summarise the last week:
There was a k-pop band in town called Seventeen that was having a show here. I got caught in the fan craziness again, but I managed to get out quickly.
I gave a free English lesson to some kids during my travels. Once again, I fell back to my Do you like~? routine. The kids were nervous and hiding behind their arms and hands at first, but I broke the ice by asking, Do you like じゃま (colloquial term for obstruction, something in the way.)? The kids were laughing and smiling for the duration of the lesson, and their parents seemed pleased. As I got off at my stop, one of the kids said また遊んでね〜。It warmed my heart.
I posted both on YouTube and on BlueSky that I completed the Higashiyama Line/Sakura-dori Line groups from the Nagoya Subway stamp rally. Yesterday was the last day of the event, so I managed to finish it just in time.
The videos that I shot in Kariya, Mishima, and Tokyo are coming. It took a lot of extra time to edit the Kariya video to a point that I was happy with. At this stage, I just have to finish up some final edits and go through the approval process. Hopefully, I can get that done during the weekend or by sometime next week.
There was a k-pop band in town called Seventeen that was having a show here. I got caught in the fan craziness again, but I managed to get out quickly.
I gave a free English lesson to some kids during my travels. Once again, I fell back to my Do you like~? routine. The kids were nervous and hiding behind their arms and hands at first, but I broke the ice by asking, Do you like じゃま (colloquial term for obstruction, something in the way.)? The kids were laughing and smiling for the duration of the lesson, and their parents seemed pleased. As I got off at my stop, one of the kids said また遊んでね〜。It warmed my heart.
I posted both on YouTube and on BlueSky that I completed the Higashiyama Line/Sakura-dori Line groups from the Nagoya Subway stamp rally. Yesterday was the last day of the event, so I managed to finish it just in time.
The videos that I shot in Kariya, Mishima, and Tokyo are coming. It took a lot of extra time to edit the Kariya video to a point that I was happy with. At this stage, I just have to finish up some final edits and go through the approval process. Hopefully, I can get that done during the weekend or by sometime next week.
Tags:
Small Update
Nov. 30th, 2023 01:14 pmYesterday was mostly a stay in day as was the day before. It goes without saying that I used the time to get caught up on the blog from Mishima and Tokyo. I used my remaining time in the day to practise guitar. After that, I got on a call with a friend whom I haven't heard from in a while and did some rehearsals with them.It was a lot of fun.
My knees are still hurting like crazy, so I decided to get out to get some light exercise in. I went for a walk, and I went to my local park and I had the whole park to myself. I used the swings and some of the playground equipment. I noticed that the swings on playgrounds in Japan are much lower to the ground than North American standards, so I have to stand up in order to get going on them. I used the spinner thing, which is more of an enclosed caged sphere compared to the ones back home. I also did some very light rock climbing, and I mean light. The rock climbing instillation isn't even that high, but I do not do well with heights. With my feet and my knees as bad as they are, it seems like one wrong move and I am done.
I felt some relief after I was finished with the light exercise, so I will have to make time for this regularly as much as I don't enjoy it. I will also have to get some x-rays of my feet and legs once I get my work situation sorted. But I'm nervous about what they are going to find, and I worry that there might be amputations, prosthetics, and wheelchairs in my future. I try to remind myself that that they can do some pretty cool stuff with prosthetics and wheelchairs now, and I can picture ones that light up like children's shoes. There's also that benefit of priority seating.
My knees are still hurting like crazy, so I decided to get out to get some light exercise in. I went for a walk, and I went to my local park and I had the whole park to myself. I used the swings and some of the playground equipment. I noticed that the swings on playgrounds in Japan are much lower to the ground than North American standards, so I have to stand up in order to get going on them. I used the spinner thing, which is more of an enclosed caged sphere compared to the ones back home. I also did some very light rock climbing, and I mean light. The rock climbing instillation isn't even that high, but I do not do well with heights. With my feet and my knees as bad as they are, it seems like one wrong move and I am done.
I felt some relief after I was finished with the light exercise, so I will have to make time for this regularly as much as I don't enjoy it. I will also have to get some x-rays of my feet and legs once I get my work situation sorted. But I'm nervous about what they are going to find, and I worry that there might be amputations, prosthetics, and wheelchairs in my future. I try to remind myself that that they can do some pretty cool stuff with prosthetics and wheelchairs now, and I can picture ones that light up like children's shoes. There's also that benefit of priority seating.
This is Part 2 of the blog update about my spontaneous trip to Mishima and Tokyo. For your convenience, you can read Part 1 here. I will be posting a vlog on YouTube about this trip in the next few weeks, but I wanted to keep the focus of this vlog mainly on the things that didn't get recorded on video.
When I got to my former home station, nothing had really changed. The smaller stores and restaurants immediately outside of the station were completely the same. On the way to my old flat, I did notice one major closure that I am intentionally leaving unspecified. Other than that, I was so surprised that pretty much nothing had changed in the almost six years that I had been gone.
I didn't check Google Maps before I left the station, and I was able to navigate to my old flat solely on my memory alone. When I got to the flat, some new security measures had been implemented, but I was able to get inside easily. I got chatting with some of the new travelers.
I edited the photo to block out identifying notes.
I wrote お久しぶり！！ただいま！！ (It's been a while!! I'm home!!) on the message boards prior to going upstairs. When we got there, I was formally introduced to the new crowd.
I can't even. 😂🤣 One of my old friends introduced me with, "This is Meghan, and she likes The Room." A new flatmate then made a comment about Tommy Wiseau.
Okay, so back in 2017 I was still on this kick with The Room (2003). I translated that movie line by line, and it sounds just as stupid in Japanese as you would expect. It is inappropriate to quote this movie at the best of times, so in the context of living in Japan, OMGGG. But this area of Tokyo is pretty progressive and foreigner foreigner friendly, so everyone had fun with it. I think? But for many years, I drove my friends crazy quoting this movie.
You really have to see this movie to believe it. If you search for The Room Best Scenes on YouTube, the highlights of the movie will come up, and you'll see what I mean. But I think this movie is best experienced with friends at a public screening at your local art house theatre if you can. Bring spoons and footballs. You can get bonus points if you dress in a tuxedo or a red dress.
So, that was a fun ice breaker! The Room. But anyway, we took photos together, and I looked back on the old photos from previous years. It took some time to find me, but I was on the wall! I was surprised at how much had changed at the flat, and how much remained the same. Undoubtedly there were incidents that occurred in the time that I was away that necessitated other security changes. But the flat was upgraded a bit with a new TV that was was equipped with casting and a Nintendo Switch. The other rooms had also been upgraded.
During our reminiscing and catching up, there was an interesting individual who came by. They kept butting in with unrelated chatter. In the moment I just thought it was kind of weird, but I brushed it off. Other flatmates aplogised a few times for their behaviour. Again, I just thought it was funny and I brushed it off.
I played my usual setlist, and it was pretty well received. I have to admit that I low key enjoyed the attention that I get from playing for other people. Forget dating apps! Get your favourite instrument and play for people instead. You'll make a connection or two. 😅 I'm not sure what it was at the time if it was denial or questioning my own experience, but the subtle flirting from one of the guys was confirmed later on. I was flattered. 🤭☺️
Due to a policy change, I was unable to stay at the flat on such short notice and I had to make other arrangements. However, I was graciously allowed the shower that I desperately needed after the long commute.
After we said our goodbyes, I spent some time at my old stomping grounds in Shin-Koenji. There, when I was wandering through an alleyway, I came across the brick and mortar Granpries location completely by accident. The store shutter was painted to match the art on their Twitter page. Or maybe their Twitter page was designed to match. Whichever the case, I came across their Twitter page first originally. I think it was because I was searching for 1990s vintage, but they specialise primarily in vintage Showa era items. I do want to come back to this store during my next visit to Tokyo. It, along with every other store on that strip was closed when I was coming through.
During my travels, I also got caught in the rain.
I'll have to come back here when the time and weather is better.
I got a creative breakfast at McDonald's.
I used the time at McDonald's to get caught up in my Traveler's Notebook to reflect what happened up until that point. My corner at the restaurant was quote cozy because it was away from other people, and I could see outside as it was pouring rain. As soon as I got up, a senior man got up from further down the counter to take my spot. I was so zoned out into my own world that I hadn't realised how busy the place got by the time I was finished.
After I finished at McDonald's, I returned to the flat. It was the time of morning where kids were still on their commute to school, carrying their redoseru backpacks behind them. When I got inside, I kicked back for a few hours where I continued to fill my Traveler's Notebook.
This is some of the bus stop information.
Due to the length of this entry, I have decided to make this a 3 parter. I might leave most of the details for the vlog, but we'll see. At the rate I'm going, I might actually smash the NaNoWriMo quota without even trying!
When I got to my former home station, nothing had really changed. The smaller stores and restaurants immediately outside of the station were completely the same. On the way to my old flat, I did notice one major closure that I am intentionally leaving unspecified. Other than that, I was so surprised that pretty much nothing had changed in the almost six years that I had been gone.
I didn't check Google Maps before I left the station, and I was able to navigate to my old flat solely on my memory alone. When I got to the flat, some new security measures had been implemented, but I was able to get inside easily. I got chatting with some of the new travelers.
I edited the photo to block out identifying notes.
I wrote お久しぶり！！ただいま！！ (It's been a while!! I'm home!!) on the message boards prior to going upstairs. When we got there, I was formally introduced to the new crowd.
I can't even. 😂🤣 One of my old friends introduced me with, "This is Meghan, and she likes The Room." A new flatmate then made a comment about Tommy Wiseau.
Okay, so back in 2017 I was still on this kick with The Room (2003). I translated that movie line by line, and it sounds just as stupid in Japanese as you would expect. It is inappropriate to quote this movie at the best of times, so in the context of living in Japan, OMGGG. But this area of Tokyo is pretty progressive and foreigner foreigner friendly, so everyone had fun with it. I think? But for many years, I drove my friends crazy quoting this movie.
You really have to see this movie to believe it. If you search for The Room Best Scenes on YouTube, the highlights of the movie will come up, and you'll see what I mean. But I think this movie is best experienced with friends at a public screening at your local art house theatre if you can. Bring spoons and footballs. You can get bonus points if you dress in a tuxedo or a red dress.
So, that was a fun ice breaker! The Room. But anyway, we took photos together, and I looked back on the old photos from previous years. It took some time to find me, but I was on the wall! I was surprised at how much had changed at the flat, and how much remained the same. Undoubtedly there were incidents that occurred in the time that I was away that necessitated other security changes. But the flat was upgraded a bit with a new TV that was was equipped with casting and a Nintendo Switch. The other rooms had also been upgraded.
During our reminiscing and catching up, there was an interesting individual who came by. They kept butting in with unrelated chatter. In the moment I just thought it was kind of weird, but I brushed it off. Other flatmates aplogised a few times for their behaviour. Again, I just thought it was funny and I brushed it off.
I played my usual setlist, and it was pretty well received. I have to admit that I low key enjoyed the attention that I get from playing for other people. Forget dating apps! Get your favourite instrument and play for people instead. You'll make a connection or two. 😅 I'm not sure what it was at the time if it was denial or questioning my own experience, but the subtle flirting from one of the guys was confirmed later on. I was flattered. 🤭☺️
Due to a policy change, I was unable to stay at the flat on such short notice and I had to make other arrangements. However, I was graciously allowed the shower that I desperately needed after the long commute.
After we said our goodbyes, I spent some time at my old stomping grounds in Shin-Koenji. There, when I was wandering through an alleyway, I came across the brick and mortar Granpries location completely by accident. The store shutter was painted to match the art on their Twitter page. Or maybe their Twitter page was designed to match. Whichever the case, I came across their Twitter page first originally. I think it was because I was searching for 1990s vintage, but they specialise primarily in vintage Showa era items. I do want to come back to this store during my next visit to Tokyo. It, along with every other store on that strip was closed when I was coming through.
During my travels, I also got caught in the rain.
I'll have to come back here when the time and weather is better.
I got a creative breakfast at McDonald's.
I used the time at McDonald's to get caught up in my Traveler's Notebook to reflect what happened up until that point. My corner at the restaurant was quote cozy because it was away from other people, and I could see outside as it was pouring rain. As soon as I got up, a senior man got up from further down the counter to take my spot. I was so zoned out into my own world that I hadn't realised how busy the place got by the time I was finished.
After I finished at McDonald's, I returned to the flat. It was the time of morning where kids were still on their commute to school, carrying their redoseru backpacks behind them. When I got inside, I kicked back for a few hours where I continued to fill my Traveler's Notebook.
Initially I stayed in the main room, and it quickly became much more apparent why this individual was so problematic at the flat. Quite literally every other flatmate peaced out to the adjacent room.
From here on out, I will call this person Kimura. I recalled the night before, that Kimura approached me and said Happy Birthday to me, even though they didn't know me, let alone my birthday.
As I sat there at the table, filling in my Traveler's Notebook while listening to assorted YouTube videos (probably true crime podcasts), Kimura kept going on, and on, and on. I couldn't catch all of it, but it was most definitely a word salad. UberEatsに注文する。(Place an order from UberEats.) Softbankの携帯電話でかける。(Make a phone call with a Softbank cell phone.) Family Martにご飯を買う。(Buy lunch at Family Mart.) He kept saying these types of things repeatedly for hours, so it was easy enough for me to tune out. Not so much for others. And admittedly, I was slightly bemused by the situation.
My breaking point finally came where he went on this tirade where I could understand every word they were saying. Loosely translated, and paraphrased here: Thank you God, for this rain that has fallen today.
I can't remember what he said after that, but I recall interrupting this religious tirade to ask another flatmate a question. It felt really awkward talking even though I had the right to. I joined the others in the adjacent room, but I had mixed feelings about this situation.
I had several past work situations where I was ostracized by the entire office, and excluded from events. It was not a good feeling to come in the following Monday morning and hear all about the weekend parties that I wasn't invited to. But if you find yourself in that situation, it is so important to read the room, understand your place in the pecking order, and don't ask to come along.
My bleeding liberal heart felt for Kimura! None of us were in a position to diagnose Kimura. The situation could have been drugs, a psychotic episode, or a combination of the two. When I recounted the situation to another friend later, they said that it is more likely a psychotic episode if the person in question is going on a religious tirade. Everyone was taking bets on how long it would take for Kimura to get kicked out.
But, I said to my flatmates that if Kimura is just talking to themselves, and even if they are doing drugs, if they aren't hurting anyone or leaving needles everywhere, who cares? When we see situations like this, this is a failure on society, not just in Japan, but worldwide. Mental health is still stigmatized so much, and it isn't given the same level of priority as our physical health. We got into a deep discussion about those societal failures, but...
But, the situation escalated rather quickly. Kimura was in fact, not harmless. It came to light that the situation escalated rather quickly. It was very much an Oh shit moment. Upon learning what happened, I said to my flatmate "Well, that changes everything." The conversation then shifted about what it would take to have someone involuntarily institutionalized, because that is honestly what the situation warranted. If the police had to be called, I urged to stress on the fact that it was a mental health crisis. Luckily nothing else happened, and the day carried on as normally as it could have, with Kimura talking to himself for hours outside. The situation served as a reminder to me of how lucky we are, no matter the challenges we are facing ourselves.
Lunch from a combini run. My diet hadn't really changed at all even though I came up to Tokyo from Nagoya.
Some of the other flatmates I was waiting for were still sleeping by this point, so I said my goodbyes and I took my leave. I only had a few hours left before I would have to return to Nagoya. Another traveler left at the same time that I did to take in more of Tokyo.
I wanted to keep this a low key trip. I considered going to Shibuya to check out the new Fangamer location there, but I wasn't in the mindset to want to deal with big crowds that day. Instead, I returned to Azabu-Juban, the location that inspired the setting of Sailor Moon.
The following are throwback photos from the area that I took on June 30, 2017. Usagi's birthday! 😊
This is the Sendaizakaue bus stop. Although the location looks nondescript, this is the setting of the story line where we got to meet Rei/Sailor Mars. In case if you aren't familiar with this aspect of the story, Rei was initially scapegoated for the buses that had been disappearing in the area.
This is an alternate view taken from the bus stop. Tokyo Tower is just peeking out in the distance.
This is some of the bus stop information.
Due to the length of this entry, I have decided to make this a 3 parter. I might leave most of the details for the vlog, but we'll see. At the rate I'm going, I might actually smash the NaNoWriMo quota without even trying!
Quick Update
Nov. 28th, 2023 05:41 pmHey guys!
Today was mainly a stay in day.
There was some construction happening in my neighbourhood, and I guess the garbage site was temporarily moved. One of the workers was so kind to take my garbage. 🙏
I stopped at my local post office to collect the Earthbound handbook that I had shipped to me after I don't know how many years of procrastination. They really nailed the 1990s design!
On my way back home, I stopped by the neighbourhood bakery to buy some bread. There, a mother and her young kindergarten aged son were in line. I gave a free English lesson while we were waiting. My fallback on these free demo lessons is:
Do you like (item)?/ Yes, I do./No, I don't.
Do you like ice cream?
Yes, I do.
Do you like natto?
Yes, I do.
Do you like... natto ice cream?
No, I don't! Yucky!
The kids always have fun with this play on words, and you can swap out the foods with different things to localise it. The original song is called Do You Like (Broccoli Ice Cream)? from Super Simple Songs.
The mother had to repeatedly tell her son not to touch the breads, so a new expression I taught was No touching! The whole interaction was really cute.
Because of the amount of time that has passed since I backed the Kickstarter project, I didn't get all the items included. But that was completely, and totally my fault. But space is at a premium here in Japan, so it's fine. I like to think that I'm doing better, but indeed it seems I am still a master procrastinator!
Speaking of procrastination, I have posted the fully fleshed out part 1 of the Mishima/Tokyo trip here. I decided to edit that entry instead of deleting and reposting it. Part 2 will be forthcoming.
Also, if you guys can respond to the survey that I posted here, I'd really appreciate it! It just takes a second to respond as to whether my Moffatts getup is fashion (👕) or cosplay (🦸♀️).
Thank you so much. 🙏 🙏 🙏
Today was mainly a stay in day.
There was some construction happening in my neighbourhood, and I guess the garbage site was temporarily moved. One of the workers was so kind to take my garbage. 🙏
I stopped at my local post office to collect the Earthbound handbook that I had shipped to me after I don't know how many years of procrastination. They really nailed the 1990s design!
On my way back home, I stopped by the neighbourhood bakery to buy some bread. There, a mother and her young kindergarten aged son were in line. I gave a free English lesson while we were waiting. My fallback on these free demo lessons is:
Do you like (item)?/ Yes, I do./No, I don't.
Do you like ice cream?
Yes, I do.
Do you like natto?
Yes, I do.
Do you like... natto ice cream?
No, I don't! Yucky!
The kids always have fun with this play on words, and you can swap out the foods with different things to localise it. The original song is called Do You Like (Broccoli Ice Cream)? from Super Simple Songs.
The mother had to repeatedly tell her son not to touch the breads, so a new expression I taught was No touching! The whole interaction was really cute.
Because of the amount of time that has passed since I backed the Kickstarter project, I didn't get all the items included. But that was completely, and totally my fault. But space is at a premium here in Japan, so it's fine. I like to think that I'm doing better, but indeed it seems I am still a master procrastinator!
Speaking of procrastination, I have posted the fully fleshed out part 1 of the Mishima/Tokyo trip here. I decided to edit that entry instead of deleting and reposting it. Part 2 will be forthcoming.
Also, if you guys can respond to the survey that I posted here, I'd really appreciate it! It just takes a second to respond as to whether my Moffatts getup is fashion (👕) or cosplay (🦸♀️).
Thank you so much. 🙏 🙏 🙏
Construction in my neighbourhood is ongoing as I write this. The construction workers are so kind. One of them took my garbage because I guess the garbage location was changed due to said construction.
By the time I got home on Saturday night, I only had a little time to practise guitar. In that short time when I was practising Misery (The Moffatts cover), I figured out how to play The Imps Song (Level 2) from the Doom soundtrack completely by accident. Not the main melody, but those undertones! I think I was switching between E and Em. Possibly an Am. After a while, I start to forget the chord names, and they just become a shape to me. I'll have to work out the main melody at some point, maybe a back burner project.
I mentioned in my last entry that in order to level up my guitar game that it is going to be important to study music styles and bands that I don't necessarily like. I got thinking about this later and I realised that the learning curve really does parallel my time in art/design school. I actually switched out from that degree program because simply put, I didn't have the maturity of the mindset to be there. Prior to that, I studied design at a technical school and I didn't have the patience or the maturity to go back to the art and design fundamentals. What I didn't realise at the time that going to art or design school is not about drawing what you like. It is about developing your skill as an artist so that you can draw anything that is in front of you. I think that guitar is much the same way that you have to learn those fundamentals that you don't necessarily like in order to get good at it. You have to put the time and work into it.
Sunday was a stay home day where I got caught up on my blog as you saw. ^^; But after that, I went to Sushiro one last time to take advantage of the Tamagotchi promo going on. I posted a thread of photos on BlueSky here. If anyone remembers Tamagotchi: Corner Shop for Nintendo DS, you had the chance to run a conveyor belt sushi restaurant. It feels like everything came full circle after the Sushiro collaboration. It's cool that Tamagotchi is still going, but there is something so quintessentially 90s about the series/brand.
~~~
As they say, don't go shopping when you're hungry! After I was finished at Sushiro, I went to go grocery shopping for food staples. I had to use the restroom while I was there. Along the way, I saw two kids came running out in front of me to hug a poster. They kept saying, ママ (Mama!), and their father kept repeating to them, そんなことないよ！ (That's not true. That's not the case.) It was cute, endearing, and a reminder of childhood innocence. This conversation continued for a while outside as I used the restroom.
Last night, I continued my guitar practise. I continued to work on Happy Birthday, and Last Christmas. I also went back to review Stop by the Spice Girls some more. I've noticed that Last Christmas and Stop have been helpful to really try to nail down that Bm chord change faster. I also began studying how to palm mute. It's a bit of a learning curve, but it sounds so neat!
I fell asleep while I was writing this last night originally, so I am posting the update now.
By the time I got home on Saturday night, I only had a little time to practise guitar. In that short time when I was practising Misery (The Moffatts cover), I figured out how to play The Imps Song (Level 2) from the Doom soundtrack completely by accident. Not the main melody, but those undertones! I think I was switching between E and Em. Possibly an Am. After a while, I start to forget the chord names, and they just become a shape to me. I'll have to work out the main melody at some point, maybe a back burner project.
I mentioned in my last entry that in order to level up my guitar game that it is going to be important to study music styles and bands that I don't necessarily like. I got thinking about this later and I realised that the learning curve really does parallel my time in art/design school. I actually switched out from that degree program because simply put, I didn't have the maturity of the mindset to be there. Prior to that, I studied design at a technical school and I didn't have the patience or the maturity to go back to the art and design fundamentals. What I didn't realise at the time that going to art or design school is not about drawing what you like. It is about developing your skill as an artist so that you can draw anything that is in front of you. I think that guitar is much the same way that you have to learn those fundamentals that you don't necessarily like in order to get good at it. You have to put the time and work into it.
Sunday was a stay home day where I got caught up on my blog as you saw. ^^; But after that, I went to Sushiro one last time to take advantage of the Tamagotchi promo going on. I posted a thread of photos on BlueSky here. If anyone remembers Tamagotchi: Corner Shop for Nintendo DS, you had the chance to run a conveyor belt sushi restaurant. It feels like everything came full circle after the Sushiro collaboration. It's cool that Tamagotchi is still going, but there is something so quintessentially 90s about the series/brand.
~~~
As they say, don't go shopping when you're hungry! After I was finished at Sushiro, I went to go grocery shopping for food staples. I had to use the restroom while I was there. Along the way, I saw two kids came running out in front of me to hug a poster. They kept saying, ママ (Mama!), and their father kept repeating to them, そんなことないよ！ (That's not true. That's not the case.) It was cute, endearing, and a reminder of childhood innocence. This conversation continued for a while outside as I used the restroom.
Last night, I continued my guitar practise. I continued to work on Happy Birthday, and Last Christmas. I also went back to review Stop by the Spice Girls some more. I've noticed that Last Christmas and Stop have been helpful to really try to nail down that Bm chord change faster. I also began studying how to palm mute. It's a bit of a learning curve, but it sounds so neat!
I fell asleep while I was writing this last night originally, so I am posting the update now.
Tags:
I Want to Remember Everything
Nov. 26th, 2023 12:57 amI've probably mentioned it several times on this blog by now, but life just keeps flying by faster than I can write it down. There is so much to talk about!
I feel more inspired than ever to channel my inner Harriet the Spy, and take everything down in the environment around me. In the digital age where virtually everyone has a camera in their pocket, this seems simultaneously unnecessary and a lost art. You can buy go-pro cameras that you can strap to your chest or your hat. Or you can get one of those fancy 360° cameras that literally records every angle. There's just something so weird and futuristic about finding a 360° video on YouTube, and you will always find something you haven't seen before in that video. On the other hand, it seems excessive, and an information overload. I hope that between managing this blog, and my YouTube channel that I will find a balance between the best of both worlds.
Sunday is well under way, and the weekend is almost over as I write this. Last week as I was preparing Happy Birthday and Last Christmas, Music Travel Love and Dave Moffatt dropped two new Christmas videos: It's Christmas Time (Music Travel Love original ft. Francis Greg, Dave Moffatt, & Anthony Uy) and Last Christmas (Dave Moffatt cover). I mentioned it in the comments already, but the timing was super weird when these dropped. I think I will write a separate post dedicated to talking about these videos specifically, in the interest of keeping this entry on topic.
So I had spent the week around my work schedules to rehearse Happy Birthday and Last Christmas, as I mentioned. In years past I used to groan at Christmas music because of all the years that I spent working in retail. The Christmas music comes on on November 1, as soon as Halloween is over. Years ago, James Rolfe did a rant about Christmas creep (NSFW language), which I think is still relevant today. I recall even seeing some Christmas decorations out before Halloween, but I didn't document the specifics at the time.
But, when I started getting my head around how to play Last Christmas, there was something in my brain that clicked. There was something about playing that song relatively competently that sparked so much joy in my heart. And this experience gave me a new appreciation for Taylor Swift. *Gasp!* I was never a Swiftie. I actually used to get really irritated by her music during her 2008 debut because it was so overplayed in retail!
Realistically, I was unable to learn the full version of Taylor Swift's Last Christmas, but I did learn enough to do a TV size version of just the chorus. Particularly for ESL kids who are learning this song for the first time, I think it worked out anyway. I also didn't have enough time to learn We Wish You a Merry Christmas, but I am confident that I will have enough time to master these in time for all the upcoming Christmas lessons and parties.
During yesterday's demo lesson, I managed to mess up Happy Birthday quite spectacularly, but it was forgiven. I'm not sure how I managed that! I can play If Life is so Short by the Moffatts pretty competently by now, probably after playing it several hundred times over the course of this year. Aha.. ^^;
What the experience of playing Happy Birthday and Last Christmas has taught me was an important reminder about going back to the basics. Music theory is objectively boring, and I will have to start practising scales, triads, and whatnot. But the basics of of music theory are adjacent to colour theory. When I brought this up with a friend the other night, I was immediately asked what they had to do with each other. So, hear me out.
( The parallels of colour theory & music theory and how they go together )
Beyond that, what I took away from yesterday's demo lesson is that I want to get competent enough at music that I can play anything when asked. I think it would be amazing to have a child make a song request, and just be able to play it on the fly with no questions asked or preparation needed. In order to do that, I will have to study a lot of different styles of music, even genres of music or bands that I don't particularly like.
It is after 2:00 am as I write this. I'm exhausted and I should have been in bed hours ago. But I wanted to get these ideas down while they were still fresh in my mind. I still have more to say, and I will update this entry when I'm feeling fresh. In the meantime, I have posted this YouTube short of some pretty sweet Nagoya limited guitar gear.
Update:
It seems that usually no matter how late I go to bed, I still wake up bright and early because of my work schedule.
My body: Doesn't matter if you haven't had enough sleep. You're waking up now!
To flash forward to the present, DreamWidth temporarily went offline when I was updating this. I initially saved my progress
and I continued this train of thought in a TextEdit file, which by the way, feels like such an old school way of keeping records! But I was surprised how quickly they were able to get the site back up and running, and it does serve as a reminder about how it is good practise to keep backups of everything.
Yeaaah. I confirmed later when I returned last night that strings are supposed to be changed every 1000 ish hours or every three months, whichever comes first. I also learned that older strings can also leave marks on your fret board. Yikes. Cue to the excuses. I've never changed the strings on my guitar before, and I honestly didn't trust myself to do it without messing it up. At the moment I currently don't have anyone physically with me here to lean, practise, and jam with. It makes it hard.
Because of this, I decided to just suck it up and I went to my local music store to have someone do the maintenance for me. Yeah, I know. The seasoned guitarists are cringing as they read this. I know. I saw YouTube and on r/guitar that you can put electric strings on an acoustic guitar as a way of making it easier on your fingers and extending the practise time. But the staff at the store told me, absolutely not. I think this was a liability issue more than anything else, so I still agreed to their recommended service.
While I was out and about, I browsed an American vintage store on the floor immediately below. There, I found a Canadian patch that I couldn't pass up because Canadian made items or Canadian market items are so hard to come by around here.
( Another memory elicited from what's in front of me in the present day )
After that, I drooled over some vintage jackets from Canada, particularly the ones with a purple and teal combination. They were spendy, and I'm pretty confident that I can find something similar for a lot less at Book-Off. I returned upstairs and paid for the guitar service, and I scrolled through Reddit while I was waiting in the lobby. I'm not sure how long I was waiting, but the turnaround time seemed very quick.
Before I left, I had a good look around the store again. You might have seen from the YouTube Short video that I posted earlier that there was a pop up event called GUITAR LOVERS SHOW 2023. They had some Nagoya limited pedals and accessories decorated with the iconic golden dolphin that this city is known for. It led to a pleasant conversation with one of the staff members. I mentioned that it would be so cool to have those when I eventually return to Canada.
( Reassessing my dream electric guitar and future guitar purchases )
I feel more inspired than ever to channel my inner Harriet the Spy, and take everything down in the environment around me. In the digital age where virtually everyone has a camera in their pocket, this seems simultaneously unnecessary and a lost art. You can buy go-pro cameras that you can strap to your chest or your hat. Or you can get one of those fancy 360° cameras that literally records every angle. There's just something so weird and futuristic about finding a 360° video on YouTube, and you will always find something you haven't seen before in that video. On the other hand, it seems excessive, and an information overload. I hope that between managing this blog, and my YouTube channel that I will find a balance between the best of both worlds.
Sunday is well under way, and the weekend is almost over as I write this. Last week as I was preparing Happy Birthday and Last Christmas, Music Travel Love and Dave Moffatt dropped two new Christmas videos: It's Christmas Time (Music Travel Love original ft. Francis Greg, Dave Moffatt, & Anthony Uy) and Last Christmas (Dave Moffatt cover). I mentioned it in the comments already, but the timing was super weird when these dropped. I think I will write a separate post dedicated to talking about these videos specifically, in the interest of keeping this entry on topic.
So I had spent the week around my work schedules to rehearse Happy Birthday and Last Christmas, as I mentioned. In years past I used to groan at Christmas music because of all the years that I spent working in retail. The Christmas music comes on on November 1, as soon as Halloween is over. Years ago, James Rolfe did a rant about Christmas creep (NSFW language), which I think is still relevant today. I recall even seeing some Christmas decorations out before Halloween, but I didn't document the specifics at the time.
But, when I started getting my head around how to play Last Christmas, there was something in my brain that clicked. There was something about playing that song relatively competently that sparked so much joy in my heart. And this experience gave me a new appreciation for Taylor Swift. *Gasp!* I was never a Swiftie. I actually used to get really irritated by her music during her 2008 debut because it was so overplayed in retail!
Realistically, I was unable to learn the full version of Taylor Swift's Last Christmas, but I did learn enough to do a TV size version of just the chorus. Particularly for ESL kids who are learning this song for the first time, I think it worked out anyway. I also didn't have enough time to learn We Wish You a Merry Christmas, but I am confident that I will have enough time to master these in time for all the upcoming Christmas lessons and parties.
During yesterday's demo lesson, I managed to mess up Happy Birthday quite spectacularly, but it was forgiven. I'm not sure how I managed that! I can play If Life is so Short by the Moffatts pretty competently by now, probably after playing it several hundred times over the course of this year. Aha.. ^^;
What the experience of playing Happy Birthday and Last Christmas has taught me was an important reminder about going back to the basics. Music theory is objectively boring, and I will have to start practising scales, triads, and whatnot. But the basics of of music theory are adjacent to colour theory. When I brought this up with a friend the other night, I was immediately asked what they had to do with each other. So, hear me out.
( The parallels of colour theory & music theory and how they go together )
Beyond that, what I took away from yesterday's demo lesson is that I want to get competent enough at music that I can play anything when asked. I think it would be amazing to have a child make a song request, and just be able to play it on the fly with no questions asked or preparation needed. In order to do that, I will have to study a lot of different styles of music, even genres of music or bands that I don't particularly like.
It is after 2:00 am as I write this. I'm exhausted and I should have been in bed hours ago. But I wanted to get these ideas down while they were still fresh in my mind. I still have more to say, and I will update this entry when I'm feeling fresh. In the meantime, I have posted this YouTube short of some pretty sweet Nagoya limited guitar gear.
Update:
It seems that usually no matter how late I go to bed, I still wake up bright and early because of my work schedule.
My body: Doesn't matter if you haven't had enough sleep. You're waking up now!
Anyway, during the week I had my head in the clouds again ruminating about the past again in one of my Discord chats. There was some discussion about new policy to allow refunds for video games that have been opened. Honestly, this should have been implemented decades ago so that if you buy an objectively bad video game that you can return it. In my post chat commentary here, I think that it wasn't needed in the 90s because most people in my social circles rented video games, so it wasn't a problem. If the game was that bad, we just didn't rent it again. However, video rental stores have gone away in the west, and I think video game rentals have always been prohibited in Japan.
( Recollection: Lord of the Rings in theatres (December 2001) & Unlocked memory: customer service experience in wireless sales (2008) )To flash forward to the present, DreamWidth temporarily went offline when I was updating this. I initially saved my progress
and I continued this train of thought in a TextEdit file, which by the way, feels like such an old school way of keeping records! But I was surprised how quickly they were able to get the site back up and running, and it does serve as a reminder about how it is good practise to keep backups of everything.
Yesterday went relatively smoothly, all things considered. I managed to catch a wrong train, and I ended up having to take a taxi to the demo lesson. Everything else went okay as I mentioned earlier. When I was finished at the school, I spent some time collecting the stamps for the Higashiyama Line/Sakura-Dori Line Group for the Nagoya Subway stamp rally. I took the time to film some of these adventures, so that will be coming up in a future video.
Selfie in front of the gold clock at Nagoya Station.
I got a quick bite to eat and I managed to snag curry and rice for under 600 yen at Yoshi Nova.
Yeaaah. I confirmed later when I returned last night that strings are supposed to be changed every 1000 ish hours or every three months, whichever comes first. I also learned that older strings can also leave marks on your fret board. Yikes. Cue to the excuses. I've never changed the strings on my guitar before, and I honestly didn't trust myself to do it without messing it up. At the moment I currently don't have anyone physically with me here to lean, practise, and jam with. It makes it hard.
Because of this, I decided to just suck it up and I went to my local music store to have someone do the maintenance for me. Yeah, I know. The seasoned guitarists are cringing as they read this. I know. I saw YouTube and on r/guitar that you can put electric strings on an acoustic guitar as a way of making it easier on your fingers and extending the practise time. But the staff at the store told me, absolutely not. I think this was a liability issue more than anything else, so I still agreed to their recommended service.
While I was out and about, I browsed an American vintage store on the floor immediately below. There, I found a Canadian patch that I couldn't pass up because Canadian made items or Canadian market items are so hard to come by around here.
( Another memory elicited from what's in front of me in the present day )
After that, I drooled over some vintage jackets from Canada, particularly the ones with a purple and teal combination. They were spendy, and I'm pretty confident that I can find something similar for a lot less at Book-Off. I returned upstairs and paid for the guitar service, and I scrolled through Reddit while I was waiting in the lobby. I'm not sure how long I was waiting, but the turnaround time seemed very quick.
Before I left, I had a good look around the store again. You might have seen from the YouTube Short video that I posted earlier that there was a pop up event called GUITAR LOVERS SHOW 2023. They had some Nagoya limited pedals and accessories decorated with the iconic golden dolphin that this city is known for. It led to a pleasant conversation with one of the staff members. I mentioned that it would be so cool to have those when I eventually return to Canada.
( Reassessing my dream electric guitar and future guitar purchases )
The day's pickups. I got a business card and a free pick from the pop up event.
Next to it is the British Columbia patch that I found in the wild.
I learned a lot from that interaction! I quickly learned that pedal boards are quite a rabbit hole that runs deep. They look like they're a lot of fun. At least for now, I'll want to focus on learning the guitar fundamentals before I spend any money on these toys. But they are definitely something I can keep researching periodically along the way.
Just to express my final thoughts before I close out here is that I am experiencing some buyer's remorse from the new guitar strings. The old ones were cakey and gross. My guitar was also falling out of tune ridiculously quickly. They needed to be replaced. But I absolutely should not have cheaped out on these new strings. I noticed the difference immediately with these strings because they squeak so much, and I can hear every chord change. But it is a lesson learned that you get what you pay for in the guitar world.
This should bring us up to date to the present. I still need to update my blog about my experiences in Mishima and Tokyo, and those will be coming soon. I need a break from writing now as I feel like I did back in my uni days after writing an essay for class.
Notes to self: * Update the tags on this entry.
* Make a list of recent song recommendations so that I can have them all in one place.
Tags:
- '90s,
- 1990s,
- 2000s,
- 90年代,
- acoustic guitar,
- art,
- dave moffatt,
- dave moffatt music,
- davemoffatt,
- davemoffattmusic,
- guitar,
- harriet the spy,
- harrietthespy,
- life in japan,
- lifeinjapan,
- lord of the rings,
- music travel fans,
- music travel love,
- musictravelfans,
- musictravellove,
- slice of life,
- sliceoflife,
- ミュージックトラベルファン,
- ミュージックトラベルラブ
It's coming up on three weeks since my trip to Mishima and Tokyo, so I better get on this update while the trip is still fairly fresh in my mind. I future vlog will be forthcoming. Because of that, I want to focus more on the things that didn't get addressed in the vlog.
This trip was a super-duper budget trip! Instead of taking the shinkansen, I took the local train all the way to Mishima and Tokyo. It was a four and a half hour trip from my house! It wasn't so bad because the time was split up from my stopover in Mishima.
The outgoing trip was pretty smooth without any problems. The initial boarding from Kanayama was packed with commuters because around 8:00 am was still a peak rush hour time, and the semi rapid train was late. Most people disembarked by the time we arrived at Obu and Kariya.
There was a senior who expressed interest in learning English, so I entertained him for the duration of his commute.
( English lesson conversation )
I had to change trains at Hamamatsu, and again at Okitsu when the train went out of service prior to my arrival in Mishima.
This is the iconic JR sign for Mishima.
When I got there, Mishima was basically the same as I had left it. There was a new Starbucks location that opened at Mishima that wasn't there before. I had some unfinished business in Mishima that I used as an excuse to get out of Nagoya at least for a little bit.
And was it ever an ordeal! I was unable to sign off on some papers because the touch screen on their tablet gave out. The issue blew up so much that all the employees came running over to check it out even though they couldn't personally do anything about it. I was in good spirits, and I kept joking and making comments about how "fun" it was. The manager kept giving me the look, as if to say STFU! Eventually, they gave up and had me sign off on a paper copy. Which should have done in the first place when we were having issues with the tablet.
The manager was not impressed or amused by the situation at all. He also struggled to read/write the kanji of my home address, and he got mad when I didn't speak up earlier about being able to do it myself. Oops.
I made my way back to the centre of Mishima and I picked up some local food while I was there.
After I picked up my energy sustenance, I went to the local park called Shirataki Park. There, I practised the usual songs from my setlist, getting attention from the locals. A child was playing on the slide, accompanied by their mother.
It wasn't long before I was approached by a group of other foreigners, asking if they can play my guitar! We took a lot of videos from the spontaneous party, so that will be coming up in a future vlog very soon.
Here is the group photo of us. I wasn't sure if I had permission to post their picture publicly and I didn't want to chance it, so I edited the photo. Making the Music Travel Love poster was such a great idea!
We eventually parted ways, and I walked to Hirokoji Station. From there, I found my way back to my first apartment in Japan. I felt a lot of emotion coming back to the place that originally got me to Japan. A lot has happened since 2017, but it seemed that nothing about the town had changed in the time I was gone. I bumped into some neighbours along the way, and I told them that I used to live in the area seven years ago.
Afterward, I turned around and I made my way back to Hirokoji Station.
Throwback photo from 2017/03/18. Mister Donut and Hirokoji Station.
I didn't get an updated photo, but I did capture the area on video. That will be coming up in the vlog.
Snacking on dounts and coffee before I made my way back on the train.
Can we take a second to appreciate the graphic design on the tray liner?
The 90s are back!
When I was finished in Mishima and boarded the next train, I had to change trains one more time upon arriving at Atami. Then it was the final stretch to Tokyo! I was carrying two bags and my guitar in its travel case, so it made things awkward when getting off the train upon my arrival at Tokyo Station.
And even with the maps at Tokyo Station, I found it so big and difficult to navigate after being gone for almost six years. I chatted with a lot of people along the way, and I eventually made it to the Traveler's Factory Tokyo Station location. I forgot how small the store was, and it was difficult to browse products with so many people coming through. As beautiful as the Station edition TN and the inserts are, I decided not to get them because I already have more than enough at home. I did however, pick up a yellow Tokyo limited insert for a friend. (I wasn't able to locate a photo of the final product, and I didn't take my own before I gave it away.) I settled on getting just the letterpress stickers to decorate the inserts that I already have at home, along with some decorative mailing envelopes.
Screenshot from my vlog in front of Traveler's Factory, Tokyo Station.
Posing in front of the Marunouchi Line sign at Tokyo Station.
When I was finished at Traveler's Factory, I jumped on the Marunouchi Line and made my way to my old flat without notifying anyone. It was indeed, a surprise visit! I was afraid that I was going to get lost due to the six years that have passed, and my overall poor navigation skills. But it was totally fine. When I got to my old home station, nothing had really changed. There was one place I noticed had closed, but virtually everything else was the same. I was able to rely on my memory alone without checking Google Maps at all to get back to my old flat.
I'm going to make this blog a two parter because I have some things that I still need to get done today. I will also update this entry with more details from Mishima and photos from the trip.
This trip was a super-duper budget trip! Instead of taking the shinkansen, I took the local train all the way to Mishima and Tokyo. It was a four and a half hour trip from my house! It wasn't so bad because the time was split up from my stopover in Mishima.
The outgoing trip was pretty smooth without any problems. The initial boarding from Kanayama was packed with commuters because around 8:00 am was still a peak rush hour time, and the semi rapid train was late. Most people disembarked by the time we arrived at Obu and Kariya.
There was a senior who expressed interest in learning English, so I entertained him for the duration of his commute.
( English lesson conversation )
I had to change trains at Hamamatsu, and again at Okitsu when the train went out of service prior to my arrival in Mishima.
This is the iconic JR sign for Mishima.
When I got there, Mishima was basically the same as I had left it. There was a new Starbucks location that opened at Mishima that wasn't there before. I had some unfinished business in Mishima that I used as an excuse to get out of Nagoya at least for a little bit.
And was it ever an ordeal! I was unable to sign off on some papers because the touch screen on their tablet gave out. The issue blew up so much that all the employees came running over to check it out even though they couldn't personally do anything about it. I was in good spirits, and I kept joking and making comments about how "fun" it was. The manager kept giving me the look, as if to say STFU! Eventually, they gave up and had me sign off on a paper copy. Which should have done in the first place when we were having issues with the tablet.
The manager was not impressed or amused by the situation at all. He also struggled to read/write the kanji of my home address, and he got mad when I didn't speak up earlier about being able to do it myself. Oops.
I made my way back to the centre of Mishima and I picked up some local food while I was there.
After I picked up my energy sustenance, I went to the local park called Shirataki Park. There, I practised the usual songs from my setlist, getting attention from the locals. A child was playing on the slide, accompanied by their mother.
It wasn't long before I was approached by a group of other foreigners, asking if they can play my guitar! We took a lot of videos from the spontaneous party, so that will be coming up in a future vlog very soon.
Here is the group photo of us. I wasn't sure if I had permission to post their picture publicly and I didn't want to chance it, so I edited the photo. Making the Music Travel Love poster was such a great idea!
We eventually parted ways, and I walked to Hirokoji Station. From there, I found my way back to my first apartment in Japan. I felt a lot of emotion coming back to the place that originally got me to Japan. A lot has happened since 2017, but it seemed that nothing about the town had changed in the time I was gone. I bumped into some neighbours along the way, and I told them that I used to live in the area seven years ago.
Afterward, I turned around and I made my way back to Hirokoji Station.
Throwback photo from 2017/03/18. Mister Donut and Hirokoji Station.
I didn't get an updated photo, but I did capture the area on video. That will be coming up in the vlog.
Snacking on dounts and coffee before I made my way back on the train.
Can we take a second to appreciate the graphic design on the tray liner?
The 90s are back!
When I was finished in Mishima and boarded the next train, I had to change trains one more time upon arriving at Atami. Then it was the final stretch to Tokyo! I was carrying two bags and my guitar in its travel case, so it made things awkward when getting off the train upon my arrival at Tokyo Station.
And even with the maps at Tokyo Station, I found it so big and difficult to navigate after being gone for almost six years. I chatted with a lot of people along the way, and I eventually made it to the Traveler's Factory Tokyo Station location. I forgot how small the store was, and it was difficult to browse products with so many people coming through. As beautiful as the Station edition TN and the inserts are, I decided not to get them because I already have more than enough at home. I did however, pick up a yellow Tokyo limited insert for a friend. (I wasn't able to locate a photo of the final product, and I didn't take my own before I gave it away.) I settled on getting just the letterpress stickers to decorate the inserts that I already have at home, along with some decorative mailing envelopes.
Screenshot from my vlog in front of Traveler's Factory, Tokyo Station.
Posing in front of the Marunouchi Line sign at Tokyo Station.
When I was finished at Traveler's Factory, I jumped on the Marunouchi Line and made my way to my old flat without notifying anyone. It was indeed, a surprise visit! I was afraid that I was going to get lost due to the six years that have passed, and my overall poor navigation skills. But it was totally fine. When I got to my old home station, nothing had really changed. There was one place I noticed had closed, but virtually everything else was the same. I was able to rely on my memory alone without checking Google Maps at all to get back to my old flat.
I'm going to make this blog a two parter because I have some things that I still need to get done today. I will also update this entry with more details from Mishima and photos from the trip.
I received the completion stamp and pin for the Meijo/Meiko/Kamiida Line Group earlier!
I decided to chill out for a bit at Tully's. I was so hungry that I didn't bother to get a photo of the meal I got, but it was pretty generic because I almost never get any of the special or seasonal drinks from any coffee place. The sandwich was pretty standard, although the baumkuchen would probably be more local to Japan even though the sweet pastry is of German origins.
While I was there, I came across this post on Reddit. In a way, it felt like I was continuing the conversation that I was having with![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
coffeetime in my last entry. When I scrolled down through the comments, I lost my composure in the café and I couldn't stop laughing when I saw that gif of the guy doing his happy dance in response to being told by Maury, "You are NOT the father." The theatrics from guests on these programs were weird.
( Trash TV of the 90s )
I have a bit of a headache at the moment, so I'll have to leave it there for now. It is strange reflecting on these old trash TV shows because they all collectively just kind of died all at once. It was a different era.
I decided to chill out for a bit at Tully's. I was so hungry that I didn't bother to get a photo of the meal I got, but it was pretty generic because I almost never get any of the special or seasonal drinks from any coffee place. The sandwich was pretty standard, although the baumkuchen would probably be more local to Japan even though the sweet pastry is of German origins.
While I was there, I came across this post on Reddit. In a way, it felt like I was continuing the conversation that I was having with
coffeetime in my last entry. When I scrolled down through the comments, I lost my composure in the café and I couldn't stop laughing when I saw that gif of the guy doing his happy dance in response to being told by Maury, "You are NOT the father." The theatrics from guests on these programs were weird.( Trash TV of the 90s )
I have a bit of a headache at the moment, so I'll have to leave it there for now. It is strange reflecting on these old trash TV shows because they all collectively just kind of died all at once. It was a different era.
