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I'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!

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.

I have now had my acoustic guitar for a year, and following that demo lesson I finally decided to get the strings changed. Seasoned guitarists will probably be shaking their heads. You haven't changed your strings in a year?

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.

Life keeps happening so quickly, and this week is becoming a blur. I'll do my best to summarise events and my thoughts.

Earlier in the week, I came across a thread on the 90s subreddit about the old boy band, LFO. Anyone remember them? I remember seeing their music videos on TV, but I didn't actively follow them. I was shocked to learn that the whole band is dead, and even the new singer who came on to replace the original singer also passed away. Now, there's just one surviving member of that group. I learned this right around the same time that the news broke that Matthew Perry from Friends passed away.

It's tragic, and it brings up a mixture of feelings. It serves as a reminder that we are getting further and further away from the time period that I love so much. And as we get older, the more people that we know both personally, and peripherally will die. Which in turn, reminds of us of our own mortality. The world around us, our experiences, memories, and our biological bodies in which we use to function are fleeting. I think it's important to cherish every moment that you have because your whole life as you know it can change in an instant.

It was also surreal to be alive to experience The Beatles final release, Now and Then yesterday. I felt the same emotions come up again that I felt in the 90s when they released Free as a Bird. I ended up using that song as part of an English project when I was in grade seven. It's been so long that I forgot the prompt that I was responding to when presenting that song. But I do remember our English teacher insisting on an extended play, compared to other songs that were presented by both my classmates and I. I think it was because it was just that powerful of a song.

There's something bittersweet about hearing something new, knowing that the music has been released posthumously in the absence of two members of the band. This is not just a reminder of our mortality, but also a reminder that this moment of history will soon be ending.

It is truly amazing that Paul and Ringo are still active and touring, in the advanced age that they are. I hope to someday see their shows before it's too late, but it seems impossible to do that on a teacher's salary. Unless they come to Japan, and even then the cost of tickets is going to be really high. I remember Paul got into big trouble in Japan for drug possession in his prime, but I have a feeling that immigration would let that slide because he is Paul McCartney, after all!

Halloween was pretty quiet. I didn't see anyone in costume. A new business opened in my neighbourhood, and there was a large lineup outside. It was unclear as to what it was because there was brown paper in the window. Some people in the lineup clarified what the business was, and I commented that it looked like a secret idol meet and greet, lol. Since then, this new business seems to be doing well, with large lineups outside every day.

I also got a haircut to match the meme I posted the other day. I went back to the hairstylist I used to see and requested an undercut to get the hair off my neck at least a bit. I just got a small one done - maybe an inch or two up the nape in the shape of a triangle. I figured that I can take it higher at a later date if I wanted to. The rest of my hair seems to have grown out a lot in just the last two weeks, and you can't tell that I had anything done unless I show you or put my hair up. I believe the last time I saw my stylist was in the spring, and she was really surprised at how much growth I've made so far. She asked me if I have a boyfriend now. 😂 I normally cut my hair myself, but I didn't want to chance messing up the parting. I still want to cut off all my hair, but then I'll lose the human billboard on my person that took so much time, patience, and maintenance to create.

While at the mall, I found another pair of glasses similar to the one purple ones I had. I have scheduled to pick them up within the next two weeks.

When I got home, I decided to start learning California by Wave as a way to celebrate MTL's tour of Nevada and California this weekend.



How cool would it be to have a setlist or a playlist of these kinds of songs? California by Wave, Californiacation by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and of course, California by The Moffatts. Can you think of any others?

I also started practising Misery again, when a spider decided to drop down from my loft ceiling. It really startled me, and it was quite comical like what you would see in a TV show.

( Boing! )

Dave Moffatt also dropped an amazing collaboration that day. Make sure to go check it out and let him know that I sent you there!

I still have more too update you about how this week has been going, but I am completely, and utterly exhausted. I'll follow up on this tomorrow.

I treated myself today. I can see clearly for the first time in several years. This is also the first time in about 29 years that I got a different colour frame. I've always gravitated to purple frames since childhood, so this is quite an adjustment. But, my transformation to a Moffatts fangirl is almost complete!

I gave up my last pair of glasses in order to receive the discount for these new ones. I hope that in the coming months that I can find a comparable pair of frames like my old purple ones. I'd like to have the option to go back to being me, and keep these orange frames as a novelty pair.



Inspo pics:


The Moffatts circa 1999 vs The Moffatts Reunion circa 2018

The glasses I selected are not the exact same model as Scott's, but they are pretty close! These pictures are only meant to serve as inspiration to recapture The Moffatts for my fangirl look. By extension, I wanted to increase the visibility of this look, particularly if I am a face in a crowd.

I learned many years ago from the Sailor Moon musicals that the bolder, more garish looks display better on stage and on film.


Photo sourced from Tuxedo Unmasked.

The costumes from the Sailor Moon musicals during the 90s were much more gaudy than they are today, and they deviated from the source material quite a lot. But it was clear that the goal was to make sure that the costume was clearly visible on stage so that the character can easily be identified from any vantage point in the audience. It should also go without saying that we didn't have HD television in those days, so the importance of visibility can't be stressed enough.



I think by about this time next year, I should have the classic Scott Moffatt look complete! It takes sooo long to grow out your hair from a buzz cut! But I won't lie, I do look forward to the day that I can dismantle this ironic hairstyle.


Throwback to April 2021. My old glasses are visibly damaged in this shot, but I loved this short hairstyle. It was an effortless look with no flyaway hair, and it was great for summer.

Soooo.. I barely got through one email last night before I crashed and burned. Oof.

Work ran a little later than usual today, so I had maybe about 20 minutes of guitar practise before quiet hours started from 22:00. We got a lot of rain throughout the day, so it was very much welcome to cool things off. Because of this, I have a little more energy tonight to document how my week has been going.

Due to weird scheduling this month, I had Monday off. During this time, I went shopping for the first time in months for a bit of a wardrobe refresh. I'm used to thrifting my clothes these days, so heading back to the mall was a little jarring for me. I don't usually buy new unless I'm buying leggings or undergarments. But I was really blown away by what my local mall is offering these days, and it truly feels like a 90s revival.

( Fashion comparisons behind the cut. )
I will have to end my update here, as I have crashed unbelievably quick in the time that it took for me to write this down. I'll follow up on this post as soon as I have the energy to do so.

A lot has happened already since my last update yesterday. I pushed myself so hard on guitar during these last 48 ish hours that I have blisters on my fingers as I type this.

Let's start from the beginning. I started with some self-care time, and I took a hot bath to try to relieve my body aches and pains, particularly the chronic knee pain that I mentioned yesterday. During that time, I finally finished Before the Coffee Gets Cold: Tales from the Cafe, by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. I was reading the 2020 English translation of this series by Picador. The story is strange and unusual, with a heavy dose of melancholic themes. There are funny parts in the book that made me smile too.

( Before the Coffee Gets Cold: Tales From the Cafe )

The overall theme of the book really ties into what I have been talking about on this journey, even before I started this blog earlier this year. Enjoy the current, present moment, and tell your loved ones that you love them while you can because your life and reality can very suddenly and quickly change. I was happy to find out that this series has two more installments that I still have left to read.

After I finished soaking my knees, I put myself together and headed back to my local park. I came by at a much earlier time, maybe around 15:30 or so. I practised the same songs from the previous day, putting extra attention and care to Misery, and the secret song.

( Promoting The Moffatts and Music Travel Love at my local park yesterday )

Despite the state of my physical health, my heart is full. There is something really special about playing music live to promote the band instead of just playing their music over a portable bluetooth speaker or something. I think that the difference is that it takes a lot of patience and skill to play guitar, and do it well, while anybody can play music on a bluetooth speaker. There's also the live interaction with passersby that you just don't get from playing background music. It really changes the dynamic in a positive way.

For a long time along this journey, I struggled a lot with imposter syndrome. I was in denial for a long time, and I had to read emails back to myself as a reminder, that yes, this is really happening! But with every passing day, I feel a little closer to fully realising my dreams even if they are not fully apparent to you now. Everything will become clear when the time is right.

Today, I returned to my local park with a different crowd. Nobody directly approached me about the songs I was playing, but I did overhear some kids talking about how I was volunteering my song. I heard a boy say something to the effect of, "歌をあげた。(Uta wo ageta./She gave a song.)" before running back to play baseball with his friend.

Later on tonight, there was a special event being held by my local kindergarten. When I inquired about it as I was leaving, one of the teachers thanked me for the music. Thankfully, there were no accidents on my return trip home.

These adventures have provided me with a much needed break from video editing. Particularly from blurring out individuals from my videos to make sure that they are compliant with local privacy laws in Japan. I find this task quite めんどくさい (mendokusai, a bother to do), but this is an absolutely important step to make sure that you are in the legal clear. I mentioned in the description of the Loft Closure video and my update on the community page about exactly how difficult the YouTube Studio editor is.

I realised that my Traveler's Notebook is almost full, and I will need to start a new one for the second half of the year. I'm thinking that I might do another livestream to record the process, because it has been a while since the last time I streamed.

I'm going to stop here for now so that I can grab a much needed late night dinner.