About a week ago, I finished reading my first full novel in Japanese, 雨の日も、晴れ男 (Ame no Hi mo, Hare Otoko), and it's time for a mini-review and mini-linguistic overview for potential readers. This will be a little messy, but read along to get the full details. 🧵 1/16

Haven't really drawn/made much art in recent times due to a lot of life stuff going on, but I figured I'd give some critters a go. Just a quick and messy one, but here's Nuko from Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou/Girl's Last Tour. #少女週末旅行　＃ヌコ

That's 4/6 volumes of 少女終末旅行 done, and I'm now headed into the manga-only content. From what vague hints I've heard, I'm a little intimidated by the approaching ending.

Probably my favourite irregular kana so far.

It's official, I just finished reading my first proper novel in Japanese. 雨の日も、晴れ男 was a great little tragicomic bit of absurdity, and definitely a page turner at times. I also understood about ~85% on my first reading, and I'm keen to revisit the more complex descriptive parts. Review incoming.

Because what goes around comes around, share a circle, a disk, or something round.

One puzzle withstanding, I had a great time with Onimusha: Warlords. It still holds up as a fairly breezy, but engaging chanbara action game. Onto the sequel!

Wont lie, it's also a film that gave me a major push to try to build up my Japanese skills to read novels. Between Japanese bookstores and this film, I saw a world I wanted to properly dip my toes into, and maybe even dive into. And yes, I do have a copy of Ki by Aya Koda in my shelves for one day.

Tonight, I decided to revisit the German-Japanese co-production Perfect Days (2023), a film which I have a bit of an interesting history with. Revisiting nearly two years later, I still absolutely adore this film, and it's definitely a personal favourite that still resonates heavily in 2026. 🧵

I've had a few false starts with other books, but 雨の日も晴れ男 might end up being the first Japanese novel I finish. I'm getting 75-80% on the first read, and while some of the extended descriptions are tricky, but I'm following the quirky plot pretty well. 55 pages read and counting.

Finally got around to watching Tampopo (タンポポ, 1985) and without a doubt, this is the most Pythonesque silly bit of Japanese cinema I've seen. It's definitely an absurdist variety piece, with some beautiful colour stock and cinematography, amidst all the skits and a few... more graphic gags.

Tonight's film was Three Outlaw Samurai (三匹の侍, 1964), which was a winding and action-packed chanbara film that's in many ways an anti-samurai film. Between the mercenary, brutal ronin and the oppressive ruling class featured, it doesn't paint a great picture of the samurai class under the Tokugawa 🧵

I'm not going to set any timelines for a public availability, but I've started digitising my growing vocab notes from nearly 2 years of proper Japanese reading. It's a sprawling list of 3500+ words at this point, and will be aimed at intermediate readers. I'm tempted to call it 『読みすがり辞書』

Look at what arrived in the mail.

The anime version expanded things a bit, but... wow. THAT part of Dandadan is still gut wrenchingly tragic in either medium.

Just finished the first volume of Onryou Okusama and I think I'll be continuing the series. It's a solid horror-comedy, but it's got a lot of heart too. It explores social anxiety, self acceptance, and misfits building a small community together quite heavily, and I'm interested to see where it goes

If you're an intermediate Japanese learner and you're interested in yuurei, you might want to check out the horror-comedy-drama manga Onryou Okusama (怨霊奥様). I've only read a few chapters, but it's pretty entertaining and plays with horror tropes hilariously. Language is accessible too.

Been watching basketball again over the past few months, and I figured it was time to resume Slam Dunk properly.

Small bonus, but I laughed out loud at this subtle little tribute to Kurosawa's adaptation of Macbeth, Throne of Blood (蜘蛛巣城, 1957), a film that I *REALLY* need to rewatch.

Tonight I revisited Millennium Actress (千年女優, 2001), which didn't click when I first saw it in the late 2000s. I will say though, in hindsight, it's Kon's finest editing/sequencing in motion, and definitely a piece enhanced by knowledge of Japanese history/cinema. It clicked this time. Big time. 🧵

I first saw this anthology in a book shop in Osaka in '23. I hadn't realised that it had been translated, and they kept the original art too. Instant pick up.

Spotted in the wild today. If you're a history buff and love horror, Between Two Fires has a new edition and is back in print. Highly recommended.

I watched His Motorbike, Her Island (彼のオートバイ、彼女の島 1986) tonight, which is definitely an interesting, offbeat piece. Equal parts madcap and melancholy, it straddles the youth drama-romance-bousouzoku genres, bordering on absurdist comedy at times. It's also a visually striking piece.

Finally finished Paranoia Agent, which marks the final Kon work in my pile. It's an interesting exploration of trauma, delusions, escapism, acceptance, and of complex social undercurrents in Japan. It's a bit uneven, but definitely a solid part of Kon's sadly all too small body of work

It'll be a few years before I'm back in Japan due to ongoing family health stuff, but I figured it was time to do a bit of research on my favourite area, city and region. A few magazines/books are on the way.

You can set Forza 6 to pure 日本語 mode, but there's a way to switch to a hybrid approach, which is fantastic for learners. In the \StringTables\ folder (path below), make a copy of the JP file as a back up first. After this, make a copy of the EN file and rename it JP. All speech is now in Japanese!

I'm not that big on racing games (not flash at them), but I'm enjoying Forza 6, if primarily for the cruising and locales. Also, Japanese learners, there's an easy way to set to Japanese audio with English subtitles as an added bonus (next post). I must say though, the sunset effects are lovely.

24/11 this year will mark 2 years since I started this Japanese reading project. It has become one of my favourite activities each week, and a solid anchor in what continues to remain one of the most turbulent stretches of my life.

Finally, I'm proud to reveal a piece that I was really happy with how it turned out, a Casablanca-inspired piece. STARRING HORKPHREY BOGART... HAMABLANCA! #meatpaint Credits to @mrhallenbeck.bsky.social for the 'Horkphrey Bogart' name.

Next up, another Blair Witch-inspired piece and a major experiment with a grittier, horror-adjacent style. A Meathead wandered into the woods beyond the cave and was never seen again. This image was recovered from a camera roll found in an abandoned, derelict cabin. #meatpaint