The day Ellie died.

One year ago I began living with my Japanese roommate. I love her! From the first time I met her I thought she was such a cool girl, beautiful inside and out. She would hang out with me, talk to me and cheer me up when I was down. One year later little by little there started to be a chill in the air. Her attitude towards me became cold and brass. I thought maybe something was wrong that she couldn't talk to me about. We hadn't been in a fight or anything and I couldn't understand why suddenly there was this friction between us. 

Then... she exploded.

Things that had been bothering her about me, how I live, how I act, things I said all came up and she said the words that would mark the end of any relationship from an American standpoint, "I want you to give me some space!"

I was devastated, but I wasn't about to just let our friendship fall apart.

I had to step back, but it was a good thing. 

Now I really began to see the differences between our cultures. 

Let me go back a bit, before things started to get tense. 

The longer we lived together, the more happy I was. I was so grateful for her friendship. As a foreigner living alone in Japan my friends are my family and she is such a dear and important person to me. Her dream, though, is to get married and start her own family and business. This means that inevitably be moving out someday, probably soon. So, at some point I decided that as long as we were living together I wanted it to be the best time for her; that she would be comfortable and happy and have only good memories of living with me.

I started to bend my living habits to match hers, she likes things to be really clean so I put in more effort to be neat. Me doing things with my feet, like closing doors or blocking the rabbit from bouncing around where she doesn't belong, really bothered her, so I tried my best not to do it. I even started trying to fold the toilet paper into a little triangle after going to the bathroom... AND closing the lid. 

It's a good thing that I really started practicing these habits before hand because it was these kinds of things that had been bothering her. 

Her culture, Japanese culture; the emphasis is on the whole, not the individual. Keeping things super neat and clean, using things only in the way they were designed for, using a different towel for every kind of surface, asking permission every time, even when you know the answer is yes... all of these things and more are done out of consideration for others health, ease and well-being. Neglecting these small details is like saying you don't care about people. 

Now I am trying very hard to learn and practice Japanese manners and habits out of consideration to my still dear friend.

I truly love my room mate in the purest sense. But that was the other problem...

Experience

I've begun assisting a professional comic artist who lives in Toyota city!
I was so nervous I thought I was going to throw up. But she was really nice. She showed me how to add shadows on the artwork, then just let me go to work.
After I finished the first page she checked it out and said, "Not bad. We can go with this."
YAAAAAAAAAY!!!
Tomorrow I go back to help again. It's so exciting! I'm taking steps towards my dream. It's really, really happening!

Side note: She had this thing... and I want it.

It's happening!

I've been given the opportunity to really pursue my dream of becoming a professional artist. I'm changing to part time work starting July and really going full throttle.
Now everything I've learned up until now is going to go into effect. I'm so excited and nervous. But God has brought me this far, and I know he won't let me down now.
 I've started a Patreom, a webcomic, a body of work for exhibition and I'm trying harder than ever to expand my community.

Here goes everything!

Here's to friends

Today I felt the incredible warmth of my friends. At home, in church, in my art circle. I'm just so thankful to God for surrounding me with such wonderful people.

So, I'm recalling this sketch from a couple years ago. 

Here's to friends.

What's up? - Chicken Butt.

Two weeks ago I participated in the Foreign Artists' Exhibition.

Along with many of the other artists participating, I found that I lead a dual life.

Teacher by day - artist by night.

I gave away a lot of business cards, so, to the possible new people who are following my endeavors, here's an update.

Let me tell you what this artist is up to...

I'm working on three projects right now. Each week I'm alternating my focus from one to the next. Hopefully this will allow me to focus and use my energy effectively.

Japan VS America: I'm releasing one page a week. This comic is really fun for me! I've always wanted to write a comic in Japanese and this my first effort to do so. Eri is helping correct my Japanese and is teaching me Japanese sound effects. Though she says her Japanese isn't very good, I still appreciate the help. It's great practice and I'm really loving the challenge of this Bi-lingual comic.

Moonlight Havok:

My hopes are to release this one scene per month. Though the story is pretty solid in my head, my scripts are really out dated and frankly the dialogue is embarrassing and amateurish. I'm focusing on rewriting the script and fixing the paneling. Initially this comic was formatted for left to right reading, but since I'm living in Japan and most people who read comics are adapted to the Eastern, right to left formatting, I figured it would be easier to just keep it that way.

Elftech:

This is a story idea I conceived at around age 12 and it's never died out in my head. Last year I had an epiphany for how I want to finish the story as well as the message I want to convey through it, so I'm currently writing the script.

During the 2 months I was in America this summer I was able to work out a framework and basic timeline, so now I'm fleshing out the details.

Sundays and during the times my head hurts too much to look at the screen, I'm playing with clay and sculpting. With any extra clay I have left over I make little butts.

Let's talk about dreams.

Just recently I had the chance to see my favorite group, Perfume, perform live right here in Nagoya.

I was so excited when I was told they'd be here that I instantly purchased the ticket, despite the fact that it meant I'd be going alone. 

I was so excited that even when I went on the day that I had purchased my ticket for, turned out to be mistakenly for the next day, I happily purchased a second ticket and went twice!

This was my experience:

The huge lights and stage created an outer space atmosphere. The music boomed right into my soul, it felt like... and now I feel I can never listen to their music at a normal volume again.

And the girls, A-chan, Nochi and Kashiyuka with their years of hard work and experience danced perfectly. Despite sitting next to an unenthusiastic older man　盛れ上げないおじいさん  both times, I was ecstatic. 

I follow this group well enough to know their story, to know that they almost didn't make it. That in a time when they could've given up, providence happened, and now they sharing their dream with the whole world.In that moment I was awe struck. Because I was standing there, in Japan, watching them, living MY dream. 

And I thought to myself, God really must care about people's dreams. Not just the dreams of people who believe in him, but everyone's dreams. And He blesses hard work towards making those dreams come true. 

I won't be overly modest in saying that I didn't put effort into being here. But there was so much divine intervention to help me overcome obstacles which sometimes I didn't even know were in my way. Almost as confirmation, at that moment, the chorus of the song "Miracle Worker" blasted and I just about died of happiness.

A-chan ended the concert with saying, "Everyone, sometimes you have hard days, but you're not alone. We all have our own problems to overcome, in whatever it is we're doing. So let's all do our best, every day." Sniffling back my tears I went home charged for the week- for my whole life maybe.

I'll never forget the time I saw Perfume... twice. Which I think was also divine intervention, as once was definitely not enough.

Webcomic host blogーーーacitvate!

I've created a sister blog to my website with which I will be posting a couple of webcomics:

Japan VS America, the one I previously mentioned, and my baby... Moonlight Havok!

So far, I've got the first episode (?) of Japan VS America.

I've got a lot of ideas for it's continuation, so please look forward to it.

It's been a while since I've worked on MLH though, so it might be a little while before I can get the ball rolling on it.

Please look forward to it, however. It's the comic I want more than anything to succeed, so I was waiting till I was at a more professional standing, but I finally decided to just go for it after reading a note in Mangakuukan by one of the professional comic artists. 

He said, "The comic I most wanted to make is, The me who cannot go to school Please read it."

And I was like, Dang it! I want people to read the comic I most want to make!

Here I go!

Until I can figure out better methods for displaying these comics, here it is!

http://parapearlcomics.blogspot.jp/