I’m flying to Otaru for the Japan Writers Conference today! It’s been a hectic couple of weeks, and I’ve been a mess all day today: rushing out of a room to go do something only to realize that I left behind something crucial. But most things are done. Just 2 things left: submit my scholarship…
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The Inappropriate Song—or, How My Childhood Mind Thought in Absolutes
–Note: This blog post uses fake names for real people to protect their privacy.– A few days ago, I woke up and scrolled through my music library for a song I felt like writing to. I landed on Fukai Mori, or “The Deep Forest” by Do As Infinity. As I listened to the lyrics, I…
How to Write an Asexual Love Story—and Why
I’m trying to write an asexual’s love story right now. No, I don’t mean a non-sexual love story. There will in fact be a bit of sexual content, because the protagonist has to learn that not wanting to have sex, not enjoying the rush of hormones, is not the same thing as either prudishness or…
Route 2: The Highway That Was My Personal Obstacle Course
It’s been a long time since I blogged a travel story. All my Murphy’s Law of Transportation stories so far have been about public transportation, so today I’d like to talk about the This coming week my sister’s moving out of the apartment in Amherst, Massachusetts where she lived for her college career. I spent…
Unexpected Comfort Gauge: the Bathroom Metric
Over the years, the recurring conversations that I’ve had have not always been the obvious ones. One of the more surprising recurring conversations is that on the cleanliness of bathrooms. “Why are American Bathrooms So Dirty?” When I was five, and had just moved to Japan, there was a girl at my preschool who became…
On Blogging and Vlogging and All That Jazz
As you might have noticed, I’ve been dabbling in vlogs and video essays lately. Don’t worry about breaking the news to me—I’m aware that they’re not that great. I don’t think it’ll ever be my medium the way writing is. I have to script a video to be happy with it, I’m not an engaging…
Mt. Kawanori Hike (Including Hyakuhiro Falls)
Ever since I found this list of 15 beautiful hikes within Tokyo, Mt. Kawanori was at the top of my hike wish list. (Okay, fine, Hajijo-jima actually was first. But Mt. Kawanori seemed easier to access, and sometimes I arrange my wish lists with practicality in mind.) A few months ago, my flatmate Edith expressed…
(The Start of) An Impassioned Defense of Fan Fiction
**This blog post is cross-posted from my review blog, The Storybooker.** As a general rule, I don’t post reviews of fanfics on my review blog. Certainly, there was one notable exception—an instance in which said fanfic was eventually published as a book for sale, incidentally. Lately, I’ve begun to ask myself: Why is that? This…
Of Vulnerability, Molehills and Mountains
As you may be aware if we are friends on Facebook, I am currently in a depressive episode. This makes this a first for me: publicly talking about my depression while I’m still in the depths of it, dark and cold and frightened and exhausted. Of Vulnerability As I talked about in my post about…
An Anatomy of a Social Anxiety Discussion
Today, I’m going to write about social anxiety for both the socially anxious, and those whose loved ones may have social anxiety. Prelude When I first started this Keeping Ahead of the Shadows blog series, I had several areas in mind to write about, each tackling a different major aspect of life that is both difficult…