100-word story: Stroll to Shimo (photo essay)
It takes about 2.5 hours to walk from my house to Shimokitazawa — Tokyo’s little bohemian hub — or longer if I linger in bakeries and cafes along the way, which I always do. The Google-suggested path I take winds through all these tiny pedestrian pathways where the trees and little homes craning out into the road are only a couple yards asunder. It trails … Continue reading 100-word story: Stroll to Shimo (photo essay)
100-word story: Coffee beans
I just popped into Starbucks to buy coffee beans and every time I do this and ask for just 100g, which means they have to break the metallic bag open and measure me out a smaller amount, I expect they’re gonna say no. And this time I wanted their special Xmas blend so when the barista came back to me with a face full of … Continue reading 100-word story: Coffee beans
The Frequency Problem
A few weeks ago I re-started my Japanese classes that I used to attend about 2 years ago when I was a “full-time freelancer.” I stopped going to the classes (or, rather, I didn’t to sign up for the new session) when I was hired by that satanic magazine back in April 2017. When the magazine adventure ended in a fiery explosion of disappointment last … Continue reading The Frequency Problem
Part 1: The School Physical
Listen to the story! Music: “Ethereal” – Once Were Ghosts “Moon Child” – Quint Baker “Bolted Doors” – Mr. Bitterness and the Guilty Pleasures “Dream World” – Quint Baker “The 60 Minute Zoo” – Electric Mirrors “Glitch” – Kirk Pearson “Moontime” – The IMG “Tetris” – Stealing Orchestra “Space” – Andy G. Cohen “Reliable Source” – Nicolas Falcon Read the story: I’ve been thinking … Continue reading Part 1: The School Physical
Infatuation Tracking
A couple weeks ago I started re-reading one of the chapters from Proust’s Swann’s Way called “Swann in Love.” I read Swann’s Way when I was 16 or so and I remember it being a real trial. It was verbose and intimidating, the narrator’s memories poured out and stretched into these incredible gargantuan masses like sticky gelatin. For the first several hundred pages it felt like I … Continue reading Infatuation Tracking
Bananafish Chit-Chat
“Ask me something else, Sybil,” he said. “That’s a fine bathing suit you have on. If there’s one thing I like, it’s a blue bathing suit.” Sybil stared at him, then looked down at her protruding stomach. “This is a yellow,” she said. “This is a yellow.” “It is? Come a little closer.” Sybil took a step forward. “You’re absolutely right. What a fool I am.” “Are … Continue reading Bananafish Chit-Chat
Franz Kafka
Originally published here. “I walked through a long row of houses at the level of the first or second floor, just as one walks through a tunnel from one carriage to another. I walked quickly, perhaps also because the house was so rickety that for that reason alone one hurried. The doors between the houses I did not notice at all, it was just … Continue reading Franz Kafka
Tokyo Podcast and Hard P’s
One thing that motivated me on this whole podcast creation trial back in the day, besides the fact that I really love the podcast method of storytelling, is the fact that it seems like there’s a surprising vacuum in the Japan podcast scene. If you look up the most listened-to English-language podcasts in Japan, most of them are foreign podcasts (like NPR, BBC) or specific … Continue reading Tokyo Podcast and Hard P’s
出鱈目なwriting
About a week ago I did a little “language exchange” with a friend of mine at a cafe in Shimokitazawa. Actually it was the same exact cafe where I met my podcast friend for coffee a few weeks before that. I don’t know why I keep returning to this one cafe out of the many dozens that shimokita has. It’s a really tiny cafe too, … Continue reading 出鱈目なwriting
First Stories
Maybe I should re-listen to the first season of the Start Up podcast if I’m supposedly emulating this meta-narrative idea of Alex Blumberg’s here. Not that I’m trying to put this on a level with that series, and not that Alex Blumberg invented the idea of publicly recording your endeavors to start a new project as a way of furthering the progress of said project. … Continue reading First Stories
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