After more than eight years of living and working in Japan, in October I left the Land of the Rising Sun and the life of a professional otaku behind. I didn’t come to the decision easily; it was the result of a mess of thoughts that grew in my mind over the past year and coalesced over the summer into a decision that the status quo was no longer working.
I won’t go too deeply into the reasons; suffice to say that when I thought of the good side of my life in Japan and started thinking about goals for the future and the human connections I wanted to build, the Japan side came up short. That isn’t to say I don’t still love the country and the life I had there. I’m looking forward to return visits early and often.
Which leads to the topic of Heisei Democracy. I’m currently getting my bearings in a new home base in the Pacific Northwest, but as things quiet down I’m looking forward a return to pursuing figures, games, anime and manga as hobbies rather than a profession. Facing otakuism from the perspective of a pastime and not a day job will be a great chance to bring new life to this old site, and I look forward to delving into topics of 2D and 3D design with renewed vigor in the coming months.
I can’t predict what to expect from HD in the near future. It’s one of many plates now spinning on sticks that are propped on the roughly-hewn slope of a Puget Sound shanty (ah, tortured metaphors). But in the medium term and going forward, I expect HD to return to the evil hive of smut and Sano Toshihide worship it’s always been – now from a perspective a few thousand miles of Pacific away.
If you’re looking for raw coverage and great writing from a street level Japan-dwelling perspective in the meantime, you can’t do better than the fresh fellows over at Analog Housou. The dream lives on!
Whoa! Totally did not expect this. Good luck in your future endeavours in Washington/British Columbia (strike out which ever is incorrect.)
Thanks much! Washington it is. I have a lot of catching up to do, but I’m psyched to be 100% back on the fan side of things. The otaku spirit still burns!
Didn’t see this update coming at all! And I was just going to put this Sex Life poster in the closet! >_ >
Keep that fire burnin’! Glad to have you back! (o^_^)b
Thanks! It’s great to be back. That Sex Life poster deserves to be proudly displayed on the wall!
Yes, good to have you back, I look forward to more posts. If I think about it, I mostly came here for Alicesoft info and some figure reviews had convinced me to buy some great ones. The long silence was sad, I liked the writing…but yeah, I think primarily I trust in Shingo’s taste of ero stuff. Notable articles that come to mind are a translation of Sano Toshihide’s interview, the visual novel vs eroge spectrum thing, and the trouble with continuing to buy figures to review for the site and how it became troublesome/reporting things you didn’t like. You do good work on this blog, that’s why I still check it, so yeah, welcome back to the states, glad to hear you still want to do this, keep up the good work.
Thanks so much. It’s good to be back, both on the site and back in the States. I’m feeling a lot more free to pursue this as a hobby now, and a lot of the fun is coming back – I’m excited to see where things will go!
Hate to sound like a sap, but your link at the end means a lot, as the HD is part of what got me into blogging!
The torch has to be passed, man. One of our lineage must be in Japan at all times. So it was written, so it must be done.
There’s a synopsis for a show in there somewhere… seriously though, keep up the awesomeness, I enjoy reading everything you write!
I was only able to live in Japan for about a month (summer semester in college) and I really miss it, despite only being there for such a brief time. I’m sure it must be really tough for you!