Back home

I've been back home about 4 weeks and am slowly getting used to being home. It's strange; I never expected to suffer from reverse culture shock. I didn't have culture shock in Japan because, well, I expected things to be very different. Here are some things I've noticed about being home:

1: Everyone here is so tall! And wide! There are actually fat people here. Lots of them.

2: I can talk here. I mean, talk and be understood. This is not always a relief. There's a certain lack of stress that comes with only being able to grunt and point at things. This might explain something about boys. The laid-back ones, anyway.

3. The sun is warm here. Toasty warm.

4. I like wearing dresses.

My ideal workday

I'm working in Hawkes Bay at the moment, stocking up on experience, doleros and a tan. They've given me a motel room across the road from Hastings Hospital and I've been slowly working out the lay of the land. Everything is pretty sweet and handy. Here's my ideal working day:

8.30am: go to handover.

9 am - 5 pm: save lives.

5.30 pm: 5 mins up the rd: Aquajogging session at Swimgym (my motel key gets me in free)

6.30pm: Towel off. 10 mins up the rd: get icecream from Rush Munroes Icecream gardens(I've earned it).

6.45 pm: Still eating icecream, wander into Hawkes Bay seafood to grab some fresh fish and mussels.

7 pm: sighing happily, cook dinner.

7.30 pm: write.


This is a theoretical timetable, of course. I don't think it will ever turn out this way (for a start, I tend to work past 5 at the moment ... and I'm pretty good at constructing excuses not to go to the gym). But dreaming is halfway to doing.

Ok, it's not, but at least it's a fun exercise.

We-ness

In the latest TBI issue I've posted a recent interview with Square, friend and producer of the Asian Tales concept. I'm quite excited by some of the ideas we talk about, especially around shifting identity and the concept of "we-ness" (sharing and being rather than standing apart and looking). I'm going to have a think and expand on those issues for my TBI blog which is due in tonight....

Grindstone Day 20

Automated External Defibrillator combined with drinks vending machine at Jurobe residence, Tokushima

Time: 5.40 pm
Chapter: 10
Pots of tea: 0
Lunch: rice, egg and soup combo - winter comfort food
Snack: sweet potato

Feeling guilty, guilty, guilty. Went well on Friday, but over the weekend and today? Phtttt. Haven't managed to really even open my word file, let alone make good progress. On the good side though got an email from my mentor today to say she's enjoying Part 1 of the manuscript. Hurray! maybe at last I'm on the right track.

Also feeling bad because the end of the "writing solitude" has crept up on me and on Wednesday we'll be heading north to Kyoto for Xmas - we're going to have a Mexican Xmas with lots of socialising. And after that we'll be heading north to Naruto and then Tokyo, staying with friends all the way, so again maybe not too much writing opportunity there, and from there I leave for home.

Then again I might be much more efficient on this next "stage" of the trip - very easy to fritter away time and not do so much when I know I've got the whole day, so I may manage to do the same amount of writing or even more if I snatch an hour here and there and FOCUS. Ah, grrr. Silly, silly me.

On the upside, the weekend was nicely lazy with lots of sleeping in, eating (pancakes, mostly) and wandering around Tokushima. Went to the local puppet theatre which is a
living traditional art" around here, the puppets are superbly crafted and I even got to handle one,fantastic!!

Now I have to cook dinner, some hungry Mexicans are on their way and the fridge needs to be emptied before Wednesday :)

Grindstone Day 19

Time: 6.47 pm
Chapter: 10
Pots of tea: 2.0
Flavour: Blueberry and raspberry
Lunch: sweet potato, rice and egg
Snack: mandarins

As you can see by my postings, today I have been inspired by 'Japanese-style' theatre. I use the speech marks because it's hard to define the "style" of any geographic place without first referencing time period and social group, but nonetheless, Japan has evolved several art forms which could be said to be unique to this country (although often themselves adapted from imported forms).

I'm feeling quite vulnerable here, as I could possibly now be accused of orientalism - something which I have looked down on others for in the past. You see, I don't know very much about Japanese theatre, only what I can access in English on the internet, or have read a little of in books. And sadly Wikipedia is one of my primary sources of info.

But I admit to being seduced by the unearthly, metaphoric nature of these works. I really wish I could create an atmosphere like these create; that I had at my fingertips not only thousands of years of folklore and historic works of literature, but the language ability and scholarship to understand its many connotations, instead of ending up like those poor snobs at Max Planck Institute.

But, sadly, I am just another gaijin entranced by the allure of the unknown, albeit a well camouflaged one. It seems to be that way with most of the things I try. How can one possibly catch up with all the years of learning and understanding that it takes to write about something well? It's a hopeless hope. And yet, I keep trying, consoling myself that people might mistake ignorance for "freshness", or that in making mistakes I might learn better for next time. *Sigh*.

My blood sugars must be low. Hope Mark gets home soon so we can eat.

Jesus Christ Superstar

Saw the touring production last night in Tokushima, done by the Shiki Theatre Company. WOW. Here's the review on Lumiere.

The House of Flame

An amazing short animation with elements of Japanese Bunraku, Noh and Kabuki, by master Kihachiro Kawamoto.

Grindstone Day 18

Time: 10.40 pm
Chapter: 9
Pots of tea: 1.5
Flavour: Green
Lunch: sweet potato
Snack: mochi

Well, made a little more progress today on the manuscript. Even though it's still only chapter 9!! I've been learning to write spaces recently. By this I mean the novelistic equivalent to white space in paintings, the gaps that are left unpainted and serve just as important a function in prose, or for that matter, drama.

I think it is drama that first taught me that leaving something unwritten isn't such a bad thing. For example, my first short play, "Mask", initially had detailed stage directions indicating nearly every move the actors made. It was only after I saw it workshopped and the actors and director told me (and thank god they did) that I didn't need to be so detailed, that I realised that leaving others some space in which to use their creativity is a good thing. After I started trimming stage directions I also started trying to cut down on dialogue - after all in real life we leave a lot of the important things unsaid.

A piece of writing is a bit like a do-up house: to get the strongest emotional response from a buyer, you have to show them what they could potentially make for themselves. Leaving a bit of space for their imagination to wander around in is not only savvy, it's a necessity for good writing.

Of course, my little bit of wisdom imparted (and it's not an original thought at all), the hard thing is to strike the balance between providing too much detail and not providing enough. And that is where I'm at right now. When I first presented my work to my Masters class (in 2007), one of the comments was the exhaustive detail which I had included - which helped to establish a feeling of verisimilitude, but also slowed down the action. So currently I'm compressing two chapters into one, editing around 5000 words into (hopefully) 2,000 or less. This is work that has already gone through a number of edits, so every cut is painful (but necessary, I know, I know....). Wish me luck.