Happy New Year: 2011 Review
This is my final post for 2011 taking a look back at my year of events. So sit back with some nog and enjoy the read.
It’s been an interesting year indeed! Korea, Canada, and Japan. From teaching English in a mountain town to graphic/web design in Yokohama and Tokyo. Drifting in Toyama and crashing in Nagano. Earthquakes, tsunamis, meltdowns, and organizing a charity event within a week. Guitars, kabakuras, eating wasp larvae. Continuing my design career in Japan as well as working on an independent game project on the side. One thing I learned about myself this year: I’m awesome. But I couldn’t have done any of it without my family and friends. Here’s a story of my year, riddled with plot gaps. Rather than ramble on about every event I’ll instead summarize the ones that I find most important.
Let’s start with the drifting. Every day I would drive by this old piece of junk car on my way to work in Nagano. As someone who always loved to race and had access to a car at almost all times, I couldn’t resist stopping and checking it out. Long story short, the piece of junk with embarrassing sparkly wine red paint had 350HP and the proper differential for drifting, something I wanted to try (though I would like to try rally racing even more). After saving up a bit I ended up buying it and going through all the paperwork that comes along with a car in Japan. I remained good friends with the shop owner and every time I had trouble (which was often, due to my own carelessness) he was always there to lend me a hand. Aside from the help we would also BBQ together inside the garage along Route 19 and occasionally drive together. Most memorably was heading to Owara Circuit in Toyama prefecture. There I had my first experience drifting on a Japanese circuit, and the garage owner taught me the course as well as a few more driving techniques. Though I wanted to stay in Nagano a little longer and hangout with him some more, I decided to head back to Yokohama and continue my design career. Thank you, Masa! I’ll continue to work on my technique and hopefully crash less!
(If you’re interested in drifting and ever find yourself near Matsumoto, Nagano drop by Garage502 and say hello to Masa for me.)
As for the Tohoku Earthquake experience, I learned much. It’s an odd thing waking up and going to work while keeping a straight face, the meanwhile you’re wondering whether to leave your friends in Japan or have your friends and family back in Canada worry about you. Also strange was coming from a life of eating whatever I wanted whenever I wanted, to wondering about what is or isn’t safe to eat if anything at all. There was a lot of uncertainty at the time and nobody knew what to expect of the situation, and honestly I’m not sure if anyone knows even months afterwards. I won’t go too much into my experiences in this post since I could go on for hours about what was going through my head at the time, but perhaps I can share more another time. Luckily, I have a caring family who wanted to see me and after much deliberation and talking with my friends in Japan, everyone agreed that I should go see my family. So I was off for 2 weeks and in this time was able to hastily put together a fundraising event back home where we sold beer and takoyaki (balls of batter with octopus inside) for charity. The fact that many people showed up on such short notice was great and they are they ones who I’d like to thank. There are many people in Japan who can’t return home since the disaster, so I can’t thank those who attended the event enough for your support. You have helped these families in their time of need by providing them with food, supplies, and temporary shelter. I never had the chance to get the name of everyone who attended, but if you attended and you’re reading this please pass this message of thanks along to anyone else who attended.
The time after returning to Japan was difficult for me as well. I had a friend visiting who was to work on my game development project. His flight had been postponed but he came a few weeks later to get started on some concept art. I’d like to thank him for his patience with me at this time as I was stressed and had difficulties giving proper guidance on the project. In the end though, we got 3 good characters out of it and had some entertaining experiences. Thanks, Doug! I’m sure I’ll be seeing you next year as well!
In the later half of the year I focused on advancing my career forward and getting back into design. So now here I am in Yokohama. It took 3 months of eating sprouts and fermented beans, as well as countless failed interviews, but I’m now back on track with design and working with some great employers. This year has been a bit of a roller coaster, but I enjoyed the ride! I’ve learned many important and useful things and look forward to seeing what next year brings.
Before I end this post, I’d also like to thank a few of my friends back in Matsumoto; Taka and “Keiji the Nightrider” for the drink sessions, as well as all my drifter friends for helping me out with spare parts and tires. Thanks to Mr. Ludvik for being an awesome neighbor, Koji for the custom guitar, and thanks to my previous employers. Furthermore, I’d like to extend special thanks to my friends and family back in Canada for visiting me and taking care of me during my visit back home. Also for dealing with my absence this past year, I’m thinking about you guys this holiday season. Finally, thank you to the Nishino family for all of your assistance this past year.
A hell of a lot of thanking going on in this post! But I’m truly thankful for everything I’ve accomplished this year and I know none of it would have been possible without the people around me. Hope everyone is able to relax and enjoy themselves over the holidays! See you in the new year — have a great holiday season!
(Source: dhodgsondesign.com)
