This Week on the Balcony: Japan! 🇯🇵

Some photos from my Japan trip so far, while I have a few minutes... since I won't be able to send any from the ship, alas 🇯🇵🍣🏯

Hey, writing balcony friends!

I wanted to send photos while I have a minute. Once I’m on the ship, internet is likely to be spotty at best, and, as crazy as it is to realize now, I’ve only got two more days before I board.

Suffice it to say, I’m having an amazing time. Lots and lots of art, with Buddhist temples and historical locations and gardens and local sporting events thrown into the mix. Last night I went to a sumo wrestling match, which was a blast - our guide was great, and her “other” job is a sumo journalist and commentator so she was very knowledgeable about not only the sport but all of the players and their strengths and weaknesses, which made it so much more interesting. I was pretty shocked at the very different sizes of the competitors (and how it didn’t always matter, in terms of who won).

The art, though, is what has really blown my mind. I had a powerful reaction to the Studio Ghibli Museum, which was much more profound than I expected. You aren’t allowed to take photos inside, so I can only share a few from outside, but it was stunning. They really give you a peek inside the mind of an absolute master of his craft. They showed a replica of his office and it was not only filled with his sketches and paintings (in every style you can imagine - it was absolutely awe-inspiring to see his range), but so many BOOKS, on every subject you can imagine: history, mythology, architecture, anatomy, motion, different places in the world. Just stack after stack of books to inspire and aid him in his art, plus statues, telescopes, ceramic figurines, buildings he found interesting, dolls, animal skeletons, art from all around the world (including a surprising amount of Native American and historical Americana type imagery). It was really like a glimpse into his mind. I loved it so much I can’t even fully articulate it.

I also went to two digital art installations - but in calling them digital art, it should be noted it’s all hand-drawn before being digitized, and there is tremendous thought put into the spaces and how people interact with them. In part of one installation, I was knee-deep in water, watching digital fish swim around me. At the second installation, the art would change when you touched the wall, exploding into flowers or fire or any number of things. It was really beautiful and touching.

I also have seen some very tranquil gardens (mostly Edo period), visited two Buddhist temples that were lovely, and I went to the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo (MOMAT), and ran all over the area of the imperial palace and visited the Electric City at night, and Shibuya crossing, and Tokyo Tower, among other things.

Anyway, photos! This can obviously only be a small sampling:

Anyway, that’s all Substack will let me post and still send the email, lol. I’ll send more later! I might also set up a post that is ONLY photos and link to it next time, so I can include more. For now, I just wanted to give everyone a peek. :)

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New book reminder ~

For anyone who missed it: the newest Vampire Detective Midnight novel, and the very LAST BOOK in that series is now on sale, and available to read on Kindle Unlimited!

Book Description ~

Briefly, he considered just running. He considered making a dash for the dimensional door. But he couldn’t do that. It was already too late.

The exciting conclusion to the Vampire Detective Midnight series!

Nick stood mere feet from the portal when the racial authorities descended. He stood mere feet from the dimensional door that should have taken him and his family away for good. He’d been close enough to touch it, close enough to feel it.

But it all got snatched away.

Now he’s back working the streets as a Midnight, a vampire owned by the human police. His bosses definitely grip his leash tighter since his near-escape, and tensions between vampires and humans ratchet higher all over the city. Hints of another race war are getting louder, but still, all Nick wants is to go home.

He’s investigating a double homicide at the edges of the vampire ghetto when a series of events make it clear things are changing far faster than he realized. War is coming, and Nick’s starting to remember his past, a past he did everything in his power to forget.

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Thanks so much for reading!

I appreciate you all so much! :)