For those that missed them:

Part One: Self-Introduction
Part Two: Friends
Part Three: Midwestern Conflict
Part Four: The Cold
Part Five: Food & Drink
Part Six: Karaoke

And here’s Part Seven:

******

For now at least, the 8th installment is available exclusively in The Kameoka Diaries e-comic, available through the iBookstore (click the banner below for more details). Sorry, I know that’s kind of obnoxious, especially for people who don’t have iPhones/iPads…

In any event, I’ll be posting more e-comics online in the coming weeks; as always, you can follow me on twitter or subscribe to me on Facebook as I’ll announce any new comics there. Bye!

For those that missed them:

Part One: Self-Introduction
Part Two: Friends
Part Three: Midwestern Conflict
Part Four: The Cold
Part Five: Food & Drink

And here’s Part Six:

*******

Here’s the Douji Morita song referred to in this comic, in case you really wanna get the party started at your next karaoke outing:

*******

Read Part Seven>>>

As always, you can follow me on twitter or subscribe to me on Facebook as I’ll announce any new comics there. Toodles!

For those that missed them:

Part One: Self-Introduction
Part Two: Friends
Part Three: Midwestern Conflict
Part Four: The Cold

And here’s Part Five:





































*******

Part Six>>>

(As always, you can follow me on twitter or subscribe to me on Facebook as I’ll announce any new comics there.)

For those that missed them:

Part One: Self-Introduction
Part Two: Friends
Part Three: Midwestern Conflict

And here’s Part Four:

Go on to Part Five>>>

(Feel free to follow me on twitter or subscribe to me on Facebook;  any new comics will be announced there.)

For those that missed them:

Part One: Self-Introduction
Part Two: Friends

And here’s Part Three:

****

Continue on the Part Four

(If you haven’t seen it yet, part one can be found here.)

Anyway, without further ado, here’s the second installment:

Continue on to Part Three

To all the HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of people reading this, sorry this entry is so late in coming. Between moving/settling in/getting sick/trying to prepare for lessons, I just never had the energy to do much of anything other than what was strictly demanded of me. Even now after taking the last couple weeks off, I still only really have time to phone in a quick entry. Hopefully once I’ve settled into a routine I’ll be able to devote more time to describing my experience here in this blog, but for now I’ll just write a few paragraphs on borrowed time.

Things have been busy but pleasant (other than getting sick). Classes started a week ago Wednesday. I’m teaching at 11 different schools; two junior highs and a bunch of elementarys. Some of the elementarys are way off in the country; the hour-long commutes though pine-covered mountain valleys will probably be pleasant once I know where I’m going, but I have to admit I’m not looking forward to trying to figure out the routes to each school the first time. I have a few schools within walking/biking distance, but the rest require a complicated series of bus transfers and being picked up by teachers at different times and places. I can’t imagine trying to navigate it without Japanese reading/speaking ability. Again, once I settle in and know where I’m going it’ll be fine, but in the meantime it’ll be a bit stressful.

So far I’ve visited one of the junior highs and one of the elementarys, and have had a bunch of great classes so far. I’m sure eventually I’ll have a few nightmare classes, but so far it’s been great. It’ll probably be a few months before I’m *completely* settled into teaching again, but for the most part I already feel like I’m already back into the groove.

Okay! I’d like to write more, but I’ll have to save it for another time; I’ve got a really busy day tomorrow, so I need to rest up for that. I have two three-day weekends coming up back-to-back, so hopefully I can write more then. Cheers!

If you’ve read this entry, then you know that I’ve been lucky enough to be accepted to participate in the JET Program for a second time. I have just a month until I board that plane, and have a lot of preparations left to do… my departure has sort of snuck up on me. I have to admit it hasn’t completely sunk in yet.

One thing that’s helped to make the experience seem more real is I just found out where in Japan I’m going to be. I’m about 30-60min outside of Kyoto. I still don’t know exactly where I’ll be or what age groups I’ll be teaching, I gotta say I couldn’t be more delighted with the location. So for all your people who offered to buy me a beer, know that I’m coming to collect!

Oh, one more thing related to my departure: if anyone’s interested in getting a signed/inscribed copy of Tonoharu from me, place those orders now! Once I leave the US I won’t be able to do them for obvious reasons.

More updates to follow in the coming weeks!

Just wanted to mention that I’ll be speaking this upcoming Friday, June 10th, 2011 in Downtown Chicago!

I’ll be there as a part of an author’s panel devoted to experiences teaching English in Japan. The event is sponsored by the Japan American Society of Chicago and the JETAA Chicago Chapter.

This will almost certainly be my last public appearance before I leave for Japan in July, so if you’re in the Chicago area, come out if you can!

Event Details:
What: JETAA Author Panel: Experiences Teaching English in Japan
Who: Me, and authors D.H. Cermeño & James Kennedy
When: Friday, June 10th 2011, 6pm to 8pm
Where: Barnes & Thornburg LLP, 1 N. Wacker Drive, Suite 4400, Chicago, IL 60606 [ Google Maps ]
Admission: $5 JASC & JETAA Members/$10 Non-Members

Space is limited to just 35 attendees, so if you want to go, register now:

http://www.jaschicago.org/en/events/Default.aspx?eventid=184

It occurred to me that it’s been several months since I’ve actually posted anything original on this blog. Most recent posts have been links to YouTube videos and other filler. So I figured it was high time for an update of sorts:

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For two years beginning in 2008, I received a scholarship that included a monthly living stipend. It was juuust barely enough to get by on, but I gotta say, it was glorious. It confirmed something I’d long suspected. If I have a steady & predictable source of income and am able to do work that I care about, I can be quite happy, even when I’m hovering around the wrong side of the poverty line.

In March 2010 the scholarship ended, and with it went my steady income. The financial concerns I put on hold for two years ago returned to the fore. As I contemplated my cartooning “career”, I realized that one area where I dropped the ball was marketing & promotion. I had done a bunch to market my first graphic novel shortly before it came out, but almost nothing after that.

Many artist/writers/cartoonists eschew marketing, and I’m sympathetic with that point of view. It takes precious time away from the art, and can be a slippery slope. You write a couple press releases and hand out a few business cards, and before you know it you’re a hack that “creates content” that will appeal to the “18-34 demo”.

Okay, maybe that’s overstating the point a bit, but even artists that take marketing seriously probably see it more as a necessary evil than something they’re actually interested in. But having spent the past 18-odd months trying to market my work, I’ve actually sort of come to enjoy it, the networking aspect in particular.

“Networking” is of course just another way of saying “meeting people”, which is something I enjoy, despite the fact that I’m somewhat introverted. So I’m glad that I had the pretense of “networking” to force me to get off my butt and go out there and meet people. This has enriched my life both professionally and personally.

All-in-all, my efforts have been successful… relatively speaking. Unfortunately, “success” in the world of alternative comics rarely reaches the opulent heights of “living wage”. I make money off my comics, it still isn’t enough to sustain me, and my savings are getting pretty meager. So I’ve decided to make a strategic retreat and get a day job again. (Oh, the horror!)

The good news is, I’ve landed a great one: as a JET Program assistant English teacher. This is what I did from 2003-2006, and what served as the framework for the Tonoharu storyline. It’s hands-down the most rewarding “day job” that I’ve ever had, so I’m honored to have the opportunity to do it again (plus, it’ll remind me of the experience as I work on the last half of Tonoharu). I’ll be leaving for Japan late-July.

So what does this mean for my cartooning aspirations? I haven’t given up on them. I’ll continue to work on Tonoharu in the evenings and on weekends. I suppose this will slow my already glacial pace, but what can you do. Once I’ve had the chance to refill the coffers a bit, I’ll probably take another swing at cartooning full-time.

In the meantime, it’ll be great to have money for extravagances again, like replacement computer equipment and dentist visits. That’s how I roll, folks!

I’m not sure how many current participants / alumni of the JET Program regularly read my site, but if you’re out there…

I was asked by JET alum and all-around nice guy Steven Horowitz to plug his new website JetWit.com, a blog “for the JET alumni freelance and professional community”. It looks pretty good, so if you’re a freelancer / professional JET alum (or a freelancer / pro who’s interested in Japan), check it out:

JetWit.com Homepage

I’ve been to Japan a few times now. First as a high school exchange student, then as an educator through the JET program, and most recently for as a ”tourist”,  living with my then-girlfriend for three months at the tail end of 2006.

My first night in her apartment she gave me the obligatory tour. The thing that most caught my attention was the shower. It looked like something from straight out of the Industrial Revolution.

It was an imposing metal unit, and its operation required the use of five different cranks and knobs. That evening my girlfriend provided the necessary explanation:

“Turn this knob to start the gas. Then turn that knob to “high”, and then push and turn this knob, and hold it down. While holding it down, turn this crank. [*click, click, click*] Okay, look in the little window. Can you see the blue flame?”

I looked in the window: “No.”

“You need to get the angle right. Look again.”

I scrutinized the inside of the metal box from every possible angle, but still didn’t see it. Wait. There’s something, but it looks more like a reflection from somewhere, or a dying ghost. “You mean this little thing?”

“Yes, that’s it. Now turn this knob to here. Okay, if the water gets too hot or cold, adjust that knob over there. NEVER turn it past this point, or you’ll get burned. Enjoy your shower.”

So I took my first shower in my new home. The funny thing was, with five different knobs, there was still no way to adjust the water pressure. It was either barely on, or off.

During the course of my shower, occasionally an arm, thin and yellow as an egg noodle, would squeeze through the crack in the door, check the water temperature, adjust the knobs accordingly, and then slip back out.

When my shower was done, I had tea with my girlfriend, the owner of the helpful arm. She explained that the shower was like a person; you needed to get to know its moods. If the water was just the perfect temperature, then it would soon be too hot or too cold. You had to anticipate this and act preemptively.

For the first shower, the arm took care of things for me. The second time I showered, the arm was at work, so everything was up to me. I struggled with some knobs and got the little blue ghost to appear. Then I played with more knobs and got the water going. Sometimes it would be so hot it could give you second degree burns, other times it was ice cold. Eventually I started to get the hang of it.

That night, I talked to my girlfriend. I took a shower today, I told her, but I’m not sure I did everything right…

She looked me up and down and said solemnly, “Well, you’re still alive, so you probably did okay.”

Pictured Below: The shower unit, in all its wonderful, horrible glory