Iwa ni Hana

1) In the spirit of trying something new in the new decade, I have decided to also blog in Japanese. The address is here.

There are many motives behind this. One of them is that I think it makes more sense to talk in Japanese about books (such as most novels of Kyōgoku Natsuhiko) which will probably never be translated into English. Another is that I recently came across some very impressive blogs in the Japanese blogosphere of people writing kanshi [漢詩], or poetry in the classical Chinese style. That reminds me of all the poetry I write in the classical Heian style which I hide in the drawer. I should try to post them from time to time.

When I was at university (that was a university somewhere in North America, by the way), the way they taught Japanese in the upper years was very old-fashioned. There was no “practical” course like Business Japanese whatsoever. The upper years were spent mostly in learning classical Japanese and – only marginally and as if in a fit of afterthought – modern Japanese literature. That… was the beginning of the slippery slope for me. (I hear that they changed the curriculum right after I graduated though.)

Give me time, and soon I will be blogging in Russian and Korean too (which I am learning just to survive at work).

2) One thing that disappointed me recently was that Nokemono to Hanayome was completely sold out on the first day. I could not get a copy even though I had placed an order. For all the talk of how the manga industry is going down the toilet, it has been years since I last heard of a manga being sold out on the first day.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is the magic of Ikuhara “Utena” Kunihiko.

Ikuni has also written about this news on his blog. Let us hope that they will reprint it soon.

(more…)

I will make it simple. The questions below should be self-explanatory:

1) What do you want to see more/less of in terms of content here at Iwa ni Hana?

The reason I ask: I once read somewhere that if a blogger sways too far from a niche topic, then readers would dwindle away. Such is the reality of blogging – readers are more interested in following a niche topic than a personality (unless you are Paris Hilton). In other words, never assume that the force of one’s personality is such that one’s readers would gobble up everything one writes, on-topic or off-topic.

The niche I pitch at is this: a non-academic working adult fan of animation/manga/books/films/East Asian culture writing for a general audience of non-academic working adults who like the same things.

I must stress “non-academic” part because I think it is more interesting to ask “what does this work say to me?” rather than “how would so-and-so’s theory apply to this work?”

2) Do you think the length of the posts are: i) too long, ii) just about right or iii) too short?

The reason I ask: When I blog, I apply the same assumption I have when I send emails at work – that nobody ever reads what someone else wrote carefully word by word. So I aim at brevity, precision and clarity. I assume that people’s eyeballs just glide through the screen. (I do that sometimes when I read other blogs.) That is why I try to break a long post into smaller sections etc.

I am concerned about length in particular because I typically have a stock of at least 50 ideas I want to discuss. The drafts exist on my mobile phone and I tinker with them whenever I have time. I have a choice of i) discussing one idea in one post of around 500 words or, ii) discussing several ideas in one post of around 1500 words. Naturally, this would also make a difference in the frequency I post. It usually doesn’t take me long to write. Usually I have been turning over the ideas in my head while I wait in line-ups or work out at the gym etc. I always know what I want to say and it is just a matter of banging it out with a keyboard. I have never really experienced “writer’s block.” Any temporary drop in posting frequency has only one explanation and it is my work schedule. Personally, I prefer blog posts to be short and focused on one idea, but I wonder if you guys may think otherwise.

Thank you kindly for taking your time to answer this survey. Your comments would be a great help to me.

(Or, even if you don’t feel like answering the survey, please feel free to take this opportunity to say “hi” if you have been a lurker, or have been lurking for a while. December is the festival season after all. And before people start to go away on holidays – let me get it over with the seasonal greetings: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Farewell to the old decade! All the best in the 2010s!)