Second-Hand Goodness!

I just adore art and writing supplies. I love their touch, all the distinctive smells (the way the Japanese manga ink or freshly sharpened cedar-wood pencils smell!), and the beautiful colors of inks and pigments suggesting unlimited creative possibilities bound within them.I love researching, getting new tools, and arranging them into small sets that fit…

Retro writing 15 – Pomera DM250

...and my current writing setup Just recently, our small son began his kindergarten experience, getting used to it at first, just for two or three hours each morning. This schedule allowed me to go every weekday morning to a cafe nearby and try to focus on writing. Accidentally, this forced schedule also came at a…

A bit of LAMY DIY

I already wrote a bit about how great ballpoint pens, and especially the ISO-standardized refills, are for drawing. Since then, I have been doing a lot of ballpoint sketching and started to look for other exciting pens to use. I enjoy my LAMY fountain pens a lot (especially the metal AL-Star and Lx series) but…

Talk for Kotonoha

Hey everyone! I just got back these minutes from a short Q&A "talk" I did some time ago for a Polish Japanese language school, Kotonoha, on topics of Japan, languages, communications, creativity, etc.

Retro Writing 12 – The Panaword

In my wanderings through machines that can be used as dedicated, retro-distraction-free writing devices, I had already gone into a few quite forgotten places. I'm fascinated by machines that I was not able to try because, in their hay day, I was just a kid with for whom his AMIGA 500 was everything. This time,…

Ghibli animations you haven’t seen (probably)

I love animated movies – I think that this form of art, when done right, can be one of the most imaginative ways of showing stories and worlds fantastic. But, I somehow never really got into short-form animation. I have seen some great ones, yes (like our favorite Magnetic Rose or some of the Animatrix collection, for example),…

The wasting of Kawara

The following thing happened to us (me and Kana) quite recently. It sparked a lot of thoughts, and I still cannot forget what we saw. The current pandemic wave was quite overwhelming, so we tried to stay indoors as much as possible, but once the number of infections fell, we decided that we really needed…

The “moe” style problem PART 2

Since I wrote the article about the "moe" illustration style problem, this issue kept being (and still is, to be honest) a thorn in my side. I continued to think about what can be done to improve the situation we face in the Japanese visual industry. Still, it's tough to do something without knowing from where…

The “moe” style problem.

This article has been brewing in my head for quite a long time. Not only is this an intricate and delicate topic, but it's also hard to explain to someone not immersed in the Japanese visual scene. I don't feel like the best person to describe this either. Still, because of my unique position as…

Retro writing 02 – ARDATA

In my search for an interesting, distraction-free writing device, I went first for the most capable options – my laptop and the iPad Pro. With a good application, such as Scrivener, writing and editing on my iPad is just a pleasure (especially lately with the wireless keyboard and trackpad support enabled). I could just end…