A blog in which I discuss living in Japan and some interesting and weird things that happen to me.
About Me
I'm Phil! American living in Japan. Teacher. Ex-independent professional wrestler. Student of Japanese. Traveler. Article writer for Mythic Scribes. Also written four manga, novels, and various short stories and poems. For my fantasy-related blog, check out http://www.philipoverbyfantasy.blogspot.jp/.
Categories
Drill Bits: random thoughts, bloggy stuff Japan Hammer: topics about Japan Story Time: stories I felt like posting
Just had a pretty good winter vacation and thought I'd blog about it a bit.
1. I suck at skiing. I fell over a bunch of times and rocketed down the mountain like a crazy person. Pretty scary actually. Overall though, pretty good experience.
2. I suck at skating. I'm not good at anything involving ice due to being from Mississippi and/or just my overall lack of coordination.
3. We went to Fuji Q Highlands in Yamanashi. We rode some pretty awesome rides. Here is one of them, called Eejanaika.
Not only does this ride go backwards, it also flips around as you're going, which makes it even more insane. Probably one if not the scariest roller coaster I've been on.
Here's another one we road called Takabisha, which holds the Guiness World Record for steepest roller coaster in the world:
So that's what we did at the end of the year in 2012.
What else happened?
Well, I had a good time when my dad came here in March. I got to visit all sorts of places including Osaka and Nara and saw sumo wrestling for the first time.
Went to Wrestle Kingdom VI in January and planning to go again in a few more days for Wrestle Kingdom VII!
Read a lot of books and became part of an awesome new e-zine called Myths Inscribed.
Worked on a ton of writing including the Summer Shoot-out ran by Martin T. Ingham.
I also worked on two novels, both of which I'm hoping to wrap up here in the next several months.
This time I'll be talking about how to discover new things in my four favorite topics: fantasy writing, video games, Japan, and wrestling.
So here we go!
1. How to Find Cool New Authors
a. Amazon-I find the vast majority of books that I buy just by surfing through Amazon. Their recommendations are usually pretty good, so if something piques my interest, I'll give it a shot. Sometimes I'm kind of baffled by the recommendations, but for the most part they're decent.
b. Goodreads-I haven't gotten into this site too much, but I feel it's probably one of the best places to connect with other voracious readers and find similar tastes in books. If you can link up with someone you trust, then you can find tons of good books that way.
c. Blogs-Random blogs sometimes have great recommendations. For instance, this blog! I recommended lots of great writers in my last post, so check them out if you trust me!
d. Authors You Like-Oftentimes, authors you like will support other authors or mention them in interviews. I found Jack Vance through interviews with George R.R. Martin, and I've been really enthralled with his Dying Earth stories.
e. Wikipedia-Everyone's favorite source for random articles, this is a great resource for finding other books you may like in a certain genre, as they'll sometimes list a lot of similar authors under articles.
f. Forums-My favorite forum, Mythic Scribes (www.mythicscribes.com) is a great resource for hooking up with other readers and writers. I also dig Fantasy-Faction which has some great content and articles to find new fiction. I found out about Mark Lawrence there (whose book Prince of Thorns is listed above), who I'm excited to read at some point in the near future.
2. How To Find Cool New Games
a. Youtube-There are tons of great folks that review games on Youtube, including popular publications like IGN and Gamespot. One of my favorites tends to be Angry Joe. He does really good video game reviews and doesn't pull any punches.
b. Amazon (again)-Not the best resource for finding new games, but it's still helpful at times.
c. Twitter-I found out about Dishonored, a game I really want to play, through Twitter believe it or not. The trailer was so awesome, I was like "Whoa, I need this game."
d. Just Going Shopping-One of my favorite things to do is just go shopping for games. Sometimes I'll stumble across something that looks cool just from looking at the box art and back of the box description. Can't go wrong there!
3. How to Find Cool Japanese Stuff
a. Again Youtube-There are tons of great vloggers who discuss Japanese stuff on Youtube. They're pretty easy to find. Some discuss learning language, culture, or just general topics.
b. Japanese forums-While not my favorite places to visit due to the usual overwhelming negativity, you can find great advice for living and traveling in Japan if you go to places like Dave's ESL and Gaijin Pot. Just be ready to wade through some crap to get there.
4. How to Find Cool New Wrestling
a. Youtube-Boy, I sure do love Youtube! Dailymotion is also a good place to find some quality wrestling vids.
b. Support Indy Shows-Just go to shows! You may find something in your local area that you like.
c. WWE's Library-I'm sure finding WWE's In-Demand service can hook you up with all sorts of classic wrestling. Since WWE owns practically all of wrestling, it's worth a shot.
d. Facebook and Twitter-If you are fans of specific wrestlers, they usually will post links to shows they are working and have worked at. Just from word of mouth, I found CHIKARA, ROH, and SHIMMER, which I've all enjoyed to various degrees.
This is from CHIKARA. Once seeing Kota Ibushi in action, I've since seen him in DDT and New Japan Pro Wrestling where he has excelled. Finding wrestlers you like and following them to various promotions can open up your wrestling world a bit more.
OK, that's it for this time! Thanks for reading and leave a comment if you have any of your own suggestions.
Once again, as always, I'll be addressing my four favorite topics: fantasy writing, video games, Japan, and pro wrestling. The common connecting topic this week will be "fans."
What are fans? Is it short for "fanatic?" Or are they just people who decide who is popular and who is not with their pocketbooks? How much should a fan expect? How much should someone famous let fans dictate how they approach their life? Some thoughts below:
1. Fantasy
So this is a common complaint especially about George R.R. Martin. Some group of fans seem to think it's OK to demand their favorite author to only work on the series that they want to read. I'll admit, at some points, I felt that sense of entitlement as well. But here's the thing: are you a writer? If you are, then you know how difficult it is to get your vision absolutely right. Sometimes it's not going to be perfect when you sit down and write. As a fan, it's your job to read and enjoy what someone writes and not demand perfection at every corner. I think when the series is all said and done, everyone will be happy that Martin took his time and gave us an awesome series.
So the job of the fans? Go read something else. Here's a list:
J.R.R. Tolkien, Steven Erikson, Joe Abercrombie, Richard K. Morgan, R. Scott Bakker, Brandon Sanderson, China Mieville, Daniel Abraham, David Gemmel, Robert E. Howard, David Anthony Durham, Terry Pratchett, Andrzej Sapkowski, Ursula K. Guin, etc. etc.
2. Video Games
With the coming of Dragon's Dogma to my doorstep, I've been reading tons of reviews. Not all of them are glowingly positive. But they're not all awful either. I think fans of RPGs expect certain kinds of things in their games at this point. From what I've heard of Dragon's Dogma, it takes some risks, and some pay off and some don't. At the end of the day, if fans of RPGs don't like the game, then they won't make another one. But I think the overall feeling is that the game can be another great series for Capcom, who has had gang-busters success here in Japan with Monster Hunter. If this can be a new franchise for them to hang their hat on, then I'm sure they're excited.
And let me just say, I sort of predicted this. Um...yeah, I did.
So I heard that KARA is now in trouble for not agreeing that some islands belong to Korea because they don't want to obviously offend their fans in Japan, where they are huge. Because they didn't firmly support one side or the other, they are now facing dwindling popularity in their home country of Korea. It seems like a case of the Dixie Chicks type thing, except KARA didn't go looking to get involved in a political situation. Do fans of music really care what someone's political affiliation or whatever is? They're just young women who sing songs. Let them do their job and leave politics to politicians.
4. Pro Wrestling
So CM Punk hit a fan? It was a mistake, as he admitted, but where do we draw the line? I'm not so much thinking about the incident itself, but the way the fans seem to treat wrestlers like they're sub-human. If it's true and some fans said "Let's push (Punk) down the stairs" then I don't blame Punk for lashing out. True, security should have been in place, but if someone is threatening to do you bodily harm and you feel you're in a volatile situation, sometimes the only reaction is to lash out. I've always personally been against shows where wrestlers go into the crowd. It can be a potentially dangerous situation in any case. Suffice to say, I don't think WWE will be letting people go through the crowd anytime soon. Like Punk said, I'm just glad no one was hurt. I don't think he meant to hurt anyone, but when you touch a wrestler, you've become fair game.
I haven't posted a blog in a bit, but I'd like to get in the habit again. There are basically four things I'll talk about on my blog:
1. Fantasy Writing-books, articles, movies, etc.
2. Japan-life, learning, etc.
3. Games-video games, RPGs, etc.
4. Wrestling-US, Japan, and whatever else I find
I'd like to focus on all four of these topics throughout my blogs. So starting today, I'll discuss what I think about various thoughts about these four topics. I'll probably post once every couple of days, or a week, just to update some cool links, videos, etc. that I've found pertaining to these four topics. I'll share my thoughts on them as well. If one of these topics isn't interesting to you, you are free to skip them of course. :)
But I'd like to cover my main passions in life and hopefully keep them interesting for others.
For my first "new" blog, I'll discuss some things I'm interested in at the moment.
For now, I'm working on my current novel and finally made a break-through after struggling a bit. I'm planning on doing National Novel Writing Month in November and already have some plans to discuss that.
2. Japan: Learning Japanese Again
So I go back and forth on learning Japanese now and again. It looks like I'm going to give it a solid go again. I'll either be learning from my wife or I'll be taking lessons in the coming months. In addition, I'm going to join a gym for the first time in my life so I can work out and see how that treats me. Things are looking good for the time being so let's just hope work doesn't crush me completely.
Any motivation to study is greatly appreciated.
For now, for people studying Japanese in Japan looking for a Japanese teacher, I highly recommend Labochi. I haven't had a teacher from here yet, but you can find one pretty easily. Just put in your preferences, and then you'll start getting offers from teachers within a couple of days. I'm interested to test this out if things with my wife don't pan out. Check it out!
3. Games: Monster Hunter Portable 3G and Dragon's Dogma
Looks like I'm in a Capcom mood at the moment. I'm playing Monster Hunter Portable 3G (long title) with help from the wife in Japanese. It's quite a slough, but I think I'll really enjoy it. Waiting on Dragon's Dogma to come as well. I've seen lots of reviews for it and I think the positives outweigh the negatives. I'll be sure to update my thoughts on it when the time comes.
In the meantime, check out this footage from Monster Hunter Portable 3G (only in Japan!)
And here is some footage from Dragon's Dogma, which I'm pretty excited about.
4. Wrestling-New Japan and WWE
New Japan did its first U-STREAM international PPV tonight here in Japan and I hope it did great numbers. I'd really love to see New Japan broaden their horizons even more. They're my favorite company in Japan and I've neglected puroresu for quite a while now. Going to a show is long past overdue. For news on New Japan in English, check out their Facebook page.
And finally WWE. With some big PPVs coming up, Survivor Series, Royal Rumble, and Wrestlemania, I'm expecting things to get interesting with the news that Mr. McMahon is returning to TV tomorrow night. Looking forward to what he has to say as always.
So that's it for now!
Hope everyone likes this new format. A little something for everyone I hope!
This is part two of "Why I Love Fantasy." I left out some stuff last time, so I wanted to add more to get the full picture.
I guess I was around 13 when I started playing D&D. It was always sort of a "forbidden game" around my parts growing up in Mississippi. People thought it was about devil worship or some such. To me, it was just about being someone else for several hours a night. I remember we'd all gather over at a friend's house and have to wait until midnight to play for fear parents may drop a ban hammer on us. My first character I made was named Raxtar. I still remember this! He wielded a halberd (a long pole-arm) and probably wore splint mail because that had the best Armor Class at Level 1. I don't remember what Raxtar did in that first game, but I'm sure he did something cool.
Weekends were D&D time, plain and simple. At first, I was a player. The first major campaign I remember involved us being sucked out of the real world into a sort of alternate reality fantasy world. We spent many a night hunched over a kitchen table, rolling dice and trying to keep one friend who was a "little too loud" quiet.
As I got older, I became the DM of my group and we had an ever-rotating cast of characters. The main PCs in my game were a thief, a necromancer, and a warrior. Throughout my game I had several others rotate in and out, but those three were the main ones. I always tried to make things that happened in my game seem important, so that the characters were emotionally invested in some way. The way I did this was by using the old standard "this person is your brother/sister/mother/father." It's sort of a natural way to connect someone by blood.
I had my PCs in a place called the United Orc Republic. A place ironically named because there were no orcs there. Just a sinister army called the Black Horde. The Black Horde were both evil and cool, so they had an appeal on various levels. When my PCs fought someone, it usually meant something. But I had a lot of memorable "random" encounters. A bugbear with a yellow curtain draped over his neck, a group of strangely named assassins (Akanaka Blacka), "shadow guys," tech-mages, robotic death knights, basilisks, an orc named "Butt" and many others. In any case, my D&D game ended around the time I started college and never really picked back up from there. I have played on and off since then, but nothing captured the magic from age 13-18.
It was amazing how much I missed out on "real life" during that period. But it's also amazing how I don't really regret it either, because those were awesome times. I didn't have girlfriends really or have an interest in sports outside playing soccer off and on. D&D was my passion. I remember sitting at K-Mart in the stock room doodling pictures and planning games for the weekend sessions. Something that linked me to wanting to become a writer later on. My PCs were my audience, and I'd do whatever I could to hook them, to entertain them, to get them wanting more. One day I thought, "What if I could do that for more than three or four people?"
Thus, my love for writing was born.
I sometimes think back and wonder what my life would have been like if I never rolled that first d20. I think it would have been a lot less interesting, that's for sure.
Part III coming soon, in which I'll discuss video games.
It's been a long love affair. Fantasy and me go way back. I can't really remember a time when fantasy wasn't a part of my life. Drawing pictures in my room, creating worlds for my GI Joes. I've always prided myself in that I've never "grown up." I'll always love creating stories and reading about different worlds. It's just ingrained in me.
It started at an early age. Probably not as early as most, but early enough. While other kids were playing sports, I was either playing video games or reading. When I was in elementary school, I used to love this book series
called Wizards, Warriors, and You. It was just like the Choose Your Own
Adventure books that were immensely popular, but had a distinctly
fantasy theme to them. I remember being wowed by those books. Just to
be able to make my own story in a way was so cool to me. Greek
mythology was also a big factor in my early geekdom. There was this
massive Greek mythology tome in the library that no one else ever read.
But I'd stick my nose in it every chance I got. Since my mom was a
teacher, I'd stay after school a lot. I spent a lot of time in the
library, just engrossed in the legends of Hercules, Perseus, and
Theseus. Even though I could barely read these names, I loved the
stories.
Things would change drastically when I became a teenager though and I fell in love with Legend of Huma by Richard A. Knaak. Ever since, I've been a huge fantasy fan. I owe this mostly to my friend Danny, whose room was covered with fantasy posters. I remember being so jealous of how cool his room looked and how drab and boring mine did. What attracted my eye the most though was a bookshelf crammed full of fantasy novels. Most of them Dragonlance. I grew up with those books, so I'll always praise Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman the most for keeping a book in my hand throughout my childhood.
From Weis and Hickman, I discovered R.A. Salvatore, another writer who had many epics I became engrossed with. I crawled through the caves of the Underdark, and journeyed with Drizzt and company to Icewind Dale. Such great books with memorable characters and lots of action.
Then at some point, I just started buying everything. Seriously. I must have thousands of books in my dad's attic. Just sitting there, collecting dust now. I started getting more into other speculative fiction, including horror. Reading Stephen King and Jack Ketchum really got my blood pumping. I delved into Kafka and Gogol. Some Elmore Leonard dashed in there. Then later came George R.R. Martin, Steven Erikson, Robert E. Howard, Joe Abercrombie, China Mieville, and Andrezj Sapkowski. And the list goes on and on (I'll stop name dropping now.) Each writer's words soaking into my skin, staining my brain, and just making me love the world of fantasy even more.
I get excited every time I "discover" a new author. I get a great recommendation or find an awesome review. A writer I like spreads the word about a writer he likes. That's why I really relate to a community like Mythic Scribes. It's home to lots of burgeoning writers and some already established ones. I hope that word continues to spread and more and more people get involved.
I have a passion for fantasy more than most believe. I want to share the worlds I started creating in my bedroom at a young age. To delve deeper into my mind to find those word weaving through, begging for me to use them.
I hope that will become a reality soon. 62,000 words later into my novel, I'm coming one step closer to completing my first full-length book.
And just think, it started in Arlington Heights Elementary all those years ago. In a perfect world, some kid is sitting in that library right now, picking up that same worn, hard-back Greek mythology book, and losing track of time.
This article focuses on a problem a lot of beginning writers have. They don't stick with anything. They give up easily or find something better to write. I'm guilty of this as well, which is why I'm glad I wrote it. I can go look at it whenever I feel like giving up. Most of my articles are mostly written for myself.
I really liked this article, my first for Mythic Scribes. Dragon's Dogma almost fits this criteria that I mention in this article. So I was on to something maybe?
Two articles I wrote for Puroresu Spirit, a website that focuses on Japanese pro wrestling. I'm very passionate about wrestling as most people know, so I was happy to write articles for this website.
