Off to a shaky start. · 5:18am January 5th
2024 has come, and with it came Japan's biggest earthquake since 2011. We got hit by a whopping 7.6 on the Noto peninsula in Ishikawa prefecture at about 4:15PM on January 1st.
Tremors are nothing new here, and even in the first week after I arrived, I woke up one night in Sendai feeling my hotel shaking a bit. Sendai is of course just an hour away from Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear plant which is where the meltdown occurred back in 2011. It's an incredibly active seismic zone, and the little jitter that hit me then was practically nothing. Forward to April, a quake hits kagoshima that's not very impactful, but I did wake up that night in bed rocking a bit too.
Monday's quake was much more of an eyeopener for me. On top of being the first quake I was actually awake for at the time it started, I had clothes hanging and water in a kettle next to my desk, so I could really see it happening. My Japanese friends kept saying '地震' (jishin) in the server a few seconds before I actually felt it myself. It's an absolute testament to the building quality around there that nothing in my room fell over. Of course, I'm far, far west of where the quake actually struck, and the sirens that went off around me were tsunami warnings, not about the quake.
The destruction, the warnings, and the 'are you okay' messages from all over really got to me. Sure, Japan is considered one of the safest places in the world, but that's by the standards of people. 'acts of god' as insurance companies would have it hit this country fairly frequently compared to anywhere else in the world, especially in a place like Texas which, at its worst, felt a 6.0 back in 1931. Infrastructure was damaged, but there were only minor injuries at best. From the quake on Monday alone, 48 are dead.
When it rains it pours, of course, and later that night, a passenger plane went up in flames in Haneda airport. A small plane with supplies headed to Ishikawa was unnoticed on the runway when a jet slammed into it late in the evening. The passengers all survived, but the six emergency crew members were all killed and both planes were destroyed with the passenger plane catching fire.
The most horrible thought to me, through all of this, is that somebody just like me, a fresh foreigner trying to start a new life in a new place could've drawn the short straw and been one of the 48. In a place where you just wanted to see your dreams become a reality, building a new life thousands of miles away from everyone you know, only to be buried to death under the rubble of a sudden act of god. It's only been a few days so details are still coming out, but it still messes with my head how utterly tragic this is.
I've always said to myself whatever happens, happens. In at least a few of my stories, the words, "Hope for the best, expect the worst." come up and that's pretty much my philosophy. You can only be so smart about your risks before control slips out of your hands entirely. The pain of helplessness in the face of a force of nature is as terrible as it is immeasurable.
The quake aside, I'd been feeling despondent this week. All my friends are gone for the holidays, I'm stuck to myself, and even my friends across the world have been mostly offline for the week. I hadn't felt this alone since my first semester of college. It struck me, back in April, that my move to Japan and my living situation coupled with my decreased pay really made me feel like I was back in those days. But because everything was new and exploring could be done no matter which direction I walked, it didn't get to me. But this week, it felt like some of my passions had died. No money to go anywhere, no friends to see, the area relatively explored, my distaste for the cold and feeling burnt out by my hobby and my ability to study, I sat right in this chair in front of my computer and did the worst thing I could possibly do: play Team Fight Tactics.
I have a great deal of love and hate toward League of Legends as I'm sure many of us do. My account has been active since 2011, and while I was never good at league, I could still be very frustrated with it regardless. However, TFT was something of a cop out. it requires very little of my focus, the game plays itself after I make my decisions for a few seconds of each 1-2 minute round, and I can listen to a video or something, or even be working on a model kit while I wait for my next action. There is no easier way to tell if I am depressed than when I play multiple games of TFT in succession. It has a mind numbing effect to it where I'm not really doing much while at the same time trying to out play or out smart my opponents every other round. As the game changes every 6 months or so, I have to relearn the new units it adds or remakes, and I fall in and out of playing ever so often. A game can last anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes depending on how far you go, and I'm not too terrible at it so I can usually get within a positive ranking (points are earned in 1-4th place, and lost in 5-8th place). The recent patch has a music theme to it, and I enjoy all the new additions immensely. However, after playing it for so long, I still don't quite understand what's strong or why. Add on the weekly adjustments they do for both the main game and TFT, and if you aren't constantly looking at everything and seriously know what does what, then you start to lose even if your game plan worked the week before. There's also the luck component when it comes to items and how you make your team stronger and it can feel very frustrating when the game itself plays against you.
It is the ultimate waste of time, and I played at least a couple times a day last week.
I needed a change of pace and fast, so I thought about fulfilling one of my long held dreams of learning guitar. You'd think that, for as much as I write about it, I'd actually know how to play the instrument. I've spent hours learning theory, and I used to play in my school band all the way through college, but I'm a brass player. I could do Trumpet to Tuba, and I mainly stuck with euphonium which is that other brass instrument that nobody seems to know about. Still, my greatest regret of school was not dropping band for orchestra to learn violin back when the chance was offered to me.
Back in 07, I was in middle school. I'd gotten a PSP for Christmas that year, and there was a simple puzzle game that I loved. It was called Echo chrome, a game where you shift perspective to get your character to walk to a goal. However, it was less the game that I loved but the music that accompanied it. There was no voice over or story or anything like that, so the music played constantly, shifting between pieces named 'primes' no matter how long you stayed on a level. It's one of my earlier memories of serenity.
A pair of cheap headphones, learning how to manipulate computers to move files around, learning how internet piracy worked, all with the single minded goal of getting the soundtrack to this game into my PSP so that I could listen to it without opening the game. When I did finally accomplish that, I would listen to this stuff for hours on end. these pieces are a time capsule for me. they take me right back to those easy days of little to worry about and that pure love of music I developed because of this. I wanted so badly to learn how to play something this pretty myself that I even set out to find transcriptions. Then came around the option for orchestra and suddenly the chance was there.
However, none of my friends wanted to make the jump. we were all in band and I was the only one interested in the idea. The most ironic thing about it all is that I ended up going to a different high school anyways. I'm generally a very independent person and I had ideas about what and who I wanted to be back then, and those stuck to cooking. A culinary academy for high school students opening at a brand new school the size of a college was clearly where I was meant to go. I was a first year entrant, the very first class to spend all four years in the program and, if I do say so myself, I'm a pretty good cook because of it. It did, however, teach me that cooking for a living is not something I wanted for my life, and that above all else, I hated working in fast food.
I'd come back to music in college, still feeling the need to play something because, as lazy as I always was about it, I love music. Playing in a band felt good, and because the schools in Texas tend to burn kids out more than produce poor musicians, I wasn't bad at it even after not playing for a couple years. Of course, it didn't last long and core subjects are my worst subjects, and as my friends can all attest, I cannot count. I struggled at lot in my first two years of college when I wasn't working on my digital media stuff (this was back when I thought I was going to be a comic artist or something) and after that, I just didn't have time for band because I was writing so much. (super was in full swing at this time.)
And yet, never far was music. Whether it was playing with some kind of composing software, listening to and trying to learn the words of Japanese songs, or taking a trip to the music hall to screw around on the practice pianos, I could never stay away from it. I wanted to learn before I came to japan and even bought a bass back in January before I came. It was one of Kala's Ukulele basses, and though it says ukulele, it sounds like any other bass guitar. I thought that the small profile would make it easier to get here, but that didn't end up happening. Fast forward to December, a coworker friend of mine is going back to Texas for christmas, and there's a chance she could bring it back, only for it to end up being too big to return with. Ah, the cruel irony.
So, when my Japanese friend returned from new year's with his family, we headed to our usual gunpla shop to check out the second floor which sold used guitars. I found one for about 65$USD, and I practiced til my finger went numb yesterday. I learned a couple chords and the movements for a song, so I'm pretty happy with the progress I've made in a day. these strings are a lot thinner than my bass, so it hurts my fingers more, but that also makes it easier to get a clear tone. Because it's electric, I can also get a cable and plug it into my PC and record myself playing. I don't know that I'll take it further than a hobby, but it'll be nice to be able to sit down and just work out music whenever I want.
To get the chords and notes I needed for Star Overhead, I'd been using an online piano app which was useful, but the low quality sound along with the limited inputs made it harder to use than I'd liked. Having my buddy back also returned me some of my passion, and I finished building a kit I'd had in pieces for about a week. I might even be able to get ahead on my word count and finish one of the two stories I'm working on, finally.
It's terrible to think that the year started out like this, but with any luck, we're at rock bottom. Hopefully that means things can only go up from here. It's never too late to chase after something, so long as you're still alive. Since disaster can strike anywhere at any time, don't just sit around and wat, chase that Star Overhead
Until Next Time~
-KCZ
Sorry to hear your holidays have been kinda crummy. But yay for new hobbies, right? It is genuinely surprising that you wrote all that without knowing how to play guitar. I for one only ever learned to play piano, and regrettably did not keep it up. I've seriously considered learning to play something, preferably a string instrument, but I can never bring myself to start.
I was all over the place in college, spending some three years finding a direction to take. My list of majors shifted as wild as from acting to architecture before I finally settled on civil engineering. Had I a brain back then I might have chosen something I actually enjoyed, like aviation or, y'know, writing (I did go for a technical writing minor, but a mistake was somehow made and when it came time to graduate I lacked a single requirement to officially have the minor). But I appreciate those days regardless; acting helped me get over my stage fright, and I wouldn't have the career I do now without the engineering degree. Which is a shame because, frankly, you really don't need a degree to do what I do. Being decently skilled in English and a willingness to learn is enough.
Anyway, look on the bright side: you won't be around for any of the insanity that is guaranteed to happen in the States this year.
5762400
For me, it's all about finding what I want to actually do with the instrument when I get it. For example, I wanted to play lead when I started doing trumpet but I was so behind my peers that I was never good enough for it. Add on a physical limitation in that I irreversably damaged my lips as a kid playing ice hockey, and the dream sort of shattered right then and there. As for guitar, my favorite songs are by the band the pillows, and my main motivation right now is to learn how to play some of their stuff. Funny Bunny and I think I can are really fun songs, and I've actually already learned the three chords that go into the opening riff of I think I can. It's only been two days, and I'm already developing callouses on my fingers.
(unrelated, I saw these guys in November and they are soooo young in the I think I can video)
I knew what I wanted to do, what I didn't know was whether I had the patience to commit to it, which, as it turns out, I did not. I have been studying Japanese for two years pretty consistently now, so I guess I just never found what it was that I really wanted to learn or didn't have the opportunities. I wish I hadn't dicked around so much in college, but I wouldn't have been eligible for my current job without my degree either.
You can't escape it no matter where you go. At the very least, I'll get to go to a relatively uncrowded embassy to vote this year.