Bee and Sakura

I think I might do a tribute t oeach of my lenses, but for now enjoy a bee and some sakura

A message of hope (for my lens)

This gallery contains 9 photos.

A couple of days ago a dear friend of mine was stuck down with a debilitating disease. My trusty 24-105mm F4 USM IS L lens developed a communication issue, causing the Image Stabilisation module to randomly jitter all over the place and the iris to randomly open and shut. I’ve rushed the lens to the […]

Some quick notes…

Hi guys.

 

As I am posting parts of Final Finale I am starting to realise that I should probably put in some “Translator’s notes.”

Sure, it’s probably a hang-over from my fansubbing days, but it is a good way to keep people abreast of the cultural differences in the text that you are writing.

For Final Finale, just like KS, I am applying the Japanese scholastic year. That means that the year runs from April to March. The big holidays are 2-3 months towards the end of summer.

As many of you who are anime freaks will already know, March/April is prime Sakura (cherry blossom) season, and that’s why so many graduation scenes are covered in the light-pink blossoms.

Two things that I found unique about Japanese universities (when compared to my own undergraduate days) is that most students simply coast through their studies, receiving passing grades so long as they do “some” work, and the way that they find employment.

A third year student spends more time job-hunting than they do studying (give or take a little for dramatic licence). They then spend the holidays of their fourth year working as an intern at their new company. On April the 1st, the entire graduating class will start with their new company.

Sure, the “one job for life” attitude has weakened quite a lot in Japan in the modern era, but some traditions still stay firm. I have friends that are working for new and innovative companies that still started on April the 1st, and were basically treated like a coffee bitch for a year until they got their own “Juniors.”

 

Lastly, if you’ve ever ridden on a Japanese train at peak hour, you will note two things:

1) It’s not actually as crowded as a Sydney peak hour train and

2) It is deathly quiet. There is a subtle allusion to this (and to Hisao’s propensity to shuffle off the mortal coil at any minute) in Part 2.

 

Oh yeah, Part 2 is up. So are some other, older writings.

Ghost Hotel Photos

A couple of weeks ago I posted an email that I wrote from “Ghost Hotel.”

I was looking through my photos from the time (in order to increase my Picasa Web Album) and I came across a few of the photos that I took from that fateful night. Jump past the break for a look at some of the images, and try to feel for the weirdness that was that place…

Finally Done

So, Katawa Shoujo is finally done.

(For those of you that want nothing but download links: http://katawashoujo.blogspot.com/2012/01/katawa-shoujo-released.html)

I do feel a little bad for not being there until the bitter end, but life changes. And that’s what I thought I should blog about tonight.

At the start of this process I was a monolingual freelance technician who lived with a flatmate. In essence, nothing over special, and that’s pretty much how I felt.

Whilst I can’t attribute everything that has happened to me since then to KS, I will admit that being in 4LS gave me a bit of a rise. It was enough motivation to start things that lead me down the path to where I am today.

So here’s a quick run down of everything that I’ve managed to do in the five years that it took to make Katawa Shoujo (and also why I had to leave).

Playing with Depth of Field; appropriate for this post, I think

- I was almost murdered. Not wanting to get overly melodramatic, but my flatmate (whom I had known for a number of years) had a psychotic break and tried to slit my throat. Fun, but it certainly brought about a lucidity that I have yet to replicate.

- I went to Japan for the first time. Yes, I was a massive weaboo, but before that my friends and I decided to go to Japan. It just took us 4 years in order to have our lives in sync enough to actually make that happen. Some of the backgrounds in KS are from that trip (most notably the City backgrounds. The city is Sendai, and I actually took everyone there for the sole purpose of taking background photos for KS).

- I bought a Canon 40D. After years of shooting exclusively on film, I bought a high-grade digital camera and some decent lenses. I still use the 24-105 F4 lens that I bought in Japan today.

- I fell in love with Hanako. For a long time, this burning desire to create the girl of my dreams fuelled my writing. It turns out I wasn’t as skillful as I thought, but I plugged away through three re-writes. I would even spend night shifts writing parts of her first draft.

- I learnt Japanese. Okay, so this wasn’t a one-day thing, and I wouldn’t say that I’m finished. I started classes in 2007 and stopped in 2009 (so, three years of “study”) but, as you’ll see later, I didn’t stop learning.

-I got promoted, and bought a sports car. After many years of working as a freelancer, I finally landed a low-level supervisor job. Elated by the news, I bought a car that ignited my love of driving. It was an RX-8, and man did it go. I had that car from mid 2008 until about 3 weeks ago.

- I started making, and selling, resin figures of anime characters. At one point a start-up Anime magazine even got me to do a column on the figures. I was spending quite a bit of money on figures, but the occasional sale made up for this. At the peak I had about 60 figures displayed in two glass cases.

- I went to Japan again. This time, with only one friend (the others had to pull out) I pulled out all the stops, even staying on an extra 10 days in order to take more photos. All up, in the 29 days I was in Japan, I took about 3,000 photos.

- I was sent to Europe from Japan for work. In an odd turn of events, I was sent straight from leave to my first “real” overseas assignment (I had been to New Zealand before). It was here that I was exposed to a lot more technology that most of my peers, giving me an even greater edge at my work.

- I had to kick my drug-addict brother out of my home. After returning from my 7-week globetrotting experience, I found my house in disarray. There were chemical stains on the carpet (which has since been replaced) from him trying to “cook up” in his bedroom (he has since reformed).

- Workload increased. After showing an aptitude for project work, my operating budget exploded. A “Big” project moved from being $40,000 to about $2 Million. And they kept on coming. Now living alone, I was practically consumed in my work. At this time I started being a bit rough around the edges, and desperately wanted to finish the Hanako path.

- More Japanese. Discontented with normal classes, and still reeling from my lack of skill from my Japan trip, I joined an informal “language exchange” group. Turns out a similarly minded, wholly bi-lingual Japanese woman was there as well. As there was only about 5 people our age there, we organised a couple of trips, dinners and such with this little group.

- Making out. Turns out the Japanese woman and I hit it off. I thought I was done for as soon as she came to my house. Everything revolved around my technology; mixing consoles, audio monitors, and, of course, my beloved computer (upon which most of my parts of Katawa Shoujo were written). It turns out, however, that she didn’t think I was the creepy weaboo that I was, and she stuck around.

- Promoted, again. My work in 2009 led me to getting promoted to a Department Manager. Budgets and workload increased, yet again (after changing jobs later, my replacement ended up fainting on the job due to heart complications brought on by stress). I loved my work almost as much as I loved my new girlfriend. By cleaning up my act and forcing me to act like a functioning member of society, I was able to reach professional heights that I had never imagined.

- Quitting Katawa Shoujo. Something had to give, and of all the things I loved at the time (Work, 4LS and my girl), 4LS was the easiest one to give up on. It wasn’t easy, but given the fact I was about to buy a house, I just couldn’t justify working on Katawa Shoujo for 20 hours a week. The Hanako path was mostly complete (in draft), the character was pretty much defined, and so Suriko took on the duties of polishing her into the jewel that most of you now love.

- Buying a house. Instead of buying a car (like last promotion) I bought a house. Fun.

- Buying a better camera. I got myself a 7D whilst buying my house. In for a penny, in for a pound.

- Buying Jewellery. Since I was in for a pound, I figured two pounds was pretty much worth it. My “girl” became my “lady”, with a wedding date set a year after our proposal.

- Japan, again. This time, travelling with my lady, we went to seek permission for our wedding. Turns out knowing a bit of Japanese helped, and her Dad opened a “special” bottle of whiskey that he had been saving for about 10 years. We had the manliest of manly picnics.

- Wedding Bells. Much of the space here was spent planning the wedding, or paying off the wedding. But in early 2011 I was married to my lady. Much to my delight, that also meant that I was listed on Japan’s Kouseki; the family register. Long live the weaboo dream. Our wedding car, by the way, was my RX-8.

- Head Hunted. Given my performance at my previous job, I was offered a lot more money to do pretty much the same thing I was doing, only this time with a frequent flyers card.

- Leaving my old job. It turns out that most of the people I left behind were actually happy for me, and I was able to part on good terms. I was even sent on one last overseas assignment.

- J-j-j-JAM IT IN. The end of Autumn (southern Hemisphere) brought on a positive indication of a viable pregnancy; something that we had been planning for about a year and a half.

- Japan, part 4. My wife’s morning sickness was so bad that she ran away to her mother’s waiting arms. We thought that we could survive 2 months apart, but I cracked and flew over to see her. We returned at practically the last-minute; 4 days later and we wouldn’t have been able to fly.

- Settling into a new job, performing. Already I have been kicking goals in my new role, and I think I’m going to get even better at it.

- New Arrival. In December I challenged Suriko to see which would arrive first; KS or my baby. I won by 13 days. Getting my labouring wife to the hospital was the last ride of my RX-8; I traded it in for an Impreza the next day.

So yeah. If you put your mind to it, that’s what you can achieve in the space of the development of a VN.

I’m not sure how many of you would actually read this, but since I get approximately 1 comment per year, I’m just going to keep on doing what I’m doing. At least I’m not clogging up the forums.

I wrote this email to friends and family whilst travelling in 2009. I found it whilst digging through old hard drives looking for my scripts..

Okay, there’s no internet here so you’ll probably get like three emails in a

row… or maybe not. I am writing this with the main purpose of serving as a

warning to other in case we never get out of here.

If you are lacking in time, or interest in poorly written stories, then just

look at the picture and be done with it.

This place is, without a doubt, one of the freakiest places I’ve ever

stayed.

It feels like they copied a level out of Fear 2 (the one where you’re

wading around in blood-soaked hallways for like 15 hours). And then they

mixed it with some of the Jap horror films like Ju-on and Ring. We are

currently investigating talismans that we’ve gathered in shrines to see if

any will ward off evil.

Since we haven’t yet taken out cameras out here I’ll have to describe the

place…

To get to Aso is a strange journey. After our stopover in Fukuoka last

night, we caught a Limited Express (on step down from a Shinkansen) to

Kumamoto.

There we changed to an “ordinary” train. This dumped us at an isolated

station where we changed to a single-car, diesel-powered train. On the way

here, the train often stopped, waited 5-10 minutes, and then went back the

way it came.

Our final station was even more remote; you could count the buildings in

sight on one hand.

The hotel, Aso Hakunsanso, is a short walk down a road that is surrounded by

nothing but rice paddies.

The hotel appears to have been made in the early 80′s; it has that

pseudo-futuristic layout that leaves you totally confused (similar to

Episode 5 of Kara no Kyoukai – Paradox Spiral… and now Sprinter (the theme

song for that episode) has come on… Coincidence? I think not…). It

makes me wonder if I am actually here for the first time, or if I am just

re-living the last night of my life as part of some experiment…

From both the outside and inside, it feels like a re-modelled hospital.

The carpets are all faded pink-patterned, but most are quite clearly

water-stained. As you close your door, all of the windows down the

hundred-metre long corridor rattle ominously. Every ten meters there is a

marked “Emergency Exit”, but most of those seem to be pointing at windows or

sections of wall. The wallpaper is peeling ever so slightly along the walls,

breaking the straight lines of the corridors, further adding to the mental

stress. Furthermore, every twenty or so metres, there is a large, automatic

steel door that swings into place to compartmentalise the resort in case of

“emergency”.

The main onsen (the reason that we came here) is located in another

building; something not uncommon in these resorts. However, the route there

takes you along a corridor of three abandoned tatami-mat rooms, each the

size of a moderate ballroom. Two of them are mostly empty, one has a single

chair sitting in the middle of it.

Running off this same corridor is also an abandoned kitchenette, jammed

full of trestle tables and knives. Finally, there is a water-stained and

rusting stairway no more than 70cm wide.

…. The Higurashi theme song just played twice in Winamp; perhaps this is a

warning (like the KnK song before it)…?

The abandoned corridor leads you into a lobby with boarded-off doors and old

lino floors. The windows are unboarded, however they stare out over absolute

darkness.

In the changing room we meet the first person we’ve seen since check-in; a

bloke on a mobile phone. We postulate that this is to ward off ghosts to let

you bathe. (That is a very old reference and I’ll forgive you if you don’t

get it).

As I mentioned before, the reason we came here was because of the bath.

Now, most of the baths that we’ve been to have been unique, yet beautiful.

Staring out over the Sho River in Shirakawa onto snow-covered hills was

awesome. Also, each bath has its own combination of minerals based on the

spring that the water was drawn from. As this place is literally on top of a

volcano, we were expecting something special here. (Turls brought up a good

point – in Ring an erupting volcano on “a southern Island” featured in the

Video.)

The second the doors opened we were assaulted with a wall of steam. We could

not see more than a metre into the room. It took a little time to actually

find out where everything was. The bath itself is a circle, but surrounded

but a regular octagon of walls. Cleaning stations line seven of the walls,

and the entrance makes the eighth. However, when you are sitting in the

bath, you can’t actually see which wall you are facing. Coupled with the

fact that this bath is both the hottest and murkiest that we’ve been in, I

don’t think that I’ve ever been so disorientated (hot water makes you dizzy

after a little while).

In the bath there was a single, old man. It felt like one of those moments

in Fear, where you have the option to do something, or to not do it. You

know that one of those options is going to lead to you pissing your pants,

but there are no clues as to which option to take. I had to stop myself from

asking “How long have you been here?”, because I knew the answer would be “A

Thousand Years….” and then he would consume my soul.

On the return trip from the baths, two little girls were playing in the boarded-up

lobby. Nuff said.

We made it back to the room without being wiped off the planet. Turls

suggested that we turn on the TV. Having seen enough Japanese horror I knew

that this was the worst idea out; if we saw static, we were as good as

dead., and I told him as much.

Every second channel is static. One of these channels was filled with static

but you could faintly see Geishas… As a safety precaution, Turls has put

his jacket over the TV screen.

In other words, this is simultaneously the best and worst place I have ever

stayed. If you enjoy playing Fear in the dark by yourself, then make sure

you come here.

If I never make it back, then avoid this.

Oh yeah, and the attached photo is from the Volcano being set on fire. The

character means “fire”… 10 points for originality I guess… We

look into the crater tomorrow…. if we ever wake up.

Cam

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I know that, to you, this will arrive at the Same time, but it’s been a good

24 hours since writing the last email.

Thankfully, we weren’t consumed by ghosts.

There are a number of other weird things that we did find out today:

- We are living on the 4th floor, as is everyone else here. (As in, none of

the rooms on the 3rd and 2nd floor are occupied). In case you didn’t know,

the number “4″ in Japan is similar to the number “13″ in Western culture.

- The baths that we went to last night have been taped over on the main maps

of the building. Apparently they have been closed for some time, but for

some strange reason they are doing renovations on the Main baths, so they

temporarily re-opened the decomissioned baths.

- This whole area appears to be deserted. We managed to walk into an onsen,

but there was no-one there. We tried calling out a few times, (Turls used

the toilet…) but no-one replied. We fled.

- The boarded off area in the secondary lobby that I mentioned last email is

marked on the maps, but like the baths in that wing, it has been taped over.

- The building has the layout and feel of an old hospital.

- The “offical” testing of the Onsen’s water occurred in Shouwa 42 (about

1971 from memory).

We managed to get quite a few pics during the day, but the hard drive on

this small machine is full so they will have to wait until I get back.

Instead, please enjoy a photo from the Crater of the Nakadake Vent on Mount

Aso. Yes, the water is green. There are about 10 concrete bunkers about 20m

from the crater’s lip as, being an active volcano, it occasionally erupts.

Like, for real, with fire and such. There is a volcanic bomb on display from

sometime in the past 50 years (another Shouwa date…) that weighs 420 kg

and was found 1km from the vent.

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