Cheers, good to know theyâre useful to others as well! Feel free to weigh in if you see things you think I may have misunderstood 
April 27
In the scolding genre the scolding is the life of the story. To mention an easy example, the pinnacle of this is Kinpachi-sensei. The scoldings in Kinpachi-sensei are wonderful, and the reason I watch it is to listen to them. How beautiful those scoldings are! Thatâs why, I think, I want to write good scoldings for scolding-centric school dramaâs.
April 28
There was an internationally published study about âwhat sort of people live long lives?â. In that study, rather than measures against metabolic syndrome or smoking bans, it was published that it is whether or not one has strong human connections that is most important in order to live a long life. In order words, that human connections contribute the most to longevity.
April 29
The thing that is most effective when you are studying, is to learn things with an awareness of âletâs explain this to someoneâ. For example, if you study while keeping in mind âif I explain it to my children or my parents, my grandfather or grandmother, how should I put it to get it across?â, then it will enter your mind in an interesting way.
April 30
I am often surprised by the âdouble breakfastâ (eating breakfast twice), but if youâre not eating double breakfast, what the hell are you guys doing during your trip? You have the time, right?
May cover page
Among the myriad green leaves, my childâs teeth begin to come in.
May 1
I think that the reason I donât hate being on an airplane, even though I dislike cramped spaces and heights, is because there is something fun waiting for me ahead.
May 2
I understand why Van Gogh is so popular. He is already the idol of the world. Sure, he is dead, but in the long run he will be longer-lived than any idol and generate more money than any idol. In addition, the name âVan Goghâ is good, huh? It has a âpopular use powerâ. Itâs very different from a name like Wada.
When I went to the original source for this quote I was super hyped to see itâs a travel log of a guy named Wada visiting my country (the Netherlands) to look at Van Goghs!
May 3
In the middle of some shopping with my friend, after I had asked them while they were trying on some shoes how they liked the feeling of them, I was told âă”ăăŁăă!â and I understood that they must really have fit their feet well. ăăŁăă + ăŽăŁăă (âexactly rightâ)
May 4
My personality has many layers, like âpositive, negative, positive, negativeâ, but fundamentally I am very positive. Thatâs why one time, when I was a little tipsy and saw myself in the toilet mirror, I thought âhuh, I am not so different from Tomoko Yamaguchiâ and I was suddenly overflowing with confidence.
May 5
Very young people who donât have the capacity to live all by themselves live their days on the assumption of help from adults. Please, no matter how good of a person you are, no matter how bad of a person you are, donât treat children horribly. Whether itâs out of love or for whatever reason, just donât.
May 6
Some students from New Zealand came to my team to observe our training. The instant our training had ended, they enthusiastically entered the grounds and began to play with the ball. It looked like they were having a lot of fun. Without even asking âis it ok?â, they were like âletâs goooo!â. âThatâs why they are so strongâ, I thought. There wasnât any feeling that they were forced.
May 7
When it comes to the aroma of Japan, it is the smell of dashi broth and soy sauce wafting about the airport. In the airport that is full of the scents of international foods, those two smells strike home. It wouldnât be an exaggeration to say that for me, Japan begins with those smells.
May 8
I never really talked with Matsuda Yuusaku about acting theory, but he did teach me one thing. And that is that âwhen the time comes that you will play âthe centreââ ăŒ âthe centreâ being âthe leading partâ ăŒ âdonât do anythingâ. âWhen the day comes that you will play the leading part, donât think âI will be doing somethingâ. In the centre, donât do anything. The people around you will do it for you.â
May 9
The ones who can become a breakwater for the baby in your belly are your family and the people close to you. If the group that you belong to or your company can form a breakwater, it will become all the stronger. The people around a pregnant woman should become a double or threefold breakwater.
May 10
Itâs important to enjoy your knowledge, not to be competitive about such superficial knowledge as the various types of birds you know. You should be able to enjoy butterflies and birds by yourself even in places where no one is watching, donât you think? There is a poem that goes âIf I see a rainbow, my heart dancesâ. That kind of enjoyment. The kind where youâre happy when itâs you and the rainbow, even if no one is watching.
May 11
It would be more accurate to say that time and space originally did not exist in this world and that time and space were born because mankind developed eyes and ears.
May 12
When it comes to evacuating together with your pet, it is important to make preparations for each step. Make an âenvironment where you can wait in your home safelyâ. Put the names of your pet and the owner on its collar and take care not to take it off, even indoors. Prepare a crate for the occasion you are fleeing together. Give your dogs its vaccinations and rabies shot. Do trainings habitually. It is also useful to make lost dog leaflets at a normal time, in case your dog gets lost.
May 13
I believe that when we are in pain, sad or lost, that is where thought begins. If you were to ask why I think that way, itâs because I am like that. I think questions donât occur from a place that is too comfortable.
May 14
When I am translating Shakespeare, I sometimes encounter a very complicated passage. I canât understand it just by reading it. Thatâs why at some point I have started copying the original text. When I copy the original text and organise it, I can see the thread of it. Then it suddenly hit me: âShakespeare himself also wrote this text by hand, with a quill.â By writing out the same passage, I felt like I got closer to Shakespeareâs thoughts.
May 15
At the steak restaurant where I had a part-time job in my student days, when I carried some food on a hot griddle to a table, I made a mistake when I was supposed to say âthe oil from the meat splashes, so please be carefulâ and said âthe meat jumps up, so please be carefulâ instead.
A âpunâ based on the multiple meanings of ăŻăă.
May 16
When I write while being aware of verticality, the written characters start looking like a staff. Quarter and eighth notes are born and music is played from the calligraphy. Calligraphy is silent music. Because it is like composing on a staff, a scale is born there. This is why you should never play music when you are holding a calligraphy exhibition.
May 17
If you are made to accept a lot of responsibilities as a middle manager anyway, you should work while doing the things you want to do. That is all I want to say to people in their 40s.
May 18
I sing in American jazz clubs, but I donât feel daunted, because of a sense of âwhat have I come here to do?â. I came here to seize an opportunity. If I feel daunted, falter or deprecate myself it is no use. Continuing to sing only the same songs every year and even the end result being clear already, that is pointless to me. I want to seize an opportunity somehow. That is why I am continuing.
Quite a bit of discussion about this quote here.
May 19
When I look at earthenware that I have unearthed from the soil, there is no way I can understand âthe heart of the Joumon peopleâ, if Iâm being honest. But, even though I donât understand it and even though it is difficult to get to the bottom of it academically, I hope that somehow, when I am chewing on the traces, I can get closer to the âheart of the Joumon peopleâ.
May 20
Both someone who isnât here and someone who has left are thinking something like âah, I have become alone againâ. The choice of staying behind here is equal in all respects to the choice of going away, in my opinion.
May 21
Cherry blossoms are falling
Mambo strawberry bavarois (seasonal)
sales are coming to an endâŠ
The first skipjacks are lined up on the dining table
The azaleas are beginning to open up.
May 22
We live our modern lives pleasantly, cheerfully, while experiencing, saying and doing various things, but sometimes we [should] try to reflect on the root of our hearts and return our thoughts to the original source. If we donât have a deep sense of trying to pursue the source inside of ourselves, wouldnât our future be lonely?
May 23
Finding a source of short-lived elation and being able to jump up and rejoice at unreliable things is natural and important, in my opinion. Arenât feelings like short-lived elation the driving force behind ideas too, and behind things such as the love we all like?
May 24
Iâm a farmerâs wife. At tea time, my mother-in-law was holding my ten month old daughter, but I noticed I had forgotten to put a ăčăżă€ (bib) on her. Saying âIâll go and get it!â, I quickly went to the car to get it and when I got back with it, I moved to put it around my mother-in-lawâs neck. After a few seconds my in-laws and husband exploded with laughter. I went red. They said: âAre you preparing for 30 years from now?â
May 25
The other day I went to a sushi place with a woman who said she loved sushi. It was a funny lady. She suddenly blurted out âTakadasan, Iâm going commando (ăăŒăăł) todayâ. After that, I donât remember what I ate.
I imagine this is supposed to be some sort of garbled speech scenario. @rodanâs suggestion of ăăŒăă©ăł seems to fit well.
May 26
Before I entered primary school, there was a family who kept gamefowl. I was deeply impressed by how many parts there were to their feathers, so I went there to ask them to let me draw them. For me, taking a picture would be less meaningful than that. I think that by drawing them a relationship with those feathers themselves could be created.
May 27
When you touch it, you know that soil is a world of microbes. It is gradually decomposing. The fingerprints of hands that touch the soil for a long time gradually become fainter. That is why I make lumps of soil out of clay particles that are alive in such a way, sticking them together and combining them, while I am dissolving my fingerprints.
May 28
Since I have been sick, I have been living my life thinking âmy life is my ownâ. But, for example, when it turned out I only had three years left to live, there were many people who arbitrarily tried to decide for me how I should spend those three years. âDo that, do this, stop doing that.â Now, I just do what I want to do and choose only fun things. When I did that, there was friction at first and it was hard, but it turned around and I have come to enjoy my life.
May 29
At the register at my part-time job, I was about to ask âdo you want separate checksâ, but I mixed up âseparateâ (ć„ă ) with âdisconnectedâ (ăă©ăă©) and said âdo you want wrong (ăăăă) checks?â. When I got flustered and tried correcting it, I said âdo you want flimsy (ăă©ăă©) checks?â.
May 30
The timing of putting the meat in when making âbeef butteryakiâ is when, on a heated frying pan, the butter is about half melted and half solid. If you add it once the butter is entirely melted it can get burned, so I suggest you put it in when the butter is partially melted.
May 31
I donât chat at all. Itâs because I donât have any friends. When I go to sing karaoke or the like, after singing just one song I immediately get hoarse. Even my vocal cords are probably becoming weaker.
June cover page
Runrun rurunbu
Rurunbu rurun
Tsuntsun tsurunbu
Tsurunbu tsurunThe moon sliding around on the kappaâs dish.
Splash splash, itâs splashing the water.
Sticking out just his face.
Dancing.
June 1
Before, I could âwork at it until I was finishedâ. These past ten years or so, I havenât been able to do that⊠or rather, I donât feel any value in working at something until itâs finished. When Iâm at it, itâs like âoh well, Iâll do it tomorrow!â. I feel like it might be better to do it after I have had a break.
June 2
Maps are things that are drawn with âeven scalingâ and âeven projectionâ. The information in a map is always nothing but impartial, uniform and completely objective. In a map, good and bad donât even exist. A map is just objective data. Thatâs why maps can be trusted.
June 3
The methods that people who are strong or already capable teach often seem too strong to me. I think that there are methods special to weak people or people who have not been blessed by an innate flair.
June 4
I want to encounter young outstanding people, but I will not continue to be a designer as a veteran. While continuing the toing and froing by pencil, like âshall I go 0.1mm to the right or to the left?â, I also want to have a birdâs-eye view of things like âwhat should I design for society?â and âcouldnât this have a useful application for the society of the future?â.
I think éžæ must be used figuratively here (as described in Weblio), because âathleteâ doesnât make a whole lot of sense; this guy was never an athlete, as far as I can tell.
June 5
When it isnât going well, I try time and time again without changing my objective. When I try again and again and again, I do it to the limit of what I can manage based on my present ability. I have decided that I will absolutely, through thick and thin, carry it through to the point where I grasp it.
June 6
We need both to be able to rely on ourselves and to be able to surprise ourselves.
June 7
While having a chat at the company, I had a slip of the tongue (èšăăŸă€ăăăŸăă) with the famous Thai soup, Tom yum goong, and called it Tomkun Yankun. I was laughed at: âIs that a Southeast Asian comic duo?!â
June 8
The pleasures of the Manyoushuu are boundless. Even by reading just one poem a day, you can enjoy it for many years. Start from the poems. Start from the people. Start from the historical background. There are various approaches. Someone among the people who left these poems behind may be your ancestor. If there is a poem that clicks with you, perhaps it is a poem by an ancestor. Maybe it is a person deeply connected to an ancestor. Japan is so small, after all. It would be fun to think of it like that.
June 9
At every rocket launch, the wind speed limit is different, but when it seems like the maximum instantaneous wind speed will surpass roughly 20 meters per second, the launch is delayed. In other words, when there is a rocket launch, right after it goes up into the air, it is momentarily at âzero speedâ and if it is struck by the wind in that instant, the machine is set adrift sidewards.
The âinstantaneous wind speedâ (çŹééąšé) is a 3 second average, as opposed to the general wind speed (éąšé), which is measured across 10 minutes.
June 10
Sometimes âyour body gives you adviceâ. For example, just by holding something, [it tells you] whether your senses are working correctly. Because your body is a sensor, it perceives whether it is soft or hard, heavy or light, hot or cold. Your body tells you if you are doing such things properly or not. This is very useful when you are sensing the atmosphere in a game, for instance.
June 11
Because they enter into the world of a story, not its superficial parts, children see the make-up of a story. Children that come into contact with stories have various thoughts in their minds. That is why I think itâs actually bad when parents wrongly forestall [something] and say âisnât this bad for children?â
June 12
The pianist Uchida Mitsuko had invited her father to a concert. Apparently she got her father, who was reluctant to go out because he was already quite old at the time, to come half against his will, as if she had to drag him. In the car on his way back from the concert, her father turned towards his wife (in other words, Ms Uchidaâs mother) and said: âHow could she be our daughter?â
June 13
I want to be a traveller who is always in a good mood. I want to have ample ability to find the good aspects and even if I have the sensitivity to find the bad aspects, I think âletâs try not to be influenced by itâ. Iâve never felt bad because I have such an attitude.
June 14
I think that wearing clothes is fun for everyone, but for me that enjoyment is probably deeper than average. I think the fact that I havenât had any problems knowing what clothes suit me, just because I am not young, must be because I worry a little every day and I keep coming up with solutions. So that act of worrying a little is fun to me.
June 15
When I am hungry, mixed in with the usual heavy base sound of âguuuâ and âgorururuâ, there is the âpoin!â sound that Mario makes when he jumps, I am sure of it.
June 16
I think that a healthy democracy can only exist when everyone has the ability to think and make decisions for themselves. Thatâs why I donât express a particular opinion. My job is to make available materials so that everyone can have their own way of thinking. From there on out, my stance is âplease go ahead and have a think, everyoneâ.
June 17
As your voice canât be seen, you will be caught out if you borrow it. A radio DJ needs to be like a shucked shellfish. You humanity spills out. There is no choice but to bare yourself, because if youâre wearing armour, you will be found out by the other side of the mic.
June 18
There is a member of the shrew family with the scientific name âCrocidura desperataâ. As it has not yet received a Japanese name, at a certain point I called it the âdesperate shrewâ. I had heard that they were probably extinct. But, about three years ago, a new habitat was found. Thus, hope was born. Such things happen as well, huh?
June 19
I think that the feeling of âlonelinessâ itself is not in the least a bad thing. When you return home after having been boisterous with your friends and become alone, itâs ok for there to be a âlonelinessâ that feels like âah, Iâm a bit aloneâ, isnât it?
June 20
When I passed the department storeâs handkerchief counter with my mother-in-law, she picked up a bright orange handkerchief and said âIâve been looking for something like this for ăç¶ăăâ. When I said âFor ăç¶ăă? Isnât it a bit flashy?â, she told me that he picked his handkerchief every morning to match the news programmeâs fortunetelling sectionâs lucky colour. To think that my father-in-law has such a girlish side to him!
June 21
If you take one piece of clothing, many people have been involved by the time it is lined up in a shop. That is why I am always keen to convey as much as possible that âit has taken the hands and time of this many peopleâ.
June 22
I think it was about three months after the earthquake when I found a place at sea where the things that had been washed away by the tsunami had got stuck and piled up. There were some boats left and when I went over, many of our wakame cultivation rafts were stuck. There were some mekabu left. Wakame seeds are produced from mekabu spores. We immediately gathered all the wakame farmers and we all did the work of gathering the seeds.
June 23
From sentences that start with âspeaking of which, IâŠâ, one derives a âdiscoveryâ.
Speaking of which, I have been eating yoghurt every day for over two years.
Speaking of which, I have never had anko unabe.
Speaking of which, I havenât been to Shinjuku in years.
Speaking of which, I have never painted an oil painting.
June 24
I think the fact that I have come not to fear the voices of haters that much anymore, is because I have grown up emotionally. Furthermore, I think itâs important to turn your haters into fans. Up to now I have only been pursuing the positives. I was only collecting a tailwind and it was like the negatives were outrageous. But now I think that there are positives and negatives. This is the world of competition.
June 25
Everyone gives various reasons [for paving everything], but they absolutely donât like ânature au naturelâ. Itâs like that with grass, for example. Plant it yourself and itâs ok, but if it grows of its own accord itâs a weed.
June 26
Rather than waiting patiently for the happiness that might come some day while working like a workhorse, I came to think that it would be better to become happy in advance. First, I hoped I could create a small space that could be considered happy and expand it together. That is why my wife and I quit our jobs completely. I became single-mindedly focused on manga and my wife became a shrine and temple tour guide.
June 27
When I wanted to refer to the kanji éȘ through a word, I shouldâve said âthe ya from Yamataikokuâ, but I said âthe ya of the Maya civilisationâ. Itâs the same atmosphere thoughâŠ
June 28
At a certain point I started trying to walk around town without a disguise, even in my private life. When I did that, somehow it was a better feeling than when I walked around sneakily. When I was called out, I would say âhey, heyâ and it would be mentally easier to walk around normally. Maybe thatâs why my body is feeling good.
June 29
When I am feeling worried I try to draw thick lines with a thick pen. When I draw thin lines when I am worried, somehow I draw too much and the worries show up in the details.
June 30
Living beings adapt to their environment and change their form. That is the standard way of thinking of Darwinâs natural selection. In contrast to this, âniche constructionâ thinks the opposite way, [that] living beings change their environments themselves. Depending on the circumstances, it is eventually applied to itself. In other words, it means that there are also cases where it changes the forces of natural selection.
July cover page
A beer chilled by the mountain stream was sad like youth.
I looked up at the mountain top and drank as if I were sobbing.
July 1
The world we know isnât that big. Weâre living in [a world] of at most 100 people and we have roughly one friend, right? And so we donât have an opportunity to know what ânormalâ is. Thatâs why âacting normallyâ is actually very difficult.
July 2
There is a phrase, âyou are what you eatâ, but itâs âyour heart is the people you meetâ. Humans include gods, and dogs and cats as well. Letâs try to remember this or that person occasionally.
July 3
How to lose? How to conduct ourselves when weâve lost? Can we make memories resolutely and beautifully? In these cases, I feel Sei Shonagonâs âresignationâ. I think it gives us strength in our lives, in which we probably lose more often than we win. When we suffer a severe defeat, what to say, how to behave ourselves, what to leave behind? I feel like The Pillow Book, which itself is not a winner of history, teaches us that attitude.
July 4
When I look at my own work and compare it to the quality I want to reach, if there is some part that doesnât suffice, I improve it by analysing it and studying it with concentration. Because the basis of the world of CG is rational thinking, so if I analyse and study it rationally, it will usually turn out well.
July 5
Because hiragana are something that was born in Japan, they are made from vertically linked structures. ă, ă,ă and ă are such typical forms. The fact that the ends turn clockwards, is for the sake of linking up at the bottom. The cursive style of the western alphabet is born from the fact that they are written linked up horizontally. Youâll understand if you try to write ânâ, âmâ, âlâ and âeâ in cursive.
July 6
Iâm in an extracurricular club that values aisatsu. There is a rule that you say aisatsu with a loud voice when you meet a senpai or sensei. The other day, I happened to meet a senpai after morning practice and I got frazzled. The aisatsu that came out of my mouth was: âGood morning Gonchi, good night!â
July 7
The great thing about Shinshou is that when his listeners were loving it, he would stop on purpose. He could have just kept going like that, but he would suddenly abandon [a story] and move on to the next one. He could have got carried away more, but he didnât get carried away at all, he just went to the next one. That was truly amazing about him.
July 8
It is perhaps the feeling of wanting to know something that is the urge that most makes us human. Things like eating or increasing oneâs offspring, even other animals can do that. But continuously thinking about things that have nothing to do with living in the present, I think that is a characteristic ability that is only given to humans.
July 9
I have friends who ask me to go here or there, so there is a factor of uncertainty mixed into my trips. My friends are always the horizontal lines in Ghost Leg. They guide me into different directions along a vertical line that would have gone straight down if I had been by my own.
July 10
When I meet friends I havenât met for a while, I would like to be someone who earnestly says: âI want to do thisâ. Rather than using the time for reviewing and critiquing, I would like to have a chat about âI want to do thisâ.
July 11
Partially because I was a hunter, I thought that I had thought a lot about dying. But when I got terminal cancer, I was able to heard the opinions of people in the same position and I have recently come to think a lot about living. It changed from âWhat is dying?â to âWhat is living?â.
July 12
The way I do the interviews in âCan I Follow You Homeâ, is that while I am basing it on ânormalcyâ, I am trying to delve into things that feel out of place. Like âwhat is this pencil sharpener doing on top of the fridge?â, everything has a reason.