Where do I want to go?

I think for me, Japan is the single country I need to visit before I die.  I'm fifth generation American of Japanese ancestry, so it has always been weird living such an American life, but being boxed in to my ancestral homeland.

For the longest time I denied my ethnic heritage, mainly because as a kid, who wants to be different?  It sucks when people mispronounce the food you eat or your name (it's phonetic!), but I took me a long time to embrace the generations-removed ethnic mark left upon me.

Part of what has shaped my identity was the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.  Really studying the history and the socio-political roots of the tragedy (and finding out that my grandparents and family were all interned) has definitely shaped my identity as distinctly American of Japanese Ancestry - I'm not Japanese at all, I'm very American, yet my ancestors all came from Japan at one point.

For a long time I also tried to distance myself from Japanese culture, just because I always viewed myself as more American than Japanese.  I basically tried to avoid anime and manga, and would only pull out my knowledge of Japanese culture or history or mythology if it was convenient.

But after a long while, I realized that most people are going to see me as Japanese before American, and until we become a more globalized culture, nothing is going to change that.  So, I've decided not to reject things that I might like just because they're Japanese, and have found an incredible love of anime and manga and J-dramas and also super cute stickers.  Damn those stickers.

Anyway, thus, I want to go to Japan to finally come to terms with this ancestral homeland of mine and I think it'll help me continue on my path to fully understanding myself and the way people perceive me.

In terms of getting there, to make sure that I make it I've got to start to travel fund.  Maybe a dollar a month or so (while I'm broke) and then I'll scale it up as the bare necessities (food, shelter, art supplies) gets taken care of more and more.  Not the most revolutionary plan, but one I can tackle.

Not everyone wants to travel the world, but most people can identify at least one place in the world they’d like to visit before they die. Where is that place for you, and what will you do to make sure you get there?

(Author: Chris Guillebeau)

Japan Art Fundraiser, My Bench!

I was super fortunate to check out an awesome fundraiser for Japan a while back put on by a super collaboration of Pixar, Dreamworks, Nickelodeon, and Mavericks Studios that went on over at Superfrog gallery in the New People building.

All the work was frickin' awesome, and I snapped a quick pic of superstar artist/fundraiser/badass Dice Tsutsumi's piece, which basically is not only the most appropriate painting ever to symbolize the Japan relief effort, but is masterfully done.

You can see his process (and a better photo) over at his blog HERE.  Dude is a super inspiring role model, basically living big off his art and also giving back big time (he organized the Totoro Forest Project, and is an awesome organizer, using his contacts with some of the biggest names in art today to help out awesome charities).  Basically, I hate this dude so much, only because I want to be able to do what he does so badly.

Also, as an update, my little Ballon Friend painting (below) sold at the Rise Japan Vol. 2 event the other night.  Yay!  Glad to know that I was able to contribute something to help out the recovery effort in Japan.

In other news, I took a class over at Techshop SF.  Eve and I took a tour of the shop as part of the Baz Biz holiday sponsorship, and they were offering a holiday special which I totally took advantage of.  So I took their Woodshop Safety and Basic Usage (SBU) class and learned how to use all sorts of saws, a sander, and I made a bench!

 Nalgene bottle, coffee cup, and messy room in the photo for scale

It was a huge pain in the ass carrying it home and on the bus (especially since I was also lugging around some paintings), but it was pretty awesome in that I could sit down where ever I wanted to.  For me, that one night, every bus stop had an empty seat.

Anyway, I hope to use the rest of my one-month membership to build a crap load of wooden stuff.  I also totally plan to cut and sand the crap out of a bajillion wooden panels to paint on.  Heck yeah!

Paper for Japan

So Paper Source has decided to donate 10% of the sales of their  Japanese paper (which is pretty awesome, hand silkscreened, and is great for bookbinding) to relief efforts in Japan for all purchases through April 30th.

If you want to get some, help a brother out and show some love here.