meghan9436

A lot has happened already since my last update yesterday. I pushed myself so hard on guitar during these last 48 ish hours that I have blisters on my fingers as I type this.

Let's start from the beginning. I started with some self-care time, and I took a hot bath to try to relieve my body aches and pains, particularly the chronic knee pain that I mentioned yesterday. During that time, I finally finished Before the Coffee Gets Cold: Tales from the Cafe, by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. I was reading the 2020 English translation of this series by Picador. The story is strange and unusual, with a heavy dose of melancholic themes. There are funny parts in the book that made me smile too.

( Before the Coffee Gets Cold: Tales From the Cafe )

The overall theme of the book really ties into what I have been talking about on this journey, even before I started this blog earlier this year. Enjoy the current, present moment, and tell your loved ones that you love them while you can because your life and reality can very suddenly and quickly change. I was happy to find out that this series has two more installments that I still have left to read.

After I finished soaking my knees, I put myself together and headed back to my local park. I came by at a much earlier time, maybe around 15:30 or so. I practised the same songs from the previous day, putting extra attention and care to Misery, and the secret song.

( Promoting The Moffatts and Music Travel Love at my local park yesterday )

Despite the state of my physical health, my heart is full. There is something really special about playing music live to promote the band instead of just playing their music over a portable bluetooth speaker or something. I think that the difference is that it takes a lot of patience and skill to play guitar, and do it well, while anybody can play music on a bluetooth speaker. There's also the live interaction with passersby that you just don't get from playing background music. It really changes the dynamic in a positive way.

For a long time along this journey, I struggled a lot with imposter syndrome. I was in denial for a long time, and I had to read emails back to myself as a reminder, that yes, this is really happening! But with every passing day, I feel a little closer to fully realising my dreams even if they are not fully apparent to you now. Everything will become clear when the time is right.

Today, I returned to my local park with a different crowd. Nobody directly approached me about the songs I was playing, but I did overhear some kids talking about how I was volunteering my song. I heard a boy say something to the effect of, "歌をあげた。(Uta wo ageta./She gave a song.)" before running back to play baseball with his friend.

Later on tonight, there was a special event being held by my local kindergarten. When I inquired about it as I was leaving, one of the teachers thanked me for the music. Thankfully, there were no accidents on my return trip home.

These adventures have provided me with a much needed break from video editing. Particularly from blurring out individuals from my videos to make sure that they are compliant with local privacy laws in Japan. I find this task quite めんどくさい (mendokusai, a bother to do), but this is an absolutely important step to make sure that you are in the legal clear. I mentioned in the description of the Loft Closure video and my update on the community page about exactly how difficult the YouTube Studio editor is.

I realised that my Traveler's Notebook is almost full, and I will need to start a new one for the second half of the year. I'm thinking that I might do another livestream to record the process, because it has been a while since the last time I streamed.

I'm going to stop here for now so that I can grab a much needed late night dinner.