Image: Miyazawa Kenji no Shokutaku
There are so many things I’m interested in. Things I want to experience, explore, learn more about. Some of them have been on my radar for years and years, yet I haven’t given them the time and attention they deserve.
I’m sure many of you know that feeling. To motivate myself, I want to experiment with an idea I’ve had on my mind for a while now : theme weeks.
What Is a Theme Week?
The concept is simple: I will dedicate a part of my spare time to explore a certain topic within one week (or several weeks, depending on the scope). That topic can be anything, for example:
- the works of a certain mangaka or author
- revisiting games from my childhood
- anime movies set during WWII
- the early history of Japanese animation
- the production of My Neighbor Totoro
- proactively trying new game genres
- discovering new music
- learning or improving a certain skill
I will set myself a goal for each theme week that may include either specific or vague milestones. That goal will typically include writing a blog post about that topic with the aim to be both personal and informative.
Theme Week Masterlist
I’ll be using this section to record all ongoing and past theme weeks.
#01: The Dreamlike Works of Kenji Miyazawa (Aug 19~25)
Kenji Miyazawa was a Japanese poet and writer. While Japanese people are familiar with his fairy tales, most famously “Night on the Galactic Railroad”, hardly anyone in the West knows him or his works. I have always been drawn to Miyazawa’s stories, they have dreamlike, soothing, philosophical, weird, eerie and fantastical qualities at the same time. Some of them have been adapted into anime and manga works, and they are frequently referenced in other media. Since I’ll take a trip to Iwate prefecture this week, I’ll use this as an excuse to start with a Kenji Miyazawa theme week.
☑ Visit: Kenji Miyazawa’s hometown Hanamaki + museums
☑ Read/Listen: Taneyamagahara (種山ヶ原)
☑ Read/Listen: Gauche the Cellist (セロ弾きのゴーシュ)
☑ Read/Listen: Matasaburō of the Wind (風の又三郎) (optional)
☑ Read/Listen: The Acorn and the Mountain Cat (どんぐりと山猫)
☑ Read/Listen: The Twin Stars (双子の星)
☑ Watch: Spring and Chaos (1996)
☑ Rewatch: Gauche the Cellist (1982)
☑ Rewatch: The Night on Taneyamagahara (2006)
☑ Watch: Fantasy Railroad in the Stars (2007)
☐ Write: Blog Post