It's been almost two years since setting out on my two-week cruise around
mainland Japan. I hope to return sooner rather than later, so this year, I am
focusing on completing this blog series! I want to share this trip with you
before I embark on my next one 😉 In the
last installment, I shared my daytime adventures in Niigata. Now it's time to reveal the true
highlight of the day: the Geisha Dinner Experience!
Kappou Daizen was AWESOME because they had no problem offering vegan
food 💚
Having the best time with Sean! We enjoyed chatting with our tablemates
throughout the night.
One of my vegan courses: konjac sashimi and grilled tofu 😋
It was mesmerizing to watch the geigi (芸妓; Niigata geisha) dancing 🩵
The long kimono sleeves show that this is a junior geigi.
This dance had two geigi performing together.
The synchronized dance was enchanting!
In another dance, a senior geigi joined.
You can see the shorter sleeves that the senior geigi wears, as well as
the subtler accessories.
After the dances, we were taught about various aspects of everyone's costumes.
Here you can see the white makeup that continues even around the back.
We had a wonderful interpreter helping us understand the information that was being shared 👏
This geigi looks so elegant in this photo! 💖
Group photo with the geigi! Sean forgot to put his mask on 😆
Group photo of the beautiful entertainers 💙
This geigi had just debuted! She gave us stickers featuring her new
geigi name: Sachiko (咲地子) which could be translated as Child of the
Flowering Land 🌸
I'm not 100% sure but I believe this was steamed yuba!
Fried butterbur and fatsia sprouts 🤤
For dessert, a wee chocolate cake and strawberry 🍓✨
(In this post, I've only included a small selection of the plentiful food & drink I enjoyed!)
The room we were seated in was decorated richly; this was one of my
favorite pieces.
After returning to our cabin aboard the Silver Muse, we were greeted
with our breakfast menu, an end-of-cruise travel arrangements form, and
our daily newsletter, along with more tasty chocolates 🍫
So ended our fantastic day in Niigata. One of the employees of Kappou Daizen
invited me to return, and so I shall, someday! I hope to see Sachiko again and
ask her how work as a geigi has been going. Sooner rather than later, if
possible. I still have the sticker she gave me; I keep it in my clear phone
case, where I see it every day 🥰 But that's all for my adventures in Niigata
in 2023. Next time, we'll be visiting Akita! Please look forward to it. Until
then, may you remain happy, healthy, and safe 💖
Welcome back to another installment in my Japan Adventure series! Last time we
said goodbye to
Kanazawa
and sailed overnight to reach Niigata. This was a completely packed day with
no time for a self-guided exploration of the city. In this post I'll share the
first half of our day: the included guided excursion entitled
Introduction to Niigata.
Wednesday 22 March 2023 - Daytime in Niigata
Another beautiful sunrise on the sea 🥰
Upon disembarking, I was greeted by Niigata's manga-anime promotion
mascots:
Hanano Komachi and Sasa Dangorou
😍 In researching them for this post, I discovered a 4-episode anime
featuring the characters, free to
view on YouTube
with English subtitles 🍿
Our first stop was the
Befco Bakauke Observation Deck
which is on the top floor of the tallest building this side of Japan!
On the observation deck, there were maps marking points of interest in each of the cardinal
directions...
...which helped us spot an upcoming part of the tour from miles away!
We could also see our ship, the Silver Muse!!
A selfie showing how high up we were! 🏙️
The next stop was the
Northern Culture Museum, originally a home, dating back to the Edo period!
We were about one month too early to see this magnificent, 150-year old
wisteria arbor in bloom.
The log beam running across this hall is a single piece, 30-meters long,
from a towering Japanese cedar.
Google Photos helpfully stitched together this panorama of the exquisite
stroll garden. The garden was meticulously designed to have impeccable
views from every angle.
This unique image of Buddha Mahavairocana was made as an offering after
this red pine died.
Our final, brief stop was
MinatoPia, a large site with multiple buildings which tell the story of
Niigata's history as a port town. The stop was brief because nothing was
open during our visit!
We still got lots of photos with the exteriors of these interesting
historical buildings.
And I played paparazzi for this cute pigeon 🤩📸
After returning to the Silver Muse, I photographed one of the souvenirs
I picked up during the tour: a
tenugui
depicting the wisteria arbor in full bloom!
Soaking up the scenery on our balcony before our next outing 😎
It was nice to have a rest between all the activity of the three-stop guided
excursion and our next adventure: a geisha dinner! I hope you'll look forward
to learning about it in my next Japan Adventure post 👘 Until then, please
stay happy, healthy, and safe~!
I'm back again, one day later, doing my best to get another roundup done so I
won't be behind anymore! Without further ado, here's how I kicked off 2025
🎊✨
Patreon Rewards
I completed another Maginaturalist's Sketchbook piece in January, featuring
Fafnir, the dwarf-dragon of Norse legend. He slithered out to warm patrons'
mailboxes soon after!
Please
join my Patreon
to get cool, illustrated rewards like this and to help keep my creative career
flowing 💖 As a patron, you get digital rewards like coloring pages and
Discord access, and you can chose from physical rewards including postcards,
prints, or both! Every member not only helps by providing funds for things
like art supplies and equipment upgrades, but also gives me a huge emotional
boost and social proof to anyone who may be on the fence about supporting me.
Thank you so much 🥰
deviantART
I uploaded several new pieces in January, but the one I have decided to
feature here is a chibi caricature of Steve the Otter, which was made as a
birthday gift for my mother-in-law 💐💕
You can commission me for a chibi caricature like this! I can chibify animals
of all kinds, including humans, so long as I have a high-quality, full-body
photo reference to work from 🎨 There are two places to commission me, just
choose the platform you prefer:
deviantART
or
Square.
Livestreaming
After taking the first two (partial) weeks of January off for the holidays, I
returned to livestreaming like usual, sharing my artmaking process on Monday,
Wednesday, and Friday for the remaining three weeks of the month. January's
final artstream had me finishing another chibi caricature, this time Tiger the
Cat, as a birthday gift for my sister 🐈
Consider
subscribing to my Twitch channel
as another way to support my storytelling career! You get fun perks like
custom subscriber badges and emotes that can be used all across
Twitch, and
I get your financial, emotional, and social backing 🥰 Thank you!
Charity Fundraising
Our Charity of the Month for January was
Veganuary again this year
😄 We had 20 unique viewers that month, which is how I calculate what my
end-of-month donation will be.
My formula is to donate $0.10 USD per unique viewer, with a minimum of $10 and
a maximum of $100, so I just sent Veganuary $10!
As you can see in my email receipt, they have a match going on, which meant
that we helped raise $20! But that's not all! My wonderful subscriber,
Wolfaxe2, stepped up at the last minute, and donated the full £10 goal to our
Twitch fundraiser!
So together we raised over $30 for Veganuary in January!!! 🎊✨🎊✨🎊
Thank you to everyone who watches my streams and donates to these fundraisers.
You help make my storytelling work so much more meaningful 💖
Gryphia Progress
I'm going to talk more about my 2025 goals a bit farther down in this post,
but one of them is to work on my novel every workday. I'm stoked to report
that I achieved that for January!
I'm using this freebie planner to keep track of the days that I work on Gryphia
(and the days that are scheduled vacation) so it feels great to have the January
spread completely filled out like this ✨
I've continued to work on writing and editing my second draft using Scrivener.
It's rather slow going, in a way, but I am constantly coming up with new ideas
and refinements, so I am moving forward, even if the word count doesn't always
reflect it. Editing has always been my favorite part of a writing project, so
I'm having a blast every day!
Other News: 2024 Goals, 2025 Goals
As I did last year, I would like to take some time to reflect on the goals I
set for myself and how I did. Here are the goals that I set at the beginning
of 2024:
Career ✒️ I will spend 50+ minutes each workday on Gryphia writing.
Education 💮 I will spend 20+ minutes studying Japanese every day.
Finances 💳 I will pay off all credit cards.
Health 😌 I will meditate every day.
Hobbies 🎮 I will play a Nintendo Switch game every day.
Travel 🐮 I will visit a Farm Sanctuary location.
Family 🕊️ I will do my pet care routine every day before breakfast.
Relationships 💌 I will write a letter every day.
Reading 📚 I will read at least one page every day.
Many of my goals evolved as the year went by. Circumstances change,
emergencies occur, but instead of giving up, I adapted so that I could keep
working toward my greater aims even if it was different to how I first
imagined it. Here are my goals at the end of the year, and my thoughts about
them:
Career ✒️ I will work on Gryphia writing every workday. I had to
remove the time requirement for this goal, which worked great because then I
no longer wrestled with thoughts like, "Why bother working on it at all
today, since I can't achieve the full time anymore?" So I continued to make
steady progress throughout the year!
Education 💮 I will complete a Duolingo Japanese lesson every day.
My streak remains intact at an astounding 1,678 days!
Finances 💳 I will pay off all credit cards. I achieved this
and, in doing so, completely revamped my spending habits and overall
financial hygiene. This is one of the toughest yearly goals I've ever
accomplished but I'm so glad I chose to tackle it, because it came with far
more rewards than I expected. My relationship with money is completely
different and I'm no longer interested in the impulse purchases that used to
tempt (and trap!) me. I'm free now to use any disposable income for things
that REALLY matter to me, like increasing monthly charitable donations,
saving up for epic vacations, and paying down other debt, like my student
loans 🤑
Health 🚿 I will shower every day. I changed this goal because I
found myself really struggling to fit in all elements of basic self-care. It
may sound like a no-brainer, but I shower at the end of the day so that I
can get into bed feeling warm and clean, which means it can be tough when
I'm depleted after a busy day, and having to make the decision between
showering or getting enough sleep. It's something I'm still working on, but
has definitely improved with practice!
Hobbies 🎮 I will play a Nintendo Switch game every day. While I
didn't fit this in every day, I'd say I played a game at least 90% of
the days, which is still an A grade!
Reading 📚 I will read a page a day. Sometimes I gave myself a
bye and just read two pages the next day, but overall I was successful here.
I ended up reading a total 7,233 pages, because I'd often read much more
than the single page that my goal required!
Family 🕊️ I will do my pet care routine every day before breakfast.
Again, I didn't do this every single day, but it was even more
frequently achieved than my hobbies goal. This is an important task because
the pet care chores can be unpleasant (scooping poops, especially!) so I tie
it to breakfast to keep me really motivated to get it done early!
Relationships 🍻 I will host seasonal family dinners and Sunday
Friends Lunch. I had to change this goal because writing a letter
stopped being fun and started being a chore. I decided to find a different
way to stay in regular touch with my most precious people, and it worked!
Wellness 😌 I will meditate every day. This replaced my travel
goal because I realized I couldn't save up for a road trip AND pay off my
credit cards, all in the same year. I switched from Headspace to Insight
Timer partway through the year, which I like much better! My daily
meditation streak there remains intact at 170 days.
For fun, I also wanted to share photos of last year's reading calendar,
which I got from Half Price Books, and this year's calendar.
I use these calendars to track my daily reading streak and to mark down what
books I finished, which makes for a fun, interactive decoration and a nice
memento at the end of the year.
Finally, I want to share the goals I set for this year. They may evolve, as
last year's did, but so far they are working well for me, giving structure to
my daily life, and supporting my health and wellbeing.
In list form, they are:
Career ✒️ I will work on my first Gryphia novel every workday.
Education 💮 I will complete a Duolingo Japanese lesson every day.
Finances 🏦 I will save up at least $4,000 for my 2026 Caribbean
cruise.
Health 😴 I will go to bed, eyes closed, by 21:50 every night.
Hobbies 🎮 I will play a Nintendo Switch game every day.
Wellness 🔋 I will take a monthly rest week from livestreaming and
high intensity workouts.
Family 🕊️ I will do my pet care routine every day before breakfast.
Relationships 🥂 I will host Friends Lunch and attend Vegan
Toastmasters on Sundays.
Fitness ⚖️ I will
reach 120 lb body weight or 22% body fat by July.
Wish me luck! I have crafted all these goals with the knowledge of how
previous years went, what changes needed to be made, and what works best with
my circumstances. I'm feeling excited to achieve all these things and more in
2025 🤩
That's all for now, thank you for reading until the end. I'll be back with
another roundup post next month, and maybe with a Japan Adventure post in the
meantime! Until then, please stay happy, healthy, and safe ❤️
I'm gonna try to get three months of roundups done in two days, an ambitious
goal, if I do say so myself 😎 To start, let's catch up on November and
December of last year!
Patreon Rewards
At the end of November, I sent rewards featuring my recently completed Cozy
Christmas Coodlers illustration 🕊️
And in December, I sent the next entry in my Maginaturalist's Sketchbook
series, Ea the Mesopotamian sea god 🧜♂️
Patreon is the best way to support my artmaking, providing both funds and
emotional support 🥰
Click here to sign up
for digital rewards, postcards, prints, or all three!
deviantART
On November 9th, I was honored with my second-ever Daily Deviation 🤯🥹🥳 My
Summer Gryphon piece was nominated by
LindArtz and
featured by
Malintra-Shadowmoon
💖
I livestream art nearly every week on Twitch and it's another place you can
support me by subscribing! Lurkers are always welcome, but I love to chat, too! See you on
my next stream
😉
Charity Fundraising
November's Charity of the Month was
Farm Sanctuary
and we had 20 unique Twitch viewers that month.
My donation formula is $0.10 USD per unique viewer, minumum donation of $10
and maximum of $100. That meant a $10 donation!
On top of that, my awesome viewers, bickman2k and ExieTheArtist, both donated
$10, so we raised a total of $30 for Farm Sanctuary in 2024 🥳✨
December's Charity of the Month was
The Protego Foundation
🪄 We had 11 unique viewers that month, so I donated $10!
Thank you to everyone who joins my streams and donates to the Studio Mikarts
fundraisers on Twitch! Knowing that together we're making a difference for
animals—while having fun!—gives every minute of live time so much more meaning
🥹💕
Gryphia Progress
The editing of my first illustrated novel made big strides in these months!
Working diligently each week since July, in December I finally finished the
first round of edits, spanning 222 pages!
Moving onto the next step, I started my second draft. The first was written on
my Freewrite smart typewriter, which purposefully disallows editing (so you
can just get on with the storytelling!), but now I am in the editing stages,
so I am using Scrivener on my desktop PC.
Every step I take in this project is literally the most I've ever worked on a
novel, so every bit of progress is exciting! I can't wait to see how far I get
in 2025 🤩
Other News: Winter Vegan Market
I was chosen to be a vendor for the Winter Vegan Market here in Boise, Idaho!
It was so exciting to meet so many people, especially when they braved the
cold to come out (we were very lucky that the rain didn't start until exactly
the market's scheduled end 🤯), to share my artwork with new customers and
clients, and to help show that veganism isn't a diet, but a complete lifestyle
of non-harm 💖💕
Here are some photos from the event, the second of its kind in my area!
I got more modular display grids this time!
Coloring pages, greeting cards, and chibi commissions.
More greeting cards, stickers, pin-back buttons, and magnets.
The wind kept trying to blow my postcards away!
Postcards and prints.
Set up and ready to sell!
I bought these cookies from our neighbors immediately!
Selfie with my new friend, Angie!
Selfie with one of my best friends, Leigha, and her two pups 💕
One unexpected perk of vending this time was getting SO MANY treats from the
food vendors! We purchased a lot (last time they sold out super quick so my
husband and I swooped in early!) but we also received many gifts at closing
time, as well 🥹💖💕 I love being a part of the vegan community! I hope I can
vend at the upcoming Spring Vegan Market as well, but even if not, I'll
definitely attend as a shopper!
🌟🌟🌟🌟
That's all for this roundup! Thank you so much for reading 'til the end. I'll
be back VERY soon with my roundup for January 2025 😆 Until then, please stay
happy, healthy, and safe!
