Rob Goss

From the shinkansen somewhere between Nagoya and Kyoto, there’s a spot where you often get snowy views in winter for just a couple of minutes.

Word counts are important, of course. A book commissioned at 50,000 words needs delivery of 50,000 words. Likewise a 1,200-word article can’t be 800 or 1,500. I just don’t find daily word output very helpful as a gauge of my productivity or as a way to hold myself accountable.

I’m not ordinarily a word counter when it comes to daily writing output. Progress with a text isn’t just about the words; there’s research, thinking time, editing, and so on. But right now I’m so close to finishing the next book that I’ve started an internal countdown. 1500ish words to go…3 days.

Henry, voted* Japan’s finest kuroshiba for 11 consecutive years, taking a break between snow-yellowing work today in Tokyo. *source needed

Snowmaggedon in Tokyo today.

Anyway, the final stop was a lovely way to wrap up research. We popped into a pottery store this morning in the Fukuoka countryside. The owner offered us tea, then invited us to his kilns and workshop. Had a lovely chat about his work and the local pottery…and got to go inside a noborigama kiln.

Heading home from the final research trip for the next book. First non-guidebook in a while. I’ve lost count of how many journeys Irwin and I have done for this since April, but it’s been quite a trip. Brilliant experiences, yet I’m looking forward to being a hermit for a month. Maybe two. Or three.

Yes. One of many things from the US that we could boycott, though it feels like it’ll take me a while to gradually remove everything I’d like. I find it a daunting task tbh.

That’s why it rhymes with heaven! I should have kept ushering skittish cows by impatient grockles.

Five jobs I’ve had (prior to the thing I’ve been doing for almost 20 years…)

-Depressed & drunken English teacher in Japan
-Construction worker back in Devon
-Painting sewage pump stations & fences in Norway
-Furniture polisher
-Summertime farmhand (the joy of herding cows down country lanes…)

I think it also helps us to live the moments more fully if we aren’t always thinking about documenting it. And perhaps to be a little more chilled about life because we aren’t concerned so much about how we portray it to others.

Same here, beyond private family groups. It should be their choice to make when they are able. As a teen, mine was fine with being in school sports and maths team photos posted by school, so we agreed to those.

But I’ve always found something off about folk using their kids as social media props.

As I enjoy the death throes of my 40s, here’s a senryu about the joy of age verification in middle age.

doomscrolling…
a dozen flicks
for my DOB

#haiku #senryu #ipromiseimnotthismoroseinperson

I really like this. It reminds me a little of a ‘free haiku’ by Ozaki Hosai that a haijin in Matsuyama told me about over drinks years ago (“even coughing / still I’m alone”).

Anyway, get well soon.

A wafer or two on the side would’ve been nice.

It is tough. Our son is at college now, but I remember one year when he was little we had (and we vaccinate) flu A, chicken pox, and flu B in the house in the space of six weeks. There was always something going around his nursery.

A small bottle of wine (250ml) that came with a thimble-sized cup.

On the Shinkansen, having a thimble of wine.

Yes. With my clients and type of work, I’ve been ok so far, but from talking to younger writers it sounds like it’s getting harder to break in. The places where people could get initial experience and start building a portfolio are the kind of places happy to churn out any old filth with AI help.

Friends who work as translators here seem to be losing quite a bit of work to it.

I can’t see the alt text on that clip. So: it’s a view from the window of my ryokan. A little Japanese garden covered in snow.

This morning’s coffee view.

Snow covered entrance to a shrine.

Our tiny car. Snow everywhere.

Snowy roads.

Traditional tatami mat room at a Japanese inn.

Grim drive. Lovely destination.

Today’s office.

Travelling, I always enjoy listening to the sounds of nighttime. Two nights ago, it was the whoosh and thud of snow falling off the machiya I was staying in. Last night, the building was creaking in the wind. Tonight…I’m home and the dog is slurping on his bits at the end of the bed.

Fukui. Windy.

I’m the same. If I finish a haiku this week, part of me wants to share it online while it feels fresh rather than wait for a publication’s submission window to open and then wait another month or six for a reply. Yet there are also reasons to wait.

Snowy fields with mountains in the distance and a big wodge of blue sky.

Heading to Fukui for a few days and getting lovely views from the shinkansen.

I like that. I’m used to that approach with poetry but am tempted to do it more with articles now I’m trying to be very selective with non-book work.

I’d read that. Someone will take it. I’d add something helpful about pitching if I could, but I’ve always found it harder than actual writing. A grim part of the job.

In Japan’s 72 micro seasons, I think we might just have reached “dry air; everything in my office is giving me static electricity shocks”.

A golf ball on a frosty fairway.

First round in six or seven years.