Been getting some crazy rain. No walk. So I had to take a photo from my window. Somewhere between falling and fallen~💧🌿

A couple of my bell crickets enjoying a meal. Note: In Japanese nom-nom-nom is mogu mogu! Both equally cute😊.

In Japan, if someone finds something someone has dropped, they'll pick it up & place it higher up, so if they come back they'll more easily see it. You'll often find hats, handkerchiefs, or a single glove on a fence somewhere. ...

Found on my rainy walk this morning, a torii gate not even knee high.

I learned the word "linear rain band" in Japanese. 線状降水帯 / senjō kōsuitai. Learned it in English, too. Looks like they got hit harder in Tokyo/Ibaragi, up north. Hope everyone is okay. 🙏

Drew this elated kappa last night with the phrase: My Dance Card is Full! Then thought, do people still say this? Or have I accidentally made a kappa meme for Gen X?

Great. Possible flooding (and evacuation) announcement over the outdoor loudspeakers. Time to check the little river outside the house. I'm not used to the area so not sure if it's a flooding risk or not. be right back...👋

That head tilt gives the oni some serious "Excuse me?" energy 😂👹 Seen in the wilds of Hokkaido.

Careful of what lurks in the waters. A slightly nsfw kappa that appears to have fangs(?). Front view, back view. [Kaiki Denshōzushi. Motoyama Keisen, 1944]

I call this one: Still Life of Random Rotting Vegetables and Fruits That I Totally Would Have Eaten.

It's utterly mind-blowing that you can write stories, read them, re-read them, re-re-read them, have an editor go over and over them, and then the copy writer as well. And you get to the final pass before the big Send To Printers, and YOU STILL FIND MISTAKES! 😮‍💨

✨Old Japanese House Find #692✨ This frog has been squatting in the window of my in-law's toilet for at least thirty years. Today on a whim, I gave it a much needed bath & replaced it. I'm not sure if it wants to be retired or has become a toilet kami 🤔 Rest little frog. Avert your eyes...

Well, this was a surprise! A sudden, literally-only-one-full-day trip to Hokkaido just happened to correspond with the Jigoku Matsuri (Hell Festival). So we went! Making a longer version with giant flag dancing and some explanations for patrons...will get that up this weekend 👹✨

Fuji-san doesn't always come with cherry blossoms. #metaphor

Country Mouse in Asaka = immediate panic attack. 🫩

🌟Old Japanese House Find #289🌟: Needed small memo pad, opened random closet, found tiny unused calendar-diary from 1979🫡👏👏👏

The shoji in my bedroom are riddled with holes, so I started making paper eyes to cover them. Now at night, I lie in bed with a good book, my freaky-deaky fairy lights on in the darkened room, & I wonder what it looks like from outside to my neighbor who already has reservations about me. 👀 👀 👀

IT’S OUT! 👹🎉 _Legends of Japanese Mythology_ is officially in the world today. (That is if today for you is Sept 1st 😂 ). Gods. Ghosts. Yōkai. Heroes, & 8-headed snake dragons! This middle grade book is so beautiful even the older folks will want to get their hands on it🖐️. geni.us/JapaneseMyth...

A girl. A sacrifice. An evil god-monster under the sea. 🌊🐉🔪‼️. 🎧 New episode out now. The latest Uncanny Japan is Folklore Story Time with an old tale from the remote Oki Islands featuring Tokoyo, a cursed statue, and something very unpleasant waiting underwater. open.spotify.com/episode/7qQ2...

Oni says, hiyeee~. Insomnia before road trip and plane, nooo! 😮‍💨

Dazzling at the clouds up north. Then I hear they're earthquake clouds 😑☁️

I thought this summer would give me some free time. Boy was I wrong😬. It has been Full-On non stop. I only got to eat my first kakigōri (shaved ice) of the summer two days ago 🙏💕) and it was both elegant AND delicious🥰.

Smexy little beasts trying to impress the ladies. Japanese bell crickets /suzumushi/ 鈴虫 are one of the sounds of late summer and early autumn in Japan. Their delicate ringing song has been loved for centuries. So much so that people traditionally kept them in little cages just to enjoy their music.

We had a wicked-crazy thunder and lightning storm blow through at midnight last night. A little worse for the wear, but hanging in there. Still blooming #metaphor

Tim Burton and I didn't know Yayaoi Kusama passed away, too. Although she was 97. My etegami painting: Konaki Jiji, the old man who cries like a child. You pick him up thinking he's a little babe lost in the woods and ...

Meet, Mai kubi / 舞首 /Dancing Heads --> three severed heads that keep fighting even after death. From Hyaku Monogatari (1841). The weirdest part? The book gives them two completely different origin stories in the same entry. Folklore is messy and I love it. I put up both versions for patrons, btw.

When the creature that is living in your ceiling (and has been suspiciously quiet the past couple weeks) decides it's time for major reconstruction. Scared the crap out of me. But at least I got it on video this time.

Woke up to the news of Dolly passing 😥

I spent entirely too many days making this little book promo. But my gosh was it a lot of fun 😊! Wait till you see my kappa one 💦😅 Legends of Japanese Mythology with the wonderful Tomii Masako's incredible illustrations. #middlegrade #middlegradebooks

Be still my heart 💕 I have a new walk I sometimes do in the early morning around the port, and these black kites (tonbi) are everywhere. Hearing their descending cry gives me shivers. I can't find any good words for it in English. But Japanese is spot on: Pii hyororo~!