Reaching the point where I can show people some of what I’ve been working on has come slower than I expected, but I can talk about a bit of it. Mainly, I had been helping a group of Japanese people translate a webcomic about life in the area affected by the Fukushima nuclear plant incident. The author has two kids (daughters, 8 and 11 years old) and has the sort of massive concerns you would expect a person to have.

When the highly abnormal becomes normal, someone desperate for normality might find the situation somewhat mad. I think that’s what the comic reflects. It’s all about normal people and their very natural concerns. As such, I find it all very poignant and something the world should see (in English etc.) as soon as possible.

It’s not quite all set up for unveiling to the West, but the Japanese version (the “Fukushima Radiation Diary”) will be getting bounced around Comiket, Japan’s world-famous self-published comics convention. (This is more accurate than the term doujinshi, which literally means “Story with the Same Characters,” i.e. fan fiction. Clearly, the above webcomic is about events all too real! But it is not carried by any publisher yet.)  Believe me, I’ll let everyone know when this is all ready for the West. People just want their i’s dotted and t’s crossed first.

Aside from that, I’ve been doing the heavy lifting translating, for subtitling, a press conference. I won’t say what yet because a) this’ll be done very soon now, b) I’m not sure how public it should be so I won’t run my mouth. (^^;) Let me tell you, it is a lot easier going by text, or text and ear, than by ear alone. It’s heaven compared. I’m a good translator, but I’m certainly not trained as an interpreter.

If I do more of it, I’ll get better, but some large part of me hopes not ^^;

Aside from that, I’ve just been doing odds and ends helping a startup company, well, start up, but it hasn’t been at a fast pace for a little bit of time. The bigwigs are meeting to change that. Sounds good to me. Being busy is good, if it’s about making money at least. – J