I tend to start many things but finish little. I am however happy to say that I've completed taking notes from "L'Art de l'Ukiyo-e", a special edition of an art magazine I bought back in Lyon. There are additional pages that I have not summarized but they are dedicated to artists: I want to use these as I post additional woodblock prints, which you can expect in the next few days. I'm also delighted to announce that I have acquired new prints from Ebina's Tale of Genji series which I should receive around the second half of January

I have resumed - one year later! - my reading and translation, as well as notes, of the "Illustrated Japanese History" series. Better later than never, right? RIGHT? I find it a lot easier now, however, so hopefully I can contribute one to two posts a week. While in Japan I've also bought some additional books on the subject which are definitely aimed at adults (the "Illustrated...." series is more aimed at kids in their teens, I would imagine) but the vocabulary I've picked up from "Illustrated...." allows me to understand whole pages of the more difficult books without the help of a dictionary, whoohoo!

I also need to start going through my 1000+ pictures from Japan, my notes from the Tokyo National Museum, resume my blog about travelling there, read through all the documentation I got from all the different temples, shrines and other monuments. Oh and there are all the other things I had going, such as reviews, woodblock prints, etc. I have a feeling that I won't have the time to get bored in the weeks leading to Christmas :p

Still, the priority will be on my Japanese lessons as well as self-study because getting better in that department will be key in many aspects of my life, including reading sources for research here. My trip to Japan has given me additional incentive and I am now studying for about 2 to 3 hours a day, depending on whether I have a lesson with a teacher at JOI or not (which I do about 4 times a week right now). I am hoping that all that hard work, if I manage to stay focused, will get me past level N3 (that is lower intermediate) which I have just started, by the end of next year. I am also hoping to improve my kanji reading ability to at least recognizing 1000+ kanji, that is all the kanji learned at primary school in Japan and corresponding to about half the Joyo kanji list: that would effectively get me to upper intermediate level in that respect. I have already planned to have studied once around 500 kanji by the end of this year, but those are mostly kanji I am already somewhat familiar with so the next 500 will definitely be tougher and I'll have to revise them all several times over for sure *g* But hey, it needs to be done if I ever want to read (and speak!) Japanese fluently!

I am now officially through the Tokyo part of the first Japanese book I'm reading/translating as part of my preliminary research for the hoods *whew* I've already started on Kyoto, which should occupy me for the next few weeks - hopefully I can start posting about it as early as this weekend

In the meanwhile, all my current notes on Tokyo can be found here. They are organised by special ward (although some of the notes really cover areas that spread across more than one of Tokyo's special wards)

I am officially done - well, with the revision part anyway, it's still in dire need of a new layout, but I'll get to that a bit later....also, I am sure I've missed some links here and there, so feel free to point them out if you stumble upon such instances. Also, while I will revise it once to twice a year (hopefully) feel free to contact me if you would like your brand new home to appear in the Oriental Map right away:

Oriental Map - Main page (100%)
Yellow Lion regional map (100%)
Black Turtle regional map (100%)
Green Dragon regional map (100%)
Red Phoenix regional map (100%)
White Tiger regional map (100%)

Didn't have the time to do much of anything during the week - just too much work - but I am back on it and hopefully, I should ALMOST be on target. I've planned to do more work on it later today, but for now here's how things stand:

Oriental Map - Main page (100%)
Yellow Lion regional map (100%)
Black Turtle regional map (100%)
Green Dragon regional map (100%)
Red Phoenix regional map (20%)
White Tiger regional map (tbc)

I know I haven't posted here over the last few days, but that does not mean I wasn't working, ha! As a result, I'm happy to announce that things are shaping up nicely, and that I've passed the halfway mark in terms of updating the map's content:

Oriental Map - Main page (100%)
Yellow Lion regional map (100%)
Black Turtle regional map (100%)
Green Dragon regional map (20%)
Red Phoenix regional map (tbc)
White Tiger regional map (tbc)

It's a mini-revision today, but still, I'm getting somewhere with that Yellow Lion region thing....I think:

Oriental Map - Main page (100%)
Yellow Lion regional map (50%)
Black Turtle regional map (tbc)
Green Dragon regional map (tbc)
Red Phoenix regional map (tbc)
White Tiger regional map (tbc)

Here's in short where I'm at with the Oriental Map's revision:

Oriental Map - Main page (100%)
Yellow Lion regional map (20%)
Black Turtle regional map (tbc)
Green Dragon regional map (tbc)
Red Phoenix regional map (tbc)
White Tiger regional map (tbc)

Some of you in the Orient (and elsewhere) might already be familiar with the Oriental Map, essentially a directory of all the features that can be found in our corner of the AWworld

I am happy to announce that it is now undergoing major revision:

- the first step will be to bring it up-to-date again (a lot has been added here in two years since the last update :s)

- then the layout will be reviewed to make is easier to navigate and to quickly spot what you're looking for

I'm hoping to complete the first step within two weeks, and actually, it's already started. I'll post a progress report regularly. Feel free to check the updated pages out and let me know if anything's missing ;-)

Oriental Map - Main page (50%)
Yellow Lion regional map (tbc)
Black Turtle regional map (tbc)
Green Dragon regional map (tbc)
Red Phoenix regional map (tbc)
White Tiger regional map (tbc)

....at least for now. And I don't know if I will get back to them on this site

I've toyed with making any kind of announcement, but I know there are several people who've followed this or that project of mine so it seemed like the right thing to do. I will definitely continue working on them, but I just won't be posting anything new at AW, at least not in priority - what I would add would be only once I've uploaded it on my own site: I don't want to spend hours for material especially written for this site anymore. Academical pursuits are not generally wanted by AW; I have the feeling that it's become, year after year, an afterthought, a pretext, rather than the beating heart of its existence, a shopping windows at Christmas time: nicely decorated, but terribly empty and out of touch with what is going on around it, like it's been suspended in time

I'm not leaving AW, nor am I bitter or upset at anyone. If anything, I feel a bit sad, in particular at all those things that have happened recently. But I'll be around, if only because there are too many people I love here, and I'm an eternal optimist: I will be hoping that some people will manage to turn the tide around and make the most of what AW can potentially offer

I'll post relevant links to all projects taken off-site as I get them online, so watch this space, my homepage or contact me for more info