Genkina hito Says Goodbye to 2016 and Hello to 2017 – New Year’s Resolutions

Welcome to my last post of 2016.

I am writing this in Japan. It has been one of my long-term goals to get to Japan. It has, in fact, been a dream since childhood. It hasn’t been an obsession but it has been a major facet of my life. I have made friends from Japan and learned some of the language. So much of my everyday life has centred around Japanese media. I just naturally gravitate towards things like anime and video games, music, and films and that has matured into high culture and a vague goal of becoming a part of Japanese society in some way. I have been doing that from Britain with the nebulous plan of getting to Japan. Now I am finally living in Japan. Following dreams really does work!

The resolutions I made for 2016 were mostly about one dream and staying positive and taking any opportunities that I could get

My resolutions for 2016

• I will go to Japan,

• I will continue to review films.

I achieved all of my resolutions. I kept it simple for 2016 and I finally travelled to Japan. I also kept the film reviews coming although they slowed down to a trickle over the last four months. This, during the year when I became a contributor to V-Cinema! I’ll try and increase the output and make my writing more interesting. If I had to highlight film reviews worth reading I’d select these:

100 Yen Love

Uzumasa Limelight

Wild Berries

Disciples of Hippocrates

Our Little Sister

Cesium and a Tokyo Girl

Don’t Look Up

A Road

I don’t know about the quality of the writing but I’d like to select them because of the strong memories I have attached to the process of watching and reviewing them and because I want to highlight these works as genuinely great films worth your time, or, at the very least, they are interesting.

The reason they have slowed down is because I have been doing something every day.

I’m in a new country. I shouldn’t really sit in dark rooms all day every day watching films!

I haven’t. I am exploring Japan a lot!

I have two jobs as an English teacher, I am helping to make a documentary, I am involved in an art project, and I am constantly going out and exploring, meeting new people and having fun. I haven’t really had time for films but I have been to Japanese cinemas and I attended the Tokyo International Film Festival 2016. I have lived in a Japanese style in parts of the country I have never heard of and I have eaten food that is unique to those regions. I walk through Tokyo with some confidence since I am becoming familiar with the city due to my solo explorations, trips to art galleries and the times I hang out with friends at interesting places. Throughout it all I have met great people who are kind and generous and who have made me think so much about life.

I hope I am growing as an individual!

I hope I continue to grow!

It has been an amazing experience!

I finally made it and there’s still so much for me to learn and do. Next year, I will be going to Osaka to help out at the Osaka Asian Film Festival and I will do more travelling. I wouldn’t have got here without the help of others and so I’d like to take the time to thank them. I would like to thank family and friends who encouraged me to go and gave me all sorts of support. I would like to thank my bosses at work who okayed my trip and the people who interact with me on Twitter and through this blog. I write this every year but I really mean it…

I would like to thank everyone who has visited my blog and commented on it and I hope you continue to come back and share your opinions and film experiences with me plus your support. It means a lot.

So, I am about to leave the place I am staying and head to Sensou-ji to meet a seriously sophisticated and beautiful lady-friend (and fellow JoJo’s fan) to see in the New Year in Japanese style but before I go…

My resolutions for 2017

• I will travel across more of Japan,

• I will learn to speak, read, write and listen to Japanese to a much higher level than I currently do,

• I will write down more of my adventures,

• I will improve my writing style,

• I will continue to review films.

2017 is on the horizon and I hope that there’s more peace and harmony and happiness in the world and we can share it along with great films. I hope I can make the most of my time in Japan and I continue to make friends as well. I hope good things keep happening. The journey continues!

Goodbye, 2016, goodbye. I have had a lot of happy memories this year and I hope to make more next year in 2017.

Happy New Year!