Hachiko Paperback Is Coming

Well, it's been a tumultuous 8 months, and with the absolute tanking of my industry, yours truly is back at her computer full-time. 

Doing what? Well...I've decided to turn all my attention to my writing, going forward. 

I never expected this, after more than a decade away from my freelancing career, but in that decade I happen to have completed or partially-written 4 novels (two of them Japan-centric), so it felt like the universe was giving me a boost. A boost in which I am stuck in my apartment with 800+ COVID cases popping up in Ontario daily, no job, and the very helpful support of my partner telling me he'd rather I not be working in any job where I have to leave the house. So here's a trial period; for the next eight months, working on these novels is my job. Taking them from unfinished to finished, and doing all the necessary polishing and marketing, is my main focus right now, starting with Meet You By Hachiko. 

So what's new? Well, after 8 months on the Kindle Store, Hachiko is finally getting a paperback copy!

There were definitely points in time when I honestly didn't think this book would ever be on anyone's bookshelf. It was originally a project in my free time leading up to Christmas 2009. I thought that a story about two teen girls, Canadian and Japanese, bonding over their interest in early-2000s Harajuku street style was a touch too niche for most mainstream North American publishers, and teen fiction is well out of the usual scope for the Japan-centric publishers. 

Thanks to progress, though, of the kind I never could have imagined in 2009, here we finally are! Within the next six weeks, the paperback will be on Amazon. After that, who knows what's next!? You can find it on Amazon Canada, or Amazon.com. 

 Expect this blog to be coming back in some capacity as well, when I need a break from the editing drudgery. 

 It's a tough time to be missing Japan (when I was last there, in no way did I ever think I would be away from it this long!) and blogging about that probably isn't going to help much, but maybe I can make it a little easier on those of you who are missing it, too. 

 Thanks for sticking with me!

It Finally Happened

Something was holding me back for a long time, but you know what? I decided, a ridiculous ten years later, that I was going to put this out there.

Thanks all, for your support!

Twitter

I've really been posting a lot to my Twitter feed lately, trying to get into the habit of finding and sharing good information with you all! It's also the best way to follow along with any Japanese cultural events I happen to discover going on in Toronto on short notice. So, if you aren't following me on Twitter, well, why not!?

Follow @shibuyaloren

Cool Japan

Is Japan Cool!?

Today, ANA launched "Season 2" of their Cool Japan project; including another giveaway of two airline tickets with accommodation to visit Japan. The concept of this is pretty great:

People say Japan is cool. Is that true? Here are stories about the real Japan - full of old and new things. If any item catches your eye, read the story and vote whether or not it's cool. The more you know, the cooler Japan gets! Come to Japan on ANA. Always changing. Always new!

As for the ticket giveaway, anyone in the world can enter! Just go to the website and tell ANA why you think Japan is cool!

100th Post!

Heian Shrine torii in Kyoto

Today's post is actually the 100th post on Tadaimatte! 

Thank you, everyone, for supporting this blog! Please keep reviewing and commenting, and I'll keep supplying you my photos and memories!

About Me

About Me

Hello! I'm Loren, originally from Newfoundland, and I created this blog after spending three years living in Osaka prefecture, Japan. I am most definitely not the type of expat who came home jaded - in fact, my experience on the programme was so satisfying and my time in Japan so enriching that since returning I've had a tough time adapting to "normal" again!

I started studying Japanese in 2001. I've always loved languages, and at the time was aiming to complete a linguistics degree packed with more languages than you could shake a stick at. After getting interested in the local university anime society, Japanese was a natural choice for my 4th language of study. However, once I started studying Japanese, I knew this was the direction I wanted to go! (Suffice to say that whenever I try to speak French or Italian nowadays, Japanese is what always emerges.)

I was deliriously happy to be accepted to teach abroad the year after graduation. By that point, I had abandoned linguistics and gone back to English, thinking I'd either teach or write - or both. That's exactly what happened, once I had my degree in hand. I had a lot of teaching and tutoring experience that boosted me through the tough application process and some pretty appalling answers in my interview, but I was accepted, and even received my first choice of location - the coveted Osaka Prefecture in western Japan.

In Japan, I tried my hand at a lot of cultural pursuits - aikido, ikebana and yosakoi, just to name a few. I travelled all over the country, often via local train, and perfected the art of sleeping on night buses and in Internet cafes! I wrote a novel in my spare time, and loved visiting new places with my little netbook tucked into my purse, searching for inspiration. Cooking is another hobby, so my natural inclination was to learn to cook Japanese food, and adapt my favourite meals from home to prepare them while I was living abroad.

After returning to Canada (in retrospect, not a great idea to do so soon) I focused for a time on volunteer work with study-abroad programs, and was in the travel industry until COVID struck. At that point, I turned back to writing, and went full-time as an author. My early published fiction works, Meet You By Hachiko and Edokko, available worldwide in paperback and eBook format, are set in Japan.

About Tadaimatte

I started this blog to help alleviate the reverse culture shock I still felt after returning home. Initially, I only wanted to share my photos and stories to reminisce, but now also write about things specific to Toronto - tweeting about Japan-related events happening in the city, and my book reviews have been included in the JETAA Toronto newsletter. I hope to make Tadaimatte a resource not only for ex-expats but also Japan hopefuls.