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[dorchadas]

It's been a while since I linked that icon with the insomnia (不眠症) tag. I was tempted to go full Japan sleepless nights and write this post as I was lying awake at 12:30 a.m., but instead I turned on Rain Rain on my phone. I have a custom sounds mix of "small waterfall," "summer rain," and "frogs," which emulates the environmental sounds of our house in Chiyoda in the rainy season (梅雨, tsuyu). Once I did that, I was out within ten minutes. Not bad after an hour of previously trying to sleep.

I've been getting back into The Night Land fanfiction recently. I found the Night Land fan website when I was in Japan and read William Hope Hodgson's original and all the stories on the long commute to and from Suzugamine. Four years ago, the owner of the site died, but others took it up and have been expanding it. Some old stories are gone and some new ones I've never read are there.

My "Awake in the Night" icon is from the Night Land. It's fanart of the Watching Thing of the South-East.

There are four stories by John C. Wright that used to be there but aren't now because he's selling them as a collection. It's up for sale at Amazon, but there are two problems with that. The first is that Wright's politics are vile, and the second is that even if he were personally a tzaddik, it's published by Castalia House, Theodore "Vox Day" Beale's publishing company. There's no way I'd ever give them money, and the physical copies are all hardcover so even used books are still a bit expensive.

I'm thinking about applying to the JET Programme again, or otherwise seeing if I can get a job in Japan. I've always wanted to go back, and now that my life circumstances don't prevent me from doing so, that's an easy way while I also look for other opportunities. With the grounding I have in Japanese now, a few more years there and I'd be fluent (conversationally, at least). Wherever I'd get sent wouldn't be Chiyoda. But then, nowhere is.

Comments

[helvetica]

Ahh, rainfall sounds have saved me many times from insomnia! I love the sound of the ocean as well :)

I have never heard of The Night Land. It sounds very interesting though! I'm going to add it to my "to read" list.

I wish you the best for your Japan plans! I hope that you can find a way to get over there, it seems to bring you a lot of joy :)

[omnipotent]

Rain Rain seems like a useful app. Thank you for the link! I'm glad it helped you to sleep. Laying awake can really suck sometimes.

Fingers crossed for your Japan plans! Maybe a fresh start would be good, and you seem very passionate and immersed in many aspects of Japanese culture.

[dorchadas]

You can find it online since it's in the public domain, but the original is hard reading. It's deliberately in an extremely archaic style, there's no dialogue, and the characterization is spotty. There's a rewritten version by John Stoddard called The Night Land, A Story Retold that adds dialogue and fleshes out the love interest that I recommend instead!

I wish you the best for your Japan plans!

Thank you! I'll figure it out, somehow...

[dorchadas]

You're welcome! I listened to it again last night and it helped again. Maybe I should start doing it regularly. I used to have a ton of trouble with insomnia, but it's waned as I've gotten older. Until recently, anyway.

Fingers crossed for your Japan plans! Maybe a fresh start would be good, and you seem very passionate and immersed in many aspects of Japanese culture.

Thank you! It's not something I thought a lot about before, but now... Well, it seems pretty appealing.

(And honestly, getting out of the US for a few years right now might be a good idea too, if I can)