We interrupt this workweek....
Just wanted to give you a little heads-up on my activities
What! It’s Wednesday!
This isn’t when I usually post!
Sorry to write midweek, but sooooo many people have been surprised when I told them I was leaving for Japan, that I figured it needed a little explanation. I’m going on a real-and-true vacation and I’m at the airport early! So here’s a quick heads-up on my itinerary and how to follow me.
I will be posting photos almost daily on Facebook.com/mmdevoe - follow it!
For those of you who are already my Facebook friends this is NOT my profile, it is my author page and completely different, so if you think you’ll be notified, you won’t unless you follow that page. I take LOTS of photos. And I’m going to amazing places.
Rough itinerary for those who want to know things in advance:
Leaving for Osaka today
Osaka: private food tour (four restaurants/two standing bars in the city known as the “kitchen of Japan”! City stuff!
then: bullet train!!
Uno: port town, Japanese baths, spa, village feel, ferries to two amazing artist-only islands, one each day. No cars, lots of huge art installations (did I mention there would be photos?) —like a whispering forest, for example. Can’t wait!
Nagoya: lots of city stuff plus in my junior and senior years of undergrad, I lived with a Japanese roommate. We hung out with all her friends and I saw a rice-cooker for the first time. And ate a lot of ramen. I’m going to visit her home and see my old friends. I’ll be eating at the hot restaurants of Nagoya…. (again, there will be photos!)
Tokyo: the last four days of the trip will be in this magical, insanely huge, city. I plan to hit as many animal cafes as I can and buy everything from vending machines. I’ll be staying in a high rise hotel because it is TOKYO and I want glittering landscapes of neon and electricity (also a view of Mt Fuji….) — and in Tokyo I expect to see some Kabuki and maybe do some Karaoke (if I dare!) and basically do all the things.
feel free to write back with your suggestions, if you’ve been to any of these places - I know that there are a thousand more cities and towns and things to do and see, but thouse four are the ones for this first-ever trip to Japan.
It’s also my first ever trip to Asia.
I’m living life, friends. Bring on the capybara cafes and the money cats. This is where I’m staying on the first night (I splurged on first and last nights - to frame the trip with glamour, no matter what happens or how badly I speak my sad-Duolingo-tourist Japanese.)
Also - last night I moderated this fantastic panel at The New School - there isn’t a recording, so you ACTUALLY had to be there. But a lot of the conversation was about “selfhood” and how writing, for real creative writers, is not something that you take on as a job to make money but something that you do no matter if you are paid or not or can find a publisher or not or anyone reads it or not. You are a creator and just can’t help making things - even the high-powered Literary Agent and the high-level Editor on this panel both said, their kids are demanding, their jobs and clients are demanding, and STILL they find that they have to write.
That’s the beauty of our lives, friends, being creative is a calling.
I hope that you also have found your calling—and that you are responsive to it.
L-R: Melissa Petro, Laura Cronk, Joseph Salvatore, Ryan Harbage, Sarah W. Jaffe, Andrea Davis Pinkney, and John Reed. Follow the links if you want to be impressed that I didn’t faint while I was moderating this panel
Have a most pleasant trip!