January 9, 2025
Hello there, or even konnichiwa, as currently I am on a Working Holidays in Japan! It's been exactly 5 months - woah, time flies. Yes, I might have neglected my blog for a bit, but hey. Can you blame me?
So far, it's been exciting and amazing. I went from walking crazy distances in a 35oC in the biggest city in the word, through working part-time in a city where I learned yabusame and was in a TV show, to working in a luxury chalet in the middle of the mountains covered with snow.
No worries - stories about all of that will be coming soon.
But it's safe to say that this working holidays was a great decision.
Creative on a long trip
Due to this trip being solo-travel and well, whole year long, I had to pack really wisely. After all, I needed to take clothes suitable for all the seasons, at least two pair of shoes, cosmetics, electronics (camera, kindle, powerbank) and something to keep my creative impulses at bay.
Before, my longest trip in my life took 3 weeks. And during that time, despite all the views and experiences and things to do, I already felt an urge to draw. I knew I had to take something because I would otherwise explode.
I opted to take my iPad, along with Apple Pencil, of course, but also in a case with a keyboard. With that combination, two of my main creative outlets (drawing and writing) seemed to be taken care of in a relatively small and lightweight kit.
During my first months in Japan, I spend most of my days either outside, or being really tired after spending all day outside. However, to prevent travelers fatigue and because of the weather trying to kill me (hello 35oC + high humidity combo in September!), I also allocated some time to simply "taking it easy", focusing on hobbies and letting my body rest. It is during that time when I made use of my iPad, mostly drawing or writing, as I always do.
Most of the time, it felt perfect for me. But here, for the first time in my life, I encountered a very weird problem...
My tools are not here! Panic!
Normally, when I wanted to do something creative, I just... did it. Be it painting, sewing, cosplay making, playing an instrument or game development. I had all necessary equipment in my home, or I was able to quickly obtain them.
I was reading a manga, one character particularry catching me eye. "His cape has a weird shape, I wonder how would I sew it", I thought, and at this moment it occured to me that even if I wanted to try... I have to wait a whole year to do so.
A. Whole. Year.
My sewing machine is just not here!
Simillary, I came up with an idea for a 2D virtual tuber but to animate it, I'd have to use a computer. Which I didn't bring with me to this trip.
I am well aware that having this kind of problem is reserved to privileged people and I could face a similar trouble even back in my country, if I were struggling with poverty. But it was my first time experiencing it so vividly. A year is just such a long period - and I knew that making a decision to come here - but living a year without a tasty drożdżówka and a year without tools allowing my creativity are on a completely different level. This is something I haven't considered before.
At first, I felt limited. There was this itching in the back of my head, refusing to go away.
Then, for a moment, I felt... threatened.
Because at my core, I am a creative person. And now I cannot use my creativity to the fullest, the way I want. Am I less creative because of that? Less me?
But fortunately, I knew how to deal with those feelings. I had to switch my focus on the things I can do. I can write and I can draw. So I decided to write and draw.
Urara's Anxious Adventures is born
It was at this point that Urara's Anxious Adventures came to life.
4-panels comics were the best creative outlet I could think of - presenting my experiences in Japan in a way I am familiar with. And while I wrote some comedy in the past, I never really drew it, so it was something new to me as well, novelty making things more challenging.
Thanks to that mini-series I decided to post regularly, I was able to switch my focus to what I can do with my limited resources. And it worked really well! Not only my brain worked hard, searching for a new fun stories to tell, but it also provided me a way to document my memories here.
And somehow, I went from "I can't do here what I could do back home" to "this is the thing I can only do here".
Read all Urara's Anxious Adventures on Webtoon!
From then on, no weird thoughts tormented me. And while I stopped posting my Adventures regularly when work made my free time more limited, I still gather ideas to transfer them to comics later.
Adventures will continue!