Literally cannot emphasize enough that my #1 writing advice is to stop being afraid. Stop being afraid of sounding too cringe, or too stupid, or too horrifying, or too horny, or too weird, or too much, or too little, or too you. You need to put your entire pussy into your art. Sure, it won't be to everyone's tastes, but if you keep yourself to the blandest tamest safest roads possible you will be of no one's tastes, not even yours.

As a young boy in school, Masaki Sashima would be dragged out of his classroom and beaten by his fellow students.

Masaki, now 72, was different to the other kids. 

He was Ainu, an Indigenous people from the country's northern regions, most notably the large island of Hokkaido.

"During recess, the hallway door would open, and several guys would yell at me to come out," he said.

"I clung to my desk in the classroom and kept quiet.

"Everyone would surround me and beat me."

Japan has long portrayed itself as culturally and ethnically homogenous, something that some have even argued is a key to its success as a nation.

More than 98 per cent of Japanese people are descendants of the Yamato people. 

But the Ainu are distinct, with their own history, languages, and culture.

But, as the victims of colonialism, assimilation, and discrimination, much of that identity has been lost. 

An Ainu woman named Chiri Yukie wrote down some of her people's oral traditions into Japanese because, as a child, her people were being displaced by Japanese settlers in Hokkaido. Her language was disappearing, so she (ironically) saw translating the stories into Japanese as a way to preserve them. She died at age 19.

Some of the objects from the Ainu exhibition at Japan House in London this year, showcasing traditional Ainu skills and culture. There is a campaign to get Ainu recognised as an official language, at least in Hokkaido, and small steps are happening, for example, bilingual bus stops. It reminds me of the struggle for Welsh to be revived after suppression for centuries.

btw if youre young and scared of doing adult things without your parents ive learned that like 90% of the time you can just tell the doctors office or the dmv "haha sorry ive never done this without help before... can you show me how to do this?" the employee will not care. if that means anything to you

Anonymous asked:

Hey hey!! I LOVE YOUR ART !! can you draw spamton and tenna getting ready for Christmas or small comic about it pls :3

Okay, sorry for the delay in this response, but while I was working on this comic, I made the story much longer, and then I thought, "This is a comic that should be short..." But anyway, here's the special Christmas comic!

yay!

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sorry i’m reblogging this again but this just makes me so fucking angry. this reminds me of those dudes running game of thrones who had virtually no experience and were allowed to just. treat a multimillion dollar franchise as their little fuck-around-and-learn-about-tv sandbox. why are white men with no credentials allowed to get away with this over and over again while the rest of us have to fight tooth and nail for literal crumbs. i fucking hate the entertainment industry

tfw you realize you put more thought into your self indulgent fanfic in middle school than someone in charge of a multimillion dollar franchise that employs thousands of people and is watched by millions.

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