Happy New Year 2026!

Akemashite Omedetou (Happy New Year)!

Man, 2025 was something, wasn't it? Hold My Beer premiered to a sold-out crowd, Autism Empowerment's Neurodivergent Creators Collective was born, I was officially diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum, I made my official acting debut, I started teaching guitar lessons at my neighborhood School of Rock, and much more.

Looking forward to 2026!

Fifteen Years

Today is Christmas 2025.

It's hard to believe that on this day, fifteen years ago, I sat down and started to write what would become Joel Suzuki, Volume One: Secret of the Songshell.

If you told me back then that fifteen years later, I will have written seven books and be writing a blog post about them, I would have looked at you and thought, "I think you've had too much eggnog." (And also, "What the heck is a blog?")

Happy Holidays!

(Pictured above: Joel Suzuki books in Christmas colors)

Anime Roundup, Odd Couples Edition

It's time for another Anime Roundup! Warning: mild spoilers to follow.

Beastars

For some reason, I avoided this one for a long time. But then, spurred by rumors of its excellence along with an incredibly catchy opening theme song for its second season that I would constantly hear as part of anime theme song mixes (why are anime theme songs so good? Oh, right), I decided to give it a shot. And I'm glad I did! It's basically what I thought it was, which is a darker - much darker - version of Zootopia (it's hard to say which is a version of which, as they both originally came out at around the same time), where the world is populated by anthropomorphic animals and society is divided along species lines. But there's a lot more to it than that. It's a complex allegory that is subtle, nuanced, and thought-provoking (carnivores have to repress their natural instinct to consume herbivores, and the main character is a wolf who falls in love with a rabbit that he originally tried to eat) while still managing to be entertaining - not an easy trick to pull off. No wonder the manga that the show is based on won so many awards. Netflix has promised "new episodes coming 2026" - can't wait.

The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity

And now for something totally different: a light-hearted slice-of-life rom-com/dram about two teenagers: a sweet, kind girl and an intimidating (but actually mellow) dude who meet in a cake shop owned by the dude's parents. He goes to a lowbrow boys' high school, she attends the neighboring elite girls' school; she's smart, he's average; she's petite, he's tall; etc. Despite seemingly having little in common, do they eventually fall in love? I don't want to give anything away, but if they didn't, then why are we even here in the first place? Like with most romance stories, the question is not "if " (or even "why"), but "how." Anyway, I'm looking forward to Season Two.

Dorohedoro

And now for something totally different: in a strange and post-apocalyptic urban world where magic and demons abound, a amnesiac man whose head was turned into a lizard's head by an unknown sorcerer goes on a search for said sorcerer so that he can get his memories - and his head - back (and also, presumably, revenge). It's a bizarre, gory, colorful, and sometimes unhinged show that nevertheless still has a slight romantic undercurrent to it - namely, the relationship between the lizard-man (named Caiman) and a buff blond woman named Nikaido who helps Caiman with his search and occasionally cooks him gyoza. In what I assume to be typical Japanese fashion, they're always together and seem to care for each other a lot but always emphatically deny being romantically involved whenever anyone suggests it. Overall, I found the show to be an acquired taste (moving it to my evening post-a couple of beers viewing slot helped) that, like a lot of other great anime, got more fun as it went along.

A Star Brighter Than the Sun

And now for something totally different (but similar to the one before that): an athletic, taller-than-average high school girl named Sae has a major crush on her childhood friend Koki, who used to be short but is now even taller than her (by a pretty wide margin) and is apparently considered an ikemen (hunky dude). The show does a pretty good job of keeping up the "will they or won't they?" premise, even introducing a double love triangle involving another hunky dude named Yota along with a queen bee-type named Subaru who is Koki's, um, cousin? Do first cousins date in Japan? I mean, I know there's an anime trope where brothers and sisters are attracted to each other, but this show seems to be more grounded in reality, I think? Tonikaku (anyway)...

5 Centimeters per Second

This one is a feature film (although only a little over an hour long) broken up into three chapters that each follow a period in the life of a boy/young man and his relationships with a couple of different girls/young women. In what I assume to be typical Japanese fashion, it's very understated and bittersweet, and has what I considered to be the perfect ending. Great for fans of Haruki Murakami novels (like me).

Until next time, mata ne!

School of Rock

Did I mention that since September, I've been teaching guitar lessons part-time at the School of Rock franchise here in Vancouver, WA? No? Okay, then I'm mentioning it now.

It's been a great experience and a lot of fun. I've had the pleasure of working with students of all ages, including a young maestro whose skills are so advanced that in one of our lessons, I actually had him teach ME stuff.

Big thanks to school owner/general manager Kenneth Weiner (who is also the lead singer of Monty Vega & The Sittin' Shivas, whose song "Flash Bang Grenade" is the title theme for the Hold My Beer short film - Ken also makes a cameo appearance as a homebrewer in the film's climactic contest scene), music directors Dylan and Justin, school admin/coordinator Christina, and the rest of the staff and students for welcoming me and being awesome.

Rock on!

Post-Thanksgiving Post

Oftentimes, I get ideas for blog posts from whatever the most recent photos in my phone are. This week, those photos are:

Look at the size of those things! I cannot take credit for them; all the credit goes to Kyle, Second Player Score's drummer, and his wife Bobbie, both of whom are amazing cookers of food.

The funny thing (funny to me, at least) is that as I was saving this photo to my computer (I called it "Turkey 2025") to make it easier for me to write this post, I came across another photo called "Turkey 2020," which - appropriately for the year - was much sadder. You can see it in this post.

Anyway, here's the other one:

And no, this was not me contemplating going on a diet after eating way too much over Thanksgiving weekend (although that would not be a bad idea). It was just that, while shopping for other stuff, I saw these and thought, "Hmm, I haven't had tofu in a long time" followed by "I wonder if my youngest kid (who is into Japanese culture) might like tofu?" So I took this picture to text to them to see if it was something they would be interested in trying. And they actually said yes! Or more like "sure, why not, whatever, Dad."

And no, I'm not planning on making tofurkey.

Thanksgiving Gratitude Post, Book Recommendation Edition

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! In this post, I wanted to share with you a few of my favorite books about gratitude.

The Last Law of Attraction Book You'll Ever Need to Read, by Andrew Kap

Even if you don't believe in all of that "law of attraction" stuff, this book contains a lot of great exercises to help you practice gratitude. One of my favorites is what author Andrew Kap calls "The Discount Trigger Method,"* where you choose a positive response to what you might normally consider a negative event. For example, whenever my cat Boots meows incessantly at 2am, instead of getting upset at him, I think, "I'm just happy that he's here in the house, safe, and feels healthy and active enough to be meowing so much." I swear, it makes a big and positive difference. Seriously, I'm not kidding! My life has changed for the better ever since I read this book, and I go back and reread it every so often whenever I need a refresher.

* As for why it's called "The Discount Trigger Method," you'll just have to read the book.

Feeling Grateful: How to Add More Goodness to your Gladness by Kobi Yamada and Charles Santoso

A picture book about a bear cub out on a day of adventure, it's tailored to young kids but contains great messages for all ages.

Joel Suzuki, Volume One: Secret of the Songshell by Brian Tashima

Shameless self-promotion, I know, but appreciation and gratitude are the main themes of this book (as well as a sub-theme of Volume Seven: Vision of the Virtuoso).

Anyway, hope you all have a wonderful holiday!

Hold My Beer, The Documentary?

Just when you thought I was done posting about Hold My Beer, the film! Actually, this isn't about the narrative film (which you can watch here for free, please watch it and tell your friends, thank you), but a companion documentary piece that is the brainchild of Kyle, the drummer and coproducer in Second Player Score.

Kyle actually came up with the idea for a documentary a while ago, when we were still in preproduction for the narrative film. His thought was to interview the owners of breweries based in Vancouver, WA and ask them about how they got started, what kinds of challenges they've faced, how they overcame them, etc. - basically, their own real-life "Hold My Beer" moments. We didn't have time to produce it alongside the scripted film, but now we do! At least we think we do, so Kyle went ahead and contacted a bunch of brewery owners to arrange the interviews, starting with our friends Tom and Devon of Loowit Brewing (the picture above is of a test shoot Kyle and I did at Loowit this past weekend).

We think - or we hope, anyway - that it will make for interesting viewing, especially given the current state of the craft beer industry, which apparently is in a bit of an ebb but will hopefully make a robust recovery.

Stay tuned for more updates!