It’s now well into November, and I am enjoying the beautiful fall colors here in Japan! Though while the mountains are like huge heaping piles of color that fill up the entire horizon, there’s something to be said on the smaller scale for the lush tree-filled avenues of New Jersey. Even Japan’s rural towns are asphalt jungles, and the only non-paved land is generally used for agriculture, so there are precious few trees in the towns. Oh well, I guess you can’t have it all no matter where you live!

This month’s Ecchan comic has been finished and continues the theme of separate trash. Looking at it here I often forget that we’re seeing a slightly incomplete version, as that funny brown bar at the top demonstrates. That empty space is used, along with a large area below the comic, for extra information on the month’s topic. So if it looks strange on this site, that’s normal! Today’s comic doesn’t make much sense on its own, but it headlines an article detailing the proper way to separate plastic trash from other nonburnable trash.

Ecchan #8

Panel 1: 「プラゴミ」って、プラスチック製のゴミのこと？
“Puragomi…” does that mean plastic garbage?
Panel 2: ううん、ちがうよ。商品の容器や包装に使われていたビニール製のゴミが「プラごみ」なんだ！
Not quite. Plastic containers and plastic wrappers are classified as “puragomi.”
Panel 3: ほら、このプラマークが目印だよ！
Look, here is the “puragomi” mark!

It’s been a quiet month on my blog, primarily due to my yokai book taking up nearly 100% of my time, leaving me none to write here — but also because I’m beginning to see how social networking is making blogs obsolete. It’s a lot easier for me to make a quick post to my Facebook page than it is for me to write up a long, detailed post here. On the same note, interacting with the Facebook page is easier than posting comments on a blog. With that in mind I am pondering the direction to take my blog, as it will definitely need a redesign to coincide with the read of Night Parade. I think the way to go is more integration with social networking services like Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ in order to make communication with fans easier, while using this website as more of a portolio with updates solely about my artwork. This kind of conforms to the way I have been using it in recent months: fewer updates on the blog, but each update will have more substance and be related to my artwork. Other kinds of posts seem more suited to the environment of social networking sites, so you’ll see them on Facebook, Google+ and so on!

Halloween Ecchan

Anyway, on to the main topic of this post! The October edition of Ecchan.

Obviously I wanted to do a Halloween-themed Ecchan, which you can see to the right. The story doesn’t have anything to do with Halloween, but it’s nice to keep up with the seasons somehow, especially considering that Japan is so in-touch with seasonal changes that to let them go by unnoticed seems weird.

This month continues the same topic as before. Here is the script:

Panel 1: CDラジカセこわれたから、買ったんだ！
“My CD player broke, so I bought this!
Panel 2:これはどうやって捨てるの？
How do we throw this away?
Panel 3:小型家電は「燃やせないごみ」だよ。
Small consumer electronics go in “nonburnable garbage!”
Panel 4: 電池は必ず取り出して、有害ごみ(※)として捨てるよ。
Make sure you take out the batteries, and treat them as hazardous garbage!

Ecchan #7

Tsukimi Ecchan

My site has been pretty quiet for a while now, due to me working on yokai paintings. Last year at this time I would be restarting the A-Yokai-A-Day project for the month of October, but the fact that I am doing this book means that the past A-Yokai-A-Day projects were successful enough. 🙂

Of course if you’re a backer of my Kickstarter project you’ve been getting a new yokai almost every day in your mailbox since July, when I started for painting this project. Now I am entering month 4 of non-stop daily yokai painting, and I have crossed the halfway point, with over 60 of the 100 final images completed. Right on schedule! Only 2 months left to go…

In the meantime, while I can’t show my new yokai paintings on my blog just yet (that’s private for backers of the project), I can show the other art I’m working on at the same time. Here is last month’s issue of Kounotori Ecchan no Eco-na Hanashi. It continues August’s theme of properly disposing of non-burnable garbage, and features a Fukui prefecture staple: the Echizen crab! If your wondering if Japan’s garbage disposal system is really so complicated that it takes months of comic strips just to explain it, the answer is YES!

I also did a tsukimi (moon-viewing) Ecchan for the footer text, which you can see to the left!

Anyway, here is the comic, and the English translation:

Panel 1: 陶器なども「燃やせないゴミ」だよ！
Ceramic-ware is unburnable garbage!
Panel 2: 割れてなくても、新聞紙などに包んで透明のゴミ袋に「キケン」と書こう！
Even if it’s not broken, wrap it up in newspaper and put it in a clear plastic bag marked “Dangerous!”
Panel 3: ゴムや皮の製品も「燃やせないゴミ」！
Rubber and leather are also unburnable garbage!
Panel 4: ゴミを細かくする機械にひっかからないよう、長いゴミは適当に切ってね！
Cut long items up into small enough pieces that they won’t get caught in the trash processing machines!

Ecchan #6

O-Bon Ecchan

August went by in a flash, but looking back on it feels like looking back on a whole year. I painted the August episode of Ecchan no Eco-na Hanashiin the end of July, but with the Kickstarter project taking up the whole of my attention I wasn’t able to find time to post it until now.

This month features a Bon-dancing, happi-clad Ecchan decked out for a summer festival, and the comic you see below. Enjoy! We’re continuing on the same theme of how to properly separate your garbage for disposal. This month’s topic: dangerous items!

It features the return of two previous characters: Frog and Monkey. Translation is as follows:

Panel 1: 燃やせないごみだけど、このまま捨てると危ないね。
This is unburnable garbage, but it’s too dangerous to just throw it out like this…
Panel 2: こうすればいいよ！包丁の刃には布やテープを巻いて・・・
Try this! Wrap the knife’s blade in cloth or tape…
Panel 3: 割れたものは紙や布に包んだら・・・
Wrap broken things in paper or cloth…
Panel 4: 透明の袋に入れて「燃やせないごみ」の日に出そう！危ないから「キケン」と書いてね！
Put them in a clear bag on your unburnable trash day. It’s dangerous, so write “KIKEN” on it!

Ecchan #5