Top Gun: Maverick (IMAX)

Top Gun: Maverick is the sequel to the 1986 movie Top Gun, and it opened in Japan on May 27, 2022. I heard it was shot for IMAX, so I booked a ticket on opening day (the last show in IMAX for that day, actually) and took Vivi to the theatre.

It was a Friday night, and the theatre was really really crowded. And I soon found out why. The people were mainly there for two movies: The Quintessential Quintuplets the Movie, and Top Gun: Maverick. For the former, the theatres in Japan are handing out a new door gift. For the latter, well, it is opening day. And after work. All the fans are here for this show, young and old.

 

Top Gun: Maverick started very much like Top Gun, using the same opening music and even the same words introducing Fighter Weapons School. You would almost think you walked into a rerun of Top Gun by mistake. Throughout the movie, there were also many references to Top Gun; for example, Val Kilmer came back as Ice (but with a much more senior rank), and the handshake between Rooster and Hangman at the end of the movie.

 

The movie is also very well paced; at 131 minutes, you would think there would be some slow points in the plot. But no. Every scene was part of the story, to show that Maverick is not just that hotshot pilot, but also has been trying to live with the ghost of Goose, his RIO in Top Gun. Throughout the entire movie, I was glued to my seat, my eyes fixed on the screen. I think I even forgot to breathe at certain times.

And just when you think the movie is coming to an end, well, no, there was another portion of the story left, with more scenes of aerial combat. And unlike Top Gun, this story did not end with emotion scars on the characters. Instead, it helped to heal those old wounds.

It was also totally worth paying that little extra to catch Top Gun: Maverick in an IMAX theatre. Most of the aerial scenes were shot in IMAX, and the movie really made full use of that extra space on screen. (Very much unlike Dune Part One, where the IMAX version felt more like an afterthought.) I hope to catch the movie at a Dolby Cinema soon so that I can make a comparison between the IMAX and Dolby Cinema versions.

As I watched this movie, there were times when tears started to well in my eyes. I guess this was because the movie not only was an action-filled, fast-paced one, it also showed the emotional struggles of Maverick and Rooster (Goose's son) who have to deal in their own ways with the lost of Goose decades ago, and the nostalgic element that the movie brings by using references to Top Gun. The use of the Top Gun anthem, the playing of "Danger Zone"... for fans of Top Gun, Top Gun: Maverick showed that it was worth the wait (like, more than 30 years..) and that sequels can actually be just as good, if not better, than the original.

By the way, this A3 poster was handed out to those who watched the IMAX version, and I have put it into a frame I got at Daiso.

Truenas Scale, NFS, and Nextcloud

After migrating from Truenas Core to Truenas Scale, I had been wanting to set up Nextcloud again. It was supposed to be as easy as installing the Nextcloud app from Truenas Scale's official app catalog... but that did not turn out so. More about my long journey at the end of the post. Meanwhile, here is what actually worked.

The basic concept is to set up a NFS share on Truenas Scale, mount that share on a VM (which hosts most of my services like PiHole and Portainer), and run Nextcloud on that VM as a snap. (Got most of the instructions from here.)

First, setting up the NFS share.

1a. Create user. In Truenas Scale, first create a new user under Credentials -> Local Users. Enter the full name, username, and password, and make sure "New Primary Group" is checked. For example, let's call this new user ncuser.

1b. Create dataset. Under Storage, create a new dataset under the mainpool. Edit permissions and make sure the owner and group for this new dataset (let's call it ncdata) is set to ncuser.

1c. Create share. Under Shares, add a new UNIX (NFS) share. Set the path to where ncdata is (in my case, /mnt/mainpool/ncdata). Under Advanced Options, set Mapall User to ncuser and Mapall Group to ncuser. Then save the share and enable NFS shares.

 

Second, set up the VM's requirements.

2a. Install nfs-common package.

sudo apt install nfs-common

2b. Prepare the mount point. Create a new directory to mount the share and make sure it is owned by root with the correct permissions.

mkdir -p /media/nc

sudo chown -R root:root /media/nc

sudo chmod 0770 /media/nc

2c. Enable automount. Edit /etc/fstab and add in the entry for the NFS to automount. In this example, I assume my Truenas server's IP address is 192.168.0.20.

sudo nano /etc/fstab

Then, add this single line at the end of the file

192.168.0.20:/mnt/mainpool/ncdata /media/nc nfs auto,nofail,noatime,nolock,intr,tcp,actimeo=1800 0 0

2d. Test mount. Make sure it works by mounting the share and creating a file in the share.

sudo mount /media/nc

touch /media/nc/testing.txt

ls /media/nc

(it should show testing.txt)

 

Third, set up Nextcloud using snap.

3a. Install Nextcloud as a snap.

sudo snap install nextcloud

3b. Connect the snap to removable-media so that it can access /media directory.

sudo snap connect nextcloud:removable-media

3c. Edit configuration.

sudo nano /var/snap/nextcloud/current/nextcloud/config/autoconfig.php

and updated the directory variable to

'/mnt/nextcloud' (including the single quotation marks).

3d. Set a different port. This is optional; the default is port 80. I usually set it to something else because I have nginx running as a reverse proxy with SSL; nginx will act as the SSL frontend with the outside world and direct everything to this port (which, in this example, is 8123). Setting up nginx is another monster which I will not cover here.

sudo snap set nextcloud ports.http=8123

3e. Restart the Nextcloud PHP Service.

sudo snap restart nextcloud.php-fpm

 

This should be it. Almost there. All that remains is to actually enter the web interface. For example, my VM's IP address is 192.168.0.30, so use a web browser and go to

http://192.168.0.30:8123/

This will start the setup process, when you create an admin user with a password. If you get an error about setting folder permission to 0770, just reload the page.

 

You may need to edit /var/snap/nextcloud/current/nextcloud/config/config.php and add your IP addresses to the trusted_domains if you see some error about this.

Okay, so what didn't work?

First, I tried to install the Nextcloud app from the official apps catalog of Truenas Scale. The container will deploy, but when I try to go to the web UI, it will prompt me for the login name and password (which is set as part of the deployment process). However, it would not log in, and I am dumped back at the login page again, and again, and again. So I deleted this container.

So I tried using the Truecharts catalog. After adding the Truecharts catalog following the instructions here, I waited until the catalog is downloaded. It took a while. Then, I tried to install the Truecharts catalog's Nextcloud app... but in the end, it has the same symptom as the official app catalog. So I deleted this container and the catalog, because Truecharts catalog is RESOURCE HUNGRY. Unless you like your CPU ramping to 100% every once in a while when it refreshes the catalog, don't both with Truecharts. They packed EVERYTHING into a single catalog, when it would have been more efficient to split into several smaller catalogs and let users choose which one they really need.

Next was to see if I can use Portainer with a SMB share... This experiment didn't work out well because trying to let a docker container access a SMB share gave me a bigger headache trying to figure out how to make the permissions (non-existent on SMB...) work. I tried using the normal nextcloud docker image and the nextcloud:all-in-one image, both did not work for me. So in the end, I went with the snap way.

It is also possible to use the NFS share with a dedicated VM running Nextcloud directly (which means setting up your own database and apache server and such) but the snap version is a lot less hustle.

The Quintessential Quintuplets the Movie 映画「五等分の花嫁」

The Quintessential Quintuplets the Movie (映画「五等分の花嫁」) opened in Japan today. I am not really a serious fan of this series, but having watched both seasons 1 and 2 of the TV anime series, I thought I would make my way to the local cinema to watch this movie, which brings the entire series to its conclusion.

It was the very first show in the morning, but the cinema was already quite busy, with the gift shop packed with people lining up to buy what I would presume are The Quintessential Quintuplets merchandise. I thought of getting something too, but the queue was a really big wet blanket, so I just made my way in, and along the way, got handed this.

It is a booklet containing a single manga episode. Being Volume 14.5, containing Episode 122+1, it is about the sisters' swimsuits. Not a bad memento and a nice reward for braving this morning crowd of (probably) hardcore fans. (I am not sure if this will be officially published or sold, though.)

I was also a bit surprised by the audience. Going into the cinema in front of me was actually an old lady with lots of white hair, and she was actually carrying a blue tote bag with Miku's face printed on it (Miku is the third sister). Wow! This franchise even has fans among the elderly.

The movie itself was quite long, covering the preparation for the school festival, the festival itself in general, and then switching to the perspectives of each sister (so you see the festival again for five more times) before Uesugi finally chose his bride. This was followed by a jump to five years later, when everyone has grown up and are working in their own occupations, gathering before the wedding before switching to the wedding itself. There was also a bit of post-wedding coverage on where to go for honeymoon. Throughout the movie, there were flashbacks into the past when their mother was still alive.

In all, I think this movie is really for fans and those who have watched seasons 1 and 2. It is the final chapter of the story, and should thus be watched in sequence. I also don't know why but there were certain scenes which brought tears to my eyes, even though this isn't really that kind of touching movie. 🤷

What I do like about this story is that even though there is the "harem" element, in this case, the main character Uesugi actually has things about him that attract the sisters to him. Most "harem" anime series have main characters that are not really boyfriend material, but Uesugi actually brought positive impact to each of the sisters' lives, which explains why they are attracted to him. It is nice to see how he impacted their lives throughout the movie. This adds a bit of realism and depth to the story, which makes it easier for people to empathise, I guess.

End of one series, the next one is coming up in June when the Teasing Master Takagi-san movie opens in Japan. (Meanwhile, the SAO franchise is going back to the first arc with Progressive...)

Adding motherboard information to Windows VM

This is really a note to self about how to add motherboard information to a Windows VM, so that OEM activation of Windows tied to the motherboard can be migrated when moving from bare metal to virtual machine.

I got the information from this thread in the Proxmox forum.

1. Get host system information by running:

dmidecode | grep -A8 'System Information'

Example output:
System Information
Manufacturer: LENOVO
Product Name: 11DA001UUS
Version: ThinkCentre M70t
Serial Number: AB0EGVXE
UUID: 1ab23c4f-8842-11eb-b3a5-c45526114300
Wake-up Type: Power Switch
SKU Number: LENOVO_MT_11DA_BU_Think_FM_ThinkCentre M70t
Family: ThinkCentre M70t

2. Create slic_table cat file:

cat /sys/firmware/acpi/tables/SLIC > /YOUR-PATH-TO-SAVE-FILE/slic_table

slic_table file should now be at:
/YOUR-PATH-TO-FILE/slic_table

3. Edit VM (XXX.conf) file:
nano /etc/pve/qemu-server/<XXX>.conf
 

Add the following to the configuration and edit PATH-TO-FILE and fill in smbios1 with information from step 1.

args: -acpitable file=/PATH-TO-FILE/slic_table
smbios1: uuid=<UUID>,manufacturer=<manufacturer>,product=<prodcut>,serial=<serial>

Then, save the file and start the VM.

I will be testing this soon when I find time, I have a Dell Precision Tower 3620 that came with OEM activated Windows.

Cast event for The Wandering Moon (流浪の月)

This post is about the cast event of the movie "The Wandering Moon" (流浪の月), which opened in Japan on May 13, 2022. On opening day, there was an event where the cast and director came on stage to talk about the movie, with one session in the afternoon and another in the evening, and I managed to attend the live broadcast of the evening session at a nearby cinema.

Link to my post about the movie itself

The evening event with the cast and director lasted about 40 minutes before the movie was aired. (For the afternoon session, the cast came out after the movie.)

 

One of the main topics that kept being revisited during the event was that Matsuzaka Tori, who played the role of Fumi, had to go on a diet to maintain a frail and weak look throughout the entire filming period (plus before that). Director Lee Sang Il mentioned that after the filming, he wanted to give Matsuzaka Tori a treat and brought him to a restaurant. But Matsuzaka Tori had been on a diet for so long, he instead asked the restaurant, which specialized in Western cuisine, for something easy on the stomach. In the end, he gobbled down zosui, or Japanese rice soup, and Director Lee said this was the first time he saw someone eat zosui like this.

There is also another related episode. Hirose Suzu also had to go on diet before the filming, but once filming start, she could just eat as she wanted, and so she would go with the rest of the staff for food and such. Once, she and Director Lee invited Matsuzaka Tori to eat with them... very much by mistake, because Matsuzaka Tori was still on a strict diet. She realized her mistake when he said, "Please go ahead." She said that in the end, she and Director Lee just went to buy bento from the convenience store for dinner because they felt so bad about tempting Matsuzaka Tori, who was working so hard to stick to that diet for the film. (And yes, Matsuzaka Tori was really really thin in the film.)

Tabe Mikako brought up that prior to the filming, since this was the first time she was working with Director Lee, she had been collecting information about the director to find out what kind of person he is. She would track down interviews of actors who worked with the director in the past and listen to them talk about their experiences working with the director. Wow... that's really some hardcore snooping...

The staff also organized a birthday surprise for Yokohama Ryusei. He was told that there would be an extra scene to be shot, where he was supposed to throw a rubbish bin at Sarasa and Fumi. "Action", he picked up the bin, looked inside, and found a birthday present instead. It was a surprise and he ended up with mixed feelings, because he was happy that the staff celebrated his birthday, but also a bit disappointed that there won't be an extra scene with him.

Matsuzaka Tori played the role of Fumi, who runs a cafe that serves only coffee and nuts, and he said that the filming set had a full set of equipment for making coffee. So he would make coffee for the staff to practise, since he himself can only drink that much coffee without becoming addicted to caffeine. He also mentioned that there was another staff member who made really good coffee, so he ended up trying to be better. To which Director Lee came in and pointed out that there wasn't really much to do since the coffee was made by the machine and they only needed to push a switch.

There were also other episodes mentioned, such as Uchida Yayako talking about her mother's experience working with Director Lee. Masuda Mio, who plays Anzai Mio (Sarasa's colleague's daughter), made an appearance at the end and presented flowers to the leads. She had worked with Hirose Suzu in another work (Natsuzora, a NHK morning drama series) and having Hirose Suzu around during filming was reassuring for the young child actor.

After the cast event, the live broadcast ended and the movie started. The movie is 150 minutes, and the event 40 minutes, so that's 190 minutes (more than 3 hours!) without a toilet break. I had thought they would have a short interval between the event and the screening of the movie, but I was wrong...

Anyway, I found the entire cast event on Youtube:

(Not sure how long the above video will be made available, though...)

The Wandering Moon (流浪の月) on opening day

"The Wandering Moon" (流浪の月) opened in Japan on May 13, 2022. The movie is based on a novel with the same name by Nagisa Yuu (凪良ゆう), who is better known for her BL works. On opening day, there was an event where the cast and director came on stage to talk about the movie, with one session in the afternoon and another in the evening. Both events were going to be broadcast live to cinemas nationwide in Japan, so I got myself a ticket for the evening show and made my way to the cinema in the pouring rain.

 

(Note: After the short summary below, there will be spoilers.)

A summary of the story: Sarasa (played by Hirose Suzu) was 9 years old when she agreed to go home with a stranger, 19-year-old Fumi (played by Matsuzaka Tori). After living together for two months, Fumi was arrested by the police for kidnapping when they were on an outing. 15 years later, Sarasa is living with her boyfriend, Ryo (played by Yokohama Ryusei) when she bumped into Fumi again, who is now running a cafe and has a girlfriend, Tani-san (played by Tabe Mikako).

In preparation for this movie, I actually blazed through the novel that it is based on. I managed to finish the novel while sitting in the cinema waiting... 😅 And I am glad I did. A lot of the story is about the inner struggles of the characters, and while the main cast are great actors, the director doesn't use the "inner voice" thing to voice those thoughts and there are just some things that are hard to express through actions and facial expressions.

 

While "The Last 10 Years" was sad, the story "The Wandering Moon" is heart wrenching. It is about how hopeless things can be. How deep into despair one can plunge.

 

For a start, although Sarasa was living with Fumi for two months, and everyone thinks he is a pedophile who kidnapped a young girl and did all kinds of disgusting things to her, the truth is that Fumi never molested Sarasa. Instead, he gave her a safe place to stay and be herself, at a time when Sarasa was living with her aunt (her father had died, and her mother had ran off with someone else) and she was actually being molested by her teenage cousin.

 

This is one key theme of the movie: the fact can be different from the truth. No matter what Sarasa said, everyone thought Fumi had molested her. Yes, the fact is that Fumi and Sarasa had lived together for two months, they are not related, Fumi is not her guardian. But people, based on their own imagination, filled in the blank areas around the facts. "Sarasa was brainwashed by Fumi, which is why she kept screaming for Fumi when the police came to arrest him." "Fumi is a pedophile kidnapper who brought home a 9-year-old girl and did all kinds of indecent things to that poor girl during their two months together."

The truth, though, cannot be further from that. To Sarasa, Fumi gave her a safe place at a time when she was being abused at home. To Fumi, Sarasa showed that he didn't need to live a "normal" life, that it is okay to be different and to do things that is off the "normal track" that his mother had always expected him to live. This created a bond between the two of them which cannot be easily given a label. Sarasa wants to be with Fumi because she feels safe by his side. Fumi wants to be around Sarasa because he feels he doesn't need to try and be the "normal" that his mother expects. (He cannot be "normal" partially because he suffers from a medical condition.)

In the end, Fumi was sent into a juvenile facility (adulthood being 20 years old back then) and even after 15 years, Sarasa has to live with the label that society gave her: victim of a pedophile who kidnapped her for two months. Meanwhile, Fumi has to live with the label of pedophile kidnapper, even though he had already served his time (and actually didn't do anything indecent). This is another theme of the movie: the labels that society place on people can haunt them for life.

Everywhere she goes, Sarasa is known as "the 9-year-old victim of a pedophile kidnapping". When she tries to explain that Fumi is a nice person who didn't do her any harm, people label her as suffering from Stockholm syndrome. No matter what she does, she just cannot rid herself of society's label; a quick search on the Internet will show her name and other details about the case, including video footage of her being dragged away from Fumi when he was arrested.

Similarly, for Fumi, he can never clear his label of being "the pedophile who kidnapped a 9-year-old girl for two months". Even though he has already served his time, and the truth is, he never did anything indecent. But everywhere he goes, people remember him as "the pedophile, Saeki Fumi". He cannot find employment, and eventually started to run his own cafe. But that also came to an end when the jealous Ryo posted photos of Fumi on an Internet site, doxxing him.

Sarasa and Fumi just want to be together. The truth is that there is nothing wrong in the bond between them. But the labels of society keep haunting them. "It is wrong for the victim to be with the perpetrator." "He totally brainwashed her." "Wake up! You must break free from his claws!" (In the novel, Ryo was a much more hateful character and did a lot of mean and cruel things to Sarasa. I guess the director decided to tone down that part a bit so that he doesn't get bashed for making handsome Yokohama Ryusei portray such a villain. Also, the agony caused by society's labels on Sarasa and Fumi was much more devastating than the movie, but if the director had stayed true to the novel, I think we will all lose hope in society... 😅)

There is no escape from society's labels for Sarasa and Fumi. The movie made it that clear. In a situation where there is no hope that the truth will ever be believed, the eventual road the two decided to take--we will just be together, and when we get doxxed, we will just move to another place and start again--seemed so hopeful even though it is really just a pittance. But when you are at the bottom of a well, having a bucket to stand on and keep breathing is better than drowning.

Link to post on the cast event

Thoughts on the event "Violet Evergarden x Garden Museum Hiei: A tale of flowers and letters"

Update June 10, 2022: Important update! Garden Museum Hiei just announced that the merchandise being sold as part of this collaboration event will be available for sale online (production by order) with details to be announced at a later date. I guess they have finally heard all the feedback and realised that not all fans live near the garden and can afford to go back every week. Even fans who live nearby have trouble doing so, since the garden is not in the most accessible of places (being on a mountain...) This means you can probably skip the rest of the post below since it will no longer be relevant. 😍

 

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Garden Museum Hiei started holding this collaboration event with the Violet Evergarden franchise called "Violet Evergarden x Garden Museum Hiei: A tale of flowers and letters" on May 3, 2022. You can find more information here. In this post, though, I want to write about what I feel about how this event is being managed.

(Warning: This can read like a complaint, so for those who don't want to read anything negative, please turn back now.)

 

The event was announced on April 28, 2022, five days before its start on May 3. With the event being in Kyoto, up on Mount Hiei, which isn't the most convenient of places and not really on the main "Kyoto tourist route", I can only say that this was really short notice. Yes, the event will start during Japan's Golden Week holidays, but most people plan their holidays way in advance. For many, this could be the first time in two years or more that they get to travel overseas, so many fans could have already planned for an overseas trip. For fans, this last minute announcement may end up causing grief instead of drawing crowds.

It doesn't help that the organizers assured everyone that they prepared what they think is adequate stock for the various event-related merchandise, only to come out a couple of days into the event with a "out of stock" message. This is like a double blow to fans who already planned something else in advance during Golden Week and were hoping to squeeze in a visit to Garden Museum Hiei a bit later. 

 

For example:

April 28: "Oh, I really want to go, but I have planned a family trip to XYZ already... but there should still be the merch that I want if I go on the last day of Golden Week on May 8, right?" 

May 4: "What!?!?! Out of stock!!?!? But I already booked my ticket to Kyoto for May 8!"

To add injury to insult, it seems the stampbook was available for sale on May 2, a day before the actual event. So it is no surprise that by the end of May 3, it was already out of stock.

Of course, the organizers quickly came back to reassure everyone that they are restocking the merchandise, and for those who visited during the out-of-stock period, they are willing to post a copy of the entry gifts if you leave your address. But the stampbook (and other merchandise, for that matter) is not available for sale online or via post. So if you visited during the out-of-stock period, bad luck, come back again and pray that on your next visit, it is in stock.

And yesterday, they again announced a new set of merchandise for sale: A3 cloth posters. And guess what... it goes on sale today. So if you want to get a set, well, you had better booked your ticket yesterday the moment they announced it, and be in Kyoto now already and bought the posters, or they will likely be out of stock by the time you get there.

Example:

May 13: "Wow! New merchandise! Great! What!?!?!? Tomorrow?!?!? I work shifts, how can I even apply for leave tomorrow?"

Really, the way this event is organized, it is managed so horribly that I cannot help but feel anguish. If you have time and money to travel at short notice to a mountain in Kyoto from all over Japan, good. Otherwise, too bad for you. Every time they announce new merchandise at such short notice or post a "out of stock" message is like rubbing our face in the sand and pouring salt on our open wounds.

A properly managed event with the entire schedule of rollout announced well in advance, so that fans can plan their own schedules around what they want to see and get, would have made this a successful event that satisfies fans and improves the image of the organizers. Right now, the way it is being managed only makes me feel that this is just a last-minute plan by Garden Museum Hiei to draw people (and thus earn money) using the Violet Evergarden franchise. I feel so sad that the franchise is being exploited in such a way. 😢

Afternote:

Yes, there are other promotions with short notice. For example, the cinema door gift is usually announced about a week (or even less) before they are handed out. There is also the Aeon-Lotte collaboration (buy three Lotte products at Aeon stores to get a free gift), which is not even really announced anywhere. People usually become aware of this when they visit an Aeon store and notice that small poster for the promotion. But the biggest difference is: cinemas and Aeon stores can be found nationwide, and most people don't need to travel hours to get to one. To most people, going to the cinema or the Aeon store is not a day trip, or a weekend tour.

Update May 28, 2022: Sigh... more gripe. It seems the garden is limiting the purchase of clear files and pens to ONE per person. There are six different clear files, and six different pens. Since a person can only buy one file and one pen at any time, and they actually make you show your ticket when buying, it also means that anyone who wants to collect a set of all six designs will need to visit the garden SIX times. While this may be a measure against scalpers, it ends up hurting fans too, and can also be seen as a sly and cunning move by the garden to make people visit the place... everything which makes this bad publicity instead of improving the garden's image. Sigh.

Update June 7, 2022: It seems the garden is rolling out new merch almost every week. Which is great... except that you need to travel there. And I don't know but maybe it is just me that finds it difficult to travel there EVERY week to get new merch. I am really thankful that the garden is going to this trouble to collaborate with my favourite series, but I don't know who at the garden thinks there are fans who can travel to the garden every week from all over Japan. In the end, this only serves fans who live in Kyoto and nearby areas. Plus allow scalpers who live in that same area to resell everything for a profit. Great idea, beautiful merch, but I would really have liked if the organizers could have thought a bit more about the travel for fans...

Random notes from an online seminar about the transglobal flow of Japan's popular culture

I attended an online seminar about the transglobal flow of Japan's popular culture, with the conversation revolving mostly around "Cool Japan". Here are some of the questions/thoughts I had.

 

- Is Japan's "cool" born from a longing to find ways to escape from the otherwise dull reality? Given that life always has its difficulties for everyone, the charm of escapism can be a very strong drug that strikes very close to the heart.

- Has the "cool Japan" concept helped to shed a more positive light on otaku, who used to be portrayed more negatively, including news channels going as far as to report things such as manga being found in the suspect's home, etc.?

- Given that power is about the ability to get someone else to do what you want them to do (either through coercion or persuasion), how would we rate Japan's success in "Cool Japan" as soft power?

- Sanrio didn't promote Hello Kitty for soft power or "cool Japan", it is doing so for cash.

- Maybe the Government of Japan is just out of ideas (with all the men in their 60s and 70s still in leadership positions) and doesn't know what to actually do to help Japan's soft power.

- The spread of pop culture like manga, anime, movies, drama, songs, all help to provide a channel to express Japan's view of the world, Japanese values, and other aspects of Japanese society and culture. The thing is whether this channel is being used to convey the things needed to help Japan grow its soft power.

Migrating from TrueNAS Core to TrueNAS Scale

I previously installed TrueNAS Core on my Dell Poweredge R720 server as a virtual machine under Proxmox. However, TrueNAS Core uses FreeBSD, which is an operating system that I am not really familiar with. Then, on February 22, 2022, TrueNAS Scale was officially released. It is based on Linux, and I wanted to migrate over from Core to Scale. But at that time, the migration path required me to download the Scale ISO, boot up the installer, and choose the upgrade option. I was really worried it would mess up my NAS, even though it is a VM and I can easily just roll back to a previous snapshot.

Then, I found that there is actually another way to migrate from Core to Scale within the UI itself.

Basically, when you go to the TrueNAS Scale download page, there is an option to get the manual update file.

Click on that option to open up the links to download the file (which was 1.3 GB) and also read the notes.

The notes basically contains the same instructions as the forum post, which says:

I chose the "Install manual update file" option, saved the current configuration (remember to apply the option to "include password secret seed"), chose the temporary storage location, then browsed to select the manual update file which I downloaded. When choosing the temporary storage location, I chose to use my mainpool instead of "Memory Device" since I am not sure if the file needs to be persistent between boots.

Then, after choosing "Apply update", the migration process started. It rebooted a few times (I think three boots) before finally booting up into TrueNAS Scale with the web UI active.

Jails are not migrated, though, so I will need to manually set up my Nextcloud instance again. Not really an issue since I haven't really used Nextcloud after installing the jail. 😅

The migration seems to have gone smoothly, and boot time from cold start to launch of web UI was around 65 seconds. Kind of happy since it is Linux, an OS that I am much more familiar with. 😊 Kudos to the TrueNAS team for coming up with a way to make migration so much easier. 

(All that remains to is reinstall Nextcloud...)

Update May 13, 2022: I installed the TrueCharts catalog thinking to install Nextcloud through that, but it didn't really work out for me. And the catalog is huge, which ended up consuming a lot of CPU power whenever it updates the catalog. Like 100% CPU load, even though it is only for around 10 to 15 seconds each time. But that is enough to cause the R720's fans to rev up a bit... In the end, I uninstalled the TrueCharts catalog. Guess I will find another way to install Nextcloud.

Dual photo frame from Daiso

In my "quest" for frames to use with Violet Evergarden merchandise, I found a frame for two photos today at Daiso.

Although the frame is for two photos, it can fit in two postcards side by side. Which was what I did, using the postcard that came with the Violet Evergarden Gaiden light novel (aka Vol 3) and the card that came with the Ever After light novel (Vol 4) as part of the KA Esuma 2020 Rally.

😍

Preparing for calligraphy grading on my own

In June 2021, my calligraphy teacher moved to the other end of Honshu and has basically stopped teaching. Which leaves me in a tight spot, since I am now qualified to take my grading to become a calligraphy teacher (師範) but I will have to do it on my own. It is really difficult since there is no one to guide me along, but I told my teacher I would try for the grading (it will span two sessions, one each year 準師範 -> 師範). And so, for the past few months, ever since the grading criteria came out, I have been practising.

 

It is not easy. For two of the pieces, I need to actually compose what I want to write based on the given characters, choosing how to write each character (the style) as well as the overall layout. This was something that my teacher used to help me with in the past, and it is really the first time that I am doing this on my own. It entails some trial and error, planning out a piece, writing it a few times, then changing the way of writing certain characters and the overall layout, and repeating this process until I settle on a piece that I think is acceptable. Then, it is practice, practice, practice to write it properly.

There is also the "copy" or "imitate" piece, where you basically try to imitate the work of a calligraphy master as best as you can. This required a bit of my computer skills, since the grading piece is printed in a booklet, and I needed to expand it out to the actual size to be submitted. See this post on how I did that.

By the way, this is how I let the pieces dry during practice. It is actually a clothes hanger for indoor drying, but it works really well for drying calligraphy pieces when it is not used for drying clothes. 😅

There is still about a month left to go, which should be enough time for me to finish practising the last piece (I need to submit four pieces) and then actually write the pieces that have to be submitted. Wish me luck! 😉

Frames for "shikishi" and "mega jacket"

It all started with the launch of "Though Seasons Change - Violet Evergarden Piano Memories" CD album. When I bought my copy on Amazon Japan, it came with what is called a "mega jacket", basically, a 24cm by 24cm card printed with the illustration on the CD case. I wanted to frame it up, and eventually found a "handkerchief frame" on Amazon Japan for up to 25cm by 25cm that kind of fit.

Another common size for such "free gifts" is the "mini-shikishi" size, which is 122mm by 137mm. As luck has it, a frame for this can be found on Amazon Japan too.

Happy! 😊

Violet Evergarden x Garden Museum Hiei: A tale of flowers and letters

A collaboration titled "Violet Evergarden x Garden Museum Hiei: A tale of flowers and letters" was announced between the Violet Evergarden franchise and Garden Museum Hiei.

(Official announcement on Violet Evergarden website and the museum's website)

 

This collaboration will take place from May 3 to July 10, 2022.

The key visual for this collaboration was created by Kyoto Animation, with Violet Evergarden drawn in an impressionist style. Besides Violet, there will also be illustrations of Gilbert, Hodgins, Cattleya, and Benedict.

In addition, during this period, the entrance ticket (2,000 yen including taxes) will come with special Violet Evergarden merchandise. There will be three series, with the first series starting on May 3 till late May, when bromides of the line drawings for the five characters will be given out. The second series will be from late May till mid June, and the third series from mid June till the end of the collaboration on July 10. The merchandise for the second and third series will be announced at a later day.

The cafe at the museum will also be selling butterfly pea tea in an original Violet Evergarden water bottle, for 1,800 yen including taxes.

The theater beside the gift shop will feature an introduction of the museum, voiced by Violet's voice actor Ishikawa Yui. There is also plan to have a recording introducing the facilities playing at the car park.

The gallery "soRa" will feature standing panels of scenes from the Violet Evergarden anime series.

Starting from late May, original merchandise featuring Violet and other characters will also be sold.

From mid May, there will also be panels in the gardens introducing flowers related to the names of characters (Violet, Gilbert, Hodgins, Cattleya, and Benedict) as well as other seasonal flowers.

(Images taken from Garden Museum Hiei's official website, unless otherwise stated)

(Source: Violet Evergarden official website)

Garden Museum Hiei's website is mainly in Japanese, but you can get some directions in English here (not a lot, but better than nothing). 

 

My thoughts on how this event is being organized can be found here. (Note: not a positive post)

Update May 6, 2022: The stamp book is out of stock as of May 4, 2022, and the water bottle out of stock on May 5, 2022. I hope the organizers consider selling the merchandise online too since not many people can actually visit Garden Museum Hiei as it is quite an excursion to go there (not just in terms of money, but also time). Also, the set of five line drawings that will come with the entrance ticket is expected to be out of stock by today. The organizers have said that they will send a set to all visitors if it goes out of stock (I guess they are printing more right now...) until the next series is launched. Guess they didn't expect this superb turnout by fans... 😅 Don't underestimate Violet Evergarden fans!

Update May 11, 2022: The set of five line drawings that comes with the entrance ticket is back in stock, and those who visited between May 6 to 11 and have given their addresses will be sent a copy soon.

Update May 13, 2022: The water bottle is out of stock but will be restocked from May 14, 2022. Same with the stampbook, which will be restocked from May 14. Plus they will start selling A3 cloth posters too. There are four designs and each visitor is limited to buying only one per design (so that is a maximum of four posters, one for each design).

 

Update May 17, 2022: The A3 cloth posters are out of stock as of today. Also, from May 20 onward, there will be standing displays with illustrations of the five characters (Violet, Gilbert, Hodgins, Benedict, and Cattleya) put up in the garden. Merchandise based on these illustrations (drawn for this event) will be available for sale toward the end of May (my guess is starting from May 28).

Update May 18, 2022: A3 cloth posters back in stock. But stamp book out of stock again.

Update May 20, 2022: This is how the standing displays look like.

There are five of them: Violet, Gilbert, Hodgins, Benedict, and Cattleya. Also, the stamp book is back in stock and will be sold again at the garden store from May 21, 2022.

 

Update May 24, 2022: The stamp book is out of stock again.

Update May 25, 2022: The next round of entrance ticket gift has just been announced. It will be a tabletop folding screen, and comes when you purchase the premium entrance ticket from May 28, 2022 onwards.

 

The set of five illustration cards will end on May 27, 2022.

Update May 26, 2022: Next round of merchandise announced. There will be clear files, total of six designs, that will be available from May 28, 2022.

Also being launched on the same date are ballpoint pens, six designs too.

It seems Garden Museum Hiei is releasing new merchandise every two weeks on Saturdays. Looking forward to the next round of announcements! 😍

Update May 27, 2022: Wow, another set of merchandise announced today, which will go on sale tomorrow (May 28, 2022).

Set of five different coins. Guess they are really squeezing that set of five illustrations dry... Anyway, the coins will be sold through a vending machine in the garden museum's gift shop. The stamp book will also be back in stock on May 28, 2022. And for the clear files and pens, they are limiting to one per person. 😢 This means they expect someone to visit the garden at least six times to collect a set... 🤷

Update May 28, 2022: Coins are out of stock on the day they were released.

Update May 30, 2022: The clear file with the key visual (the one with Violet standing at the entrance of the garden walkway) is out of stock. Also, the two A3 landscape posters (bougainvillea and Violet under blue sky) are out of stock too. This announcement was made in the morning, just before the garden opened. Also, coins will be back in stock on June 3, 2022. A3 cloth posters with the six illustrations drawn for this event will also go on sale from June 4, 2022.

 

(They will be sold out quite fast, because there is a KyoAni event that weekend...)

Update June 3, 2022: The two A3 landscape posters (bougainvillea and Violet under blue sky) will be back in stock on June 4, 2022. The clear file with the key visual (the one with Violet standing at the entrance of the garden walkway) will be back in stock on June 5, 2022. Meanwhile, one of A3 portrait posters (Violet in front of window) is out of stock.

Update June 4, 2022: The two A3 landscape posters (bougainvillea and Violet under blue sky) are out of stock again, after being restocked this morning. Well, guess you can't blame them, there is a KyoAni event today in at Uji (Sound! Euphonium festival) and many fans probably went to visit the garden before the festival.

Update June 7, 2022: The A3 cloth posters (Violet in front of window, Violet on grass, Violet with bougainvillea, and Violet under blue sky) are out of stock as of today. Also, from June 11, there will be pots of fake flowers with character illustrations on sale too!

 

Besides Violet (which is not a violet flower... I don't know why too), there will be Gilbert, Cattleya, Hodgins, and Benedict.

Update June 8, 2022:A tote bag featuring the key illustration for this collaboration will go on sale at the garden from June 11, 2022.

Also, for those driving to Garden Hiei Museum, starting June 11, 2022, a recording by Violet's voice actor Ishikawa Yui introducing the garden can be enjoyed on FM radio on 89.1 MHz at the garden's car park. The recording will not be available on Internet radio, though.

 

Update June 9, 2022: A new merch was announced today. Phone holder with the key visual for this collaboration.

It will be available from June 11, 2022 onward. Same as the tote bag and fake flowers. I think we can expect an announcement on the entrance gift soon too.

Update June 10, 2022: The A3 cloth posters (Violet in front of window, Violet with bougainvillea, and Violet under blue sky) will be back in stock from June 11, 2022. The best news is that the garden has announced that the merchandise being sold at this collaboration event will be available for sale online (production by order) with details to be announced at a later date. 😍

Update June 12, 2022: The stamp book is out of stock again.

Update June 13, 2022: Violet Evergarden metallic card souvenir (gold or silver) will be available as part of the premium entrance fee to Garden Museum Hiei from June 18, 2022.

 

For 2,000 yen, you get one of the cards (at random), or you can pay 2,800 yen to get both of them. Price is inclusive of the normal entrance fee for the garden. 

Update June 17, 2022: Stamp book and A3 cloth poster (Violet on grass) will be back in stock on June 18, 2022.

Update June 19, 2022: The A3 landscape cloth poster (bougainvillea) and A3 cloth poster (key visual for the event) are out of stock.

 

Update June 22, 2022: The various A3 cloth posters will be restocked on June 25, 2022.

 

Update June 27, 2022: The garden announced that the fake Violet flowers will change to one with yellow petals.

 

The event itself is coming to an end soon, and I have yet to have the opportunity to actually visit. 😢

 

Update July 1, 2022: Violet Evergarden metallic card souvenir (gold or silver) will likely be out of stock tomorrow. However, up until the last day of the event (July 10, 2022), visitors can pay for the souvenir in advance and fill in a form at the entrance. Once the souvenirs are available, the garden will send it/them to you. (Although I think it is implied that you need to be staying in Japan...)

Update July 2, 2022: The campaign's key visual ballpen is out of stock. The garden will not be restocking any ballpens during the event but they will be made available for online sale at a later date.

Update July 4, 2022: The fake flowers (Violet and Gilbert) are low on stock. I just hope the garden starts selling the merch online once the event is over on July 10, 2022.

Update July 5, 2022: The fake Violet flowers are out of stock and will be restocked on July 8, 2022. That's the final weekend before the event ends so they are hoping there will be a final rush of visitors.

Update July 8, 2022: The final round of new merch was announced today. Following the phone holder with the key visual for this collaboration, due to its popularity, there will be phone holders of the other five illustrations (of the characters).

 

The new phone holders will go on sale at the garden from July 9, 2022 and will be available for purchase online subsequently. The Violet and Gilbert fake flowers are also back in stock. The metallic card souvenir (gold or silver) is also back in stock.

Update July 8, 2022: The Violet and Gilbert fake flowers are out of stock again, just after being restocked yesterday. 

 

Update July 10, 2022: Violet Evergarden event at Garden Museum Hiei has ended as of 8 p.m. but the event's merch and water bottle will continue to be sold at the garden while stocks last.

Update August 12, 2022: It was announced that the merch will be available for purchase online from August 14 to September 16, 2022 through e-kenet. The link to the products (42 of them) is here. Delivery is only within Japan, and products will be made on-demand with delivery scheduled in November 2022. If you are living outside Japan, you may need to use a forwarding service.

Update August 14, 2022: It seems that e-kenet is experiencing a flood of connections and it can be hard to get through. Guess the site was not ready for so many people trying to get the merch at the same time... especially because, while it is supposed to be produced on-demand, they announced limits to each merch. Wonder how that works, since it is on-demand yet at the same time limited... 🤔

 

Update August 31, 2022: Sale of Violet Evergarden merchandise at the garden's store will end today. The drink (with its bottle) will continue to be sold until stock runs out.

【グッズ販売終了のお知らせ】　
ガーデンミュージアム比叡内ショップでの「ヴァイオレット・エヴァーガーデン」コラボレーションイベントのオリジナルグッズの販売は8/31(水)で終了いたします。予めご了承くださいませ。

尚、コラボドリンクは8/31(水)以降も販売いたします。(※売切れ次第終了) pic.twitter.com/C5ooFWbnFN

— 【公式】ヴァイオレット・エヴァーガーデン×ガーデンミュージアム比叡 (@Violet_GMHiei) August 31, 2022

 

My overall thoughts on Violet Evergarden The Movie.

Events:

First cast greeting event for Violet Evergarden the Movie

Violet Evergarden the Movie: Cast greeting event to thank fans

Production staff event at screening of Violet Evergarden the Movie

Letter of appreciation from Violet Evergarden's author Akatsuki Kana

Post on Violet Evergarden Orchestra Concert 2021

 

Translations of short stories:

Gilbert Bougainvillea and the Fleeting Dream (unofficial translation of "ギルベルト・ブーゲンビリアと儚い夢")

Violet Evergarden short stories: "Logbook entry" and "Diary entry" (unofficial translation)

The Starry Night and the Lonely Two (unofficial translation of 星降りの夜とさみしいふたり)

Diethard Bougainvillea's If (unofficial translation of ディートフリート・ブーゲンビリアIf) 

The Tailor and the Auto-Memories Doll (unofficial translation of 仕立て屋と自動手記人形)

 

Tellsis (Nunkish) translation:

Decoding the Violet Evergarden postcard

Translating the message card from Violet Evergarden Orchestra Concert 2021

Last line of Violet's final letter to Gilbert

My Tellsis language translator in Flutter that runs on Windows, Linux, and Android

My (old) Python script for translating to and from Tellsis language (Nunkish)

 

Insights on the movie:

Was Ekarte Island based on Folegandros?

Touching scenes in Violet Evergarden the Movie

Violet Evergarden the Movie is a story about guilt

Article about story consistency/inconsistency in Violet Evergarden the Movie

 

Audio commentary notes:

Production staff

Voice actors

Music staff

Violet Evergarden TV anime series

 

All posts related to Violet Evergarden.