stec-corduroyroad

Hi there,

I may go ahead and blog this because, hey, journals speak louder than activity blurbs.

In an effort to stabilise my work and life balance, I'm reorganising my commission schedule to a respectable 2 week opening for each month or so. Important notice :- as of today, I am once again a legally paid employee in Japan and I won't be moving anytime soon. Here I'm looking at getting back into the art game while pondering my next plans while living the expat life.

Here're the prices below. They remain unchanged now, so please ignore the wrong year. ^^







My commissions will stay open from today until Monday 15th October. Please NOTE me or use my email in the guide to contact me for your commission details.



With thanks,



Since I mentioned social links, here's where you can find me these days:

twitter.com/theCordyRoad ~ TWITTER

corduroy Road #4562 ~ DISCORD

corduroy Road ~ TELEGRAM

www.furaffinity.net/user/cordu… ~ FUR AFFINITY (why have I not touched this again?!!)

www.instagram.com/stecthettwg/… ~ INSTAGRAM (mainly photos)

Yikes. It's been almost a year, guys! In case you did not hear from me much then chances are that I am still doing well living out my expat dreams in Japan. First I'll catch you up to speed of what I got up to since the last post on January.

I moved on from my first and second jobs - full and part time respectively - to a cozy newer teaching post at a preschool in the Chuo ward in Osaka. Not without its problems from time to time, but compared to my daycare gig I've been making much better progress in my work performance this time. No longer walking on those eggshells because the training our staff were given was top notch. One problem for definite is to block out all the crying and shit these kids do to put it bluntly; on the flipside, it allowed me to upgrade my working visa to guarantee me a steady employment in the country until April 2020 should I choose to extend my first contract. I don't know, friends have already told me to get involved somewhere without kids...

Maybe my work life is going so well, yet my fortune doesn't transition well to my personal use of my time now that I'm holding a steady full-time job. The summer in Japan this year has kind of been dreadful for typhoons, earthquakes, heatwaves - all three I experienced in 2 short months. Not just here but every other country is burning up so badly it has to be unimaginable. My point is, instead of churning out more art adding to the three new work I put on here this year alone, I turned to social media, videos and gaming to avoid more work for my sizzled brain. You have to forgive me for not being around much is all I want to say.

I'd really much like to find another hustle to keep my mind off things, so to do that I have to be more focused. First though, I'd like to enjoy my week-long holiday to Singapore starting from today! Flying out this afternoon. If you care for some photos and a handful of sketches, I can oblige until I come back home and get my constructive energy back.


Since I mentioned social links, here's where you can find me these days:

twitter.com/theCordyRoad ~ TWITTER

corduroy Road #4562 ~ DISCORD

corduroy Road ~ TELEGRAM

www.furaffinity.net/user/cordu… ~ FUR AFFINITY (why have I not touched this again?!!)

www.instagram.com/stecthettwg/… ~ INSTAGRAM (mainly photos)



I should finish packing. See you's again and take care!

With thanks,

Not on my terms of course, but it's better to wish than never.

Had a good Christmas, everybody? Mine was, albeit kinda different since I have spent my first winter holidays far away from home. The furthest I've ever been from loved ones, in fact. Never mind, I coped well enough. Instead of reflecting my thoughts on the year that went by, I'll give you a brief update on my time in Japan.

As of mid-November, I got myself a job in daycare assistant and English teacher for special needs children. I'm typing this journal as I've started my one-week break from a three-month long contract, a blessing in itself which would turn around if I regret not stopping on if my next job becomes flat-out miserable. You see, the first eight weeks of this job - one of which I had almost no experience in outside my Peru excursion in 2008 - has been immensely difficult. Everything from adhering to the rules and protocol of the Japanese culture to the actual supervising of the kids. Having an older brother with autistic conditions (no jokes, please) meant me qualified for the job and fortunately they said yes before I got hired; overtime I learnt that these kids were nothing like my brother and while watching over them, I'd been refining my teaching methods to suit their level and needs, not without much trial and error. It was unbelievable, mostly not for the right reasons.

Maybe a slight overreaction as I say this, I could fill a whole bible of cock-ups I have made in the first month of my teaching experience, a relatively new skill that I know I will thank myself for in the long run, but on the Friday after we broke up for New Year holidays, I've been given due praise for my involvement in supporting the daycare. It was my first amount of praise given to me because your regular po-faced Asian cohort will not likely thank you anytime outside of 'otsukaresama deshita' at the end of each day, which now makes me wish to stay on for a second contract if other prospects don't come up despite telling my online friends I wish to leave for another job after February. It's really all up to me to search for lucrative work if I want to keep my spirits up on my working holiday visa. I've shed tears from my teaching thing, you know.

As for my downtime, I've been getting back to 3D software animation to pick up on old habits. Maybe eventually I will land another graphic design job either in Japan or back home, or better still, in animation as that has been my dream goal since the mid-Nineties. Unfortunately it was the 2D, handmade craft that I fallen in love with. Needless to say, my portfolio needs a lot of work to achieve either of these goals so I'm looking at other platforms to showcase my talent besides dA. I've been using Blender for practice, and I'll be going back into it during the two-day rut in the New Year holiday before my second visit to Tokyo for an epic Tokyo Dome wrestling event.

Despite a rough start at the Japanese work culture, I'd like to give my thanks for everyone watching my art development for another year. To borrow an often-used sentiment from said Asian cohorts, please understand the lack of new works since the summer and by disappearing it does not mean that I've ignored you completely. It'd be fantastic to bring my creativity to work even if it takes another 4 months up to a year before I can achieve this sort of goal. Should my visa come to an end, that's what I'd like to do.

Now for my thanks and no-thanks. Seriously, don't come here if you represent the latter three. I will spit you out like yesterday's tobacco if you do.


People I'd love to buy a drink for for supporting me through the year and onto the next:

1. All the online/offline friends I met in person at local and overseas conventions. There's very little I can do next year to come visit but it's not too late to start making plans
2. My family. They have spoiled me for long enough
3. My super friendly flatmates in Higashiosaka for making me feel welcome in the first third of my stay

People I'd like to tell to fuck off in 2018:

1. People who call every good thing 'awesome'
2. Users of social media (pretty much everything) for profiting and proliferating offensive memes. It's time to be accountable
3. Pinkie Pie


With thanks, (what?)

-- SteCisTTWG

Hi there,

It's been three and a half weeks in the making of my newest journal, and this is just to clear up all the things that have been going on since my arrival at Nihonland.

I'm not going to tell you how fantastic Japan is - you know, like visas, alien cards and living arrangements -- but more of what I'm getting up to with the creative side of things. What sucks though is leaving behind the friends and events in the UK to take this opportunity, though it means I will be trying out the newer conventions to go and build new networks with. All ONE of them in Japan PonyCon. If interviews or work won't get in the way, I'll be making my first stop in Tokyo to attend the pone con there on 3-4 November; I'm in Osaka, by the way. I no longer use either Twitter or Tumblr for information so I will have to grace my presence harder unless anybody here can notify who or any familiar faces are going to be attending. ponycon.jp/

Edit: Heck, besides flatmates, if there's any way to hook up with more artists stationed in Japan then that'd be swell, too. ^^

And I'm certainly not going to hold myself back until that time comes. My working holiday responsibilities will require funds to ensure I can fulfill my whole year and, yes, I've already been finding work in teaching since my JET opportunity came and went. I might not want to wait until October comes for a potential 'yes' from a learning camp here and the bad reviews one reads about are making me quite paranoid! So at the meantime I'm in the process of setting up a new art commission guide as I really do want to stay connected to my art services with you guys. Depending on the outcome of my job hunt by end of this month I will have worked out a new overhaul of my services to find time for both art and work.

Which goes back to the convention because I really want to see for myself what the pony scene is like in this side of the world. Asides from one gatchapon machine and some TY merch, I ain't seen jack!! School girls, piloted robots and bread men are not easily usurped!

Minor news; seeing how little I've been up to on here, how would you all feel if I upload my own photographs in Japan on here? Keep 'em short as to not overstimulate your senses?  それは大丈夫ですか



With thanks,

-- コーデュロイ 道路