Jumping Back in at the Deep End! | The Friday Update

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Friday Update, in which I give a little insight into what I’ve been up to for the past seven days.

What have I been up to this week?

So… I am officially back from honeymoon and busy, busy, busy putting the final touches to our next video!

In many regards, it’s been quite handy that I’ve not yet 100% managed to wrangle my body clock back to UK time. Because, with lots of filming to get done the past few days, waking at 5am has been an asset!

As many of you will know, when filming, it’s always best to try and record in the hour just after sunrise. This ensures the sun is low and directional rather than being directly above, where it can cast unpleasant shadows across the subject’s face.

While Georgia had made good progress on the voiceover and motion graphics sections of the video whilst I was away, we still needed to film the on-location sections of the video.

Luckily, we were only filming in a nearby park for this one; but the slowly-lengthening days have now meant that the “golden hour” (the hour just after sunset) not kicks off at 6:30am.

So, it’s been a few early starts to be set up and ready to go for then; especially after a couple of our days got rained off!

It’s been a slightly chaotic return to work; but it’s actually really lovely to have arrived back on a release week.

The excitement of seeing everything come together has allowed me to have an instant reminder that, whilst my honeymoon might be over, I’m lucky enough to have a job I really, really love!

^ It turns out you can still do "YouTuber desk" whilst outside.

And outside of work?

There’s actually not been a whole lot of time for “outside of work” this week!

This is mostly because, after a couple of days decompressing post-honeymoon, I had to haul myself back onto a train to head to London.

See, I’m currently planning a top secret project!

I don’t want to say too much about it just yet in case it doesn’t come to fruition; but it’s involved arranging for a visa to do some filming and reporting over in the United States.

Getting such a visa involves going for a n interview at the US Embassy in London and, for some reason, all the appointments for these interviews are first thing in the morning. As such, my Sunday was spent on a train weaving my way through South West England back to the capital.

It made for an incredibly bizarre experience to arrive back at home, and then have only a day or two to get re-accustomed to everyday life before going away again; even if only for one night!

Nevertheless, after two weeks of being so enthused and excited about all our travels whilst we were away, I’m trying to carry that same sense of excitement and energy into my “ordinary weeks” too.

Which is certainly easier as the short, dark days of winter give way to spring!

^ I spotted this weird suspended pool which went viral a year or so ago whilst in London on Monday.

What have I been reading/watching/listening to?

Whenever I go on holiday, I always like to do some themed reading. A short trip to a country can never give you the same depth of experience as living there. But, it only feels polite to have some knowledge of the history, culture and competing identities of a place before I arrive.

When my wife and I went to Dublin a few years ago, I read most of James Joyce’s novels in the six months before we went (not Finnegan’s Wake though, I don’t think I quite have the patience for that!). And , I think I got so much more out of our trips whilst there for having done so!

I didn’t have as much time as I’d have liked to immerse myself in the history and culture of Japan before we set off. Unfortunately, ensuring I was far enough ahead with writing and research that I could afford two weeks away had to be the priority!

To make up for this, I picked up a copy of Christopher Harding’s Japan Story: In Search of a Nation for some holiday reading.

The book gives an overview of Japanese history from the end of its isolationist period in the 1850s to the present day. It covers the Meiji Restoration, “Westernisation” and its opponents, the rise of militarism and the Second World War, US occupation, and the country’s dramatic post-war economic rise.

It is very much an overview; I came away feeling as though I knew a bit about all of these eras of Japanese history rather than a lot about any of them. But, for someone looking for a slightly-more-than-casual understanding of recent Japanese history, this was perfect for me.

Whenever I’m asked for research tips, one key bit of advice I always give is to start by reading a broad, introductory text for whatever topic you’re researching. This can sometimes feel like being on “easy mode” or as though one is wasting time reading a book which doesn’t go into as much detail on a particular aspect of a topic as one might like.

But, I find this ensures you can then preceded to reading more in-depth, focussed books armed with a little more context about the larger picture into which the specific aspect of a topic you’re focussing on fits into.

In a similar mode, Japan Story left me with enough of a broad framework of modern Japanese history to inspire me to want to read more about several different elements, and with enough knowledge about the broad sweeps of the country’s trajectory to feel able to!

^ Japan Story: In Search of a Nation by Christopher Harding

That brings us to the end of this week’s edition of the Friday Update. I hope you’ve found it mildly insightful.

Thanks as ever for your generous support and I’ll look forward to updating you more next week!!