Monster Cat Creations

Hello from America! 

My son is now setup as a full apprentice at Monster Cat Creations 

I am so proud of him! He knows how to sew parts of costumes using his industrial Juki sewing machine 

There were many challenges learning how to use it. 

An industrial Juki is required for making high quality suits, like these body suits 

Japanese sewing machine of course. 

These Juki machines are very complicated  

 

I was amazed at how much goes into an industrial machine. 

 

They can sew canvas for sails on sailboats, and very thick materials. 

I am glad I don't have to learn how   

Building high-speed internet seems much easier than this machine. 

The studio where my son works is amazing 

So many fabrics, so many colors, it is so beautiful to be in here 

This is my son's working station and the Juki in action. 

I am taking up lots of space in their studio to build the 3D printer. 

I am making a mess (lol)  

It is coming along well though 

I finished one of the three motors and belts today. I have two more to go.  

I put my Vault Boy doll (bobble-head) on it for fun, and made a video.   

I am donating this 3D printer to Monster Cat Creations for free 

It is part of my "payment" for the owner (Michelle) taking on my Son (Shouta) as an apprentice. 

Michelle did not ask for any compensation. She did not have to. 

My honor would demand no less of me. 

I felt that it was my duty to compensate Michelle for teaching my son these skills. 

I want to do even more to help Monster Cat Creations be even more successful as a business too. 

I have to drive back to Virginia today to start my new job next week!!! 

The company placed me at the highest level of engineering position possible. What is called, "Principal Engineer" in the USA. 

I am very excited, but also very humbled and grateful. I am also nervous of course. 

I will never forget from the day I start this job, that I am doing it for my sons. 

Shota and Tokoyami are my strength. They are how I will endure the difficult days ahead. 

Thank you for reading! 

Kris

Busy Day, Troubled Thoughts

Hello from America! 

Today was a busy day for my son and I.   

We spent many hours working so far, lots of things to do and little time. 

Shouta is helping work on a costume.   He already knows how to use the Juki and is doing well!  

I am making progress on the 3D printer. This is one of the motors ready to install. 

The trade war with China is heating up. I am not too worried about it yet. But it will eventually start to cause problems. 

I know it is going to hurt us as Americans as much as it hurts everyone else in the world. 

At least I have my Toyota paid for, that much I am very grateful for. Cleaned it up for the trip back to Virginia on Monday. 

I'll make a better update tomorrow. I apologize for this one, it is lame (lol). 

I feel somewhat sad today, maybe it is the weather. 

I hope everyone in Japan is safe and cool.  

Until tomorrow!

Kris

Progress on building big 3D printer

Hello from America! 

3D Printing is becoming a big deal here in the USA 

Currently I am making progress on a big custom 3D printer for a company. 

Today I completed the mechanical rails 

Tomorrow I will connect the motors. 

It will look more exciting then. 

Have a cool and safe day in Japan! 

Kris

Japans Cyber Samurai and Cyber Ninja

アメリカからこんにちは！ 

今日のジャパンタイムズで、私自身のキャリアの経験から非常に真実な話を読みました。

 In the Age of Malware we’re flirting with national disaster  

私は20年以上インターネット技術の分野で働いてきましたが、

サイバーセキュリティの経験があります。   

この記事は絶対に真実だと言いたい. 

サイバー戦争は戦争の未来. 

戦争の4次元（軍、海軍、航空、そして今はサイバー）と呼ばれています. 

サイバー戦争は大量破壊兵器よりも危険です！  

これはとても〜です！ 

サイバーテロリストが日本中のすべての力をオフにした場合、

どれだけの人が死ぬか想像してみてください。

または、鉄道網をシャットダウンします。または水を切った. 

あなたはアイデアを得る. 

日本はこれに備える必要があります。アメリカはまだ追いつくために戦っている.  

日本はこれらの将来の戦争と戦うためにサイバーサムライとサイバーニンジャを訓練する必要があります。  

それをやる時は今です 

若者にハッキングの方法とデジタル戦場で戦う方法を教えるクラブとプログラムを作成します。

日本と米国はこのように共に戦う必要があります。 

安全に滞在し、素晴らしい一日を！ 

Kristopher

YuGiOh with Tokoyami, Juki for Shouta!

Hello from America!  

I have blogged about American love of Japanese anime, but that love also extends to video and board games!   YuGiOh is one that is so prominent that there are huge tournaments here where thousands of gamers compete to be best YuGiOh player. 

One of my sons (who goes by Tokoyami Fumikage now more than his birth name) is a very good YuGiOh player.    He beats me all the time, though I still try hard.   His favorite deck is Nekroz (for those that know), he has been a loyal Nekroz player for years and years now.   My favorite right now is True King Dinosaur!   I still loose more duels than I win with Fumikage, but he is still pleased with my progress at learning YuGiOh. 

I took a screenshot of us playing today. 

I'm a little embarrassed to show my dueling mat   

But in my defense, I think I'm allowed to have a waifu as an Otaku! 

Rin Tohsaka of Fate Stay/Night won my heart a long time ago.  

I feel a strange pride for being able to game at my son's level.   It allows me to get closer to him, and we have a real friendship not just a Father to Son relationship. I cherish it. 

My other son Shouta is busy working as an apprentice now at Monster Cat Creations, where he will be creating full mascot-size fursuits, just like the one Chewbacca wears in Star Wars. He has a powerful heavy-duty Juki sewing machine that cost me over 100,000 Yen!   

He has it all setup now and is learning allot here.  I am very proud of him.   Getting him setup at this apprenticeship was not easy, and at first I did not even think about it because getting an apprenticeship at a big maker like Monster Cat is super rare. I was shocked when the owner offered it, and have never been more proud of Shouta.   

To me this is what life is all about; raising my kids in a happy family.    

I learned long ago that treating my kids with respect means they will treat me with respect when they grew up.  This is true in my family, and we all protect one-another now. 

I do not know how I would survive feeling cold and alone every night with were it not for my kids. 

Kris

Mountains and Rain in Pennsylvania

Hello from America!

We are praying for the people Japan today as typhoon Shanshan passes by.   I am worried about people in the prefectures near the north-eastern coast (Honshu), as the storm surge is expected to be > 10 meters high.  

Here in America the weather is always crazy depending on where you are in the country. Right now we have terrible forrest fires in California that are doing great damage.   Many people have died and hundreds of homes lost. 

On the east coast the weather is better, but lots of rain today as we drove from Virginia to Pennsylvania on our way to my son's place of apprenticeship.   

We took a bunch of pictures as Pennsylvania is so beautiful 

Had to take a picture of old glory of course. It was a big flag 

Then the rain started. The sky turned dark, the drive got even more beautiful. 

The rain bands in this next picture were stunning. 

And one pic of us on our drive, had to get my boy in a picture. He does not look too happy in this picture, but it was just the glare from the sun at that moment. 

Now that we are back in beautiful Kittanning, Pennsylvania, my son will begin working for his sensei on learning the Juki, and I will resume building the large 3D printer. 

Finally installed LINE on my system so I have a real-time communications platform, and almost instantly got added by a local friend. It was very nice!   My SNS is 571-287-1379, email is miax7800@gmail.com. I don't have a LINE ID set yet, still working on figuring that out. 

Thank you so much for reading 

Stay safe and have a great day   

Kris

Typhoon Shanshan and Storm Surge in Honshu!

Hello from America!

I have been studying weather for allot of my life, and have been through 3 typhoon direct hits in my lifetime. I am extremely worried for the people who live in Honshu and the city of Yokohama right now  

From the path of the typhoon, three things are clear to me:

1. The typhoon will reach land near Yokohama, which means the city will experience a large storm-surge from the winds of the typhoon. The winds literally "push" water into the land, and storm surges in the US can reach 3-9 meters!  

2. The back side of the winds of typhoon Shanshan will pass over Honshu, which means to coast of Honshu will experience the largest storm-surge of anywhere in Japan. It will be like a tsunami honestly. Anyone living on the coast of Honshu needs to prepare to evacuate or get to high ground if they have not already done so!  

3. Stay away from windows in the high wind, they can shatter and cut you very badly if you are looking out the window when it blows-inward on you!  

Stay safe today, we will be praying for the people of Japan! 

Kris

An Art Commission with Konan of Naruto

Hello from America!

One of the on-line communities I participate in is called, "Kukuri". It is an on-line Artistic Role Playing Game (ARPG).  In summary it is an active on-line community with competitions based on artwork and literature creation.  I think it is very awesome for artists   

The website is: kukuri-arpg   I go by the name, Voltie there. My kukuri is named, "Shiryuu":

Naruto has been one of my favorite anime's for well over a decade now   I think I watched through the first 500 episodes over 4 or 5 times now.  Of all the characters in Shippudden my absolute favorites are Kakashi and Konon    

It may not be surprising that I commissioned an artist to draw my own kukuri and Konan together in a cave where my kukuri lives    It is a stunning piece of artwork done by Priestess Shizuka of deviant art, and I have a huge copy of it on my bedroom wall at home - Yep, I am a hopeless otaku and Naruto geek.  

I have written two stories about Konan and my Kukuri together, I will share those in the future if I work up the courage to post them. 

Thank you for reading!!  

Kris

My Four Cats <3

Howdy!

A quick blog about my favorite animal; the humble feline.   

I have 4 cats in my house; 3 of them feline and one of them my son Shouta. 

Ozzymandus (or Ozzy) is an older, playful male cat that we have had since he was about two years old. He was a stray cat that lived in a factory, was caught by the animal control, and put up for adoption. We took him home, and never regretted it. He is huge, over 9 Kg!! (20 lbs). He is not fat, just big 

He has amazing empathy, and will cuddle-up.

Maggie is one of our female felines, she is the quiet one who has eyes only for my son Tokoyami (who she loves unconditionally). 

Maggie is also the cat that loves boxes!  Any box she can get into is good for her. 

Then there is her sleeping poses, which are hilarious! 

Our last cat is Juliet!  She was a barn cat that moved in with us when she decided to adopt us as a family.    She was the runt of the litter and is very small.  

Even so Juliet is the most amazing cat 

As you can see she is quite old and blind in one eye.   But don't let that fool you, she still has no problems getting along. 

The funny thing that Juliet does is that she sticks out her tongue when purring. 

And she likes to give kisses when she is content. 

Then there is my human cat, Shouta.   Shouta has a cat mask that was made for him for cosplay and is not afraid to wear it in public. 

So it could be said that I am surrounded by cats  

I am okay with this. 

I hope everyone is weathering typhoon Shanshan okay.. 

Kris

Typhoon Shanshan and 3 Days of Food

Hello from America! 

The Japan Times reads, "Heavy rain expected as strong Typhoon Shanshan approaches eastern Japan". Shanshan is a dangerous storm, and as I blogged previously, the people of Japan need to be prepared for stronger and more frequent typhoons because of climate change. 

More rain means more flooding and land slides, and more people suffering. 

Please be careful during the typhoon, the winds are dangerous and can break windows

Make sure your elders and pets are inside and safe 

And also make sure to have at least 3 days of food and water ready   This point is important for Japanese people to think about now every time a big storm is approaching. 

Science has shown that 3 days of food and water are adequate in most situations, as it can take up to 3 days for rescue to reach you if something bad happens on a big scale. 

Please make sure your elders also have 3 days of food and water 

Please be safe during the Typhoon   We will be praying for your safety 

--

My Son and I are packing agian for our return trip to Pennsylvania where my Son Shouta has won an apprenticeship from a reknowned maker. Tomorrow morning we will make the drive, it should be beautiful in the morning and I will take more photos for my blog. 

Thank you for reading 

Kris