What To Do?

 I'm sure you all know that I have an Etsy shop.

I started 3 months ago and have made one sale! Never mind, it's a start. I figured I would keep putting up new designs, keep plugging away on Pinterest and on here and maybe in a few months' time I would start seeing some traction. I wasn't looking for a get-rich-quick scheme; I wasn't even thinking of getting rich, just to replace the income I lost from teaching English.

This morning I got an email from Etsy. They have changed their AI policy, yet again. Since I design with AI and use AI to generate the images of the products, this affects me. From what I understand, for each product, I have to take an unfiltered photo of each product, which means buying each product and taking a photo of it. At the moment, I have 200 products with prices ranging from 2,000 yen to 5,000 yen, plus shipping. I want to make money, not spend it. So I have no idea what to do. I was really hoping that this would make a steady income, enough to live on, but it looks like I might have to close down Etsy or move to another platform.

David suggested I focus on my writing and write a book, which I could do, but that takes months, if not years, to get published. 

I think this new policy has hit me hard, as Etsy was one hope that I had. 

So what to do? That is what I'm wondering about. I have other ideas but not sure if they would work out or not. Having a store on Etsy is like renting a small store in a big shopping mall; customers are already looking, so if they see your store, they go in and hopefully buy. If I set up a webpage, I have to build a customer base from nothing; nobody would go looking for my store. I need to see where this policy is going, what I can do and if I need to close down Etsy and move to another platform. 

This email changed my plan for today's post.

What I was going to write about was the mess I got into with AI yesterday.

I asked Gemini, Google's AI, to make an image of a Samurai Santa, which it did, but I couldn't use the image; even though it was nice, it wasn't what I was looking for.

He looks a bit scary.

I then asked it to create an image of Santa on the Shinkansen, but I didn't start a new chat, so the information from the previous chat was incorporated into the new image.

Samurai Santa on the Shinkansen

I had a good laugh with it!

I'm going to have to think about what to do. 

If anyone has any ideas, drop a comment.

A Catch Up Of The Past Week

 I can't believe it took me a week to write about a 2-day trip! We did a lot on that trip, but I still thought that it would take, at most, 3 days to write about it!

One problem is sorting out the photos; we took so many, too many to use, actually! Trying to figure out which ones go to the post I was writing takes time. 

Also, the weather has cooled down a lot, although we are still having warm days, so I've been doing a bit of deep cleaning. All the things that I ignore when it's too hot or too cold get a good cleaning. 

 I managed to get sick last week, just a sore throat and headache for a couple of days. Nothing major, but I was still tired from my trip, so it took it out of me.

Poor Hannah got the same thing, but she had a low-grade fever for a couple of days, and then it went up to 38℃. Not very high, but because she has epilepsy, it was a bit worrying.  She went to the doctor to see if it was the flu, which is making the rounds now, but she just had a cold. Even a week later, she isn't 100%.

Then there's Mikey. Last Thursday, when I was feeling miserable with being sick and worried about Hannah, Mikey walked in on crutches!

He's doing a part-time job unloading containers. He was in the container when the boxes came down on him, hitting the right side of his body and burying him under them.

He didn't break anything, thankfully, but found it painful to put weight on his right leg. He has bruises on his face, arm, torso and leg. 

I've also spent a lot of time trying to get more T-shirt and sweatshirt designs on my Etsy store. Lots of cat Christmas designs; they would make lovely presents.

The pink T-shirt turned out better than I thought it would; the dog's expression is priceless.

I've finally, with the help of AI, managed to add the hyperlink to my store. Please have a look. Just looking helps me a lot; buying helps even more.

Kagoshima Trip (Part Six)

 I didn't think it would take me this long to write about our two-day trip! 

We did a lot, and at the moment I'm very busy, so finding time to write is harder than usual. I'll explain about that in my next post.

The last day in Kagoshima, the weather was beautiful: clear skies but not too hot. There were two places that we wanted to see that morning: a museum and the large Ferris wheel. I suggested a taxi; Hannah suggested walking. We walked! Again, Hannah said it wasn't too far; it wasn't, but after all the walking we had done over the last one and a half days, I was in pain! My back ached after walking for a while, but if I sat down too long, my thigh muscles would start to ache as I started to walk again. It was a case of figuring out which pain I could endure the most.

On the way to the museum, we passed the tram cars. 

A little video that Hannah took.

The museum was the Museum of the Meiji Restoration. Very interesting history, especially about Saigo Takamori. He seems like a very interesting person; another thing to add to my study!

There were also displays of the costumes that were used in historical TV dramas; the details were amazing.

The entrance to the museum.

We had our suitcase with us; the museum was able to keep it while we looked around. I thought that was a very useful service.

Information about Saigo Takamori.

Costumes from the TV drama.

This one you could try on; Hannah said it was very heavy.

Saigo Takamori was very tall, especially for that time period.

178cm might not seem very tall today, but back then the average height was 155 to 158cm.

I'll write more about this museum later, I don't remember everything we saw, I'll have to ask Hannah! 

After the museum, we walked to the station; it was only 800 meters away, but with the way I was feeling by then, it might have been 800 km! I made it somehow; I've never been so happy to see a building as I was that day!

On the way to the station.

One thing that I wanted to do was to ride on the Ferris wheel. The entrance to the Ferris wheel was on the 6th floor, so already high; by the time it reached the top, it was very high but the views were spectacular.

View of the Ferris wheel.

One small problem getting on the Ferris wheel was the narrow door. Narrow door, wide me! Hannah was behind me, so she just shoved me!

From the very top!

Sakarujima in the distance.

The wheel stopped at the top, so we had a chance to take photos. I'm glad we went on it, but I wish my brain would shut off sometimes. As we got to the top, I remembered that Kagoshima has a lot of earthquakes. What happens if there's an earthquake while we are at the top?

After the Ferris wheel, we decided to get some lunch. We wanted to try "Black Pork" that is famous in that area. We found a lovely small restaurant that had that meat served as a fried fillet.

Full set; it was a lot!

The Coke came in bottles; I haven't seen these for a long time.

It took a long time to eat, as there was so much. But very good; the meat was soft and sweet. A nice last meal in Kagoshima.

We had a little wander around, then went to find the Shinkansen. 

Hannah bought herself another one of the prefecture cats.

She couldn't get two big ones, so one small one, one big one.

The trip back felt very fast.

Sunset from the Shinkansen.

We got back to Hannah's apartment exhausted but happy!

As always, I realised that I need to do something about my health; otherwise, these trips are only going to get harder!

The past week has been busy; I hope I'll have a chance to write tomorrow!

Kagoshima Trip (Part Five)

 After resting for a bit, we went for a walk to a park that had a statue of Francis Xavier. He was one of the first Catholic missionaries to Japan. I've always associated him with Nagasaki and was surprised to find that he travelled so far south to Kagoshima.

The middle statue is Francis Xavier.

Near the entrance to the park

A bust of Francis Xavier

Opposite the park is a beautiful cathedral.

The cathedral.

It's very modern, but a cathedral has stood on this site since 1908. It has been rebuilt a few times. 

Inside the cathedral.

I enjoyed sitting in there; it was so peaceful.

There was another statue that Hannah wanted to see; of course it was at the other end of the road, so we went walking. And walking, and walking! I will learn that when Hannah says it's just down the road, it isn't!

We finally got to the statue of Saigo Takamori.

Massive statue of Saigo Takamori.

Hannah realised that the statue she wanted to see and this one were different. The one she wanted to see had his dog standing next to him. Turns out that statue is in Tokyo!

After that, we walked back to the hotel. Another long walk, but we went through a shopping arcade that is famous in that area, which made the walk a lot more interesting.

Inside the arcade

The entrance to the arcade

There were a lot of interesting shops, bars and cafes to look at.

After freshening up, we went to eat dinner at the restaurant in the hotel.

This restaurant is famous for its burgers. They were really good and very large!

Not very busy when we arrived.

Hannah's classic burger

My Texas something burger; I forgot the exact name

These were so big that we couldn't pick them up to eat; we had to use a knife and fork.

Very nice and very filling.

After dinner, it was back to our room for a much-needed rest.

Last day and trip home tomorrow!

Kagoshima Trip (Part Four)

 Inside the Sengan-en Gardens is the Cat Shrine!

The one thing that I really wanted to see, but in the end I couldn't.

The shrine sat at the top of a steep path. Walking up would have been fine, but I wasn't confident I could get down. Not only was it steep, but it looked very slippery after the rain. I thought about it for a while, but in the end decided that it was safer for Hannah to go up and take photos for me. I wandered around the gardens while Hannah went up. At least I have an excuse to go back.  

Here are the photos from Hannah.

Hannah said that it was so beautiful and peaceful. 

I took a little video of the gardens and Sakurajima.

The weather was starting to turn again; no rain, but the wind was picking up, so we walked back toward the shops and cafes.

Hannah wanted to buy a little something, as part of the money went to cat charities in the area.

We found a little shop that was serving mochi and tea.

We shared mochi and tea as we wanted to try, but we were not very hungry.

Hannah bought a card and a lucky charm.

We decided to walk up to another museum as the wind was really blowing and the clouds were threatening rain again. We are right on the seafront, and I think this kind of weather is normal.

The museum was the former residence of the engineers who came from England to build the first Western-style spinning mill in Japan. Seven engineers came in the mid 1800s. It must have been very hard to come and live in such a different country back then. I often wonder how people who came from other countries survived in Japan!

The former residence of the engineers who came from England.

The view from upstairs.

Hannah looking over the grand staircase.

After looking around here, we went back to the bus stop.

A few photos on the way back.

This was the path to Starbucks.

A last look at Sakurajima.

We had a bit of a wait for the bus and then a shock when we got on! Almost everyone was foreign! There was only one Japanese lady and Hannah. I think I'm so used to being the only obvious foreigner that it felt a bit strange suddenly being surrounded by a busload of foreigners!

We made our way back to the hotel to rest for a bit. I keep forgetting that Hannah can walk and walk and walk! I was so tired, but it was still early, about 4 o'clock. So after a rest, we headed out again!

Again, I've run out of time!