My wife and I just announced our 2nd drop with Average Sunday, the creative project we started in the summer to bring our web3-native decentralized brand to life. We’ve partnered with Vancouver’s O5 Tea, a rare tea bar that micro-milled a limited edition matcha for this collab. If you like excellent matcha, you can buy the O5 Tea x Average Sunday: Sunday Matcha here.

For an update on how I view web3, opportunities for existing companies/brands looking to experiment in this nascent industry and a download on some of the reasons why I’m still highly engaged in this space, read on.

TL,DR 

• While the market is quite volatile right now, my conviction in (strong) web3 brands and startups continues to grow

• The Azuki brand in particular, the brand that developed the artwork we use for Average Sunday, has delivered some very impressive products, partnerships and lore over the past 2 quarters

• New use cases and technological advancements are proliferating at a good pace and I’m amazed at the difference I’ve witnessed in just 12 months of part-time immersion in this space

The long version:

Why am I talking about web3? Why do people spend so much money on pictures of monkeys? Didn’t that FTX guy just defraud the entire crypto market and why on earth would you want to be associated with all those scams?

These are some of the recurring questions I get from friends and family and I believe there are a lot of legitimate and not so legitimate concerns surrounding web3, so thought I would start by stating my bull case for web3. In short, this is a new form of ownership in the digital economy and I’m sure many of you reading this would agree that the rate of change in the past decade or two regarding our use of and reliance on technology continues to accelerate. In high school and university I had a flip phone that my carrier charged $0.10/SMS message; facebook was only available to students at select universities when I joined and required that you have a digital camera to manually upload files to it, and ecommerce didn’t really take off in a major way until the last decade. Now, everything is online, I work from a home office and commute via high-definition webcam and wireless internet and can spin up new businesses on Shopify or Etsy in under an hour. But, to this day, we don’t really own anything digitally. We don’t own our email addresses, we don’t own our social media profiles, we don’t own the content we produce and put out there that drives the FAANG economy. Even after building lucrative businesses on these platforms, try moving your followers to another platform (from youtube to instagram or twitch for example) or better yet, what happens if the content moderation team at twitter shadow bans your account? 

Looking at this from a completely different perspective, the blockchain provides the ability to establish ownership, provenance and changes of ownership for things not easily tracked outside of a central database - like a deed of a house, medical records, memberships, etc. Coming from years of inventory management experience, this digital ownership advancement is one of the concepts that most drew me into web3. The ability to create “smart contracts” makes it easy to transfer ownership from one person/entity to another in a trustless way without the need of the legacy paperwork and bureaucracy that governs most of the transactions we enter into.

While there was a strong bull run in the crypto markets both from a currency/token perspective (think bitcoin, ether, solana, etc.) and in NFTs (digital collectible/fundraising mechanism) over the past 2 years, the broader economic downturn has certainly dampened these volatile markets and a lot of participants on the fringes have exited. That said, this is my second crypto cycle watching the run up and crash of bitcoin in 2017/18 and things are considerably different. The number of participants, institutions, VCs and projects that raised significant funding during the bull run and are building organizations of note would probably surprise a lot of people. The thing that keeps me most engaged and interested in this space if I’m being honest are the communities that have popped up surrounding this technology and the projects and brands growing around it - it’s hard not to feel optimistic about this technology becoming omnipresent in our daily lives when I see the passion, dedication and sheer brainpower bringing it to life. When the rush of chasing life-changing money becomes more of a pipe-dream, the ones who are left are the ones who push the space forward and I’ve learned way more than I thought I would being an active participant in web3 this past year.

What is Azuki? Why do you have anime characters all over your website?

Azuki is the brainchild of the team at Chiru Labs in LA and arguably the most successful NFT project that minted in 2022 by sales volume and unique pfps represented on twitter (the social media platform of choice by most of web3). Self-described as “The Skaters of the Internet” and relating to early skate culture - a counter-cultural movement with values of creativity, individuality and style - this web3-native brand is creating the digital anime universe and a high-end streetwear brand along with it. The artwork we used on our first drop with Harken Coffee is from their 2nd collection of Beanz (He’s a quirky animated coffee bean) and on our second drop with O5 Tea we introduced Amani, our character from the genesis Azuki collection. The artwork itself was created as generative artwork, which means hundreds of different character traits were illustrated and made to act certain ways in combination with different trait layers (e.g., a hairstyle looks different on its own vs. underneath a hat) and was drawn by Arnold Tsang (aka. Steamboy) the former Senior Character Art Director for the massively successful Overwatch video game (over 50M downloads).

Given the treasury the team has maintained, they’ve been able to put on a number of impressive experiential events around the world and establish partnerships with some big name brands. This past quarter they held an auction for 8 gold skateboards over a 24-hour period while displaying one of them at the K11 art museum/mall in Hong Kong and sold these for between $200k-$300k each, making them individually the most expensive skateboards ever sold. They had one of their characters (like ours) show up on the Red Bull Racing formula 1 team cars in the Dubai circuit - the team that won the grand prix - and through the race weekend had “Lei the Lightning” profiled as one of the team drivers on their socials. The team also partnered with Japanese streetwear brand Ambush, owned by Yoon and Verbal (of Teriyaki Boys fame - if you’ve seen my favourite of the Fast & Furious movie franchise - Tokyo Drift - you’ve heard their music) for a limited edition product drop of hoodies featuring an open-sourced technology they developed called PBT - the Physical Backed Token. PBT allows for the digital ownership of a physical item through an NFT-chip embedded with cryptographic keys. Creating a digital version of a physical item allows brands to create a digital experience along with the unboxing (hello virality) and better yet, allows for the tracking of lineage of an item from one owner to another - this is particularly valuable in the recommerce or luxury goods market segments and a strong deterrent to counterfeiting. 

The other part of Azuki’s innovation in web3 that I find captivating, is their concept of becoming the largest decentralized brand in the metaverse. That word can be triggering and you might be thinking of a virtual world in which people interact like in a video game, and yes that might be something that happens at some point, but really I just think of the metaverse as a place where we interact digitally - like through this LinkedIn post, slack or video calls. The decentralized part of the equation is what really excites me - it’s what has people like me and my wife creating projects around our intellectual property (the art) and finding a built-in fan-base, organic engagement on our social posts and some recognized branding even without a big brand name. Without spending a dime to extend our reach on instagram or twitter, we’ve received thousands of views on our content due to the broader Azuki community championing and supporting the work that people are doing to help the brand reach more people.

I’m excited to see where they take things next.

What is Average Sunday? What is this project about?

We named our project Average Sunday because we love Sundays at our house and the slower pace it usually brings with space to create, reflect and enjoy good food and drinks. As we both have day jobs and parenting duties, we wanted to build something that would really let us flex the creative muscles that we might not otherwise do - no limits on creativity and keeping things fun, with a focus on building community and highlighting people and brands that inspire us. For me it was an opportunity to experiment with this concept of a decentralized brand and the development of intellectual property. Storytelling is something I’ve done in my spare time since I was young, but never as part of a business venture and we’ve tried to weave in the stories of our characters - Hiro-San the coffee bean, and Amani, its best friend - into our content and product drops. 

I’m thrilled to be collaborating with O5 for our second drop and seeing our artwork on their product. We have quite an ambitious project underway for 2023 that I can’t wait to share more about - you’ll have to live in suspense a little while longer. In the meantime though, I would highly recommend a listen to one of our seasonal and lofi playlists - this is the sound of Average Sunday and just one way we’re developing our story. Listen here.

If you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading - I would be happy to chat about web3, NFTs, Average Sunday or anything else that might have stirred up some questions - shoot me a message and we can go from there.

Please give our socials a follow:

Instagram

Twitter

And check out our collaboration with O5 Tea here.

With gratitude,

dantheman

Azuki Community - A Critical Lens

In a past life, I worked for a global vertically-integrated retailer with one of the most profitable retail stores per sqft in the entire industry and stock that was a leader in its category for several years. While there were many reasons for this company’s success, the ones that were obvious to me as differentiators against competitors were building a loyal following of customers who loved the brand (created their own blogs about product drops for example, sound familiar Azuki fam?) and being meticulous about execution and impact to customers and frontline store employees. For a large global company, this singular message and focus was truly impressive. Why is this relevant in a post about Azuki? The ability the Azuki team has shown in creating a narrative, experiential events twice now and fostering a highly engaged community, in my opinion are strong indicators that these cultural elements can expand beyond the bounds of the current holders to a much broader community of prospective customers.

One of the most impressive parts of the Azuki community is its ability to be self-critical. This is not a group that blindly accepts everything shared by the core team or to shrug off issues in judgment or execution. As Insight mentions in his post, there are still discussions and critiques within the community over the handling of past projects by our founder, Zagabond, and many people opted out who were less invested in the long-term growth of the Azuki brand. Like many others who are here to stay, I believe he’s the best man for the job and also think most of the claims for him to step down came from outsiders with both little context of Azuki and likely a lack of experience seeing the impact that visionary founders play in crafting and operationalizing an idea into reality. Would Apple be Apple without Steve Jobs? He was actually ousted at one point and then brought back when the company struggled to pave their way. I’m not saying Zagabond is Steve Jobs but he certainly is a visionary in this nascent space.

On Apparel & Takeda the Tailor

One of the topics Insight addresses in his post at-length is the role of fashion in the Azuki brand and future drops. I agree with the sentiment that while the first Twin Tiger silk bomber jacket is super dope, I’m more likely to hang it up on my wall than I am to wear it out in public - I’m a 36-year-old dad and constantly having food spilled on me so if the purpose of these drops is to have holders represent the brand out in the real world through our daily wardrobe, there probably needs to be a balance in more everyday wear like the track jacket and hoodie that were teased in a promo video back in the spring. While Insight has written this product drop off (and as he was a moderator for the core team has more inside information than I do) I’m not convinced we won’t see this in the future as Takeda rolls out new products.

On that note, one of the topics I don’t agree with from Insight’s post is that we need a big name designer to be announced as the Azuki Creative Director who goes by the pseudonym Takeda the Tailor. While a big name might signal the strength of the Azuki team’s connections and relevance in the broader fashion industry today and give us an in with more mainstream consumers right out the gate, a lesser-known designer that doesn’t come with an established style or following might be an advantage as they will 1) want to prove themselves and use this opportunity as a potential launchpoint to make a splash in fashion with a big brand behind them and 2) will allow for much stronger brand and direction from the Azuki team as they want to craft a first capsule that fits within the Azuki universe narrative. Many luxury and streetwear brands develop a cache unto their own without relying on a single designer to carry them on their backs. Assuming Azuki successfully reaches a broader audience, the larger and more relevant they become, the more likely they are in securing collaborations with established designers for future capsules or limited edition drops that can increase the allure of the brand.

Another interesting note on the Azuki apparel front is how apparel will show up from community-led initiatives vs. those led by the core team. So far we’ve seen Seizuya Shop drop some custom Beanz apparel and Ikuzo Wear getting ready to launch a line of jackets based on Azuki clothing traits. The Azuki team has designed the Twin Tigers Sakujan jacket so far and teased a few other apparel pieces that may or may not be in production. I’m keen to see how the variety of options that will be available in the coming months influences purchase decisions by holders and non-holders alike.

Community-led initiatives

One area I wanted to expand on from Insight’s post is the concept of community-led initiatives as this one is close to my heart. The concept of decentralized brands is a new one and was one of the reasons I was most attracted to the Azuki project and community at the beginning of this year. Azuki has been stressing the importance of community-driven IP development and brand building and the last 2-3 months have exploded with a wide range of use cases and activations of community IP by holders. A note here that I’m one of the holders commercializing IP rights so I have some bias but will try to keep this as level-headed as possible.

The first iteration of community-led IP building was really centered around art and Insight does a great job highlighting the extent to which the incredible artists within our community have churned out beautiful work to add texture to the Azuki characters among holders. More recently we’re seeing the emergence of rich lore through story writing, a collaborative Bobu Tales narrative taking cues from dungeons and dragons and even some short anime production. The other angle that has emerged recently which I will cover in more detail is the use of commercial rights to monetize IP and build businesses around Azuki and Beanz NFTs.

My own venture, Average Sunday, is my take on commercializing IP - it’s part narrative, part art and part product licensing. There isn’t really a playbook for how to monetize digitally-native pfp artwork so it’s an experiment and also why I more often refer to it as a “creative project” than a startup - it’s both really. One might say I’ve drank the kool-aid and since one of the core principles in web3, NFTs and decentralization is that we own these digital assets - I figured I would see what I can accomplish in that vein.

You’ll also notice one of the places I’m publishing this post is on the Redbeancoffee blog. But wait, isn’t Average Sunday also making coffee? This is the power of community building and decentralized brands - RBC and Average Sunday can actually help amplify each other’s messages as both our initiatives are aimed at expanding the Azuki brand outside of the core existing community - we both win if we both win.

There are two other community projects right now that are building on more of a merchandise & apparel business model - Seizuya and Ikuzo Wear. Seizuya was founded by two Azuki holders who have never met each other in-person and have pooled their resources and collections to create Beanz-related merchandise. They are using a made-to-order model which is really smart as they find their product market fit before investing heavily in inventory. Ikuzo is building a curated capsule collection of jackets playing off individual traits in the Azuki collection like the sakura flower bomber and track suit. I’m excited to see how both of these companies grow within and outside the Azuki community.

Zenny Popz just launched this week with a line of Beanz-inspired CBD lollipops. The packaging is on-point and their hitting a mainstream supplement trend - excited to see where this one goes.

We’re also seeing a growing number of lore-based initiatives that individual holders and the Azuki team are taking on. All of this is adding richness to the community experience. I’ve loved the community-grown “Bobu Tales” - a dungeons and dragons-esque story with voting on storylines and community involvement in writing the direction Bobu the Bean Farmer goes next on his journey, all via twitter threads.

Insight talks at-length about community building initiatives and artists within the Azuki community so I won’t add more to that commentary here.

One of the fascinating and complex pieces to community IP development is how you keep the community engaged both to go out and build on the IP and then keep reasonable guardrails or direction so that it doesn’t go off the rails and into territory that might create terrible PR for Azuki. The power of brand decentralization is tangible - you go from a small (well-funded) startup of a dozen people to thousands of brand advocates amplifying everything you put out and with mutual values for everyone’s combined success. I’ve never seen anything like it and believe this will be the success of web3 brands if harnessed properly.

The Future of Azuki

Insight does a great job of spelling out some keys to Azuki’s future success - advancing their fashion line aspirations to reality, building on partnerships with influential holders in the community for future experiences and IRL activations and leveraging community IP to expand well-beyond what the team is able to produce with content on their own.

In my opinion, the areas where Azuki should crystallize future direction and make intentional moves are:

• Clarifying and commercializing the external brand building and consumer products direction

• Developing a uniquely “Azuki” technology, or partnering with another web3 project to provide a new and elevated streetwear brand experience for holders and consumers that isn’t available elsewhere

• Making tangible investments into print or video content to bring the Azuki lore to life with official story lines

I believe the future is bright for Azuki and I’m impressed every damn day but the care and attention this community brings to the table. Whether it’s art, music production, new ventures, lore, analysis and input, it’s all building the collective experience and so far has been one hell of a ride. IKZ!

***About the Author ***Dantheman (@niftymillennial on twitter) is the Co-Creator of Average Sunday, a lifestyle and culture brand developed to commercialize Azuki IP and tell a story. Check out his first product licensing deal with Harken Coffee and follow along on twitter and instagram.

Oof. I hit the ground hard, disturbing the dust in a cloud around me as the portal drops me from three feet in the air. I look around and I’m alone on a dirt road. The river next to the portal in the spirit realm is several hundred meters from where I’m standing now and the hills forming its valley look very similar. Instinctively, my hand shoots up in front of my face so I can look at my arm - still translucent. I sigh, then start walking. While I have no idea where I would go if I’m successful with this mystery quest, that bean-shaped spirit sure made it sound like an unpleasant option if I were to forever be marooned in that in-between world. I head north-east towards Murodo.

I try to keep to the path as best I can, it’s overgrown in places and washed away by rock slides from the hilltops in others. It’s tough going. I walk all day with no hunger or thirst distracting my efforts; I find it strange, but then, I’m having these moments all the time as I rediscover myself in this new form. Early on in my trek I needed to climb over a boulder that had blocked the river path - I’m lithe enough that this was no big deal, except I caught my foot in a crevice on the top side of the rock as I clambered down, falling rather ungracefully over my shoulder and smashing my face into rubble littered across the path. I shuddered painfully and gripped my face with my trembling hands, but surprised myself again when I drew them back to look at them and saw no blood. The pain only lasted a moment, then rushed away like an echo into the distance. I can still feel pain albeit fleetingly, I don’t bleed, I don’t need to eat or drink (I think), but I am exhausted. I decide to stop at a ryokan in nearby Okabe to rest.

Okabe is larger than Gokayama by several times, so I find lodging easily at a clean ryokan called Kominka No Yado - inn in an old folks’ home - fitting as I’m probably not the first spirit to have graced this abode. I open the heavy wooden gate and enter the ryokan. A woman stands behind a table at the end of the reception room, practicing ikebana, flower arranging, with a delicate-looking orchid that she balances skillfully between three smooth stones and some dried moss. She doesn’t hear me come in. 

“Excuse me,” I say, quietly, since I’m not sure how my appearance will be received by someone else and I don’t want to startle her, “I’d like a room for the night please.” When she doesn’t respond, I have another new-to-spirithood moment and remember the spirit bean’s words about humans not being able to see me unless I touch them. I guess the same is true for speech - I choose not to make this ryokan proprietor my first human-spirit connection and instead head down the hallway in search of an empty room. While the ryokan is large, it seems relatively uninhabited this evening and I slip into the second room I see. The futon is already made up on the tatami mat and I fall into it, sleep washing over me immediately. 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

“Ahhhhh!” The shriek startled me awake. “What are you doing in my bed?!” As my vision comes into focus, I see a woman in a green kimono with glasses and hair tied back in an indigo ponytail - visibly stressed by my presence. I guess she must have touched me or something trying to get into bed - although I thought I needed to touch someone for them to see me. I guess I’m still learning.

“I - I’m sorry,” I stutter. “My name is --------. I’m… a spirit. I thought this room was empty.” 

“A spirit?” She asked. “I’ve never met a spirit, although my Sobo used to tell me stories about the spirits who wandered the spirit realm. I guess I just thought those were cautionary tales to get children to behave so they wouldn’t be visited by one of the spirits.” She paused. “Stop distracting me! What are you doing here?”

I put my hands out, palms open in a show of peace. I could feel a calming energy pulse through my arms and outwards towards her. I could sense her elevated heartbeat slowing, must be one of the powers us spirits get. 

“My name is Amani and I live on Mt. Tateyama,” she said.

I look out the window and can see from the softly warming darkness outside that it’s nearly dawn. Why is this woman returning to her room at such a late hour? I ask. “Amani, why have you been out so late? There are yakuza in town and this region is known for bandits along the mountain paths.” 

Amani looks surprised at my question and although it’s only an instant reflected in her subtle eye movements, I can sense the discomfort in her energy - another heightened sense. “I was helping someone,” she said. “What are you doing here?” 

“I’m looking for a man who lives in Murodo. Do you know who that might be?” She looks pensive, and doesn’t move for some time.

“I’ll take you,” she said, “it’s near my home. But first, I need to sleep. Can you leave me for a few hours? I don’t need long, just until daylight.” I nod and exit the room. I lower myself down to the floor just outside, my back rested against the wall in the hallway. Something tells me I should stay close. While I wait, I meditate - a long-standing practice that has always helped with my mental clarity when faced with a challenge.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I open my eyes as Amani taps me on the shoulder. I guess I dozed off during my meditation. “Come on,” she says and walks towards the exit. I follow.

We walk for five or so miles with a steady uphill gradient towards Mt. Tateyama and Murodo. The landscape changes as we climb and I can see the birch trees and mulberry bushes thin out with the altitude, revealing a serene carpet of white cottongrass creeping over the ridge. Amani stops. Then I see the movement from the rocky gap in the cliffs on our right. 

She walks slowly at an almost imperceptible gait that looks more like gliding across the ethereal white groundcover. Striking silver hair drapes over the collar of her pink kimono - I see a flash of fire in her eyes, then feel a searing pain course through the veins in my face, bleeding into my brain. Amani screams somewhere nearby. I’m drawn to memories of my childhood, watching my father sail on his fishing boat from the dock on Sho River in Mukurajima, the last time I ever saw him. The memories come flooding in, so many and so strong I can no longer follow them. My vision goes blurry, I stumble to the ground, blindly reaching for Amani - I don’t even know if she’s still there. Then everything goes dark.

Then it hits - I’m dead. A rush of memories literally knock me back down to my knees as I wince in…protest? I’ve never been dead before so this feeling is new - like a defeat but one I can never come back from and I’m alone now so there isn’t anyone to jeer at me or encourage my rage. The incident comes into focus - I remember. I was defending Sensei Yuta from the Yakuza of the neighboring village - they had stormed into Gokayama, drunk, grabbing some women and pushing them back-and-forth - when Yuta kicked their leader, knocking him to the ground. The group of four, maybe five Yakuza circled Yuta while the grounded one wiped blood from his lip and dirt from his trousers, smiling with this bloody red grimace like a man possessed. I rush through their perimeter and stand with my back to Yuta. Shit, I think as I look at the men drawing katanas, shuriken, and kanabo. My weapons, which I normally have close at hand at the shop and my home, are not on me - it was a fluke that I even stumbled across this altercation during my evening walk. 

The first Yakuza charged at Yuta, Yuta disarmed the man with a roundhouse kick while a second man approached his flank. I snapped my head over my shoulder as a large man with a bald head and scar across his face ran towards me brandishing a kanabo. I ducked and landed a swift blow to his kidney, causing him to stumble - then it hit me. A searing sting through my midsection while the fourth attacker plunged his katana into my back. I could hear him grunt, then laugh as I fell to the ground - then nothing…..then here.

Where am I? I took some time to take in my surroundings. It looked familiar, but was far from anywhere I’d ever been. The buildings were more or less in the same place as the ones in my village, but left in a state of disrepair - everything had this grey wash over it and the sky reminded me of dawn on a sunless morning - that dark, nearly daylight aura that never quite delivers the day. What struck me was the silence of it all - it was palpable. It was autumn in my old world and the higurashi call was omnipresent, but here, there was nothing, not even the sound of my breath.  

Slowly, I start moving. With no particular aim, direction or goal I wander north, or at least what north was in my village. The movement helps me focus my thoughts and bring my awareness to my current situation. Perhaps there’s a reason I’m in this other world; perhaps there are others here. After some time, I reach a riverbank and walk along it, seeing where it goes. Soon, I see the light change, a bright spot in the sky not far away from where I am where the river meets the side of a mountain in this sort of natural valley. I press forward. Normally I would be full of fear - in a new place, seeing unnatural things, but somehow in my present state my emotional response is dull, almost nonexistent - I guess the dead don’t feel the same way as the living.

As the river and I round a corner past a thicket of trees, I get a clear view of the source of the light. This glowing orb of blue light hangs in the air, about the size of the whisky still at our village tavern, with a much smaller blue apparition of sorts floating next to it. I walk purposefully towards the orb. “Shit,” I cry as a bolt of energy knocks my legs out from under me and I fall hard to the ground. I can see the apparition glowing brighter as it shoots another lightning bolt at me - this one singing the grass near where I lay, a deliberate miss and warning.

“Bleem-den, forg-nort-thow-man-seer-turp?” The apparition spoke an unfamiliar language and hovered towards me. “Trow-tan-tandy, larp-rrrowl-ten-tom.” I just stared curiously at the little being. I could make its figure out more clearly now. It stood, well, floated at a height of about one foot. It wasn’t human. It was a translucent blob, kind of similar in tone to my new skin, but shaped like a kind of legume and wearing a kitsune mask on the side of its head, a lighting orb crackling in its off-hand, looking sinister. It seemed to acknowledge my incomprehension of what it had just said. Suddenly, the orb in its hand turned a soft pink and it began to float towards me. This didn’t feel like a hostile maneuver and my intuition told me to stay still. The orb hung in the air in front of my chest, stopped for a minute, then shot into me with a thud. I could feel its warmth circle me.

“Are you new here?” The apparition asked. I guess the orb had improved our ability to communicate. “What are you looking for?”

“I…I don’t really know where I am,” I said. “What is this place?”

“We’re in the spirit realm,” it said, “a sort of in-between world for those with unfinished business in the human world.”

“Unfinished business?” I asked. “What are you talking about?”

“When people end up in this place, it’s not by accident, and it’s not very many of them who end up here. You must be special.” The apparition floated back towards the glowing orb, motioning for me to follow. “This is a portal,” it said. “It will take you back to the human world to fulfill your quest so you can move on from this place. You must complete your quest before the winter solstice or you’ll be trapped in the spirit realm, like me, for the rest of time. When you arrive, you’ll still be a spirit - no one will be able to see you until you touch them. Except for the Seers, and you must avoid them at all costs. They don’t take to our kind and have ways of stopping you from finishing what you’re setting out to do.”

At this point I have no idea what my quest is about or why I might have unfinished business. Sensing my apprehension the apparition adds, “There’s an old man who lives alone in Murodo on Mount Tateyama. Go and see him if you seek answers. I suggest you start your quest - your time is running out.” He gestured with his stubby head towards the orb.

I walked up to the giant blue orb, seeing its energy pulsating in ripples across its surface and feeling a cold breeze on my translucent skin. I looked over at the apparition that subtly nodded its head. Then I stepped inside.