The Bonsai Diary: A Draw and Journal Game | DaniCha
Transcript
Everyone, Danielle here. I'm doing a solo play through of this draw and journal game by Jean Co. This is called the bonsai diary. It says, "Grow your own tree with just pen and ink." I am actually going to use a pencil. I'm using a Blackwing matte pencil. This is one of my favorite pencils to use. It writes really well and the eraser is also really good. And yeah, I think we'll just continue here. Let's flip over the cover, which is adorable. I'm a a fan of cats, so this is very fitting for me. And also special thank you to Jean Co who just sent me this copy to cover on my channel.
All right. The bonsai diary is a journaling game in which you care for a bonsai of your own. Over the following pages, you'll grow your little tree by tracing the previous page's bonsai and then adding one thing to make it grow. You don't have to be an artist to play. If you can trace, you can grow a bonsai in these pages. As your bonsai grows, you'll also tell the story of yourself and your tree. What self you bring to this game is up to you. You might imagine the real you caring for this tree into your future. Or you can make up a persona just for the story. Whatever you do, approach this great approach this game with intentionality just as you would with a real bonsai.
Give yourself space and time to step out of your daily life and truly be with your tree. You'll find the experience uniquely rewarding. Jean Co. All right. It says, "Today you found a seedling. You decided to train it as a bonsai. So it does have this little box that says strokes. On this side of the journal, you will care for your little tree. You'll do this by tracing the previous page's tree. Each time you'll make your tree a little bigger. Over time, the stem will become a trunk and your sapling will grow into a respectable miniature tree.
You can use a regular pen or pencil, but for best results try paintbrush or a brush pen. In our world, bonsai growers typically leave saplings in the ground in the ground until they're big enough to train. A larger root system lets them grow faster. This is a fictional story, so we'll sprinkle a little magic on our sapling and let it grow faster than one planted in natural soil. There's no right way to play. If you need inspiration, you can scan the QR code. Okay, so this is what our seedling looks like. I love that there's kind of this open in this where you could really just kind of uh customize it, you know, create some some nice background, maybe add the sun or something. And then on the right-hand side, we have choose any starting year you like.
So year, generation one, grower's name. And then we have to answer, "Where did you find the seedling and what future do you imagine for this little tree?" So let's do I think we will put 20 25 as a year. And then it says, "Where did you find the seedling?" Let me think. So as far as a place, I love that this is so so open-ended. You could get as detailed or as generic as possible. But you know, I am just going to put a place that I like to visit. And this place is actually a garden. So I'm going to say I found this seedling at a somewhat local garden. It's a place called Deep Cut Gardens in New Jersey.
So this is where I found it. I'm going to say that I found it um close to the koi pond. While I was admiring
the koi fish. All right. Now my handwriting is pretty bad. So uh I did read it out loud just now. And it says, "What future do you imagine for this little tree?" Hmm. I
I imagine that this tree will grow up to 1 ft tall and will be
among my family's bonsai trees as well. Something like that. And you really could just be so much more creative than than me and really build out what that future looks like. Um And then yeah, let's let's uh fill out the grower's name. I'm just going to put Danny. All right. And then we'll flip here.
And then it says home. Trace the seedling stem with a single stroke in the space above. So the stem looks like that. Kind of see some of this going on, some of the roots. And then it says, "Draw a makeshift container." So they do have this little square to be the container. Um I'm going to
Let's do I'm going to make it kind of look like a rounded type of bowl like that. And that's going to be the container it's in. And you know what? Maybe I'll kind of put a little thing on the bottom because I forgot that the the roots actually go further down than that. Okay. So it says, "Trace the seedling stem with a single stroke in the space above." So that's the stem. Draw a makeshift container. On each future page, you'll add one more stroke to your bonsai as it grows. So example one stroke is just like that. Every page will remind you how many strokes to use. Use strokes to add branches or thicken the trunk or branches.
There will be suggestions later on adding foliage to your bonsai. So this is how you might do future strokes as you expand on your bonsai. And it says "To trace from page to page, leave the space below blank as a window to the future." So you know, while you are drawing your your home area, you are likely not going to want to draw on this side because the pages are see-through. So as you flip them, you should not have anything drawn here so that you can see through the page. That's what they're saying here. So although it looks like some drawing space, you don't want to draw there.
All right. So the year is going to be the same year, generation one, grower's name. You plant the seedling in something you had lying around. What is it? What words of encouragement do you whisper as you press the soil down around your seedling? Write to find out, surprise yourself, let ideas bubble up from your subconscious. All right. So we could continue on this page. Um It is asking for grower's name, which is what I had had on the first, so I'll just continue here. Um So you plant the seedling in something you had lying around. What is it? So it's going to be What should it be?
I mean, it's it's a bowl of some kind, so I'm going to say a ceramic bowl I had lying around in my basement. And I'm going to just go and imagine the scenario where um I found this bowl a decade ago while abroad in Japan.
Which is entirely not true. I've never been to Japan, but I think that might be a nice nice thought. What words of encouragement do you whisper as you press the soil down around your seedling? Words of encouragement do you whisper? Whispering
Uh I'll I'll just think of some phrases, I guess. Um Stay strong. Stay hydrated. And I guess
always be open to growth. I think those are some encouraging words. Um Let's see. Maybe I could add one more.
Um Be sure to help others when you can. I guess that works. Hm. All right. So, I won't do the next page cuz I do want to do this more of a on a daily basis, but we'll take a look together at what it might look like. So, this one says intention. Strokes two. So, we'll be drawing two strokes in addition to the one that we drew here. So, you can see you can kind of see my bowl a little bit.
And then you'll see here uh some shading from from the plant from before. Might be hard to see on camera. But yeah, you you probably do want to use a a thicker uh marker, but I can see my my little stem. But I would end up drawing two strokes from those. It says, "Remember to trace the stem from the previous page. Traditional bonsai techniques match the shape of the pot to the aesthetic of the tree. Choose your bonsai's pot based on your own criteria, oval or round." Oh, I kind of already picked um a a bit of a uh bowl, but I could refine it to make it look a little more interesting. They give you some examples, oval oval or round, rectangular or square, or eclectic. This is like a shoe. So, you could really make it your own, which I think is um really kind of brings out your creativity and your imagination, which is really neat.
And then this is year plus one. Add one year since the last entry. So, I would write 2026. Generation one, grower's name. You repot your sapling. How does the new container reflect your feelings about the bonsai? The bonsai may outlive you. What future do you imagine for it? Um so, yeah, these are pretty thought-provoking questions um that you'll be able to think through as you go through this. We have a thriving page. Three strokes. We have a turn. Passing on. Uprooting.
Um hardships. I also really like the texture. I don't know if you know this, but as we were kind of flipping, there was just some, you know, things being added to the the the white space as we proceeded. Um But yeah, the rest of the the pages do proceed this way. And uh I think it's a very neat concept. I think this is something if you, you know, wanted to continue as well, you don't have to uh you know, follow everything that's in this diary, but it's it's helpful and it kind of guides you in the way of, you know, growing your own bonsai tree while thinking through, I guess, some of these questions that you're able to answer as you as you grow your bonsai.
Um but yeah, a very relaxing type of game. Like this is not something that you want to stress over. Uh this is supposed to be something that you can really do for yourself and really just think and be present with yourself. So, um I think this is really lovely. If you have the opportunity to support Jean Koo um on this, uh the bonsai diary, definitely do. I will have links in the description below so that you can uh check it out for yourself. And um yeah. If you made it this far, thanks so much for watching. If you're not already subscribed, please do consider subscribing. A like or a comment is also always always appreciated. Love hearing from you guys. Um and I will see you next time. Thanks for watching. Bye.