Isekai Ukulele is a creative multimedia project born out of my love of Isekai anime and ukulele. I kind of changed from the original intent of focusing on instrumental anime covers because I realized I actually do enjoy singing a lot, and have been focusing on that a lot more than expected recently.
I have a theory to test. I think that the modern musician in 2025 has a lot of advantages that are a little difficult to tease out, but are very real. Even though AI can make music, the computer’s can’t take the human aspect out of music. Humans like to see other humans display talent and skill, and so I think there will continue to be value in being able to play an old fashioned analog instrument like the ukulele.
I am far from a professional musician, but I would like to get there someday. A professional is someone who earns money for what they do, so although I’m not going to take the purely profit-driven approach, I believe my plan can succeed and be replicated by others with their own unique twists. Eventually. We’ll see if it works.
I expect most ukulele players to not really have commercial success in mind, but I aim to find some modest return while having fun enjoying the musical journey. Money flows to good ideas, and having a goal is a great way to keep focused on improving.
I’m also disabled, and basically bedridden. So this is also an experiment in seeing how much I can do without the benefit of a normal, healthy body. It has given me the time and freedom to pursue a passion project like this, but also introduces many unique challenges. I’m recording from bed because I can’t be upright. It’s also kind of difficult for me to use a computer, so I don’t use a DAW or any editing software.
My hope in sharing the entirety of this adventure is to show everyone that it doesn’t always have to be pretty, that you don’t need to be perfect to succeed, and that the best approach is one in which everyone wins. As I get better at playing music I like to hear, you’ll hopefully get to enjoy hearing the music I make. And maybe even play it too, if you so fancy!
Additional details of the project plan can be found in the Reality category of blog posts.
About Me
My name is TJ Brown and I am born, raised and living in Lahaina on the island of Maui in Hawaii. Yes, that Lahaina that got hit by a massive wildfire that took out most of the town in 2023. I live about a 15 minute drive away from the devastation, so can only count my blessings that my home is still here. It’s been quite a challenge in the wake of that disaster, but my entire life has been a challenge for quite some time now. Well who’s life isn’t, right? We all have our own thing. Here’s mine:
I’m a Lahainaluna grad, went to UH Manoa and got a BA in Economics afterwards. Worked for a year at the Hawaii State Legislature as a Budget Analyst but decided to pursue my rock star ambitions instead. After playing drums for a few years I got tired of being a starving artist and went back to school. I got my Masters degree in Business Administration, but instead of earning money for myself I went into the nonprofit development field. Making money for those in more need seemed like a better use of my time than making it for myself.
Things were going well, when suddenly I started getting severely nauseated on a daily basis and began retching (dry heaving) regularly after being upright after a period of time. By “upright” I mean sitting, standing, walking, basically anything involving being vertical. I affectionally called the retching “worshipping the toilet” because it would take me to my knees as the body tried to throw up.
I say “try” because I rarely actually threw up, and if you’ve ever thrown up before, you know there’s typically a bit of relief that comes after the vomiting. Alas, I just convulsed fruitlessly and continued to feel sick. It was a special kind of hell.
So I felt like throwing up all day every day no matter what I did, and it got noticeably worse whenever I got out of bed. It eventually became too much for me to work, and ended my budding career.
I spent the next several years trying to figure out what was going on with me. All of the doctors in the state couldn’t find anything wrong with me. When modern medicine offered no solution, I tried alternative medicine, medical marijuana, acupuncture, chiropractic, spirit healers, meditation, prayer, all also to no avail. Some things helped to ease the discomfort, but nothing was actually effective.
Eventually I had to move back to Maui to live with my parents. So yes, I am a living example of the proverbial hikkiNEET (hikikomori = social recluse; NEET = Not in Employment, Education, or Training) who lives with his parents and does nothing but watch anime, play video games and play guitar ukulele. Boy would it be nice for truck-kun to transport me to a fun new world with a healthy body, and maybe an overpowered skill or two. Too bad reality does not seem to work that way.
After systematically exhausting all the possibilities available, the insurance finally allowed me to be evaluated in California at Stanford Hospital. There I was introduced to the Dr. Ian Carroll, who immediately recognized it as a potential cerebrospinal fluid leak (CSF Leak). Apparently there is a thin membrane that surrounds our entire spinal chord and brain stem, and its filled with a special fluid. If that membrane gets torn the fluid leaks out and the brain gets unsettled.
This can cause headaches, nausea, tinnitus, memory problems, and more. And these symptoms are characteristically exacerbated by period of being upright, because the pressure of being vertical causes more of the fluid to leak out.
If this sounds like you or someone you know, learn more about the condition here: https://spinalcsfleak.org/
There’s a whole thing in modern medicine where treatment is based on identifying the underlying cause, but when the underlying cause can not be identified, trouble arises. As it stands, modern imaging technology is not high-resolution enough to identify all but the worst cases of dura tears. When testing can not determine a cause, appropriate treatments become difficult to recommend.
In this case, the treatment for a CSF Leak is actually well documented and not extremely technically demanding to do. Women often damage the dura during childbirth, and its commonly seen in bad traffic and sports accidents. When the cause of injury is apparent and the symptoms align, the treatment is typically effective and low risk.
However in cases like mine with no clear cause (aka “spontaneous”) it becomes harder to identify that my symptoms may have been caused by a leak. There are many, many different reasons why someone might experience nausea or migraines.
In fact, my case was unusual in that my primary symptom was nausea – most cases it seems that migraines are the primary issue. Because I was dealing with severe nausea, I was sent to the gastroenterology department. When I did get referred to neurology (who typically deal with CSF leaks), our local specialists didn’t even consider it because migraines weren’t the problem.
Dr. Carroll’s major insight was that because the treatment was relatively easy to apply, by applying it to cases where symptoms seemed to align but imaging was insufficient to identify a damaged dura, we could infer if a leak existed if the outcomes were positive. Even if we don’t see the specific leak, if we treat it and you get better, that’s probably what it was, right?
After my first couple of treatments with Dr. Carroll, I went from being constantly nauseated and on the threshold of dry heaving all day every day to only getting severe migraines if I spent too much time upright. This is where I am at today: I have about a 30 minute window of time that I can be upright comfortably without triggering a migraine episode. As long I stay in bed and give about 3-4 hours of time flat between upright periods, I seem to do ok. It’s enough time upright to eat meals and take care of my own hygiene, but anything beyond that gets difficult. I am very grateful to have my parents assistance for shopping, food preparation, and housing.
Since treatment I’ve been able to get off of all medications except for the occasional acetaminophen (tylenol) or ibuprofen (advil), and only experience the nausea in the middle of migraine episodes. Despite my best efforts to adapt to a lifestyle of staying flat, the migraine episodes still do occur occasionally. These usually take me out of commission for a day or two, so its hard to be consistent with anything. Using a computer for too long, or focusing too hard on video games will often trigger episodes too, so I need to be cautious about that.
Luckily, playing ukulele and singing can be done while laying flat on my back and looking straight up at the ceiling. So, I play a lot of ukulele, in hopes that maybe one day I’ll fully recover and be able to do normal people things again. And if not, well, here’s hoping my little project here will succeed. That’s why I’m in bed for all of my videos.
I’m currently waiting for charity care at the Mayo clinic because there is a potential treatment, but after being disabled and not working for nearly a decade, there’s no way that I can afford it. So maybe there’s hope, but its hard to say. We went there once and they didn’t find anything, but upon review maybe there is still something that can be done. Who knows.
After losing the ability to be a productive member of society and being stuck in bed for nearly the past decade, I’ve come to terms with my life as it is. It could always be worse. I’ve had a lot of time to think and read and find answers, and I’ve decided that its time to start telling my story and start building up toward a larger goal.
If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading! Hope you stick around. If you have any questions or want to chat, check out the contact page.