Japanese culture
September 4, 2009
- New People J-Pop Mall in San Francisco's Japantown I visited the new New People mall in San Francisco’s Japantown a few days after its grand opening the weekend of August 16. For as long as I can remember, I’ve been a sucker for Japantown’s, Little Tokyo’s, Japanese malls, stores, urants, etc. located anywhere outside of Japan. I’ve found them in Paris (in the Opera district) and ...
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July 29, 2009
- Chirashi Roundup You can give me twenty lashes with a wet udon noodle if you wish, but I sure find it difficult to keep up with writing a blog with any amount of consistency. So I’m trying kind of a different format, which may allow me to post with a little more frequency.I ran across this article in my hometown newspaper, The San Francisco Chronicle, which has some good tips for traveling ...
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June 3, 2009
- Oh! A Mystery of Mono no Aware - by Todd Shimoda Todd Shimoda’s latest novel, Oh!: A Mystery of Mono no Aware, published by Chin Music Press, is a fascinating and compelling book that weaves themes of both traditional and modern Japanese culture. You’ll be drawn in by Shimoda’s spare but elegant prose, which reminds me of the writing style of Haruki Murakami.The protagonist of Oh!, Zack ...
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May 7, 2009
- Crazy for Kanji When I first started studying Japanese years ago, I became immersed in learning the written language, from hiragana and katakana (the phonetic language systems) to the actual characters—the kanji. And Celeste Duncan, the protagonist in my forthcoming novel, Love in Translation, also discovers an inexplicable connection to kanji once she finds herself in Tokyo.No one, though, ...
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April 24, 2009
- SMAP Star Arrested for Public Indecency The Japan Times reports that Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, member of the long-time J-pop group SMAP, was arrested by police after being found naked and drunk in Hinokicho Park around 3:00 am. The park is close by the 34-year-old’s Roppongi apartment in the la-dee-dah Tokyo Midtown complex. Beforehand he’d been drinking with two friends in Akasaka. He ...
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April 21, 2009
- Japan's Biggest Export It’s official. Japan is no longer the dominant exporter of electronics and cars, but of its popular culture. Despite the economic downturn, conventions promoting Japanese pop culture are making more money than ever. Ronald Kelts, author of Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture Has Invaded the U.S., reports in the Daily Yomiuri that Seattle’s Sakura-con boasted ...
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April 18, 2009
- The cover art for LOVE IN TRANSLATION is here and I couldn't be more pleased. The book comes out on November 24, 2009. Yay!
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April 16, 2009
- According to the Global Post, cat cafes are all the rage in Tokyo. Japanese love their nekos (cats) and cafes with names like Nekorobi, Cat Cafe Rien, Calico, and Cateriam are springing up all over. They’re perfect if you work long hours, have to be away a lot on business or live in an apartment that forbids pets, but need some feline companionship to keep you happy. It’s not free to ...
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February 5, 2009
- The National Chauvinistic Husbands Association, founded in 1999 by Japanese writer and editor Shuichi Amano out of Fukuoka, Japan, has garnered much publicity in the West in recent years with articles in the Washington Post and San Francisco Chronicle, and coverage by CNN, among others. The group’s membership is up to 5,000 and has been instrumental in preventing a number of Japanese marriages ...
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February 1, 2009
