japanamerica

Listen HERE This Year Another year's gone Here comes a new one What's gonna happen? This year We're gonna make it Not gonna take it Make no mistake it's This year Last year was a fiasco A real disaster So full of sorrow This year will be a great year I just can't wait, dear Until tomorrow Forget the old pain Sing a new refrain Uncork the champagne This year No, it's not too late We've got a clean slate The future's our fate This year Last year was a fiasco A real disaster So full of sorrow This year will be a great year I just can't wait, dear Until tomorrow It's after midnight I'm just a bit tight Hey, but I'll be all right This year The year is brand new The old one's all through And it's time to kiss you This year --Loudon Wainwright III

My latest contribution for Adbusters magazine is Confucius , a riff on the shifting winds of influence in the 21st Century, with special mention given to the now-iconic Sony Walkman. Yoi otoshi o -- Happy New Year. Confucius East-West, good-evil, right-wrong? "What I only dimly knew then, of course, was that the Walkman was produced by a nation low on national resources, limited in space and keen on reinvention. A nation much like the world we are all living in now." [Complete story HERE ]

My "Year in Reading 2009" for the eds at The Millions : "As a half-Japanese kid growing up in the Northeast, I masqueraded quite successfully as another disenfranchised suburban Caucasian dude, angry more at being nowhere special than for any definable reason. But two historical phrases instilled unease: 'Pearl Harbor' and 'The Bataan Death March.' The former’s nasty ethnic stereotypes of the Japanese character—sneaky, cowardly, backstabbing—made me wary of my mother and half of my family, all of whom seemed otherwise sane and trustworthy to me. And the latter left me cold: How could such mindless barbarity even happen? One of these days, I used to think, I’ll be unmasked—as one of them ..." [more HERE ]

Pats vs. Jags @ Gillette w/sis on Sunday

...with humble thanks from 'home' in New England, courtesy Remy Martin.

Here's my latest and last 2009 column for the Yomiuri in Tokyo: SOFT POWER, HARD TRUTHS / Our hybrid future is here Roland Kelts / Special to The Daily Yomiuri Diana Yukawa, 24, is a violinist whose story is film worthy, melodramatically so. In 1985, her Japanese father died in the crash of Japan Airlines Flight 123, the deadliest single-aircraft accident in history. Born a month later, Yukawa was moved to her mother's home country of Britain, where she was raised. But she performed in her early years in Japan at a memorial service for the victims of the JAL crash--and was promptly hailed as a child prodigy. I first met Yukawa about five years ago, when she stopped by my Tokyo office. I found her remarkably level-headed and sincere, and I was impressed by her reviews and credentials. So I paid attention when her latest CD, The Butterfly Effect, landed in my mailbox this autumn. Pop and classical music are uneasy bedfellows, as most attempts to meld the two demonstrate. But Yuka...

Here's a smart, thoughtful and genuinely balanced review of Japanamerica , penned by Steven Savage of FAN TO PRO : "Japanamerica is a journey - in some cases literally - through the world of Japanese Pop Culture in Japan and America, the fused world of "Japanamerica". Mixing visiting historical places and persons, talking to individuals, and speculation, author Roland Kelts asks just why and how Japanese Culture is big in America, and what it may mean. This is a phenomenally difficult task quite frankly, and he does a good job of it. Kelts approaches his subject in several ways, mixing them together throughout the book: The development of and traits of Japanese media companies. The history of the U.S. interests and how those intersected with Japanese products. The changing relations and technologies that made this possible. The author handles these by using a mix of history, interviews, statistics, and speculation. Much as it's hard to break out one factor from...

Bits and pieces--online HERE and HERE : Britain’s Rough Guide series has been helping itinerant travelers navigate foreign destinations for nearly 30 years. As globetrotting becomes more casual, and print guides feel more extraneous with the internet’s immediate and wider scope, the presence of the Rough Guides and their counterpart, Lonely Planet , provides security amid the angst of 21st-century travel. We still like to carry paper in our bags—and the Rough Guides’ latest introductions to anime and manga are easy-to-read and suitably compact. I have been asked too many times the same question about Japanese pop culture: “Where should I start?” These books are your answer. The Rough Guide to Anime takes you deep into the art form’s best stuff—without speaking down to you. You’ll learn about the major films, with author Simon Richmond’s easygoing guidance, and broaden your horizons via his questing voice. You will finally realize why Japanese animation “supersedes the American model...

Here's my new column in the just-published, refurbished edition of Paper Sky magazine --to which I am honored to be a contributor. The column is focused on travel to hybrid locales (like Sydney, Tokyo and NYC) by hybrid travelers (like most of us).

Replete with big-nosed, manga-like Perry portrait.

I wrote this story about Japan's unique generation gap for Psychology Today . Things keep changing, but the fundamentals remain the same. Japanese youth are enacting a kind of Bartelby Rebellion--checking out, passively, to check in. The story can be read online here .

And happy to be in Tokyo. Except my eye hurts, my back aches, and my knee is killing me. Otherwise, I feel great.