japanamerica

[photo courtesy of FWU, International Center]

Roland Kelts / Special to The Daily Yomiuri I first encountered anime auteur Makoto Shinkai's work a few years ago, when a friend handed me a DVD of his omnibus feature 5 Centimeters per Second. My friend urged me to pay attention to the visuals, to the way Shinkai blended photorealism with painterly effects, lending his frames the vivid surrealism of early morning dreams. My friend was right. Shinkai's artwork was captivating, rendering the stark digital glare of a Tokyo station signboard and the soft pastel hues of cherry blossoms with equal intensity. But what impressed me most were his stories: three interrelated short fictions narrating the near-miss romance of two would-be lovers, from tentative childhood affection to adult longing and loneliness. I later learned Shinkai was a literature major in college who was deeply moved by the novels and stories of Haruki Murakami. Shinkai, 39, cites Evangelion, Hideaki Anno's coming-of-age epic of childhood b...

...on Hayao Miyazaki's / Studio Ghibli's latest US release for my "Pacific Rim Diary" on The Madeleine Brand Show , KPCC/NPR in Los Angeles.  Audio here .

[photo by Jack Leitenberg / Keiko Matsui] Stellar musicians and performers.  Find Keiko Matsui here .  Find Akiko Yano here .

Closing comments from last month's sold-out  Japan event at the Jerome L. Greene Space, Soho, New York City, with Akiko Yano, Keiko Matsui, Ian Buruma, Yasuhisa Kawamura and me. Sponsored by WNYC, PEN World Voices and the Consulate General of Japan, NY. (Had a great, extended conversation with Ian and my pal Kenji at a Soho bar afterward, but it was off the proverbial record.) Aftershow: Cast and Crew:

Brothers reunited in Japan after six decades apart Minoru Ohye, right, toasts with his younger brother Hiroshi Kamimura during their reunion Monday in Kyoto, Japan. AP photo KYOTO, Japan (AP) — They no longer speak the same language, but two brothers separated nearly 60 years each think the other hasn’t changed a bit. Japanese-American Minoru Ohye celebrated his 86th birthday Monday with his only brother after traveling to Japan for a reunion with him. The brothers were born in Sacramento but were separated as children after their father died in a fishing accident. They were sent to live with relatives in Japan and ended up in different homes. The reunited brothers hugged in a hotel room and exchanged gifts of California chocolate and Japanese sake. The American brother wore his trademark baseball cap and jeans. The Japanese bother wore a suit and tie. But the same bright eyes and square jaws were a dead giveaway that they were brothers. They both loved golf and had ...

My thoughts on the latest Japan population decline projections for Monocle radio (w/embedded nod to L'Arc~en~Ciel) @ 36:00 here .