japanamerica

LETTER FROM TOKYO, AUGUST 2021: CICADA CRY I caught cicadas in my grandparents’ garden when I was five years old. This was in Morioka City in August, the first full month I lived in Japan before attending kindergarten. It was hot. I used a lightweight long-necked net to capture them and kept them in a green plastic cage my grandfather had bought for me. The cicadas seemed huge and powerful and I loved looking into their eye bulbs with the little black dots in the middle. When you held them from behind by the tips of their wings, their legs clawed at the air then stopped. Their faces looked like they could have been dangerous insects, biting or stinging, but at the last minute decided not to be. So they just stared back at you. There is the famous Basho haiku about cicada cries hiding the nearness of their death but I didn't know anything about that then. I just loved their eyes and wings and the perfect ghost husks they left behind, clinging to the trees as if they were still aliv...

 

LETTER FROM TOKYO, JULY 2021: THE GAMAN GAMES One hot July day I was invited to give a TED Talk in Tokyo about “Japanamerica”  and “Cool Japan,” the government’s campaign to capitalize on the international appeal of Japanese popular culture. But I didn't feel cool at all, and I didn't want to speak again about manga and anime, so instead I gave a talk about gaman : the virtue of enduring adversity with patience and dignity, and without whining. Every July in Tokyo puts gaman to the test. The rainy season evaporates and the sun reclaims the sky, blasting over the city’s concrete with a vengeance. Tsuyu ’s misty speckles on your brow turn to smears of sweat. Venturing outside of your air-conditioned cave is a trial. And after only a few 100-degree days, you know you're in trouble when sitting on your veranda at midnight feels nearly as stultifying as a lunch-hour stroll at high noon. This July, Tokyo has the added trials of a fourth Covid-19 “state of emergency” until Sept...

Japan’s virtual YouTubers have millions of real subscribers — and make millions of real dollars How the pandemic mainstreamed VTubers, Japan's fictional YouTube celebrities. Rest of World/Kizunaai By ROLAND KELTS Virtual YouTuber Kizuna AI is the featured guest on Downtown DX, a decades-old prime-time variety show hosted by two of Japan’s most famous veteran comedians, Hitoshi Matsumoto and Masatoshi Hamada. Both pushing 60, the boomers joke about not knowing who or what she is, feigning ignorance. “What is this?” they ask, peering at the kinetic anime graphic, its eyelashes fluttering. “Who’s in there?”  But AI gets the last laugh. “Do you even know about us?” Matsumoto asks her, or the screen on the floor of the soundstage where she is manifesting today. “Of course I do!” AI replies in her squeaky chirp, spreading her arms, brushing away the question. “I know everyone here.” Then she beats one of the hosts at an impromptu game of rock-paper-scissors. “Do something now!” she shrie...

I'll be chatting with the Head of Content Strategy & Global Partnerships at anime streaming site Crunchyroll , Alden Mitchell Budill , this Thursday, July 8th from 2pm PST (with online access thru July 13th) at A-JAPAN — an exclusive content showcase of the hottest IP from Japan, incl. manga, TV and film. The event is hosted by Amuse Group USA, Inc. and actor-streamer Erika Ishii. Online registration is free here . A-JAPAN 2021 Teaser from Amuse Group USA on Vimeo .

LETTER FROM TOKYO, JUNE 2021: CHOOSING ONSEN OVER OLYMPICS  My favorite kind of getaway is a stay at an onsen-yado (Japanese hot springs hotel). It used to rotate among my top three, but the pandemic has edged it into first place. An onsen-yado relieves you of the burden of choice as soon as you step inside. Your shoes and luggage are whisked away. You are quietly ushered to your room. Padding through the halls, you are told when your dinner will be served and shown what you will wear: a robe, a sash, slippers—with two-toed tabi socks optional. No matching of ties to dinner jackets or puzzles over pumps or flats.  Then you soak in hot, mineral-rich water that transforms your joints into gentle friends of your body. Early June is a good time for hitting onsen. Spring holidays are over but the kids are still in school, and tsuyu ’s rainy season grays take the edges off. In Tokyo, May’s bracing sun can make everyone look hurried and feel hyperactive. June reminds you—what’s the...

I was just interviewed for the DEEP IN JAPAN podcast about growing up half-Japanese, writing  JAPANAMERICA , editing the literary magazine Monkey: New Writing from Japan , writing  "The Fifth Flavor ," reading Nabokov and Canetti ... and catching clout chasers who crib your ideas. Also chatted about my new book, the novel, my kindergarten years in Morioka, living with my grandparents and falling in love with Ultraman. Good fun all around thanks to Jeff Krueger and his team. (pic: Ultraman Taro & Mini Roland in Tokyo Tower.) Deep in Japan · Roland Kelts - On Contemporary Japanese Fiction & Japanamerica