japanamerica

THE FORBIDDEN DIARY from monkey business: new writing from japan #1 Sachiko Kishimoto transl. by Ted Goossen * February–March The Cancel-Out Apartments I have a little brother sprouting from a spot behind my right hip. He’s about four inches long without any arms and legs, and when he gets hungry (which is like all the time) his face turns red and he starts bawling in this ear-splitting voice; and then he whips his body back and forth so that it goes whap, whap against my butt. I hate the kid, and there’ve been so many times I’ve thought about taking a razor and slicing him off, but I just can’t bring myself to do it. Cicadas shrilling outside my window. February 4 Heard a rumor about something called the “Cancel-Out Apartments” today. Seems it’s a two-story building with five small apartments on each floor. If, say, a cop is living on the second floor, and then another cop moves in on the first, the two cancel each other out. I mean, they both vanish, poof, ju...

Book: Yurei Attack!: The Japanese Ghost Survival Guide by Matt Alt and Hiroko Yoda; illustrated by Shinkichi. Break: Night @ Inokashira Park, Tokyo, Japan. Matt and Hiroko give me tips on the last night of Japan's Festival of the Dead ( O-bon ) on surviving a Japanese ghost: Whew. Straight faces please! Book Break Take: Forty Japanese ghosts rendered in gory detail; their roles in Japanese history, culture, mythology--and who they haunt today; how to recognize them, why they're here, and what to do to survive an attack. The authors call it, "ghost porn." Snip: Ghost-- "[ Oiwa ] is hands-down the most famous ghost chronicled in this book ... she has inspired legions of imitators -- most recently Sadako, from the hit J-Horror novel and film series Ring . Her ragged tresses  and ruined face are the first thing many Japanese think of when they hear the word 'yurei.'" Survive-- "Visit the Tamiya Shrine on the site of Oiwa's fam...

The latest in my "Pacific Rim Diary" series for The Madeleine Brand Show  at KPCC/NPR is about Hiroshima and Nagasaki, nuclear weapons, my interview with the American Chair of the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation, Steven Leeper--and the current state of Japan's post-Fukushima nuclear power dilemma.   Hear it  here . A story I wrote last week about Leeper and Hiroshima for The Christian Science Monitor is here . [photos courtesy of the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation]

My very personal account of technological displacement for the   PUNCH! app for iPad here , and online here   via The Awl .   [Illustrations and lettering by Gant Powell.]

THIS IS a ghostly time of year in Japan. Not only is it the annual Obon season, when the spirits of the dead return home. August 6th is also the anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945, when the Japanese are reminded of the invisible horrors of radiation. [David McNeill in the Economist here ]