JQ Magazine: Book Review — ‘Yurei: The Japanese Ghost’
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“If you like reading about mythology and supernatural horror around the world, or if you enjoy Japan’s unique brand of horror from such films as The Ring and The Grudge, then Yurei: The Japanese Ghost is a must-read.” (Chin Music Press)
By Julio Perez Jr. (Kyoto-shi, 2011-13) for JQ magazine. A bibliophile, writer, translator, and graduate from Columbia University, Julio is currently working at JTB’s New Jersey office while seeking opportunities with publications in New York. Follow his enthusiasm for Japan, literature, and board gaming on his blog and Twitter @brittlejules.
Do not read this review.
If you are foolish enough to read this review to the end…after seven days, you will be followed by a lingering spirit which will slowly, but unrelentingly, press more and more of its weight upon your shoulders. The weight will build to an unbearable breaking point, leaving you weak and overwhelmed by the scent of rotting flesh, driving your mind to unknowable depths of madness and despair. You can avoid this terrible fate by sharing this book review via the social media outlet of your choice or by purchasing Yurei: the Japanese Ghost, a new and excellent nonfiction effort by JET alum Zack Davisson (Nara-ken, 2001-04; Osaka-shi, 2004-06).
No doubt you’ve seen or heard of such films as The Ring and The Grudge, which have served as ambassadors of Japan’s very rich ghost culture (not to mention Halloween staples), but it is likely that there are aspects of these Japanese movies that you may have not been able to appreciate on some level. This book’s purpose is to fill in those gaps and fascinate you with an expertly catalogued evolution of ghost stories in Japan, and how pervasive they remain in pop culture to this day.
What exactly is a yūrei and why is it different from a Western ghost? What’s with the white face and long black hair? Why water? What drives the yūrei to do what it does? These questions and more are answered in this book. In the author’s words, “The goal of this book: to provide this understanding, to allow a clearer insight not only into the popular products of Japan but also the history and culture from which they sprang.” Yurei: The Japanese Ghost is a guided tour of the yūrei, from their appearance, to the rules they obey, to the traditions behind these characteristics. Davisson achieves this goal through the use of highly enjoyable primary choices and sharing the fruits of much academic research.
JQ Magazine: Book Review — ‘Mashi’
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“JETs reading Mashi will relate to the story because just as many of us had support systems of friendly faces outside of the workplace, Murakami was fortunate that members of the Japanese American community in both Fresno and San Francisco provided a helping hand when he needed it.” (University of Nebraska Press)
By Rashaad Jorden (Yamagata-ken, 2008-10) for JQ magazine. A former head of the JETAA Philadelphia Sub-Chapter, Rashaad is a graduate of Leeds Beckett University with a master’s degree in responsible tourism management. For more on his life abroad and enthusiasm for taiko drumming, visit his blog at www.gettingpounded.wordpress.com.
During your JET experience, you probably heard about Japanese baseball icons such as Ichiro, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Hideki Matsui and Yu Darvish excelling in Major League Baseball. However, well before all of them were instilling pride in their countrymen through their feats on American diamonds, one southpaw from rural Yamanashi Prefecture was setting the big leagues on fire.
Baseball historian Robert K. Fitts introduces fans of the sport to Masanori Murakami in Mashi: The Unfulfilled Baseball Dreams of Masanori Murakami, the First Japanese Major Leaguer. The biography documents how Murakami went from a run-of-the mill relief pitcher for the Nankai Hawks to a major contributor to the San Francisco Giants in the mid-1960s that nearly punched a ticket to the World Series—all while being the subject of a fierce tug-of-war between the two organizations.
Piercing together information he obtained from interviews with Murakami, the pitcher’s close friends and experts on Japanese baseball, Kitts explores Murakami’s improbable journey to baseball stardom. Murakami was actually uninterested in baseball as a child and when he did develop a deep love for the sport, his father Kiyoshi objected to his son’s new passion. But Kiyoshi relented when he realized his son could earn a scholarship to an elite Tokyo-area high school.
Despite being a high school starter, a pro career was really not on the cards for Murakami, as his main focus was on attending college (and possibly pitching at that level). However, his success at Hosei II High School made him an attractive pro prospect and representatives from several NPB (Nippon Professional Baseball) teams offered him contracts. One of those teams was the Nankai Hawks, and they offered him something more than solely the opportunity to make a lot of money: the possibility of going to the United States to improve his craft, an idea that intrigued him.
JQ Magazine: Book Review — ‘Marathon Japan’
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“The running boom in Japan shows no signs of slowing. Marathon Japan explains why as it marvelously highlights a growing and evolving sport.” (University of Hawai’i Press)
By Rashaad Jorden (Yamagata-ken, 2008-10) for JQ magazine. A former head of the JETAA Philadelphia Sub-Chapter, Rashaad graduated from Leeds Beckett University with a Master’s degree in Responsible Tourism Management (for more on his life in the U.K., visit his blog at www.gettingpounded.wordpress.com). While in Japan, Rashaad completed the 2010 Tokyo Marathon, ran two half marathons in Yamagata Prefecture, was a part of an ekiden club, and finished fourth in the 2009 Ishidan Marathon (a race up the steps of Mount Haguro).
Hopefully, your JET experience included you busting out your running shoes and joining your prefecture (or village) in a road race. It did for me on several occasions. But if you never got around to working up a sweat over 10 kilometers (or maybe even 21), you might remember your school being enthralled by its annual ekiden, or frequently seeing races televised on Sunday mornings.
So why have such events become an integral part of Japanese sporting culture? Thomas R.H. Havens examines why in Marathon Japan, the first comprehensive English-language book about the history of marathons and ekiden in the country.
Long before Kenya emerged as the world’s elite marathon nation, Japan could make a serious claim to producing the world’s best at 42.195 km. Marathon Japan illustrates the periods when Japanese marathoners dished out most of the world’s fastest times—such as the 1930s (In 1934, nine of the world’s ten fastest times were run by Japanese), the 1960s (1965 alone saw the Japanese record fifteen of the world’s top twenty marathon times), and the 1980s (during which Toshihiko Seko won ten of the fifteen marathons he completed in). And to top it off on the women’s side, in 2004, three Japanese finished among the world’s top eight marathoners.
JQ Magazine: Book Review — ‘Monkey Business Volume 5’
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“Monkey Business is a magnetic force that attracts writers who can create magical kingdoms in a single page.” (A Public Space)
By Brett Rawson (Akita-ken, 2007-09) for JQ magazine. Brett is a writer, translator, and Ramen Runner. He has an MFA in Creative Writing Non-Fiction from The New School, and his writing has appeared in Narratively and Nowhere magazine. He is also co-founder of the quarterly publication The Seventh Wave and founder of Handwritten, a place in space for pen and paper.
After reading Monkey Business Volume 5, the image of a blender might pop into your mind. Perhaps this is because it is almost summer and you have recently begun making smoothies in the early morning. Or perhaps this is because you came across the description Monkey Business as genre-defying, which made you think of cross-genre, blending boundaries, and thereafter, the physical image of the object itself: the blender.
But most likely, this is because you read the opening vignette to Monkey Business, “Photographs Are Images,” by rising Japanese writer Aoko Matsuda, which ends as such:
Everything you’ve read up to this point has been images. […] These strings of letters are images. These chains of words are images. Stories are images. The story you’re reading this very minute is an image.
Carefully selected as the opener to Volume 5, this year’s Monkey Business is all about ways of seeing, and perceiving, images and the imagination, and objects and subjects.
JQ Magazine: JQ&A with Merry White on ‘Kissaten: Japanese Cafes Past and Present’
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“Japanese coffee standards are the highest—when there is a new varietal on the market, it is often sent to Japan for testing. If a bean can make it in Japan, it can make it anywhere. The quality tasters are very keen, and there are fewer defective beans permitted than anywhere in the world.” (Courtesy of Merry White)
Brewing Up Something at Japan Society
By Alexis Agliano Sanborn (Shimane-ken, 2009-11) for JQ magazine. Alexis is a graduate of Harvard University’s Regional Studies-East Asia (RSEA) program, and currently works as an executive associate at Asia Society in New York City.
When it comes to notable food and drink of Japan, for many “coffee” is not the first thing that comes to mind. Yet, on May 21, Merry (Corky) White, Professor of Anthropology at Boston University, will teach audiences at Japan Society in New York City just how robust their coffee culture is, and how exacting their measurements are. Get ready for something good at Kissaten: Japanese Cafes, Past and Present.
White’s no newbie to food and Japan—it’s been much of the foundation of her professional work. If you look her up on Amazon, you’ll see that she’s been publishing food-related books since the mid-1970s, and regularly offers contributions to publications the world over. Definitely a foodie—and someone who knows her stuff. When not researching coffee and cafes, she’s active teaching about Japanese society, women in Asia, food and culture, and the anthropology of travel and tourism. Check her out on Twitter, where she regularly posts food- and culture-related content.
To whet your appetite for this program, JQ recently caught up with White to learn more about the coffee world in Japan, and what we can expect to hear from this rich presentation.
At your lecture at Japan Society, what do you hope to teach the audience about Japanese coffee culture?
I hope to surprise at least a few people, who may not yet know that Japanese coffee is a well-rooted, well-developed cultural product with a deep history. The coffee experience is also about cafes, koohii hausu, and kissaten, places with a special meaning that have developed over time in Japan. These places have offered people various distinctive experiences, depending on the era. The first ones, in the Meiji period (1868-1912), gave people a window on Europe, decor, clothing, foods—which continued into the Taisho period (1912-1926) when the flappers and lounge lizards demonstrated a new modernity, and the urban cultures were changing to, for example, give women a place in public, too. It was fine for a young woman of good family in the daytime, anyway, to go to a cafe, though probably she might have a chaperone…
Can you describe an iconic Japanese-style kissaten?
Courtesy of Merry White
Kissaten are now places of memory, as well as ordinary community life. Brown kissa are the “sepia-toned” places where especially middle-aged people (I would say over 60s) like to go for a nice place to sit and get good service and maybe see friends. Young people like them, too, as they often share a love of the past (one they wouldn’t have had themselves) as a retro experience. Kissaten, though, also have more contemporary styles.
JQ Magazine: Book Review — ‘Gon, the Little Fox’
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“Written by the legendary children’s book author Nankichi Niimi when he was just seventeen years old, the story brings to life a little rascal who never passes up a chance to cause havoc.” (Museyon)
By Rashaad Jorden (Yamagata-ken, 2008-10) for JQ magazine. A former head of the JETAA Philadelphia Sub-Chapter, Rashaad is a graduate of Leeds Beckett University with a master’s degree in responsible tourism management. For more on his life abroad and enthusiasm for taiko drumming, visit his blog at www.gettingpounded.wordpress.com.
You probably remember reading some of Aesop’s Fables—such as “The Tortoise and the Hare” and “The Boy Who Cried Wolf”—during your childhood. Or more importantly, the lessons those fables are supposed to teach.
Likewise, your students in Japan likely read similar tales, and one of them might have been Gon, the Little Fox. Written by the legendary children’s book author Nankichi Niimi (1913-1943) when he was just seventeen years old, the story brings to life a little rascal who never passes up a chance to cause havoc, like setting fire to rapeseed husks held out in the sun, to dry to stealing a farmer’s cayenne peppers.
However, Gon realizes he’s gone too far when he kills an eel intended to be eaten by the ailing mother of a villager named Hyoju. To atone for his egregious misdeed, Gon repeatedly gathers, among other objects, mushrooms and chestnuts to leave at Hyoju’s house. But Gon’s attempts at forgiveness are never acknowledged and the story ends tragically. (Premature deaths were an unfortunate aspect of Niimi’s life; his mother passed away when he was four and he himself died when he was twenty-nine.)
“By dramatizing some of the people who were on the receiving end of that racial hatred, I think the book might give a concrete sense of what American power can do when it is unleashed against people in other parts of the world. I hope the experiences of Jiro and Mitsuko make readers think twice about that.” (Louis Templado)
By Julio Perez Jr. (Kyoto-shi, 2011-13) for JQ magazine. A bibliophile, writer, translator, and graduate from Columbia University, Julio has had experience working at Ishikawa Prefecture’s New York office while seeking opportunities with publications in New York. Follow his enthusiasm for Japan, literature, and comic books on his blog and Twitter @brittlejules.
A Professor Emeritus of Harvard University, Jay Rubin has also served as a distinguished translator of Japanese literature for more than a quarter century, most notably on the works of Haruki Murakami. June 2 marks the release of his debut novel The Sun Gods (Chin Music Press), which is set in Seattle during World War II and explores the relationships between a Seattle-based Japanese national named Mitsuko and her young adopted American toddler, Billy, who are both interned by the U.S. government at the beginning of the war. Years later, Billy begins a journey to newly reconstructed Japan to find his Japanese mother and learn the truth about their shared past.
As part of the book’s launch, Rubin will be making live appearances from coast to coast, starting with Japan Society in New York on May 7 for an event titled The Magical Art of Translation: From Haruki Murakami to Japan’s Latest Storytellers, featuring other guest authors and moderated by JET alum Roland Kelts (Osaka-shi, 1998-99).
In this exclusive interview, Rubin shares with JQ the legacy of the war on his own writing, the attention to historical detail that went into The Sun Gods (with a few liberties taken), and what makes translating Japanese such a liberating experience.
JQ magazine readers are primarily JETs, JET alumni, and others who have worked and resided in Japan or have a strong interest in the country. Could you tell us about what inspired you to study Japanese language and culture and about any time you spent living in Japan?
In my second year at the University of Chicago, I was going to take one course on something non-Western for the fun of it, and one of the courses that happened to be available was an introduction to Japanese literature (in English translation, of course). I was so fascinated by the literature and by the professor’s remarks on the original language that I immediately started studying that language. I sometimes wonder what would have happened if the course I stumbled into happened to be Chinese history. I spent four years studying the language in Chicago before going to the country itself on a Fulbright fellowship. My spoken Japanese was so bad, all I could say to the young woman bartender at the first bar I wandered into was, “Do you realize you just used the word ‘wake‘ (わけ) three times?” I studied in Tokyo for two years, often wish I had made it four. I’m still remarking on how many times people use wake in sentences. I studied mostly Meiji literature while I was in Tokyo, not Noh drama like The Sun Gods’ Bill, though Noh was a side interest, and I did a lot more work on it in later years.
To start off talking about The Sun Gods, how would you describe your new book to potential readers?
This may sound like ad copy, but I’m comfortable with the summary on the book’s front flap:
Opening in the stress-filled years before World War II, The Sun Gods brings together a white minister to a Seattle Japanese Christian church, his motherless young son, and a beautiful new arrival from Japan with a troubled past. The bombing of Pearl Harbor intrudes upon whatever happiness they might have had together, and the combination of race prejudice and war hysteria carry the action from Seattle to the Minidoka Internment Camp in Idaho. Nearly two decades later, the son is ready to graduate from college when memories of Minidoka and of his erstwhile Japanese mother begin to haunt him, and he embarks on a journey that will lead him from Seattle’s International District to war-ravaged Japan in his attempt to discover the truth about his past.
The internment of people of Japanese ancestry in America that occurred during World War II is rarely dwelled on as much as other events of the war, how would you explain the internment and the reasons it warrants further attention to someone unfamiliar with the topic? What is the most important message you hope to get across?
If there’s a “message,” it’s to convey a historical moment, central to which was the fact that our government established concentration camps within its borders in order to lock up members of a particular racial group, and that this was supported by both public opinion and the Supreme Court with no constitutional justification whatsoever. The government has since apologized openly and eloquently, thus making a repeat performance highly unlikely. Japanese-American organizations, it should be noted, were among the most outspoken against anti-Muslim racism following 9/11.
JQ Magazine: JQ&A with Chin Music Press Owner Bruce Rutledge
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“JETs have a special bond, somewhat like people who go to the same university, and I think returning JETs can exploit that connection to open a few doors. JETs and MEFs are in all sorts of powerful positions these days at multinationals, news agencies, nonprofits, and government jobs. Use that network!” (Courtesy of Bruce Rutledge)
By Julio Perez Jr. (Kyoto-shi, 2011-13) for JQ magazine. A bibliophile, writer, translator, and graduate from Columbia University, Julio is currently working at Ishikawa Prefecture’s New York office while seeking opportunities with publications in New York. Follow his enthusiasm for Japan, literature, and comic books on his blog and Twitter @brittlejules.
After spending a few years in Chiba doing teaching and promotional work that would be all too familiar to JET ALTs and CIRs, Bruce Rutledge went on to work as an editor and writer in Japan for over 15 years. Today, he is the owner of Chin Music Press, a publishing company in Seattle with strong ties to Japan.
In this exclusive interview, Rutledge discusses his time as a Monbusho English Fellow (MEF), which was in some ways a precursor to the JET Program, and shares some of his experiences in a variety of media positions in Japan along with the origin and direction of Chin Music Press.
Since most of our readers are JET alumni, they’re probably already wondering about your connection to JET. Would you mind telling us a bit about the Monbusho English Fellowship you participated in? Why were you drawn to that program? Where in Japan were you placed, and how would you describe your activities as a Monbusho English Fellow? Also, how would you connect MEF with JET and compare it to what JET eventually became?
I was an MEF from 1985 to 1987 in Funabashi, Chiba, I think my job was sort of a combination of a CIR and a teaching assistant. I spent every Monday in the city hall doing PR work for Funabashi, whose slogan was “We More Sports.” I talked to them about this thing called a verb and how their slogan needed one, but my intervention was too late. Tuesday through Friday, I would teach in the schools. I taught a whole year at one high school and spent the rest of the time rotating from middle school to middle school with an occasional elementary school visit thrown in. It was a memorable period of my life. I loved my time there.
Are there any special anecdotes you would like to share from your time in Japan?
Perhaps the time a neighborhood kid of five or six broke into my apartment by climbing through an open window. The little burglar left his shoes on the windowsill. It was just the sort of juxtaposition I love about Japan.
When you finished with MEF, what was your next job? At that time, what direction did you see your life taking, and how did the your path end up differing?
After MEF life, I moved about 15 stops down the Sobu Line to Suidobashi and took a job with Universal News Japan. I was an editor and had planned to have a career in journalism. That plan worked out for nearly 15 years, until the Internet changed everything and I started longing to work in a longer form.
You seem to have had many media-related positions, mostly involving Japan or Asia. How would you describe the kind of work you did post-MEF? During those times, were you living primarily in Japan or somewhere else? How did that impact your performance in those jobs?
I lived in Japan for 15+ years. I never lived in another Asian country. I was a Louis L’Amour of white-collar jobs, doing a little bit of everything. I even did a 15-minute shortwave radio newscast from the bowels of NHK headquarters that aired at 2 a.m. Japan time. We would sleep in bunk beds from 2:30 to 5:00, then do another broadcast at around 5:30. That was the weirdest job I had.
JQ Magazine: Book Review — ‘Blade’s Edge’
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“While Blade’s Edge features challenges for not just the characters, it is fun to see imagination used to create fantasy in an ancient Japan from long, long ago.” (Artemis Dingo Productions)
By Rashaad Jorden (Yamagata-ken, 2008-10) for JQ magazine. A former head of the JETAA Philadelphia Sub-Chapter, Rashaad is a graduate of Leeds Beckett University with a master’s degree in responsible tourism management. For more on his life abroad and enthusiasm for taiko drumming, visit his blog at www.gettingpounded.wordpress.com.
A lot of people (former JETs included) probably feel a lot of things take place in Japan because “that’s the way they have always been.”
So it’s not surprising that mindset would permeate throughout a fictionalized version of the country. Virginia McClain takes readers through such a place in her new novel, Blade’s Edge. Although Japan is blessed with a ridiculously long and rich history that many of us are somewhat aware of, 12th century Japan is probably a complete mystery to even most Japanophiles, but that shouldn’t stop us from imagining what it would have been like. Fortunately, McClain lets her creative and imaginary juices flow, providing readers with a glimpse of a fantasy Japan she created, inspired by her experiences living in Yamagata Prefecture and learning about the country’s history and culture.
The main characters of Blade’s Edge are two young girls named Mishi and Taka. They both reside in Gensokai, the kingdom that serves as the story’s setting (the word “Gensokai”—created from the Japanese terms for element and world—was actually coined for the purpose of the story) in addition to being a territory ruled for more than a thousand years by the Kisōshi, an elite group of warriors…who happen to be all-male.
JQ Magazine: ‘Life of Cats’ Showcases Frisky Furballs at Japan Society
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By A.A. Sanborn (Shimane-ken, 2009-11) for JQ magazine. A.A. is a graduate of Harvard University’s Regional Studies-East Asia (RSEA) program, and currently works as an executive associate at Asia Society in New York City.
It’s no surprise that, in an age where Cats of Istagram reign over our feed with a lofty air, Japan Society in New York’s new art exhibition Life of Cats: Selections from the Hiraki Ukiyo-e Collection is garnering serious buzz. Presenting 86 drawings, paintings, woodblock prints and decorative objects dating from the 17th to the early 20th century, this latest showcase taps into cat fancying for the digital age.
Without a doubt, Life of Cats is a work of heart: it’s made by people who love cats, for cat lovers. Chief among the cat fanciers at Japan Society is Miwako Tezuka, Japan Society Gallery director and curator of the exhibition. To put this display together, she studied over 6,000 prints from Hiraki Ukiyo-e Collection, as well as private American collections. Publications like Forbes, The Guardian and The New York Times have already sung this exhibition’s praises, and why not? Love ’em or hate ’em, you can’t deny that cats are in a category all their own—straddling the intersection of elegant, comical and vicious. And you get to see all their many guises in this dynamic display, which is already drawing substantial crowds.
Believe it or not, this type of exhibition already has precedence back in Japan. Cats have never been hotter, no matter what side of the Pacific you reside. In 2006, the Hiraki Foundation led the way for this new type of cat-themed exhibition in Tokyo, which has now become a national trend in its own right. As quoted from The Guardian, Tezuka said, “People are really crazy about cats in Japan….We thought a New York version of this exhibition would be a great way to introduce Japanese art to a wider audience.” Indeed, looking at the repertoire of recent Japan Society exhibits, they certainly have been hard at work drawing new types of crowds—not simply geared toward the art historian or otaku, exhibitions run the gamut from Japanese Art Deco to interactive digital art, reeling in hipsters and techies alike.
JQ Magazine: Book Review — ‘Dreaming Spies’
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“King sets up an intriguing mystery, with myriad characters with distinctive personalities coming and going, and the conclusion has satisfying twists to keep the formula from being stale.” (Bantam House)
Are detective stories your thing? What about something involving an iconic figure of literature, ninjas, and Japan? Eden Law (Fukushima-ken, 2010-11) of JETAA New South Wales reviews the new mystery novel Dreaming Spies by Laurie R. King, the latest in her Mary Russell-Sherlock Holmes series, which is partially set in Japan and delves into Japanese culture quite a bit.
Picking up another person’s work is never easy, especially if you’re continuing a series of stories long after the original, canonical work ended, and in the time since then has become so popular and well-known that it forms part of modern pop culture. This practice is nothing new and is constantly ongoing—after all, witness the prevalence and popularity (or notoriety?) of fan fiction.
A few years back, a mash-up of high and low culture saw the creation of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which kicked off a whole slew of other entries such as Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters and Android Karenina…which shows that one way of resurrecting (pun fully intended) a story would be in the vein of a parody. However, rather than an attempt to create something interestingly imaginative (for example, repositioning the Bennet girls from helpless female chattel to arse-kicking women warriors), this genre is more cynically derivative and an attempt to cash into the zeitgeist of the lurching undead—Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, for example, will very soon be out in cinemas. Yay?
I haven’t read any of the other mash-up novels, so Dreaming Spies will be the first I’ve tackled of this growing (sub?)genre. Dreaming Spies isn’t a parody by any means, and its legendary figure of choice is one Sherlock Holmes, although the main master sleuth character here is Mary Russell, who in this story universe is the young wife of a decidedly older Holmes. Probably a wise choice, as tackling a character like Holmes would be like dating someone that just come out of a long-term relationship (i.e., someone that comes with a whole lot of baggage).
JQ Magazine: Book Review — ‘Halfway Home: Drawing My Way Through Japan’
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“Through reading her travelogue, Inzer comes across as a writer who would make an excellent travel blogger, as she gives prospective visitors to Japan fascinating tidbits about the country’s culture and attractions.” (Naruhodo Press)
By Rashaad Jorden (Yamagata-ken, 2008-10) for JQ magazine. A former head of the JETAA Philadelphia Sub-Chapter, Rashaad is a graduate of Leeds Beckett University with a master’s degree in responsible tourism management. For more on his life abroad and enthusiasm for taiko drumming, visit his blog at www.gettingpounded.wordpress.com.
You may remember being treated to “What I did during my summer vacation” tales in elementary school. Well, Christine Mari Inzer spent a memorable summer vacation visiting family in Japan and she documents those travels in a largely visual journey titled Halfway Home: Drawing My Way Through Japan.
Halfway Home—so-titled because Inzer, the daughter of a Japanese mother and American father, describes herself as being half at home in the United States and half at home in Japan—summarizes her travels through a collection of photos, illustrations (all self-drawn), and anecdotes. Geared toward young adults (the author is currently a high school senior in Connecticut), Inzer details the ups and downs of travel while humorously detailing some moments of aggravation, such as her frustration with the shyness of Japanese boys.
For young people interested in eventually visiting Japan, Halfway Home provides an introduction to several of the country’s landmarks (the Daibustu in Nara, Kinkaku-ji, in Kyoto, etc.), cultural aspects, and quirks (such as the ubiquity of vending machines). Through reading her travelogue, Inzer comes across as a writer who would make an excellent travel blogger, as she gives prospective visitors to Japan fascinating tidbits about the country’s culture and attractions.
While the journal might have been enhanced a bit with the inclusion of a couple of other aspects of Japanese culture (if Inzer spent a summer in Japan, you would think she surely had to have experienced a hanabi taikai), you don’t have to be a teen to enjoy Halfway Home. Reading about her journey through Japan will surely evoke natsukashii moments for anyone who has spent a lot of time in the country.
Visit Christine’s homepage at http://christinemari.com. For more JQ magazine book reviews, click here.
JQ Magazine: JQ&A with Grammy Winner Arnie Roth on ‘Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy’
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“I can honestly say that I currently spend much of my career involved with Japan on so many projects, that I almost cannot imagine what it would be like without all of our Japanese friends and colleagues.” (Courtesy of Attila Glatz Concert Productions)
By Vlad Baranenko (Saitama-ken, 2000-02) for JQ magazine. Vlad is an avid photographer.
Sephiroth, meet Maestro Roth.
On Jan. 31, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center will hold a double performance marathon of Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy, an official concert program of the beloved video game series, also coming to Boston (April 24) and St. Louis (May 15). Featuring special guest series composer Nobuo Uematsu and featured soloists RIKKI and Susan Calloway, the show will feature game clips playing to the performance of a symphony orchestra, choir and renowned vocal talent, all under the direction of Grammy Award-winning conductor (and Mannheim Steamroller member) Arnie Roth.
Roth’s resume includes a long list of music direction for television, film, and video games. A veteran collaborator on pop, classical, R&B, rock and musical theater, Roth has also worked with some of the world’s greatest ensembles like the Tokyo Philharmonic and with legendary video game composers including Uematsu, Yoko Shimomura (Kingdom Hearts), Akira Yamaoka (Silent Hill), Yuzo Koshiro (Streets of Rage), and Koji Kondo (Super Mario Bros.).
In this JQ exclusive, Roth shares the experience of bringing together 27 years (and counting) of Final Fantasy to the concert stage, working with Uematsu and others in the Japanese game industry, and his all-time favorite Japanese food.
How did you get involved with the Final Fantasy franchise?
In 2004, as music director of the Chicagoland Pops Orchestra, I was researching various possibilities for new and exciting programming for our concerts. A colleague mentioned that concerts of video game music had been taking place in Japan on a very regular basis for many years, since 1999 or maybe even earlier. After checking into Final Fantasy concerts, we decided to try a concert in Chicago in February 2005. That concert was titled Dear Friends: Music from Final Fantasy, and our concert sold out completely. That was my first time meeting Nobuo Uematsu and conducting his music, and we immediately connected. Immediately after that concert, I was engaged to conduct several more of the Dear Friends concerts in North America, and then my relationship with [Final Fantasy publisher] Square Enix (SQEX) and Uematsu grew to be a very important factor, with concerts in Japan for SQEX, and ultimately the development of the Distant Worlds project.
Did you have any exposure to the Final Fantasy games before directing and conducting the Tokyo Philharmonic in 2006?
Yes. See above for my earlier involvement with the FF franchise and SQEX and Uematsu. Another little-known fact was that I worked on the original release of the Halo video game music score, both as a violinist and arranger.
What do you think about Final Fantasy and the musical choices for the games?
The music is stunning! Final Fantasy is a role-playing game, and the combination of this type of game, along with having individual themes or leitmotifs for every character, battle, quest, relationship, and environment, has made the music of this franchise extremely beloved for the players.
From JET to NPR: An Interview (and Playlist) from Producer Robin Hilton
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“The best you can do is be fearless and open. If you find yourself avoiding a possible career path because you’re afraid of something, stop. Take a deep breath and jump into it. You can’t expect to grow or get anywhere by playing it safe.” (Courtesy of Robin Hilton)
By Sheila Burt (Toyama-ken, 2010-2012) for JQ magazine. Sheila is a grant proposal writer at the Center for Bionic Medicine at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. Read more of her reporting and writing at her blog.
Robin Hilton (Aichi-ken, 1996-99) is a radio producer and co-host of NPR’s music program All Songs Considered. In this JQ exclusive, Hilton shares his experiences on the JET Program in the late 1990s and his radio documentary Big in Japan, a comical and poignant reflection on his daily life as an English teacher in Japan.
Growing up in the small town of Abilene in central Kansas, Hilton never imagined living or working in Japan. But around the same time he graduated from the University of Kansas in 1992, Abilene initiated a sister city and exchange program with Minori, Japan (now Omitama) in Ibaraki-ken. At the encouragement of the program’s director, Hilton applied for a job teaching English more than 6,000 miles away from his hometown, as he was excited to begin a new endeavor outside of his comfort zone and experience a different culture. Yet Hilton would still have to wait a few years before his new adventure in Japan could begin.
“I didn’t get [the position],” Hilton recalls, “but it planted the seed in me, so a few years later I decided to try for the JET Program. I didn’t grow up with a deep fascination with or love of the country. But it ended up being one of the greatest things I’ve ever done with my life, and I certainly have that deep love for Japan now.”
JQ Magazine: Manga Review — ‘Showa 1944-1953: A History of Japan’
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“If you enjoy or are interested in manga and history, or if you appreciate such excellent works as Maus, Persepolis or Barefoot Gen, then this series is a must-read.” (Drawn and Quarterly)
By Julio Perez Jr. (Kyoto-shi, 2011-13) for JQ magazine. A bibliophile, writer, translator, and graduate from Columbia University, Julio is currently working at Ishikawa Prefecture’s New York office while seeking opportunities with publications in New York. Follow his enthusiasm for Japan, literature, and comic books on his blog and Twitter @brittlejules.
Showa 1944-1953: A History of Japan is the third volume in a four-part manga history of the Showa period by eminent manga artist Shigeru Mizuki. (If you’re new to this series, check out JQ’s reviews of the first and second volumes here.)
Since I have already sung the praises of Mizuki’s excellent blending of realistic and comical art and storytelling as well as the top-notch translation by JET alum (and JQ interviewee) Zack Davisson (Nara-ken, 2001-04; Osaka-shi, 2004-06), I have decided to focus this review more on unpacking some of the contents of volume three and providing you with additional resources to look into if you wish to expand your knowledge about any of the topics that appear in the manga, including several wartime tragedies and the postwar occupation of Japan by the Allied Forces.
This volume focuses primarily on the grim latter years of World War II in the Pacific Theater. Despite the fact that Japan’s resources are running far past thin, the government and military persisted in continuing the conflict. This manga puts the spotlight on the plight of soldiers who have become the least important resource to the Japanese government, “Human life is the least valuable resource in the Japanese Army,” Mizuki writes. “Any suggestion that soldiers’ lives have meaning is tantamount to cowardice and treason. Soldiers are tools to be used. And the command’s greatest fear is that soldiers will flee from the enemy—or worse, surrender. They need them more afraid of dishonor than death.”
