{"id":39885,"date":"2016-05-30T12:40:17","date_gmt":"2016-05-30T16:40:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/?p=39885"},"modified":"2016-05-30T12:43:38","modified_gmt":"2016-05-30T16:43:38","slug":"jq-magazine-book-review-monkey-business-volume-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/2016\/05\/30\/jq-magazine-book-review-monkey-business-volume-6\/","title":{"rendered":"JQ Magazine: Book Review \u2014 \u2018Monkey Business Volume 6\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\""In<\/a>

“In addition to the stories profiled here, there are other works that will make you laugh while taking you to a Japan that might not have even existed in your imagination.” (A Public Space)<\/p><\/div>\n

By\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Rashaad Jorden<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0(<\/em><\/strong>Yamagata-ken<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, 2008-10) for <\/em><\/strong>JQ magazine<\/em><\/strong><\/a>. A former head of the JETAA Philadelphia Sub-Chapter, Rashaad is a graduate of Leeds Beckett University with a master\u2019s degree in responsible tourism management. For more on his life abroad and enthusiasm for taiko drumming, visit his blog at <\/em><\/strong>www.gettingpounded.wordpress.com<\/em><\/strong><\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Upon picking up the sixth volume of Monkey Business: New Writing from Japan<\/a><\/em>, the first thought that popped into my head was that I would be introduced to epic Japanese works and\/or more prominent authors from the country. After all, several award-winning writers\u2014including Mieko Kawakami, Satoshi Kitamura and Hiroko Oyamada\u2014produce works that appear in this volume. Quite possibly, some of the stories in this 21-piece set might become classics in Japanese literature. Or at the very least, this newbie to the Monkey Business<\/em> series might discover new aspects of Japan\u2014or be reintroduced to certain things\u2014in rather unforgettable tales.<\/p>\n

And well\u2026this edition of Monkey Business<\/em> doesn\u2019t lack colorful stories. \u00a0Several of them stand out, including the first one \u2013 \u201cForbidden Diary.\u201d No, it doesn\u2019t serve as an educational tour of Japanese history or culture. Instead, this excerpt of Sachiko Kishimoto\u2019s fictional diary introduces us to a \u201cPhantom Old Man\u201d who has experienced Japan a little differently from the way you might have.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s see\u2026the old man (who is actually being taken care of by the narrator) remembers Shibuya as being totally void of people, as only a haven for rice paddies and without its iconic scramble crossroads. In addition to seemingly arriving out of the Stone Age, the old man repeatedly changes appearances during the story.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

But he isn\u2019t totally stuck in the past. According to the story\u2019s narrator, the old man has grown to love \u201csilly variety shows\u201d and the music of Perfume. Fascinating. Just reading about his navigation of hectic Tokyo life and his bond with his caretaker makes you think the old man\u2019s life would make a funny story on the big or small screen.<\/p>\n

However, \u201cForbidden Diary\u201d definitely isn\u2019t the only story in the set with a touch of the seemingly ridiculous. There might have been some crazy people living around you in Japan. However, it is doubtful they were as loony as the characters portrayed in Hiromi Kawakumi\u2019s series of vignettes titled \u201cPeople from my Neighborhood.\u201d Here, we see a revolution brought about by someone solely because he wanted to see a statue of himself erected. Or even a guy organizing a game in which people would try to guess how many flies were buzzing around a pig. And there\u2019s even more weirdness coming from the fingers of Kawakumi in \u201cPeople from my Neighborhood.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, while reading the stories in Volume Six<\/em>\u2014co-edited, as always, but JET alum\/Japanamerica<\/a><\/em> author Roland Kelts<\/a> (Osaka-shi<\/a>, 1998-99)<\/strong>\u2014I was wondering if any of them brought up memories of my JET experience. Fortunately, there was one work that did the trick: Tomoka Shibasaki\u2019s \u201cBackground Music.\u201d Shibasaki writes about two brothers\u2019 journey to their grandmother\u2019s house. \u201cBackground Music\u201d evokes memories of traveling through Japan, and some of the difficulties and joys of traversing the country (during their journey, they must reach an island inaccessible by car in addition to driving on very narrow roads. But being in a rather inaka<\/em> setting, they rarely see another vehicle). The story is travel writing at its best, as Shibasaki adroitly captures the scenery the two view. And better yet, the brothers seem to be the kind of cool guys you\u2019d meet at a rock festival who know all the major Western acts and their hits, as music is an important part of any road trip and the songs they were listening to seemed to perfectly sum up their moods.<\/p>\n

Not surprisingly, Volume Six<\/em> is comprised mainly of short stories, but a major surprise arrives at the end by way of Mina Ishikawa. She produced \u201cTen Tales in Tanka,\u201d which actually run the gamut in subject matter (according to their translations): ATMs, soldiers and bridges. Being unfamiliar with tanka, at first glance they seemed to be Japanese proverbs. But they\u2019re not\u2014maybe the tanka tales have meanings I can\u2019t decipher.<\/p>\n

However, the other works in the sixth volume won\u2019t leave you scratching your head. In addition to the stories profiled here, there are other works that will make you laugh while taking you to a Japan that might not have even existed in your imagination.<\/p>\n

For more<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>JQ<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>magazine book reviews,<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>click here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Rashaad Jorden\u00a0(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\u2019s degree in responsible tourism management. For more on his life abroad and enthusiasm for taiko drumming, visit his blog at www.gettingpounded.wordpress.com. Upon picking up the sixth volume of Monkey Business: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,40,291,58,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articlejournalism","category-books","category-jq-magazine","category-reviews","category-roland-kelts"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pkZ7m-anj","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39885"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39885\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39888,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39885\/revisions\/39888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}