Monday, July 30, 2007

black face, shrine and bridge.

This week I have Anime Companion Supplement entries on an unusual fashion trend, a famous shrine next to a famous bar area and a bridge that had a dramatric scene in the You're Under Arrest movie.

ganguro (black face)

Hanazono Jinja (in Shinjuku)

Kachidokibashi

This week is the winding down from over a year of very busy activity, speaking engagements, advising the Asian Art Museum on their Tezuka exhibit, movie screenings, convention appearances, academic quality essays (lots of labor), book signings etc.

Now I can rest a little, I've made it a point of allowing things to die down. I'll still be doing the supplement updates, my monthly column for Newtype USA and I'll finally get to a batch of web page updates that have been sitting for too long.

Oh yes, and get back to studying Japanese, taking notes on a pile of anime I have yet to do so with, and a two week trip to Japan later in the year.

Saturday, July 21, 2007

Bottles, narrow lanes and gals

This week I have new entries for the Anime Companion Supplement on a bar custom, a famous neighborhood of small cozy drinking spots and the famous gals of Japan.

botoru kiipu (bottle Keep)

Gôruden Gai (Golden Gai)

gyaru (gal)


Not much other news, I've been mainly working on the day job, finishing up a few small writing assignments and watching anime and live action Japanese films.

Monday, July 16, 2007

Shopping in Berkeley

I've been busy again, got to stop doing that.

In any case I went to Moe's books in Berkeley and picked up the Tale of Genji in Royall Tyler's excellent translation, not so much for the text as for the notes. Genji is a bit too high class for me, I prefer works along the line of the Tale of Heike and other war stories as well as common entertainments like kabuki.

Speaking of Moe's if you are in Berkeley check out their second hand manga section on their 3rd floor. They have expanded it and have two shelves of volumes in Japanese.


I also went to Comic Relief and picked up the first volume of the Old Boy manga from Dark Horse, the next day I bought the other five volumes that are available. Two more to go and we see how this great story plays out.


This week all three new entries in the Anime Companion Supplement are from the 1920s and 30s.

eroguro nansensu (erotic-grotesque nonsense)

mobo (modern boy)

moga (modern girl)

Sunday, July 8, 2007

Anime Companion Supplement Additions July 8

A long week at work nicely capped off with doing a panel at the Asian Art Museum with Fred Schodt yesterday.

Today I'm headed back to work so here are three new entries added to the Anime Companion Supplement.

chanbara (sword fight films)

Kanda Jinja

tachigui (standing eating)