Category: Japan

  • Double vision

    I’m in the midst of some final revisions to my next novel, so at the moment I’m sort of seeing double:  the snowy, cold Midwestern winter outside my window, and then something else like this inside. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08P9xADTDPA] Here’s a less musical and more touristy depiction of Obon. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99ctsybcJVY]

  • Sabishii

    After a night spent reading my journal from when I started it back in 2002 up until I came home from Japan in 2006, I can officially say that a.) I’m glad I’m no longer a twenty-something, b.) I’m SO glad I went to Japan and grew the hell up (well, at least a little)…

  • Beautiful useless things

    This article is yet more proof why Japan is a fantasy land without question.  I love the last line of dialogue reported in this sooo much.

  • The Love We Share Without Knowing

    I mentioned in a post the other day that I had more good news to share, and today it was announced.  My second novel will be coming out from Bantam Dell again.  Very excited, and very very happy that I’m working once again with Juliet Ulman, the editor who worked with me on One for…

  • Time Travel

    Today in class one of my freshman writing students raised his hand to ask me a question and started his sentence by calling me Mr. Chris.  For one brief moment, I was in a classroom of Japanese junior high kids.  Then I blinked and asked him to repeat his question.

  • I Will Shout Youngstown

    I have been officially interviewed at the “I Will Shout Youngstown” blog.  If you haven’t checked out that weblog before, do take a look.  Tons of really interesting entries there about Youngstown and issues related to community revitalization, a subject many American cities are faced with at the moment.  I talk mostly about Youngstown in…

  • Kant on peace

    Lately I’ve doing some translation work for a Japanese publisher that is making a bilingual book on peace for teens, using Immanuel Kant’s philosophy and theory of how peace is established and maintained.  So I’ve been reading Kant in English and Japanese to do this. I’d read a little of Kant previously but not enough, so it’s…

  • More good news

    I found out yesterday my story, “In Between Dreams”, will be included in the Solaris Book of New Fantasy, which will appear in December 2007.  It’s another of the stories I wrote while in Japan.  It seems more of those will soon be appearing.  I’m beginning to get excited for others to read them.  I’ve…

  • Comfort food

    I’ve been not feeling so good the past couple of days, which finally emerged as the sore throat that conquered the world.  It hurt to even swallow last night, so I made myself comfort food my adopted mom in Japan had sent me, and took the day off from school, and slept in, and am…

  • Monkey Majik

    I ran across this song of the day at NPR’s website today.  It’s a song by a band in Sendai, Japan called “Monkey Majik”, two white brothers from Canada who went to Japan to teach English and stayed, and two Japanese members.  They’re apparently getting pretty popular in Japan.  It’s a blend of pop and hip…