Roland Kelts is a Japanese-American writer, journalist, and author of the book Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture has Invaded the US. He has also written numerous articles for the Guardian, The New York Times, The Japan Times, The New Yorker, CNN, BBC, and NHK, among others, exploring how pop culture intersects with and influences society and politics. Kelts has taught at many leading universities such as The University of Tokyo, New York University, Columbia University, and Sophia University, and held talks at many embassies and pop culture conventions. He received a Nieman Fellowship in Journalism from Harvard University in 2017.

In this episode, we discuss his most recent book, The Art of Blade Runner Black Lotus, a deep-dive into the artwork that went into making the first-ever Blade Runner animated series. Along with commentary from Roland, the book includes concept art, sketch work, pre-viz, animation tests, final frames, and interviews with the masterminds behind the show. It’s an absolutely gorgeous book that pairs well with coffee tables and kotatsu alike. 

LINKS: 

• Monkey: New Writing From Japan 
• Roland’s Personal Website/Blog 
• The Lingering Tragedy of Japan’s Lost Generation (Pro tip: Google search the article title to avoid the paywall) 
• United States v. Handley (Wiki) 
• 'Obscene' U.S. Manga Collector Jailed 6 Months (Wired)
• Devil Lady (Wiki) 
• Blade Runner Black Lotus OST (YouTube) 

SUPPORT:

The Deep in Japan Podcast is completely independent and crowd-funded, so if you like what you hear, please consider supporting the show. 

Got something to say? You can reach me at the following:

• www.facebook.com/groups/deepinjapan/ 
• [email protected]

As always, thanks for listening! 

Support the show

The Deep in Japan Podcast is completely independent and crowd-funded, so if you like what you hear, please give a thought to supporting us. 

Got something to say? You can reach me at the following:

• www.facebook.com/groups/deepinjapan/ 
• [email protected]

As always, thanks for listening ー and enjoy the links! 

Support the show

The Deep in Japan Podcast is completely independent and crowd-funded, so if you like what you hear, please give a thought to supporting us.  

Got something to say? You can reach me at the following:

• www.facebook.com/groups/deepinjapan/ 
• [email protected]

Outro song: Fred Again..'s Eyelar

Support the show

The Deep in Japan Podcast is completely independent and crowd-funded, so if you like what you hear, please give a thought to supporting us. 

Got something to say? You can reach me at the following:

• www.facebook.com/groups/deepinjapan/ 
• [email protected]

As always, thanks for listening ー and enjoy the links! 

Support the show

In this episode, we invite Professor John Rucynski back to discuss his book, Bridging the Humor Barrier: Humor Competency Training in English Language Teaching.

John Rucynski is an associate professor at the Center for Language Education at Okayama University. His main research interest is exploring the role of humor in foreign language acquisition and intercultural communicative competence. In addition to editing two volumes about this passion, he has written numerous articles and given conference presentations around the world. His mission going forward is to at least slightly disprove the maxim that “Nothing is as unfunny as trying to explain why something is funny.” 

Books: 

• Bridging the Humor Barrier: Humor Competency Training in English Language Teaching (Rowman & Littlefield; with Caleb Prichard)
• New Ways in Teaching with Humor (TESOL Press)

Articles: 

• Is This Thing On? Teacher Views of Incorporating Humor Into Online Language Classes (The Language Teacher, with Peter Neff)
• L2 Learners' Ability to Recognize Ironic Online Comments and the Effect of Instruction (System; with Caleb Prichard)
• Implementing Humor Instruction into English Language Teaching (English Teaching Forum; with Caleb Prichard)
• The English Classroom as “Warai no ba”: Instructor Views on Humor and Language Learning in Japan (International Journal of Educational Research; with Peter Neff)
• Second Language Learners’ Ability to Detect Satirical News and the Effect of Humor Competency Training (TESOL Journal; with Caleb Prichard)
• Japanese Perceptions of Humor in the English Language Classroom (HUMOR; with Peter Neff)
• Using The Simpsons in EFL Classes (English Teaching Forum)

_________

The Deep in Japan Podcast is completely independent and crowd-funded, so if you like what you hear, please give a thought to supporting us.

The outro was American Joke Man by JAM. Don't know who Spalding Gray is? You're not alone. I thought John was referring to a crayon color. For context, check out his 1987 masterpiece, Swimming to Cambodia. 

Got something to say? You can reach me at the following:

• www.facebook.com/groups/deepinjapan/ 
• [email protected]

As always, thanks for listening! 

Support the show

The Deep in Japan Podcast is completely independent and crowd-funded, so if you like what you hear, please give a thought to supporting us. 

Got something to say? You can reach me at the following:

• www.facebook.com/groups/deepinjapan/ 
• [email protected]

As always, thanks for listening and enjoy the links! 

weatpants Spiderman / Ado - New Genesis / Gen Hoshino - Comedy / Nakajou Kiyoshi 風が泣くとき / “Passengers who don’t want to be groped, please use the rear train cars” announcement angers Japan / New anti-chikan cellphone stickers let you mark train gropers with sign of shame / 10 Popular Japanese Marriage Proposals / さわらないで！/ Groping is a Crime Pins / Stop Chikan Badges / Shiori Ito (wiki) / Naomi Osaka Fornite skin / Naomi Osaka’s MIdrift / Rodcaster Pro II  / SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless / Tsuyama Massacre (wiki) / Jeff's Bedroom Post Operation Get All The Screen

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In this episode, we speak with Dr. Caleb Carter about his book, A Path into the Mountains: Shugendō and Mount Togakushi. 

• Caleb's chapter breakdown on Twitter
• A Path's publisher’s page
• Caleb's New Books Network podcast interview 
• Caleb's Interview with Global Buddhistdoor 
• Pilgrims Until We Die 
• Retro Casio Denshijisho Commercials
• Dogen on YouTube 
• Master Dogen (wiki)
• The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) (wiki) 
• The sanshin shamisen (wiki) 
• Shugendo (wiki)
• Shamisen Hunter (musical outro) 

The Deep in Japan Podcast is completely independent and crowd-funded, so if you like what you hear, please give a thought to supporting us. 

Got something to say? You can reach me at the following:

• www.facebook.com/groups/deepinjapan/ 
• [email protected]

As always, thanks for listening!

Support the show

This episode is a banger, but not quite as good as Censored Japan 1, which is exclusively available at Patreon.com.  Head over and the support the show to receive access to all past and upcoming exclusive content. 

SORA LINKS! 

• Eggslut adds a whole ass eel to a new sandwich in Japan
• Can five middle-aged guys who graduated high school years ago still sing their school songs?
• Yahoo! Japan finds most alphabetic and katakana words Japanese people want to find out about

BOBBY OLOGUN YOUTUBE LINKS! 

• • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uhZt_ijWWI&t=327s
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbzY8XlHIWE 
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYxffL_DW9Y 
  • https://www.youtube.com/user/mrcoconutjapan 
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFeOcnMKnuE 

BOBBY OLOGUN LINKS! 

• https://fl-ntg.com/bobi-kodomo/?fbclid=IwAR2LKYPFwGU_w86C7m0lqA59Xfrw1MDTq5lzJu53c4iKAbL-nH8uTDhzCEA 
• https://bunshun.jp/articles/-/51584?device=smartphone&page=3&fbclid=IwAR0Ep8MLciKiGABI3OSZP_rGrt93qD0sJnLvLh6Jqv5huXlGekwjsKsyXbI 
• https://www.jprime.jp/articles/-/21015?page=3&fbclid=IwAR2ND_jEXikC3Z2pASI5nDHriCZ54IErAOThgcGD15cFGRcWOBvVZk4IOM0 

Support the show

THIS WEEK: Jeff shares an episode from his my new favorite Japan-related podcase: the Ryokans of Nagano Podcast. Want to hear more, check out the show on Spotify or Anchor. 

SUPPORT: The Deep in Japan Podcast is completely independent and crowd-funded, so if you like what you hear, please give a thought to supporting us. 

OUTRO:  Nice Guy 人 - Onsen Song

 ADDITIONAL INFO: Ryokans are not just a place of accommodation, and running an inn means more than just running an inn. The goal of this podcast is to share with the world some of the extraordinary inns of Nagano Prefecture as well as the inspirational stories of their innkeepers.

This podcast is supported by NPO NINJA Project and the Nagano Ryokan Hotel Association.

The host is Tyler Lynch, proprietor of Kamesei Ryokan in Onsen Town Togura-Kamiyamada and uses his personal experience of running a traditional onsen inn to share similar stories of his colleagues.

For our inaugural episode of the Ryokans of Nagano podcast, Akira Mori and his wife Yuki tell us about their gorgeous ryokan, Sakaya, famous for its classical onsen bath with all-wooden architecture.  They also describe their many activities to support their town, as well as explain the secret of what it means for Nozawa Onsen to be a traditional onsen village: 

• Sakaya Ryokan
• Nozawa Onsen Village 

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THIS IS AN EXPERIMENT! If Miho allows me to keep recording our walks (and after the shenanigans of this one the prospect seems highly unlikely) then perhaps this will be a new segment on the show. Assuming you all dig it, that is. Either way, do reach out and let me know what you think at [email protected]

The Deep in Japan Podcast is completely independent and crowd-funded, so if you like what you hear, please give a thought to supporting the show at https://www.patreon.com/deepinjapan

The BGM was Relaxing Jazz & Bossa Nova Music - Studio Ghibli Cover and the outro was Sukiniyaru (Live) by the 変態紳士クラブ (Hentai Shinshi Club)

Make sure to join the Facebook group for all the latest chatter: www.facebook.com/groups/deepinjapan/ 

And as always, thanks for listening!

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