I found a great Japanese fashion site today. Take a look at this graphic.It shows the interrelationship between men’s styles and magazines that cover it.For the non -Japanese reader, the upper edge of the map is the shoshokusei ga tsuyoi/ryuuko. (This means “Heavy Ornamentation” and “Fashionable.) The orange left-most edge is Onauke-softo which means “Feminine/soft” [...]

10 years ago, before I knew much of anything about Japanese Pop music, other than what I had learned on the streets of Osaka in 1997, I purchased Steve McClure’s Nipponpop from a little bookstore in St. Mark’s Place, NY. It’s a glossy 11×17 book with tons of pictures, good reviews, and lots of eye [...]

As if you have any more time for reading than I do…I’ve recently interacted over Facebook with one of my favorite writers and researchers on Japanese popular culture, Mr. Roland Kelts. Those of you who have attended my classes or lectures know that I have gotten a lot of my material and raw content from [...]