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 his 2006 book, Japanamerica: How Japanese Popular Culture has Invaded the United States. I came to know about the subject of the previous post, Kuuhaku, after I searched for other works Mr. Kelts has written. In Kuuhaku, there is a story called “Father Hunters,” where Kelts writes so deftly about so many of the issues in the post modern, post bubble landscape, it made it onto my “Must Read” list for the next class I do. He compressed many of the major points into a short 14 pages. Subjects such as Oyaji-gari (hence the title), privileged kids and unemployed dads, ridiculous economic downturns, homelessness, freeter, hikikomori, and all the other early 2000’s stuff that has become commonplace and now is just part of the daily action in Japan. I am about midway through the entire book, and it is indeed a work that I like to ingest slowly and carefully, like a meal at Fletcher’s in Crestwood-savoring the smokiness of the uncomfortable and funny morsels, swishing around the melancholy wine in-between, and experiencing the graphics and drawings like hot bread pudding. Roland Kelts shared some of his new stuff with me, so, if you like this kind of thing, check out these links: Daily Yomiuri Arts Weekend and A Public Space