Konnichiwa everybody,
Tsubasa no Okoku (翼の王国), the inflight magazine of the Japanese airline company All Nippon Airways (ANA – 全日空) just released their newest issue, which I worked on! The magazine started a series called “Discovering a City Through Literature” (文学と旅する), and for their first city, they chose to profile San Francisco through the lens of Beat culture and history. The writer of the article, Inui Akito (戌井昭人), is a Japanese author who was influenced by Beat literature and traveled to San Francisco during his youth. This long article is divided in 2 parts. The first part, an eight-page text, features the iconic City Lights Bookstore and the Beat Museum. I’ll tell you more about the second in my next newsletter!
Known for high quality articles and beautiful photos, Tsubasa no Okoku also includes cool Japanese artists. For example, they feature a column by Tokyo’s hottest fashion and cultural icon Mademoiselle Yulia, so I was honored to work with the magazine as the crew’s coordinator and interpreter. Check it out if you take one of their flights!
★ Scroll down for my Bay Area events calendar!
ARCHITECTURE／建築
International high-end fashion brands often open their largest and most beautiful stores in Tokyo. Recently, the French fashion maison Louis Vuitton chose Osaka, the second largest city in Japan, for their new store. The interiors were designed by Peter Marino. The architect is Aoki Jun (青木淳), who has already worked for the brand several times, including the stunning Ginza store. The design for the Osaka shop is inspired by sailing ships—an homage to the city that is the largest port of Japan. The bar and terrace look pretty fun, and I can’t wait to go and see!
FASHION ／ファッション
Peach John is one of Japan’s most popular lingerie stores for young women. Like most clothing companies in Japan, they have always hired 0 size models. However, this month they are releasing a line in collaboration with the comedian and plus-size model Barbie (バービー). Through this collection she helped design, Barbie would like for “women to love their body more” (女性にもっと自分のカラダを好きになってほしい). Japan is a country where celebrities are often pressured to be very skinny, so I personally find it pretty refreshing. Another plus-size comedian, Watanabe Naomi (渡辺直美), has her own plus-size clothing brand too. These shifts are still very new in Japan, so we will have to see if eventually size diversity becomes more common.
YOUTUBER ／ユーチューバー
In my last newsletter, I mentioned Kemio, the fashion icon/influencer who is a popular YouTuber. There’s another YouTube celebrity that I enjoy following these days: Asakura Mikuru (朝倉未来). He is a rising star MMA fighter from Japan’s most prestigious MMA events production company, Rizin. He started a YouTube channel last May, and in less than a year, he has gained more than 800,000 subscribers. His background is interesting, because he didn’t start his fighting career in the usual way, through professional fight promotion. He began as a competitor at The Outsider, a tournament for amateur street fighters. This tournament aims to reform young delinquents through martial arts. And that’s exactly what happened to Mikuru, who is a former delinquent himself. He wasn’t taken seriously at first by his fellow professional fighters. However since 2018, he has been on an eight-win streak, and solidified his dominance by winning entry to Rizin last year. And Mikuru’s younger brother, Asakura Kai (朝倉海), is a popular fighter and YouTuber too! Their YouTube channels have gained popularity with videos of them going to bars in Japan where people have been ripped off and confronting the scammers, with nearly ten millions of views on some. Kickboxing has become a popular trend in the past few years in Japan. The kickboxers Takeru (武尊) and Tenshin (天心), whose fight against Mayweather was widely promoted in 2018, have appeared a lot on Japanese mainstream TV. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Asakura brothers become even more popular this year. Like Kemio, Mikuru will release a book at the end of the month, and I’m interested getting it too!
UPDATE ／ 続報
In my last newsletter, I mentioned the arrest of actress Sawajiri Erika (沢尻エリカ) for drug possession. Since her appearance in court, she has been sentenced to one year and a half in prison, suspended for three years, and her entertainment industry comeback looks uncertain at the moment. Although she is not planning on returning to acting, her management company AVEX Inc. hasn’t fired her despite it being common for production companies to fire talents convicted of a crime. It appears that AVEX Inc. is fully supporting her and would like her to return to the spotlight at some point. In the event she does come back, she will most likely hold an apology press conference to properly explain her actions. It will then depend on the Japanese audience, and if the people want to give her a second chance. I personally hope so!
CORONAVIRUS ／新型Sコロナウイルス
As worry about the coronavirus grows around the world, many people in Japan and in the media are expressing a lot of concern. A significant part of Japan’s economy is reliant on Chinese imports, and tourism, so the current impediment of Chinese manufacturing and the increasing numbers of Chinese tourists cancelling their trips are making a big financial impact. And there’s been another phenomenon lately: Masks and disinfectant gels have completely disappeared from stores. Japanese consumers and tourists have bought ten times more masks than usual since the beginning of the epidemic, so now production has become stalled. People are waiting in long lines before drug stores even open and then buy all the stock within few minutes as soon as a delivery arrives. Masks are sold on internet for twenty times their usual price! As a Japanese person who is used to wearing masks in public spaces, I hope I can buy some soon too!
That’s all for today—thank you for reading. Looking forward to seeing you soon at our next lesson!
最後まで読んでいただき、どうもありがとうございます。皆さまにまたお会いできるのを楽しみにしています。よろしくお願いいたします！
★MY PREVIOUS NEWSLETTER CAN BE SEEN HERE
★SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA CALENDAR
■ Feb 18 / Conversation with artist Fumiyo Yoshikawa in SF
■ Feb 19 / Day of Remembrance in Alameda
■ Feb 21~23 / Screening of Anime “Ride Your Wave” in SF
■ ~ Mar 27 / Group Exhibition with the work of Masako Miki in SF
■ Apr 7 / The Drummers of Japan in Berkeley
■ Apr 11-12 & 18-19 / Cherry Blossom Festival in SF
■ ~May 1 / Exhibition “Fumiyo Yoshikawa: Contemplations in Ink” in SF
■~July / EXCLUSION: The Presidio’s Role in World War II Japanese American Incarceration