Teruyo Nogami in the New York Sun, at Japan Society tonight

Using the Nakadai retrospective at Film Forum as a chance to reflect on Akira Kurosawa's life and legacy, Bruce Bennett interviewed Teruyo Nogami for the New York Sun yesterday, writing:

If one were to say that Kurosawa is one of the 20th century's filmmaking deities, Ms. Nogami was his archangel. (read more...)

Nogami-san will speaking at the Japan Society in New York City tonight to support the release of her Stone Bridge book, Waiting on the Weather: Making Movies with Akira Kurosawa.

Stone Bridge Press Sponsors the New York Asian Film Festival, Which Opens Tonight!

Stone Bridge Press is proud to be a sponsor of this year's New York Asian Film Festival, which opens tonight and runs through July 6. There are too many great films to name this year! Whatever you decide to see, look out for giveaways of Stone Bridge film titles, including The Films of Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Anime Classics Zettai!, Asia Shock, and The Midnight Eye Guide to New Japanese Film, throughout the festival.

What a time for film lovers to be in New York. A major Nakadai retrospective opens at Film Forum tonight, and Teruyo Nogami, author of Waiting on the Weather: Making Movies with Akira Kurosawa, will be making some very special appearances in New York and D.C.

Journalist Fumio Matsuo to Speak in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Palo Alto

Ever wondered what the Japanese think of American history? Curious how the Japanese media is portraying the US presidential election? Democracy with a Gun author and veteran international journalist Fumio Matsuo will be speaking on these topics in Los Angeles on June 24 and in the Bay Area on June 28 and 30.

---Los Angeles Event---
Tuesday, June 24
"Citizen Forum: Hiroshima-Pearl Harbor Reconciliation"
6:30 p.m.
Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena CA
Free admission / Reservations recommended To RSVP, email to info@culturalnews.com or call Cultural News at (213) 819-4100.
(more info...)

Program moderated by Hugh Leonard of Los Angeles, a business consultant specializing in providing services to Japan-based American companies.
Co-sponsored by Armory Center for the Arts, Cultural News and Japan America Society of Southern California.

---Bay Area Events---
"Democracy with a Gun: A Conversation with Fumio Matsuo"

Please join the Japan Society of Northern California as we co-sponsor two special talks with Mr. Fumio Matsuo, the author of Democracy with a Gun: America and the Policy of Force. In this book, one of Japan’s best-known international journalists traces America’s position today as the world’s sole superpower. With a foreign perspective rarely provided by English-language media pundits, Mr. Matsuo provides in-depth, controversial analysis of America’s use of force to achieve its goals.

Mr. Matsuo will be speaking about his book, as well as providing insight on Japan’s views of the upcoming U.S. presidential election, on the following dates:

Saturday, June 28
Time: 2:00-4:00 pm
Place: Japanese American Association
of Northern California
Address: 1759 Sutter Street, San Francisco [map]
This talk will be in Japanese; it is free and open to the public.
Questions: 415.567.4824
Co-sponsored by the Japanese American Association
of Northern California

Monday, June 30
Time: 6:30-8:45 pm
Place: Morrison and Foerster, International Room
Address: 755 Page Mill Road, Palo Alto [map]
Fees: $10 General Admission
This talk will be in Japanese. Registration deadline is Friday, June 27. To register, please contact 650.522.8500 or mail@jccnc.org.
Co-sponsored by the Japanese Chamber of Commerce of Northern California

Fumio Matsuo worked for the Kyodo News Service from 1956 to 2002, serving as Washington Bureau Chief from 1981 to 1984. Democracy with a Gun was first published in Japanese in 2004 and then in English in 2007; it won the 52nd Annual Award of the Japan Essayist Club.

(more info...)

Haruki Murakami book in the Hipster Book Club and Life in the Cul-de-Sac on the rgdinmalaysia blog

A Wild Haruki Chase: Reading Murakami Around the World was recently reviewed at the Hipster Book Club, where Michael Ward writes:

A Wild Haruki Chase is a fine collection of essays touching on a number of subjects including globalization, postmodernism, and translation issues. . . . The volume represents a work of criticism that is open not only to Japanese literature scholars but Murakami fans in general.
(read more...)

Also, in the blogs, Senji Kuroi's Life in the Cul-de-Sac, translated by Philip Gabriel, recently showed up at rgdinmalaysia, where it is interestingly compared to Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio.

China for Businesswomen in the Wall Street Journal's "Faux Pas"

In her Wall Street Journal "Faux Pas" column on karaoke as a business tool in East Asia, Emily Flitter quotes China for Businesswomen author and international business expert Tracey Wilen-Daugenti. Check it out. The story has a great opener:

The first deal Paula Beroza ever struck in China was sealed after she sang "Red River Valley" at a luncheon.

Rock on!

Linguist-Violonist Teaches China Survival

In an exciting lead-up to the China Survival Guide booksigning at Schuler Books in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on June 21, The Grand Rapids Press ran a feature on full-time violinist and full-time language professor (and full-time China Survival Guide co-author) Larry Herzberg on Sunday. The article's full of gems from the multi-talented instructor, especially this one:

"Music, of course, is the universal language. And every language, spoken well, is music."

Herzberg, who speaks eight languages (Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, German, Russian, Italian, French, and...English), is a big fan of felines. From the article:

He's cat crazy. He started a newsletter for symphony members called COMA -- Cats of Musicians Association. "I once spent a three-hour train ride with him just talking about his cats," says Aaron Lester, a Calvin College student who went on one of Herzberg's China trips. "He can talk about his cats for hours."

Larry's wife Qin, co-author of the China Survival Guide, comments in the article on Larry's splendid sense of humor (something which comes across bright and clear in the travel guide!):

"It's impossible for him not to make a humorous comment every few minutes," says Qin, who teaches upper-level Chinese at Calvin. "If you see a group of people standing together laughing, there's a good chance Larry is in there making jokes for them."
(read more!)

Business Passport to Japan in Rotary and OchTamale

Sue Shinomiya and Brian Szepkouski's new book, Business Passport to Japan, recently popped up in OchTamale, the University of Redlands magazine (Szepkouski is an alumni) and In Flight, the paper of Rotary International District 7470. OchTamale calls the book "a practical how-to guide," and In Flight tells the intriguing story of Szepkouski's journey from student to teacher to scholar to international businessman, based in New Jersey with his heart in Japan.