Hmm...when you say Alex Kerr "knows NOTHING about present day Japan, nor will he likely ever know", it sounds more like you're talking about yourself. Just because you haven't been able to penetrate the culture doesn't mean it's not possible; it just means that the opinions of those who have--like Kerr--are all the more valuable.
Far from confusing the 2 countries, Kerr knows quite a lot about both China and Japan. The Chinese cultural influence on Japan is great, and it's perfectly valid for him to title his book that way. Perhaps you'd like every book about Japan to have the words 'chrysanthemum' or 'sword' in the title?
Strange thing is, Alex Kerr is just as Japanese as lots of Japanese people are. His Japanese is perfect (in fact, better than your average Japanese Joe), he's lived there forever, and he's had access to a lot of amazing behind-the-scenes stuff that lots of regular Japanese don't know about. He's not just some dude that just went to the University of Minnesota and got a PhD in writing articles on Japan.
He's not lying when he says that a lot of the stuff he writes about resonates with--and was inspired by--lots of Japanese people. The guy is what he is supposed to be: an expert on Japan who can, among other things, clue you in to what ordinary Japanese people feel (some of them, anyway).
At the very least, his opinions are worth listening to.
When I was living in Japan, most people were taking advantage of the 'tele-hoodai' (roughly translated to 'unlimited dial') offered by NTT, where during a fixed time period (think it was 9pm to 5am or so) you paid a single price for unlimited local calls. I doubt it was all the rich people that clogged up my ISP at 9:01!
When discussing the relative expense required to buy computers, you might want to give them a little background on what things cost over there: $2000 for a computer is not necessarily a life-threatening expense when a driver's license costs much more than that.
And the language barrier is at its least with computer and Internet stuff in Japan, since the technical terms make it easier for real communication to happen.
The Atlantic stuff has to do with Alex Kerr. Alex Kerr is a japan geek whose goal is to communicate to others what he sees happening in Japan. He's one of the rare foreigners to ever have a best-selling book in Japan--that he wrote himself in Japanese--whose topic actually had something to do with Japanese aesthetics. He is a person in a unique position to raise questions and issues about Japan that ordinary journalists or japanophiles would never get a chance to get near.
So you might want to care what he says about Japan, despite your anti-Atlantic feelings.
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Hmm...when you say Alex Kerr "knows NOTHING about present day Japan, nor will he likely ever know", it sounds more like you're talking about yourself. Just because you haven't been able to penetrate the culture doesn't mean it's not possible; it just means that the opinions of those who have--like Kerr--are all the more valuable.
Far from confusing the 2 countries, Kerr knows quite a lot about both China and Japan. The Chinese cultural influence on Japan is great, and it's perfectly valid for him to title his book that way. Perhaps you'd like every book about Japan to have the words 'chrysanthemum' or 'sword' in the title?
Strange thing is, Alex Kerr is just as Japanese as lots of Japanese people are. His Japanese is perfect (in fact, better than your average Japanese Joe), he's lived there forever, and he's had access to a lot of amazing behind-the-scenes stuff that lots of regular Japanese don't know about. He's not just some dude that just went to the University of Minnesota and got a PhD in writing articles on Japan.
He's not lying when he says that a lot of the stuff he writes about resonates with--and was inspired by--lots of Japanese people. The guy is what he is supposed to be: an expert on Japan who can, among other things, clue you in to what ordinary Japanese people feel (some of them, anyway).
At the very least, his opinions are worth listening to.
When I was living in Japan, most people were taking advantage of the 'tele-hoodai' (roughly translated to 'unlimited dial') offered by NTT, where during a fixed time period (think it was 9pm to 5am or so) you paid a single price for unlimited local calls. I doubt it was all the rich people that clogged up my ISP at 9:01!
When discussing the relative expense required to buy computers, you might want to give them a little background on what things cost over there: $2000 for a computer is not necessarily a life-threatening expense when a driver's license costs much more than that.
And the language barrier is at its least with computer and Internet stuff in Japan, since the technical terms make it easier for real communication to happen.
The Atlantic stuff has to do with Alex Kerr. Alex Kerr is a japan geek whose goal is to communicate to others what he sees happening in Japan. He's one of the rare foreigners to ever have a best-selling book in Japan--that he wrote himself in Japanese--whose topic actually had something to do with Japanese aesthetics. He is a person in a unique position to raise questions and issues about Japan that ordinary journalists or japanophiles would never get a chance to get near.
So you might want to care what he says about Japan, despite your anti-Atlantic feelings.