I’m a graduate of the Creative Writing Workshop at the University of New Orleans. This portfolio includes all of my professional writing, mostly about Japan, and my video work. I also maintain a few other blogs.
Conferences
2006 JET Programme Tokyo Orientation Assistant
2007 JET Programme Fukushima Prefecture Orientation Assistant
2016 JET Programme After JET Conference Career Consultant
Translation Work
Masquerade and the Nameless Women, Eiji Mikage, Vertical (2019)
“Snow Day,” Kanoko Okamoto
“Koeber-sensei’s Farewell,” Natsume Soseki
“Dispatch From Tokyo,” Osamu Dazai
I’ve translated a wide variety of materials (Japanese–>English) including the following topics:
- Mobile games, online games (in-game content)
- Tsukemen (dipping ramen)
- Automobile advertisements
- Japanese history (keyhole tombs, Nikko Shrine, Nagasaki and Christianity, lacquerware, various Japanese historical figures, The Frank Lloyd Wright Imperial Hotel)
- Japanese beer
- Japanese law enforcement
- Toy packaging and manuals
- Intra-office pamphlets
- Cosmetic products
- Municipal websites
Writing about Beer
Goldilocks Homebrewing
“Beer Essentials: The craft beer boom in Japan shows no signs of running dry,” The Japan Times
Writing about Japan
How to Japanese Substack:
This is where I do most of my writing these days. I post once a month on a language-related topic.
The Threepenny Review:
Table Talk, Fall 2012 (full text not online)
Néojaponisme:
“Murakami Haruki B-Sides”
“Still No Nobel”
“Mistranslating Murakami”
“2008: The Rise of Watanabe Atsumu”
“Enryo”
“Loss and Recovery: 1Q84 and Murakami’s Sunken Continent”
“2011: 1Q84 Goes Abroad”
“Colorless Tazaki Tsukuru and His Years of Pilgrimage”
“Murakami Haruki’s Advertorial Short Stories”
The Japan Times:
Misc:
“‘Automatic Eve’ review: Familiar tropes reimagined with brilliant sci-fi originality”
“One man’s journey to perfect homemade nattō”
Murakami:
“Unresolved mystery from the mind of Murakami”
“In ‘Tsukuru Tazaki,’ Murakami once again shifts his point of view”
“Haruki Murakami’s new book peels back the layers of friendship”
“What to prepare for when you’re expecting one of Murakami’s mammoths”
“‘Killing Commendatore’: Murakami’s latest lacks inspired touch of earlier works”
Why Did You Leave Japan?:
“Tsubasa Watanabe: Model mixes punk with fashion on the runways of New York”
“June Yamagishi: Hitting New Orleans with a suitcase and a guitar”
“Leading cancer researcher Yusuke Nakamura pursues answers”
“Yoshihisa Arai: Floating on air in Chicago”
Bilingual:
2010
“Take your taimingu when translating loan words”
“The value of seemingly empty Japanese phrases”
“‘Ii‘ is a perfectly good way to say, ‘No, thank you‘”
“Battling language’s law of diminishing returns”
2011
“Stop worrying and embrace the passive tense”
“Procedural phrasing: often a pain, but always polite”
“Japanese humor: more universally funny than you think”
2012
“Ii ne! Facebook is a perfect place for Japanese immersion”
2014
“Keep calm before carrying on when speaking Japanese”
“Being laughed at can help your Japanese evolve”
“Drinking in Japan: Sober words to help you socialize”
“Particles create the chemistry of adjectives and adverbs”
“Complicated characters: Let us now praise difficult kanji”
“Discovering verb stems: A gokan oasis in the desert of gobi”
“Going backward to get ahead with studying Japanese”
“The annual pain and pleasure of punished comedians”
2015
“The myths and misery of translating Japanese video games”
“‘Ka’ can help you sound less like Mr. Roboto”
“Avoiding the subject isn’t such a bad idea in Japanese”
“Submitting yourself to the 50 shades of arigatō gozaimasu”
“In Japanese, mastery of the space-time continuum is just a few words away”
“Keep pounding away and eventually Japanese will reveal its secrets”
“Jiko-PR gives job seekers a rare chance to brag in Japanese”
“When translation gets tough, bow to the ‘Green Goddess’”
“A pocketful of Japanese immersion is just a few key taps away”
2016
“Look to ‘senpai’ to help take your Japanese reading to the next level.”
“To furu or furareru: In Japanese or any language, breaking up is hard to do”
“Condolences: what to say when there’s nothing you can say”
“To be a more complete Japanese speaker, leave your sentences incomplete”
“Repetition and role-play are crucial for speaking success in Japanese”
“A Japanese guide to dealing with gentleman callers and unruly dogs”
“Wikipedia ‘deep dives’ can help recreate the joys and pains of Japanese-language immersion”
“‘Thursday Night Football’ NFL draws Friday morning tweeters in Japan”
“Japanese translators forced to grab the Trump bull by the horns”
“‘Tis the season for ‘tegami’ — and for facing your Japanese letter-writing fears”
“To email in Japanese, take a layer cake of etiquette and stuff it with meaning”
2017
“Investing big but wisely in Japanese study aids can reap dividends”
“Watch, read, rewind: using Netflix to boost your Japanese”
“Conquering ‘Commendatore’: Murakami brandishes familiar lexicon in latest novel”
“Tanka help Japanese express emotions”
“Asking questions to the Japanese internet”
“Enka gives lessons in Japan’s unattainable love”
“Learn Japanese as you travel the world”
“Blue Sky Books is a literary treasure trove”
2018
“Yonkoma manga: Lives told, lessons learned in four frames”
“Cheat your way to better Japanese with walkthrough video game guides”
“OK Google, auto-fill the gaps in my Japanese”
“Whose line is it anyway? Tips for deciphering dialogue in Japanese fiction”
“At 180,000 entries, Jim Breen’s freeware Japanese dictionary is still growing”
“When stumped in Japanese, go where the stumped Japanese go”
2019
“Japanese that’s so beautiful it belongs in a museum”
“使用? 利用? Make use of a dictionary to use your Japanese properly”
“When giving a public speech in Japanese, tears can be your trump card”
“Get in tune with the sound of Japanese vocabulary”
“There’s more than just page numbers in the index of a Japanese literary magazine”
“How to address the ‘sisters’ we’ve never met”
“A podcast that talks to bilingual people about studying Japanese and working in Japan”
“Being your best self in spoken Japanese with the cast of ‘Queer Eye.’”
“Cleaning house (and head) at the end of the year”
2020
“Life begins at 60 (or at least it starts anew)”
“Look for love to overcome Japanese-language study difficulties”
“’Emergency’ Japanese can help build fluency”
“Your Japanese vocabulary can expand as the new coronavirus spreads”
“Getting a party rolling in Japanese”
2021
“Radical recombinations: Capture the moment with created kanji”
“Confess! Dating in Japan requires short set phrases to spark the fire”
“Put your yen to work with the language of investing”
“Focus on sentence endings to ‘see the future’ in Japanese”
“Immerse yourself in the creativity and language of Japanese TikTok accounts”
“What exactly does it mean when someone tells you to ‘act your age’?”
“‘PPAP,’ ‘golden jewels’ and other words that make the Japanese giggle”
“Make Japanese politics more concrete by training your ears”
“Let the verbs do the work when it comes to pronouns and polite speech in Japanese”
Let’s Go: Japan
I researched and wrote copy for the first (and only) edition of Let’s Go: Japan. I was responsible for Kamakura, Yokohama, Nagoya, Awaji-shima, all of Shikoku, Beppu, and Kita-Kyushu.
CNNGo Tokyo:
“In the bag: Black tea’s revival at G Clef”
“Domo arigato, Mr Robata: Classic robatayaki at Musashi”
“Hoofin’ it in Oimachi: Jingisukan grilled lamb at Kitaichi Club”
“The great Shibuya Station beer-lover’s pub crawl”
“Japlish: It’s two confusing languages in one!” (Please note that I did not title this piece.)
Japan Pulse:
“Pulse Rate: 社畜 (shachiku)”
“Baum cake blitz”
“Internet Go BOOM: Visual Kei’s Deep Throat”
“How to make a Big Bang in show business”
“Big (only) in Japan? Beer Salesgirls”
“Will a coven of Witch Girls grow in Japan?”
“Kings of comedy yuck it up on April Fools”
“With Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, is a hit for the PSP at hand?”
“The knock-on effect of Murakami’s “1Q84” series”
“Major beer companies diet excessively while craft brewers beef up”
“Big (only) in Japan? Tape as proof of purchase”
“Apartment shares in Japan draw a share of the herd”
“No Konbini No Life: instant maze-soba”
“Daburu Koron hit big time with pun-riddled riddles”
“Mixi helps users socialize with new apps”
“Pulse Rate: ‘Free rent’ pricing aims to fill up empty apartments”
“Big (Only) in Japan? ‘Greensleeves’”
“Who will feed the Haruki Murakami fans online?”
“KFC goes for finger-lickin’ health-conscious goodness”
Ploughshares Blog
“Ploughshares Fantasy Blog Draft – An Introduction”
“Fantasy Blog Draft – Team Introductions”
“Round 1 – Editors”
“Round 2 – Fiction Writers”
“Round 3 – Wildcard Picks!”
“Round 4 – Nonfiction Writers”
“Round 5 – Poets”
“Round 6 – Final Wildcard Picks!”
“Fantasy Blog Draft Hype Week!”
“Ploughshares Fantasy Blog Draft Round 1 – Leave it to Cheever vs The Mighty Duck Palahniuks”
“Ploughshares Fantasy Blog Draft Round 1 – Buckle Your Corn Belts vs Vonnegut to the Chopper!”
“Ploughshares Fantasy Blog Draft Round 2 – The Mighty Duck Palahniuks vs The Holden Caulbabies”
“Ploughshares Fantasy Blog Draft Round 2 – Vonnegut to the Chopper! vs What the Chuckin’ Buk?!”
“Ploughshares Fantasy Blog Draft Finals: The Holden Caulbabies vs What the Chuckin’ Buk?!”
“The Ploughshares Fantasy Blog Champion”
“MFAs Do It Best: Your Graduate Degree in the Workforce”
Video Work
How to Japanese Video Supplements:
How to Shinjuku Station
Underrated Japan Vol. 1 – Shinagawa Morning Rush
Old Edo Great Beer Pub Crawl
Underrated Japan Vol. 2 – Mikan
Underrated Japan Vol. 3 – Tonkatsu
How to Higaeri Onsen
How to Bank Mad Cash in Japan
仁亭
My New Orleans
Natto Experiments
Good Eats – Musashi
JR Station Pub Crawl – Yamanote
Collabo-Ramen – 魚雷 Gyorai
Free Tourism – The Tokyo International Forum
Collabo-Ramen – 六厘舎 Rokurinsha
Yokohama 開港 Great Beer Pub Crawl
Collabo-Ramen ひるがお Hirugao
Collabo-Ramen – むつみや Mutsumiya
Collabo-Ramen – けいすけ二代目 Keisuke Nidaime
Shibuya Station Circumnavigation Great Beer Pub Crawl
Collabo-Ramen – Bassanova
Collabo-Ramen – naginicai
Collabo-Ramen – Shichisai
Collabo-Ramen – Junk Garage
Collabo-Ramen – Ikaruga
Collabo-Ramen – Honda
Baird Beer Taproom Pub Crawl
Cafe du Monde Abroad – Beignets in Japan