It’s hard to over-estimate the cultural impact the Beatles have had on Japan, and over the decades many a student of English has learned the language by translating and analyzing Beatles song lyrics. This is true of Tomo, the J-List employee who keeps our site stocked with interesting DVDs and Hello Kitty shoulder massagers. When he came to work here ten years ago, I’m sure he never expected to meet an American quite like me, who had embraced Japanese popular culture to learn about Japan just as he had done the opposite to learn about American and Europe. One day we were talking about the classic 1972 song “Alone Again (Naturally)” by Gilbert O’Sullivan, which a former student of mine had ironically played at her wedding, clearly not understanding the words of the song. For some reason I’d been sure that the song had been sung by the Beatles, and I’ll never forget the look of utter shock on his face that an American could get a fact like that wrong — it was quite a surprise for him. Tomo was tickled to receive his copy of the Beatles Box Set of remastered discs today, which he got a day earlier than the rest of the world thanks to Japan being a day ahead. He picked up the “stereo” version, but also plans to get the “mono” version — a total outlay of $700!
As Peter proves once again that his favorite anime is K-On, and he can’t use any other anime for a web graphic.
