This Sunday is my 12th anniversary as a J-blogger. J-List has been around since 1996, but I trace my beginning as a blogger to the Japanese release of that awful American Godzilla film. I went to see the film with my wife, and as we drove back to our house I was so full of comments I had to send a J-List email update at 3 am to get them all out. I wrote about how the Japanese films illustrated the concept of wabi and sabi, translated as “sober refinement and elegant simplicity,” the esthetic idea that a single rose blooming is more beautiful than one hundred roses, or that a single monster battling all of Japan is more beautiful than a hundred baby Godzillas running around New York. I got an enormous amount of feedback from customers asking for more commentary like that, and I realized that J-List isn’t in the business of selling anime figures and bento boxes and “Looking for a Japanese girlfriend” T-shirts, but is instead all about being a bridge of ideas to Japan for people around the world.
Strangely enough, I’m thankful to this guy for helping me become a better blogger.
