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FUJIRAMA: Introduction
“FUJIRAMA” is a work of fiction, a fun-loving meditation on what it means to be in Japan without really being part of it, to find oneself at odds with everything despite those memorable moments when it...
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LOY, LOY KRATHONG (A Scene from BANGKOK SUNSET)
(Excerpted from "BANGKOK SUNSET")......The low sun casts an orange-tinged glow on the leafy green premises of the hotel garden. Already the insect chorus heralding nightfall is going full bore,...
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COMING SOON: TIME-RELEASE KARMA
(COMING SOON)John Joyce is back in Thailand trying to make amends for past misdeeds, trying to reconnect with people from his past to set things right, only nothing works out as he wants it to. Along...
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TIANANMEN MOON: Looking back, looking forward
TIANANMEN MOON: INSIDE THE CHINESE STUDENT UPRISING OF 1989Prologue to Twenty-fifth Anniversary Edition – Published in 2014“Trying to Remember, Trying to Forget” Now that China has landed on the moon,...
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FACING AND DEFACING HISTORY: CHINA'S ANTI-JAPAN WAR DRAMAS
(This post was researched during travels in Japan and China in 2014 on an Abe Journalism Fellowship)The war spirit of a Japanese soldier is tested during bayonet practice on innocent ChineseJust when...
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FUJIRAMA: When the Earth shakes, Tokyo shrugs
(excerpt from the novel, FUJIRAMA) The sun rises sharply, poking through the curtain of mist hanging over Tokyo Bay. Golden shafts of light reach across the waters, breaching the underbelly of swollen,...
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MR ABE, TIME TO STEP DOWN FROM YOUR HIGH CASTLE!
Fuji from the airI have updated this post about history and revisionism to include a collegial but curious reaction from the Japan Times, a paper I enjoy reading and sometimes write for. In the last 25...
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CHINA AS SEEN FROM THE SHELVES OF A JAPANESE BOOKSTORE, update
Interested in learning more about China? No need to go further than your local bookstore if you live in Japan. There you will find books of all kinds about the giant, mysterious neighbor on the other...
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ABE IS NOT JUST PLAYING FIREMAN; HE'S PLAYING WITH FIRE
Abe playing fireman: the inadvertent arsonist(Text below from AFP-Jiji report in Japan Times, July 23, 2015)Twitter users were howling in derision after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe used paper models and...
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FUJIRAMA: A Rewriter's Odyssey
INTRODUCTION TO THE NOVELFUJIRAMA tells the story of an American rewriter at a Japanese TV station who gets in trouble with the right wing faction trying to rewrite...
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THE ART OF DRAWING LINES AND CROSSING THEM
by Philip J Cunningham January 19, 2015The bloody attacks on French cartoonists have the Western media talking...
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ZEN IN THE WOODS -the art of making something from nothing
ZEN IN THE WOODSThe concluding section of Philip Cunningham's FUJIRAMA tells the story of a star-crossed couple who face the daunting challenge of an off-season climb of Mount Fuji. They arrive at Zen...
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FAREWELL TO THE FUGITIVE (an excerpt from FUJIRAMA)
(EXCERPT FROM FUJIRAMA)The sun was up and shining, and rice was being served in the temple kitchen but rice was the last thing on...
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CHINA DAILY: Tourism, a natural miscellany of mishaps
By Philip J. Cunningham (China Daily)Updated: 2015-02-26 07:34When I worked as a tour guide in the early 1980s, the standard China tour started in Hong Kong and ended in Beijing. Hong Kong, which was a...
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CHECKING THE RISE OF CHINA ON JAPAN TV
A look at Japanese TV coverage of China in the spring of 2014Japanese variety shows tackle the rise of China in a light-handed way with help of comedians and celebrities Comdedian Beat Takashi hosts...
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ZEN TEMPLE: The legendary catfish stirs...
(An excerpt from FUJIRAMA) The day of the big one started out pretty much like any other day, with the sun rising over Pacific mists and the great city of Tokyo...
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NO ISLAND IS AN ISLAND
(photo by author, story reprinted from International Herald Tribune, August 4, 2006)Philip J. CunninghamKYOTO, Japan: Japan is often described, with just a hint of defensiveness, as an island country,...
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CHINA'S TV WAR MACHINE
New York TimesThe Opinion Pages| OP-ED CONTRIBUTORChina's TV War MachineBy PHILIP J. CUNNINGHAM SEPT. 11, 2014China, the late 1930s. A village is under siege by Japanese troops. A band of Chinese...
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FUJIRAMA -A Reviewer's Review of a Rewriter's Odyssey
"Unique Multicultural Adventure" a book review by Cheryl ChowFUJIRAMA: RE-WRITING JAPAN [Kindle Edition]Philip J Cunningham (Author)Published January 1, 2015"Unique, multicultural adventure!"BY CHERYL...
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