One of the many memorable moments of our launch party for Curing Japan's America Addiction so graciously hosted by Minoru Morita and his staff two weeks ago in Tokyo was the sumo-style singing of Kunio Sunou. Mr. Sunou belted out a tribute to Mr. Morita's new line of educational institutes, clapping two blocks together at the beginning and the end of the song, as they do to open and close sumo tournaments in Japan.

Craig began taping about 20-30 seconds into the song, when it was clear that Mr. Sunou had the crowd in the palm of his hand. Check out the video here.

And for those who read Japanese, you can find more on Mr. Morita's ambitious plan to build 10,000 schools around Japan to help young and old cope with coming changes and reconnect with the past. As Mr. Morita said when describing his grand ambitions, "As long as there's at least one person as foolish as me out there, it makes things more interesting."

Like a train that simply can't be stopped, the Hitotoki story mapping project continues to blow the doors off chapels and chemists, city after city. Tonight, this morning. afternoon, whatever time it may be, wherever you might be reading this, we launch our latest edition to the Hitotoki canon: HITOTOKI PARIS.

Curated by the lovely, amazing, talented and French speaking Lauren Elkin, this represents yet another Crafted With Care rollout of a Hitotoki city.

We've set a standard from the start of this project to publish only the best of the moments submitted to us. We set out to be selective with the express purpose of providing a more focused experience for the reader, to be the antithesis of web 2.0 content landslides. And to achieve this we've tried to surround ourselves with dedicated editors who understand this vision. So what we're trying to say is, if you have problems with the content of Hitotoki Paris, then blame Lauren. ;-)

As always, Hitotoki is very much a full force collaborative project between Paul Baron, Chris Palmieri and me. So if you have problems with the site, direct the complaints at us!

OK, so it was actually the second time for Craig and Mr. Morita to have met, but still, it's a great photo. Two people from two very different backgrounds and very different generations come together to make a kick-ass book. Of course, I'm talking about our latest title, Curing Japan's America Addiction, written by Morita-san and designed by Mod-san (and translated by Yuko and yours truly). The photo was taken at the Foreign Correspondents' Club in Japan, where Mr. Morita spoke to about 50 reporters and members of the press yesterday. Thanks to Takehiko Kambayashi for the pic, and for some stellar reporting that appears in the book.

Today (Wednesday 7/23) in Japan at 3pm Minoru Morita will be talking to the foreign press and other members of the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan about his explosive new book, Curing Japan's America Addiction. Here's the summary from the FCCJ's website:

Long considered one of Japan's leading political analysts, Minoru Morita's first book translated into English makes no bones about its premise -- that the Koizumi Cabinet, and its ties to the Bush Administration, have destroyed the nation's middle class. Morita says tensions between the countries are growing, and the book was translated into English so that Americans would better understand Japan's political situation.

The 75-year-old author says in the book's first sentence that Japan is on the verge of its greatest political crisis in history. With a general election coming within a year and support for the Fukuda Cabinet still low, make your reservations early as the veteran Nagatacho-watcher predicts how the saga will play out.

If you can't make it to the event in Tokyo, then order the $15 book directly from us and get it shipped free anywhere in the US and Canada or for just $5 anywhere in the world.

I'm getting my first glimpse of our new title, Curing Japan's America Addiction, today. I'm in Tokyo for the official launch of the book this Thursday at the Ru Paul Hotel (OK, it's actually Le Port, but in katakana it reads like Ru Paul). I'm — gulp — supposed to deliver a short speech in Japanese before Mr. Morita's keynote lecture, which is why I arrived a few days early to see if I can still speak Japanese (turns out I can, thank god).

We'll have promos up on the site and special offers to our faithful readers throughout August. If you want a fascinating read on why Koizumi's structural reforms are destroying Japan's middle class and a reminder of just how horrible a president George Bush was — I mean have you read this?! — then this is a book for you. I think we could all use a little detox after the last eight years (but wait, while we're all in detox, they'll bomb Iran...).

Here's Morita quoted on Bloomberg on Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's performance at the recent G-8 summit in Hokkaido:

"He tried to gain points domestically by addressing Japan-specific issues, misunderstanding what it means to chair a summit conference,'' Morita said. "The impression that he gave of Japan to the outside world is that they are egotistical and inward- looking.''

And here's Mr. Morita without the polite media filter on the same subject in a column translated by Chin Music Press:

The G-8 Hokkaido Toyako Summit was an enormous waste. Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda was powerless and showed no leadership. He was dragged about, used and trampled upon by US President George W. Bush.

President Bush forced America's egoism down everyone's throats. He carried through with his "if I'm OK, who cares about the rest?" philosophy. The US flexed its muscles. All the other political leaders were powerless before him. As summit chair, Fukuda was especially pitiful, trying to read Bush's every whim.

Look for more on the book soon. We'll be dealing them out of the back of a van in Kabukicho for a few days, but then we should have a proper link on the site for the rest of the world to buy it.

And so our little Hitotoki family grows once again!

After a long, top-secret incubation period, Hitotoki Sofia is now live. How we longed to scream to the world that this was in the works. Our mouths were sealed lest we break any number of iron-clad Bulgarian NDAs, all composed by a lawyer wearing nothing but tuxedo pants and living off carrots and dip for weeks on end. All this to ensure maximum excitement upon launch. None of us have ever been to Sofia, but based on the small number of Bulgarians we've met (lawyer included) and the stories they managed to collect for the launch of this city, I think it's safe to say Sofia is one of the undiscovered bastions of Eastern European wonder and gentility.

This edition was expertly curated and translated by Konstantin Vulkov and his team at Bulgarian National Darik Radio. We wish to thank him and his staff for all their hard work in bringing the world a little bit closer to Sofia.

Some select quotes from the launch entries:

001:

I like her because Ginka, Binka or Dochka, or whatever her name is, is the singular inhabitant of the stretch who could be possibly called “normal”. I like her and I hate her. For the same reason.

003:

Well, it was not a Cadillac, it was not even a Mercedes, it was not even a Ford, it was just a Wartburg. So from that moment there were two cars on our street. My father’s Wartburg, and the Cadillac of His Excellency. And the Saturday afternoons received a new meaning. My father and I started to wash the car together, with a hose and a soft brush, with soap-suds, the Wartburg started to shine fabulously. It was an enemy worthy of the huge Cadillac’s steel.

004:

I did not only hear the bells, I felt them with every inch of my body. There was something grand in that moment, at least this is how I felt it.

An editorial note:
For Hitotoki Sofia we've left all editorial nuance, spelling and grammar up to the Bulgarian team. This means that some of the phraseologies and word usages are somewhat ... unorthodox. We feel this is all part of the fun of bringing the voice and spirit of the city to a broader audience and hope you enjoy reading it as much as we did organizing it.

It's been a long while since we've had some fresh coffee prose brewing over at cannedcoffee.com, but thanks to Ted Taylor, this week it's all about love, dishonesty, that oppressive rainy season air and the inspirational lyrics of The Monkees. Check it out.

While newspapers gut their book coverage, NPR is expanding its coverage online. And it has good Jessa Crispin of bookslut fame as one of the reviewers. Smart move.

I don't think it's a coincidence that nonprofit news media like NPR see the potential for growing book coverage while most for-profit papers are gnashing their teeth and bemoaning falling advertising rates. It's simple — we need more nonprofit journalism and less focus on shareholders and profit margins. Some things — like investigative journalism, health care and education— just don't work very well under our capitalist system, me thinks.

The Kindle is about to have some competition. The Readius is the size of a cellphone but a 5-inch screen can be pulled from it to read books, magazines, newspapers, et cetera. Plus, and here's the real value added over the Kindle, it is both durable and flexible. From The New York Times:

Mr. O’Rourke of the Flexible Display Center likes the look of the new generation of supple screens, but he also likes their toughness. “Some of them we’ve beaten with hammers, and they still run,” he said. “No one could do that with a BlackBerry.”

And this is just the beginning, O'Rourke believes. "It’s an exciting example, but there are going to be a slew of other devices coming soon, too,” the paper quotes him as saying.

Read the whole story and see a picture of the Readius here.

Saw this on the Shelf Awareness newsletter and wanted to pass it on. It's from a newsletter by the independent bookstore Diesel, in the Oakland, CA, area:

With Independence Day celebrations beginning it seems as good a time as any to celebrate our independents. With the closing of several prominent, internationally-recognized bookstores in the last couple of months--Dutton's in Brentwood, Cody's Books and the Graduate Theological Bookstore in Berkeley--it seems important to take stock of where independent bookselling stands, what it stands for, and what stands against it. Simply put, many stores like ours are doing well, supported by dedicated, intelligent communities of readers who understand the pleasures, virtues, and vital services neighborhood bookstores offer. The closures of these stores should not be misread as some fateful indication of the inevitable decline of independent businesses. However, they do reveal the risks threatening independent businesses these days: escalating overhead costs including rent; reader choices gravitating toward media-encouraged internet purchasing; publisher accommodation to the pressures from increasingly consolidated clients (Amazon, Costco, Walmart, chains) leveraging their power to secure preferential terms. All of these forces work against the greater health of the culture and combine to threaten neighborhood bookstores. Most of them can be alleviated through very simple acts: do not heed the media's predictions and recommendations for 'consumer' behavior; do not increase, through your purchases, the centralised power of large internet and chain companies which distort the markets of cultural goods; and support your local stores. (For more on independent bookstores, check out IndieBound.) Please excuse the rant, but it just has to be said. We hope you enjoy our recommendations and have a summer full of wonderful books.

Well put. Happy 4th all you Americanos!

Here's a summer reading list from World Changing. Glad to see a Chin Music title sneak into the pack!