30年前のブログ

I was in Japan for one year (1985-1986) on the research grant of the Japan Foundation while writing my book Yoshiwara and subsequent book Ooku. Recently I found a collection of my brief observations and comments on various aspects of Japanese life. I had come to the United States as a college freshman in 1953, and although I had gone back to Japan for brief visits and research since then, I had not lived there over a couple of months. My comments in 1985-86 are interesting because of the passage of time since then. It is also light-hearted and humorous although points I attempted to make are serious. Since I never published these essays, I would like to publish them with added observations and comments from 2014. Although blogs as such did not exist in 1985-86, I would like to call the essays "Blogs of 30 years ago."