This past Tuesday night I went to see Robert Whiting speak in front of about 40 people at the Japan-American Society of Washington, D.C. The author talked about his book, The Meaning of Ichiro: The New Wave from Japan and the Transformation of Our National Pastime and Japanese baseball for about 30 minutes before answering questions. Half the audience asked him about the cultural aspects of his book and the other half were interested in the baseball side.
After the formal presentation, Whiting, sounding and looking like he had the flu, fielded more questions and signed copies of his new book. He may be guilty of "clientitis," but Whiting is certainly a fascinating figure who has a tremendous knowledge of Japanese baseball. You Gotta Have Wa is a classic and his new book is excellent. It includes several interesting pages on Masanori Murakami and Shinjo.
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