Natural Healing Center Interactive Magazine

Day 2 – Q2. So intuitive art means that there’s no planning or prior knowing
what you’re going to draw?

Reply:
Well, not exactly. The drive to do art I think is universally motivated by a desire to express feelings. You want to see your feelings manifested in a tangible form. That’s what art’s about. So in my art, something that day in my environment or circumstances would set the mood. Like the first painting I ever did in my adult years, on my 36th birthday, came about at a wonderful artist’s home near Mount Fujii, where the artist Pam Honda was giving me and my husband Aki a our first “art lesson.” She flabbergasted us by putting out colors and paper and leaving us to it. No instructions! But it was a brilliant technique, because it got us to relax and fun and let go of expectations about results.

UPCOMING INTERVIEWS
* Barbara Ferretti Matsuura , Tai Chi Instructor, Reiki Master and healer extraordinaire.
* Leza Lowitz Writer, Yoga Teacher and Healer on her new book.
* Erik Bragg on Hypnosis and the 7th Path.
* Gretta McIlvaine founder of Bridge Between the Worlds Healing Center and Graduate of the Barbara Brennan School of Healing.
* Tsunami Disaster Appeal – Rotary Reaching Out – 9 Hour Concert in Fremantle Australia www.rotaryreachingout.com

Day 1 – Q1. How did you become an intuitive artist?

Reply:
It came about purely through coincidences. I’m not a schooled artist,
meaning I have zero art school training, so when I first started
getting this impulse to draw and paint nine years ago, I had only my
imagination to turn to. So I would put nice colors down and wait for
them to start looking like something recognizable. Doing art this way
was fun and took a lot of the pressure I was feeling as a journalist to
think in a linear rational way.

Genesis Cards by Liane Wakabayashi and Andy Boerger

UPCOMING INTERVIEWS
* Barbara Ferretti Matsuura , Tai Chi Instructor, Reiki Master and healer extraordinaire.
* Leza Lowitz Writer, Yoga Teacher and Healer on her new book.
* Erik Bragg on Hypnosis and the 7th Path.
* Gretta McIlvaine founder of Bridge Between the Worlds Healing Center and Graduate of the Barbara Brennan School of Healing.
* Tsunami Disaster Appeal – Rotary Reaching Out – 9 Hour Concert in Fremantle Australia www.rotaryreachingout.com

Modern Japan and the art of humourous pathos.
An Interview with Janice Valerie Young, author of Sweet Daruma, a Japan satire.

Day 7 – Q7. How has local media reaction been?

Reply:
I’m still in the process of local promotion, and I am really happy with the generosity and kindness of the local media. I think as English-speakers in Japan we’re spoiled that way—just pick up the phone and you can basically talk to the newspaper and magazine book reviewers directly. No large bureaucracy to get through, and not as much competition as you’d get in a native-English market.

Sweet Daruma is available at Amazon.com now and will be sold in-store at Kinokuniya Takashimaya Times Square in a few weeks, plus Kinokuniya and Maruzen online stores.
A website about the book and the author will be up at the end of January.
www.sweetdaruma.com

UPCOMING INTERVIEWS
* Writer Liane Wakabayashi on Breakthroughs in Art and Writing with The Genesis Cards.
* Barbara Ferretti Matsuura , Tai Chi Instructor, Reiki Master and healer extraordinaire.
* Leza Lowitz Writer, Yoga Teacher and Healer on her new book.
* Erik Bragg on Hypnosis and the 7th Path.
* Tsunami Disaster Appeal – Rotary Reaching Out – 9 Hour Concert in Fremantle Australia www.rotaryreachingout.com

Modern Japan and the art of humourous pathos.
An Interview with Janice Valerie Young, author of Sweet Daruma, a Japan satire.

Day 6 – Q6. What are your plans for the book? Where do you see it going?

Reply:
I’ve got big plans! I think the rest of the world needs to learn about modern Japan and I’m sure they are interested, so it’s simply a matter of promotion. I studied advertising and that’s the best lesson I learned—PROMOTE! No one will read your book if they don’t know it exists. Cutting through the clutter though, that’s another challenge altogether. I would like a large publishing house to buy the rights to the book, along with a film company. I think Sweet Daruma would make an incredibly entertaining movie. And the website www.sweetdaruma.com is up and running—check it out for news, reviews, and contests.

Sweet Daruma is available at Amazon.com now and will be sold in-store at Kinokuniya Takashimaya Times Square in a few weeks, plus Kinokuniya and Maruzen online stores.
A website about the book and the author will be up at the end of January.
www.sweetdaruma.com

UPCOMING INTERVIEWS
* Writer Liane Wakabayashi on Breakthroughs in Art and Writing with The Genesis Cards.
* Barbara Ferretti Matsuura , Tai Chi Instructor, Reiki Master and healer extraordinaire.
* Leza Lowitz Writer, Yoga Teacher and Healer on her new book.
* Erik Bragg on Hypnosis and the 7th Path.
* Tsunami Disaster Appeal – Rotary Reaching Out – 9 Hour Concert in Fremantle Australia www.rotaryreachingout.com

Modern Japan and the art of humourous pathos.
An Interview with Janice Valerie Young, author of Sweet Daruma, a Japan satire.

Day 5 – Q5. Was it difficult to write from the point of view of so many diverse characters? How did you manage to get inside the male Japanese mind?

Reply:
Living with a Japanese man is a good start! But seriously, being a writer involves imagining characters from the inside out. I was attempting to portray the situations of both men and women, Japanese and non-Japanese from various angles. There hasn’t been enough discussion about Western women in Japan and I wanted to explore, debunk, and clarify a few things about them. Also, I wanted to show the good, bad, and the ugly that exists in all of us, in varying degrees.

Sweet Daruma is available at Amazon.com now and will be sold in-store at Kinokuniya Takashimaya Times Square in a few weeks, plus Kinokuniya and Maruzen online stores.
A website about the book and the author will be up at the end of January.
www.sweetdaruma.com

UPCOMING INTERVIEWS
* Writer Liane Wakabayashi on Breakthroughs in Art and Writing with The Genesis Cards.
* Barbara Ferretti Matsuura , Tai Chi Instructor, Reiki Master and healer extraordinaire.
* Leza Lowitz Writer, Yoga Teacher and Healer on her new book.
* Erik Bragg on Hypnosis and the 7th Path.
* Tsunami Disaster Appeal – Rotary Reaching Out – 9 Hour Concert in Fremantle Australia www.rotaryreachingout.com

Modern Japan and the art of humourous pathos.
An Interview with Janice Valerie Young, author of Sweet Daruma, a Japan satire.

Day 4 – Q4. Obviously, humour is one of the main techniques you employ in the book. But it’s often a humour with pain. Would you agree?

Reply:
Yes. I was aiming for a humourous pathos. To me that’s what really touches the nerve centre, the soul. Whether you’re a Westerner or a Japanese, an animal or a gangster, you can relate to sympathetic pity, and sometimes the only thing you can do is laugh…if you don’t want to cry!

Sweet Daruma is available at Amazon.com now and will be sold in-store at Kinokuniya Takashimaya Times Square in a few weeks, plus Kinokuniya and Maruzen online stores.
A website about the book and the author will be up at the end of January.
www.sweetdaruma.com

UPCOMING INTERVIEWS

* Writer Liane Wakabayashi on Breakthroughs in Art and Writing with The Genesis Cards.
* Barbara Ferretti Matsuura , Tai Chi Instructor, Reiki Master and healer extraordinaire.
* Leza Lowitz Writer, Yoga Teacher and Healer on her new book.
* Erik Bragg on Hypnosis and the 7th Path.
* Tsunami Disaster Appeal – Rotary Reaching Out – 9 Hour Concert in Fremantle Australia www.rotaryreachingout.com

Modern Japan and the art of humourous pathos.
An Interview with Janice Valerie Young, author of Sweet Daruma, a Japan satire.

Day 3 – Q3. The characters in your book are struggling with their place in Japanese society—do you see this as a naturally more difficult issue for non-Japanese?

Reply:
I think twenty or thirty years ago my answer would be an unequivocal “yes—of course it is more complicated for non-Japanese to resolve identity issues in Japan,” but today I believe it is just as challenging and more traumatic for young Japanese to determine where they fit in. The paradigms that served their parents and grandparents have shifted and crumbled. The security is gone. My hope is that this is viewed more as an opportunity than a negative. I can’t wait for more young, open-minded voices to be heard!

Sweet Daruma is available at Amazon.com now and will be sold in-store at Kinokuniya Takashimaya Times Square in a few weeks, plus Kinokuniya and Maruzen online stores.
A website about the book and the author will be up at the end of January.
www.sweetdaruma.com
UPCOMING INTERVIEWS

* Writer Liane Wakabayashi on Breakthroughs in Art and Writing with The Genesis Cards.
* Barbara Ferretti Matsuura , Tai Chi Instructor, Reiki Master and healer extraordinaire.
* Leza Lowitz Writer, Yoga Teacher and Healer on her new book.
* Erik Bragg on Hypnosis and the 7th Path.
* Tsunami Disaster Appeal – Rotary Reaching Out – 9 Hour Concert in Fremantle Australia www.rotaryreachingout.com

Modern Japan and the art of humourous pathos.
An Interview with Janice Valerie Young, author of Sweet Daruma, a Japan satire.

Day 2 – Q2. The novel confronts the timely and controversial issue of youth prostitution in Japan. What prompted you to focus on this?

Reply:
The more I learned about this issue, the more perplexed and disturbed I became. The thought of a girl prostituting herself to buy a designer bag was really beyond the scope of my imagination, but there it is, happening in Tokyo, in my city! This got me to thinking, and though some may say the idea of teenage urine sellers in my story is too much of a stretch, it’s not—a friend of mine actually heard a couple of men discussing it on the train. So I decided why not take it a step further? And I did, which you’ll read about at the end of the book. I wanted readers to ask themselves, “What is more disgusting: underage sex for a bag, or urine and “number 2” selling?”

Sweet Daruma is available at Amazon.com now and will be sold in-store at Kinokuniya Takashimaya Times Square in a few weeks, plus Kinokuniya and Maruzen online stores.
A website about the book and the author will be up at the end of January.
www.sweetdaruma.com

UPCOMING INTERVIEWS
* Writer Liane Wakabayashi on Breakthroughs in Art and Writing with The Genesis Cards.
* Barbara Ferretti Matsuura , Tai Chi Instructor, Reiki Master and healer extraordinaire.
* Leza Lowitz Writer, Yoga Teacher and Healer on her new book.
* Erik Bragg on Hypnosis and the 7th Path.
* Tsunami Disaster Appeal – Rotary Reaching Out – 9 Hour Concert in Fremantle Australia www.rotaryreachingout.com

Sweet Daruma, a Japan satire
Book Description

Magda is thrilled to leave her globalization-protesting boyfriend in Toronto and head to Tokyo to teach English conversation…or so she thinks. Upon her arrival she is whisked off to save the life of a suicidal salaryman with the help of a strategic idiom. Magda has unwittingly joined the Anne of Grey Tokyo Emergency English Response Team, and she better brush up her vocabulary in a hurry, because the English emergencies keep coming. Suddenly caught up in the politics of English and pop culture in Japan, Magda soon realizes to expect the unexpected. She’s now the student–and Japan definitely has a lot to teach.

Modern Japan and the art of humourous pathos.
An Interview with Janice Valerie Young, author of Sweet Daruma, a Japan satire.

Day 1 – Q1. Your book has an intriguing title. Can you tell us about it and how the idea came about?

Reply:
I wanted the title to reflect the element that ties all the characters and the narrative together—there’s an idea in the story that Japan needs something new, but not another disconnected high-tech gadget—instead an idea, a gift to society, if you will, that connects the old with the new, the folkloric with the modern. I’ve always been enchanted by darumas and find the whole idea of daruma apartments not only feasible, but fantastic. And I felt the need to point out that the novel is a satire, lest readers take the events in the story literally!

Sweet Daruma is available at Amazon.com now and will be sold in-store at Kinokuniya Takashimaya Times Square in a few weeks, plus Kinokuniya and Maruzen online stores.
A website about the book and the author will be up at the end of January.
www.sweetdaruma.com

UPCOMING INTERVIEWS
* Writer Liane Wakabayashi on Breakthroughs in Art and Writing with The Genesis Cards.
* Barbara Ferretti Matsuura , Tai Chi Instructor, Reiki Master and healer extraordinaire.
* Leza Lowitz Writer, Yoga Teacher and Healer on her new book.
* Erik Bragg on Hypnosis and the 7th Path.
* Tsunami Disaster Appeal – Rotary Reaching Out – 9 Hour Concert in Fremantle Australia www.rotaryreachingout.com