**Matt Alt is a Tokyo-based writer, translator, and reporter. He is a contributor to The New Yorker online,CNN, Wired, Slate, The Independent, Newsweek Japan, The Japan Times, and many other publications, and is the co-author of six illustrated books about Japan.

**Matt Alt is a Tokyo-based writer, translator, and reporter. He is a contributor to The New Yorker online,CNN, Wired, Slate, The Independent, Newsweek Japan, The Japan Times, and many other publications, and is the co-author of six illustrated books about Japan.