Brian Ashcraft is a journalist and published author who lives in Osaka, Japan. He writes frequently for Kotaku.com and is a contributing editor to Wired Magazine. To many, he leads one of the most enviable lives imaginable. Even so, he remains a kind, humble gentleman. When Joel Johnson of boingboing.net lovingly titled Mr. Ashcraft the "sweetest man in games journalism," he wasn't lying.

His recent book, Arcade Mania!, discusses the history of Japanese arcades, and profiles the sundry kinds of machines to be found in them these days. He found time in his busy schedule to answer a few questions, and give us a peek into his day-to-day life:

What is a typical day in your life like?
Hrm... Do you want a blow-by-blow account? My schedule has changed somewhat because of the new baby. But I usually get up at 7am, feed the baby while my wife makes breakfast. Then I eat breakfast with my wife and older son. After that, I  take him to school.

I come back home, flip on the computer and answer email, Facebook messages, Twitter messages for about an hour or an hour and a half. Then, I work on any magazine articles I'm writing. After that, I search for things to post and write until noon. I have lunch, then play whatever game I'm playing for about an hour. Then, more writing until about 4pm when my son comes back home. Usually play soccer with him and then more writing.

After that! Then I eat dinner, hop in the tub, more writing up until 11pm. Then I go to bed.

Days end up being pretty packed with stuff -- there isn't much downtime at all.

How do you feel about the way the writing medium has evolved?
Do you mean the advent of online? Well, it's obviously made writing more raw and immediate. For example, if I'm doing a feature for a magazine, then I'm probably work on it for at least a month -- often more. So you have extra time to go over every sentence with a comb and research stuff endlessly.

When you're doing online, that time window closes. You don't time in days or weeks, but minutes and seconds. You want to get your copy up as fast as you can and still have it make sense and be interesting. It's a much more taxing style of writing.

Some magazine and newspaper writers have difficulty in making the switch from print to online -- at least, initially.

The current changes we are seeing -- moving from print to online -- is really the biggest change to publishing since the advent of the printing press. Before that, everything was obviously copied by hand. With the printing press, it was possible to disemiate information to a wider audience. With online, it's possible to do that to an even wider audience. This is quite a big deal.

The other big change is clearly moving from something tangible to something less so. You can carry around a magazine and a newspaper, but you cannot carry around a blog or a website. But you can carry around a cell phone and a laptop which can display them. Our physical interaction with what we read has changed -- not to mention what we read has become interactive. Fascinating, no?


Do you have any plans to publish another book?
Oh, of course. Writing books is great fun.


Do you find the time to game leisurely?
I can get in about an hour a day. Recently, I've been playing my DS a ton -- especially the shoot'em up "Ketsui." 

Outside of gaming, what are some of your favorite hobbies?
I love movies. I tend to turn on a movie while writing -- almost like I'm listening to music. Tezuka Osamu said he watched a movie every day of his life. I totally understand where he's coming from. Quite enjoy just having something like "The Third Man" on or whatever. I'm also a big fan of Howard Hawks, and I adore the dialogue in his pictures. "His Girl Friday" or "Bringing Up Baby" are great to listen to.

I've found that living in a foreign country has made me appreciate the sound of the English language much more.

Also, I watch a good chunk of anime, read manga and comic books. Listen to a ton of music as well. 
 

You live in Japan and write for a living. What is it like to lead such an enviable life?
Luck. Lots and lots of luck. When I was in college, I was very much interested in Japan. Here was a country responsible for so many video games and movies and anime I adored. So I just kinda up and came. Didn't have a real plan.

I taught some English, worked odd jobs like a photographer's assistant and a bartender, and eventually I lucked in to writing for Wired magazine. That lead to other writing jobs, such as my current gig at Kotaku.

Since I was 14 or 15, I always wanted to stay home all day and write. In short, I wanted to write full time. And I thought if I could do that and pay the rent and feed myself, then that would be pretty great. I feel very fortunate to be able to do that.


Were there any gaming pros you were especially excited to meet when doing research for Arcade Mania?
Without a doubt, Daigo Umehara. He's achieved somewhat of a mthyical status among fighting game fans, but there isn't much information about him online. So to actually track him down, interview him and hang out with him was a real treat.

That being said, I was excited to meet pretty much everyone in the book. Finding someone like Yu Suzuki and interviewing him isn't a mystery. You contact SEGA and arrange an interview. But how do you find, for example, players like Clover-TAC and Clover-YMN? These are regular people with regular jobs, so lots of detective work is needed to track them down!

And when we'd finally find them, we were always worried whether or not they'd agree to do the interview, but the players were always very generous and more than happy to talk about their passion. I really wanted that passion for arcade gaming to come across in the book.


Do you see yourself being a writer for years to come?
I wouldn't have it any other way. 

Thanks again! I really appreciate your time.
No, thank you. 

Links:

Brian Ashcraft is the night editor for Kotaku as well as a contributing editor for Wired Magazine

Purchase Arcade Mania here