Take this ring and smash it

Writing for Pulse has been fun. But it got so much more fun with this story about divorce ceremonies in Japan that end with a cathartic smashing of rings. I found a short story about the phenomenon in a Japanese magazine and figured it had already been done to death in the English media - it sounds like that kind of story. It's gotten a ton of coverage in the Japanese (and Korean) media, but the only place it had been picked up in English was in an un-bylined story in the Mainichi, in translation from a Japanese story they'd done about it. Not even a photo.

I pieced together a story from a few Japanese reports online and the blog of the guy who runs the ceremonies, Hiroki Terai, but there were some discrepancies that didn't sit right with me. I made a quick call, expecting an endless runaround with some corporate PR department who would demand ID and faxes and the right to check the story before it went out. Instead, I reached a friendly older-sounding woman (imagine, at Friendly Travel), who answered my questions and gave me the cell number for the divorce guy himself. Terai picked up right away, and we chatted for 45 minutes. He was so interesting and sincere about what he's doing: providing a clear, dignified way to mark the end of a marriage and make a positive start to a new phase of life. If the photos make it all look a little goofy, that speaks more to his sense of humor than to a lack of seriousness.
Blogs are under no obligation to get quotes - they're often just an endless circle of links to each other, or to original content in other forms. Not necessarily bad, that's just generally where we fit into the information ecosystem. But since Terai was so accessible, it seemed like a waste not to just go ahead and rock some direct talk. It was so much more fun to write it that way.
I was a little afraid that my friends at Mutant Frog would give it the 2D Love treatment. (I'm not sure if I'm proud or disappointed that they didn't.) We did get some hostile, nutty comments on Pulse, but not the "You're sensationalizing!!1!" kind I was expecting. Something about writing about Japan makes people slap around broad, cliche-soaked brushes. I wouldn't be surprised if the next person who writes about the ring-smashing ceremony throws in some eye-popping sloppy numbers and overgeneralizations. That story will probably be more fun to read. But for now, check out mine.