Aflame by Pico Iyer (Riverhead Books)

In a year that has begun with the horror of conflagration, Aflame seems to be an unfortunate choice of title, but Pico Iyer earned the right to use it. On the day his California home burned to the ground, he was in his car, “surrounded by walls of flame, five stories high…not even thinking that a car might be the least safe hiding place of all.” With no place to go, he was sleeping on the floor at a friend’s house when another friend told him about a monastery in Big Sur. There he would find a room of his own with ocean views, “no obligations and a suggested donation of thirty dollars a night.”

It was thirty-three years ago when Iyer first learned “the silence of this place is as real and solid as sound.” He’s been a regular visitor every year since then, so devoted to it that when he leaves his home in Kyoto to come here, his wife tells him she’s worried. Another woman she could contend with but “how can I compete against a temple?”

Iyer is a student of many spiritual disciplines, a man who has known the Dalai Lama since he was a teenager when his father took him to Daramshala.  Espousing no particular religious faith, he respects them all. His mother, a renowned religious scholar, asks with a fair amount of alarm when she learns where her son has found refuge,”You’re not going to get converted?” Iyer reassures her that the order of monks whom he is living among are heavily influenced by Hindu and Buddhist teachings. Proselytization is not their stock in trade.

What they offer is the gift of silence, in a natural sanctuary. Although every Fire Season brings smoke and the threat of flames to their community, they describe the fires as “incandescent,” “radiant.” As neighbors to 900 acres of trees and brush, they coexist with the danger of infernos, the cost of living near a gorgeous source of fuel. Iyer, who has come to them fresh from a fire that “left its mark” on him, discovers this way of being is contagious, even though the monastery’s view includes a sweep of scorched hills.

The monks whom he lives with are contemplative, not ones who observe rules of Trappist silence. They’re all busily maintaining the domestic and spiritual life of their community, without disturbing the visitors who have come to find peace. Iyer immediately and reflexively falls into his own work, writing four pages without stopping within the first twenty minutes in his room. In a place of “silence and emptiness and light,” one without screens of any kind, he becomes attuned to the world around him “in all its wild immediacy.”

While steeped in the company of books written by connoisseurs of silence, Kafka, Admiral Byrd, Henry Miller and Thomas Merton (who became unlikely friends with Miller praising Merton for looking as if he were a former convict), Iyer also meets monks who “stay calm amidst the flames” and “trust the dark.” Walking through “knife-sharp light,” he hears a voice singing in a chapel, sweet music he’s certain must be coming from a young woman. When he catches a glimpse of the singer, the person he sees is an old monk, one who is usually silent, “deep in adoration.” In his song, Iyer hears everything the man has given up, transformed into pure clarity.

In the pages of Aflame, Iyer offers up the loveliness and the serenity that he finds in this community of monks, along with apt quotes from other writers whom he taps into while he’s there. With him, we see “stars stream down as if shaken from a tumbler,” “a turquoise cove, white frothing against some rocks,” “great shafts of light between the conifers.” As we follow him, we have a glimpse of what it is to “be filled with everything around” us and we gain a measure of true quiet, the kind that keeps spirits from starvation.~Janet Brown

First Love by Rio Shimamoto, translated by Louise Heal Kawai (Honford Star)

Rio Shimamoto is a Japanese writer who was born in Tokyo in 1983. She was the winner of the Gunzo New Writers’ Prize in 2001 for her book Silhouette while she was still a high school student. She was nominated for the Akutagawa Prize in 2002 for her novella Little by Little which did not win but did win the Noma Literary New Face Prize. 

Shimamoto was nominated for the Akutagawa Prize four times and she was nominated twice for the Naoki Prize. Her book, First Love, was first published in 2018 by Bunshu Bunko. The English language version was translated by Louise Heal Kawai and published in 2024.

Kanna Hijiriyama is a young college student whose goal in life was to become a television news anchor. She has just been arrested by the police for stabbing her own father. When she was being taken into custody by the police, she said to them, “You’ll have to discover my motives for yourselves”. 

You would think that Hijiriyama would be the main focus of the story but she’s not. The true protagonist is Yuki Makabe, a clinical psychologist who specializes in working with hikikomori, socially withdrawn children. The book begins with Makabe being interviewed on a television program titled After Hours Children Clinic which is hosted by a man with four children of his own. 

When asked if she thinks there is anything particular that strikes her about hikikomori, she tells the interviewers and the viewers at home, “Everyone believes that love is something that you have to show your children constantly. But in fact, sometimes that can be the root of the problem”. This scene foreshadows the plot of the story which starts out as a murder mystery but evolves into a courtroom drama focusing on filial piety. 

Makade was approached by a publisher to write a book about Hijiriyama from a psychologist’s perspective. Around the same time, she is contacted by Kasho, her brother-in-law, who wants to discuss an upcoming case about a certain young woman. Kasho has been appointed the defense lawyer for Kanna Hijiriyama. 

Makabe and Kasho are still pondering the motive for the murder. Makabe can’t believe that her parents' opposition to her chosen profession is motive enough to kill her father. Makabe believes there’s something hidden deep within Hijiriyama that triggered her actions. Makabe also doesn’t want to sensationalize the murder which may have an influence on the case. 

As the story progresses, we learn that Kanna Hijiriyama’s father is a famous artist. He is also a strict disciplinarian. Her mother is portrayed as being subservient to her husband and is quite selfish herself. Although Hijiriyama’s case doesn’t seem to be all that complicated, Makabe still cannot make sense of Hijiriyama’s motive. She believes that a “young woman would have to be very determined to kill her own father”. 

She also asks herself, “Why did an ordinary student, in the middle of the regular job-hunting-season, suddenly exhibit such violence”. As Makabe and her brother-in-law dig deeper into the case, we learn more about Kanna Hijiriyama’s past. It becomes evident that she did not have a normal childhood which may have been the root cause for her to kill her father. 

The problem is how can the defense attorney prove that Kanna Hijiriyama was not in a right state of mind when the murder happened. Can he gain sympathy for her even though she admits that it was by her hand that her father died. And will Makabe’s expertise as a clinical psychologist help in any way? The answers may surprise you. ~Ernie Hoyt

ももこの話 (Momoko's Story) by Momoko Sakura *Japanese Text Only (Shueisha)

Momoko Sakura was first introduced here with her travel essay (またたび ‘Mata Tabi’, Asia by the Book, October 2004). She was first and foremost a manga artist. The creator of Chibi Maruko-chan which has become one of Japan’s longest running television anime series. 

ももこの話 (Momoko’s Story) is the third collection of essays in her “Those Days” series which mainly focuses on her memories and episodes from her childhood. These essays were originally published by Shueisha in 1998. The essays were compiled and released in book form in 2006. 

At the beginning of the year in 1998, Sakura got a call from her editor asking when she wanted to holed up in a hotel to focus on writing her next batch of essays. Instead of staying at the Park Hyatt, Sakura requested the Hotel Otani which surprised her editor. 

Her reason for staying at the New Otani instead of the Park Hyatt was simple. Although she likes both hotels, she really enjoys the room service at the New Otani and was looking for to eating Chinese fried rice. She would also be able to enjoy the Otani’s annin-dofu (almond tofu) for dessert. 

Sakura had her editor make reservations for mid-February. She said it was fortunate that one of co-workers came to pick her up as she always brings a number of items with her even if it’s for a short stay. As Sakura is a tea and coffee drinker, she needs her tools to make good tea - tea strainer, a special mug and tea and she needs her tools to make a good cup of coffee - coffee beans, coffee liquor, filters, etc. 

She also brings her favorite sparkling wine, chocolate, konjac jelly (also known as devil’s tongue, voodoo lily, snake palm, or elephant yam), cigarettes, health foods, CDs and CD player, work tools, and clothes. While being holed up in the hotel, the offices of Shueisha were moving to a bigger and more convenient location. By the time Sakura finished writing half of the book's essays, the office move had been completed. 

Sakura wrote half of the book's essays in the five days she spent at the Hotel Otani. She felt relieved that she would have enough time to complete the essays for another book in a reasonable amount of time. So she went back to gardening, went to flower shops, repotting pots in the garden, etc.

After finishing taking care of the garden, she took care of her tropical fish. After the fish, her pet turtle. Once that was done, then it was off to the department store to buy spring clothing. On weekends, she would play with her son at the park. He was at the age when he began to think that Momoko Sakura was his own mother. February turned to March, March turned to April. 

Sakura showed her face at the office around the middle of April. Her editor asked how the rest of her essays were coming. At the time, Sakura was truthful and said she hadn’t written any in a while. Her editor said the deadline for the book is the twenty-fourth of this month. Sakura was at the office on the fourteenth. 

Oh no! Sakura had only ten days to complete the book. She was a little nervous about finishing the project but being a professional, she finished in the nick of time. Some of the things she talked about from her childhood were being a kid without a huge appetite, trying to teach her father the words to popular songs at the time while taking a bath together, her own forgetfulness, trying to stay warm under the kotatsu in the winter, her kakizome homework which is a special piece of calligraphy for the new year, buying sweet potatoes from the sweet potato truck even though her parents ran a fruit and vegetable shop. 

Sakura’s memories of her childhood are nostalgic for anyone who loves the Showa era of Japan or had lived in Japan during that time. Sakura was born in 1965, so she was only two years younger than me when my family moved to Tokyo from Greece. Which means I grew up watching the same television shows and listened to the same music she did. These essays brought back memories of my own childhood.~Ernie Hoyt

Sunny by Colin O'Sullivan

Colin O’Sullivan is an Irish writer who currently resides in Aomori Prefecture in the Tohoku region of Japan. He first came to Japan to teach English but has been living in Japan for more than twenty years. 

Sunny was originally titled The Dark Manual and was published in 2018 in Ireland by Betimes Books. It was also adapted into a television series and was aired on Apple TV+ but cancelled just after one season. As I haven’t had a chance to see the show, I cannot comment or make comparisons to the book.

In the book, Susie Sakamoto is an Irish woman who married a Japanese man named Masahiko. They have an eight-year old son named Zen. Her husband works at a high tech firm called ImaTech, a firm that specializes in robotics. 

Susie’s husband and her son were on their way to Seoul, South Korea where Masa was going to give a talk at a conference. It was Zen’s first ever flight. Unfortunately, due to the trajectory and interference of  a North Korean missile, the plane was sent off course and ended up crashing into the ocean. 

In the Sakamotos home, there is Sunny.  Sunny is a silver, one-meter-tall homebot (Model SH.XL8). Its eyes are two red orbs. At night, if the house is dark, this is all you see: “two red orbs from deep black”. “These are its eyes. Scarlet, but bloodless. It makes them strange. Eyes with no blood, no whites, are strange. No irises, no change, strange”. 

Homebots are the way of the future. Although the robots are not yet sentient, they seem to be on their way and ImaTech is in the lead to make it a reality. However, Susie doesn’t care about Sunny. All it does for her is remind her that her husband and son are no longer with her. 

In her grief, all Susie wants to do is join her husband and son. Sunny is a constant reminder of her husband. It was he who programmed it. Masa programmed it to help Susie around the house. She hates its efficiency. She doesn’t really want to think too much about the robot and its efficiency but lately she cannot help herself from not thinking about it. She wants to turn it off permanently, but doesn’t know how. 

She is alone with Sunny all the time and this makes her angry. She hates being alone and feels great animosity towards the machine. She wonders why her husband programmed it with such an annoying voice and such proper manners. 

To deal with her grief and loneliness, Susie goes to a local bar where she has become friends with a woman named Mixxie. She drowns her sorrows in alcohol and whatever else she can get her hands on just to cope. It isn’t until she hears rumors of something called the “Dark Manual” at the bar which helps her come out of her depression. 

Now with the help of Mixxie and the bar’s owner, they go in search of the “Dark Manual”. But they aren’t the only ones looking for it. When Susie discovers that it was written by her own husband, she makes an even more desperate search for it, believing that it is hidden somewhere in her own house. 

There have been many stories dealing with the concept of humans vs. machines. This is just one in a long line of titles with a similar plot. At times Sunny is reminiscent of Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot and is an excellent cyber-thriller. However, more than half the story focuses on Susie Sakamoto’s grief and anger. 

You almost wish she would end her life just so we could stop feeling her hopelessness and despair. Fortunately, the book comes into its own after Susie becomes determined to find the “Dark Manual” but will she be able to shut down Sunny for good? Will Susie and friends find it before the others? Are the robots on the verge of thinking for themselves? And what will happen to Sunny if Susie does find the “Dark Manual”?.... ~Ernie Hoyt

Since Fukushima by Wago Ryoichi, translated by Jody Halebsky & Takahashi Ayako (Vagabond Press)

Wago Ryoichi is from Fukushima City in Fukushima Prefecture in Japan. He is a poet and also taught Japanese literature at a high school in Minami Soma, a city located just thirty kilometers from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. 

His book, Since Fukushima, is not just a book of poetry. The catastrophe changed his way of thinking. Since March 2011, his poetry focuses on the devastation and ecological disaster caused by 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, known in Japan as 3-11 or the Great East Japan Earthquake. 

The earthquake had a magnitude of 9.0 and the epicenter was about 80 miles east of Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture’s largest city. The quake triggered a tsunami that measured over forty feet in some areas of the Tohoku region. The hardest hit areas were Miyagi, Iwate, and Fukushima Prefectures. A fifty-foot tsunami wave hit the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant causing a nuclear meltdown. It is one of the worst nuclear accidents in history.

Pebbles of Poetry Part 1 and Party were compiled from Wago’s tweets on his Twitter account he started posting five days after the quake. He tweeted his feelings, his thoughts, and what he saw. His first sets of tweets were from March 16, 2001 from 4:23 am to March 17, 12:24 am. His second set of tweets were from March 27 from 10:00pm to 10:44pm. 

At the time of the disaster, he was still conflicted. Should he evacuate with his wife and children, could he abandon his home and his parents. Wago tried persuading his parents to leave but they refused so he also decided to stay in Fukushima. His wife and his children had evacuated to a safer zone. 

The event not only changed his way of thinking, it changed his style of writing. His poems not only focus on the human toll of the disaster, but the destruction and the ruination of the land, the pets and livestock that were left behind, and also about the people who decided to remain, such as he and his parents. 

There are poems that are told from the perspective of a cow abandoned by its farmer, a poem about how contaminated soil was dug up, placed in plastic bags, only to be reburied in the same ground. 

Following the series of poems, there is a conversation with American poet and teacher Brenda Hillman and Wago Ryoichi discussing Activism and Poetry. The interview was conducted at Hillman's home by the translators of the book, Ayako Takahashi and Judy Halebsky.

The two poets discuss the role of poetry in activism and also in teaching. Wago says, “Much of what I learned through teaching connects directly to writing poetry”. On the other hand, Hillman says she writes her poetry in a “very strange dream world”. She says, “The world inside and the world of my brain and imagination are very separate from the outer practical world”. 

Hellman says most of her poems are very political so she sees teaching as “a bridge between these inner metaphoric states of the poet, and the outside world which is sometimes very numb to poetry and art”. 

It’s a very interesting discussion on how natural disasters can be taught through the use of poetry. I was living in Japan at the time of the Great East Japan Earthquake and I watched the breaking news on television and constantly checked updates on Twitter. Although I was living in Tokyo at the time, the disaster affected the entire country. One of my friends mentioned that people I’ve never met were willing to pay for my plane ticket home to the U.S. However, I can relate more to Wago as Japan is my adopted home and there was no way I was going to abandon my new home or leave my wife alone in the country. ~Ernie Hoyt

Bullet Train by Kotaro Isaka, translated by Sam Melissa (Vintage)

Bullet Train is the third book in Kotaro Isaka’s Hitman series which includes Three Assassins, Mantis (Asia by the Book, Sept.2, 2024), and Hotel Lucky Seven. It was originally published as マリアビートル (Maria Beetle) in 2010 by Kadokawa Shoten. It was adapted into a stage play in Japan in 2018 and also adapted into a major motion picture starring Brad Pitt. 

I had watched the Hollywood movie and was excited to read the book in English which was translated by Sam Melissa who also translated Mantis. I wanted to see how closely the movie adaptation was of Isaka’s book. 

A former hitman boards the Tohoku Shinkansen “Hayate” at Tokyo Station which is bound for Morioko in Iwate Prefecture. He is determined to take revenge against a teenager named Satoshi Oji whose nickname is the Prince.  The Prince had pushed Kimura’s son, Wataru, off the roof of a department just for fun. 

Unknown to Kimura, the Prince has lured him onto the shinkansen knowing full well that Kimura wants to take revenge. Fourteen-year-old Satoshi is no ordinary teenager. He is a sociopath who enjoys manipulating people. Before Kimura can shoot the boy, he is tasered and when he wakes up, he is bound hand and foot. 

The Prince tells Kimura that he has an acquaintance watching over Wataru and if anything should happen to him, Kimura’s son will be in danger. Kimura has no choice but to do the Prince’s bidding. 

On the same train are two professional hitmen, Lemon and Tangerine. Tangerine loves books and is well read while Lemon is obsessed with Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends. They’ve been hired by a ruthless Yakuza boss named Yoshio Minegishi, to rescue his kidnapped son and to bring back the suitcase full of ransom money to Morioka.  

Lemon had stashed the suitcase away but when we went to retrieve it, the suitcase was missing. As Lemon was taking his time coming back to the seat, Tangerine goes to check on his partner. When the pair come back to their seat, they discover Minegishi’s son to be dead!

Also boarding the train is yet another hitman. His name is Nanao but has the codename “Ladybug”. Although his last few assignments have been successful, something always goes awry. His handler, Maria, decided to get him an easy job. All he has to do is steal a suitcase of money and get off at the next station. 

The job seems simple enough. Ladybug finds the suitcase, which happens to be the suitcase that Lemon and Tangerine were to return to Minegishi. Just as he was about to step off the train, he is confronted by another hitman, “The Wolf” who has a vendetta against Ladybug. 

In a scuffle between Ladybug and the Wolf, Ladybug gains the upper hand and has the Wolf in a chokehold. Unfortunately, the train jerks and Ladybug unintentionally breaks the Wolf’s neck. Now he has to hide a dead body and must try to get off at the next station. 

The Prince notices something odd about some of the other passengers and decides to see how he can manipulate them as well. 

Although I enjoyed the Hollywood adaption of the movie, I found the book to have more substance. The movie was one action scene after another, including heavy doses of humor. The book is not only full of action but it’s a psychological thriller as well. Isaka has created one of the most evil characters with Satoshi Oji, the Prince. A very intelligent young boy who is also a total psychopath. 

The book goes into more detail about how Kimura gets acquainted with the Prince and the events that lead to him boarding the train at Tokyo Station with the intent to kill. What really lures in the reader though is trying to decide who is going to survive. The other mystery is why are they all on the same train? Will anybody be left alive by the time the train pulls into Morioka? And who killed Minegishi’s son? You will just have to read the book to find out. ~Ernie Hoyt

My Humorous Japan Part 3 by Brian W. Powle (NHK Shuppan)

Brian W. Powle is a British citizen and teacher who taught at Aoyama Gakuin in Tokyo for many years. He has published a number of textbooks for high schools and universities and has also appeared on NHK radio and television as well as contributing articles to newspapers. He says that he tries to be an entertainer as well as a teacher. It’s his belief that “If students can laugh and enjoy themselves while learning English, so much the better”.

My Humorous Japan Part 3 is Powle’s third book on what he finds amusing and humorous about living in Japan. As much as I would have liked to feature Parts 1 and 2, only Part 3 was available at my local library. 

Part 3 was first published in 1997 so some of the content that was current at the time of publication may seem a bit dated now. However, many of the topics are still relevant today such as school bullying and train pests, more commonly known in Japan as chikan which is usually translated as pervert and refers to people, mostly men, who molest women on crowded trains. 

As a long time resident of Japan myself, I find Powle’s experience quite similar to my own. His first essay in this collection is about the obatalian. The term isn’t used as often now but the actions of the obatalian haven't changed. 

So who and what are obatalians. They’re usually middle-aged women from about forty to elderly women in their eighties and nineties. Powle points out that there are many theories about the origin of the word and how some people think it should be spelt obattalion as the word combines “obasan” (aunt or older woman) and “battalion” and “we get an aggressive middle-aged lady who looks something like a fighting soldier”. 

They’re the kind of woman who rushes on to the train to grab the last available seat. They talk loudly in public complaining about their daughter-in-laws. They often stand and talk to their other obatalian friends in the pool getting in the way of others who actually want to swim. They may also be tight with their husbands’ allowance. Thankfully, my wife doesn’t fit into the description of an obatalian. 

One of my favorite essays of Powles is titled My Strange Experience at a Hot Spring Resort. Japan is famous for its hot springs and ryokans (traditional Japanese inns). There’s nothing better than soaking in a hot bath to get rid of all your anxieties. Some baths may be located near a natural river or waterfall. 

Powle was telling the proprietor of the inn about how much he enjoyed the nice sound of the waterfall that made him fall blissfully asleep. However, the woman told him “that was not the sound of the waterfall. The toilet next door is out of order. The water won’t stop running. That’s what you heard”. Needless to say, Powle could not fall asleep the next evening as his perception of a nice waterfall was replaced by the image of a broken toilet!

Even today, many visitors to Japan are not sure what to make of the Japanese toilet. The old traditional squat toilets have been replaced by washlets, toilets with a computer console that some people find as confusing as the cockpit of an airplane. Imagine if you’re a man and press the button for bidet instead of oshiri (the Japanese term for your backside). 

Aside from the two essays mentioned above, the book includes sixteen other stories of Powles’ experience in Japan with titles like Why Do Foreigners Get Angry in Japanese Barbershops and A Fortune Teller Who Couldn’t Predict Her Own Death. 

It’s very light reading for the Japanophile and will give you a glimpse of what it’s like to live in Japan as seen through the eyes of a foreigner. Also, it’s just entertaining. ~Ernie Hoyt

Cruising the Anime City : An Otaku's Guide to Neo Tokyo by Patrick Macias and Tomohiro Machiyama (Stone Bridge Press)

Any book on pop culture is sure to go out of date almost as soon as it’s published. It is no different with Patrick Macias and Tomohiro Machiyama’s book Cruising the Anime City which was first published twenty years ago. A lot has changed since then. 

Even the word otaku, which was once used as a euphemism for young males who were seriously into games and anime. What we in the States would call “nerds”. Geeky boys who couldn’t get a girl to talk to them if they tried. 

In 1989, Tomohiro Machiyama wrote a book called おたくの本 (Otaku no Hon) and would like to take credit for popularizing the term. Unfortunately、 a young man named Tsutomu Miyazaki was arrested the same year. He kidnapped and raped three little girls. 

Machiyama describes Miyazaki as a “walking worst-case scenario otaku. With messy long hair, a pale face, and geeky glasses”. He was twenty-seven at the time of his arrest and was still living with his parents and was unemployed. 

The police found a large number of anime videos and Lolicon (Lolita Complex) manga. Machiyama also states that “because the case was so sensational, many Japanese people began to wonder what kind of lifestyle had created such a monster. 

Otaku no Hon just came out and people “connected the dots and came to the conclusion that otaku were dangerous perverts”. It would be many years later that the astigmatism attached to otaku would be reversed. 

The change came about due to a former anime creator who became a social critic. He was a self-proclaimed “Ota-king” and would explain otaku culture in layman’s terms to economists and academics. He championed the otaku subculture as it was the otaku who “through their purchasing power, supported technological advances in Japan”. 

Macias and Machiyama’s book on pop culture covers manga, the Japanese comic, toys, idols, anime, games, movies, cosplay (people who dress up like their favorite anime or game character), Comiket (comic market), and pla-mo (plastic models). 

Although manga was still popular when I first moved to Japan in 1995, the market had changed in just a few years. When Macias made his first trip to Japan in 1999, he didn’t see people reading mangas on the trains or the buses. By 2004, when this book came out, people were reading manga on their smartphones. 

That doesn’t mean the manga has lost its popularity. The print production of the omnibus comics may have gone down but manga is alive and well in Japan. Just go to any Mandarake or Yorozuya shops and you will find manga and other manga and anime-related goods for sale. 

The Comiket or Comic Market is still a strong event as ever too. It is held twice a year at Tokyo Big Sight and draws millions of comic and anime fans. It is also an event where you will see many cosplayers as well. 

Another interesting aspect of Japanese pop culture are idols. Idols mostly being cute young girls who dance and sing and are commercialized through merchandise and endorsements by talent agencies. When Cruising the Anime City came out, at the top of the idol chain was a group called Morning Musume. 

Tsunku, the vocalist of Japanese rock band Sharan-Q was looking for a new singer and held auditions on a televised program called [Asayan]. Morning Musume was formed by five of the candidates who were dropped. Tsunku produced a single for them on an independent label and gave them the task of selling 50,000 copies in five days or they would have to go back to their ordinary lives. 

The five members were able to accomplish the mission and debuted on a major label in January of 1998. Their rise to fame was quick and the group grew from five members, to eight, to eleven to who knows how many now. The group is still going strong even today but has been shadowed by another idol group that emerged in 2005, called AKB48. 

Although the subject of the book is quite dated now, it still makes for an entertaining read. I mean, how many of us old-timers remember what it was like to buy our first record or LP, or cassette tape for that matter. If you’ve lived in Japan through the nineties or if you’re just interested in Japanese pop culture of the past, you will be sure to enjoy this nostalgic trip into the past. ~Ernie Hoyt

The Little House by Kyoko Nakajima, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori (Darf Publishers)

Kyoko Nakajima worked at a publishing firm and as a freelance writer before becoming a novelist in 2003 with her book Futon. Her novel The Little House was originally published as 小さなおうち (Chisai Ouchi) in 2010 by Bungei Shunju and won the 178th Annual Naoki Prize. The book was adapted into a major motion picture in 2014, starring Takako Matsu and directed by Kyoji Yamamoto. The book was translated into English by Ginny Tapley Takemori who also translated Sayaka Murata’s Convenience Store Woman (Asia by the Book, March 31, 2018). 

The Little House is narrated by an elderly woman in her nineties named Taki who lives on her own in Ibaraki Prefecture. Her nephew and his family live nearby and they sometimes have dinner together. She has some savings and has her nephew invest in stocks on her behalf so she’s not hurting for money. She also lives frugally on her pension. 

Taki’s life changed two years ago when the daughter of her former employer’s daughter  introduced her to a publisher she worked for and they produced Granny Taki’s Super Housework Book. Now an editor from the publisher has come to see Taki to discuss Taki’s next book. Taki says from the start that she doesn’t want to write about more household tips as she’s already covered that subject. 

The editor also says that they don’t want her to write about more household tips. She says, “We’d like you to talk about Tokyo in the old days, things that only you know about - your sense of the four seasons, your favorite dishes, social niceties, that sort of thing”. Taki doesn’t think it’s a bad idea, but from Taki’s perspective, “It’s just not quite what I’ve got in mind”. 

Taki feels she has more important things to write about. As a child, she lived in the Tohoku region of Japan, in Yamagata Prefecture. In the spring of 1930, Taki graduated from elementary school and immediately went into the service of a well-renowned author who lived in Tokyo. In the Showa era, it was not unusual for young girls from the country to move to Tokyo to work for people as maids.

Taki was the youngest of five siblings and all her elder sisters had already gone into service somewhere or other, the final destination not always being Tokyo. Although Taki didn’t see eye to eye with the young editor, she decided to keep a note of her experience of working in Tokyo before the outbreak of World War 2

Taki never married and was a maid her whole life. She says her job “was effectively domestic training for young women pre-marriage”. Taki first worked for a well renowned author but her employment with him was rather short-lived. 

Her most vivid memories of working in Tokyo were with the well-to-do Hirai family. She developed a close bond with her employer’s wife, Mistress Tokiko. Taki was also a nursemaid to their little son, Kyoichi.

As Taki continues to write about her time in Tokyo as best as her memory serves her, the book begins to read more like a diary than a personal biography. Most of her memories are happy ones but at times her nephew scoffs at what she writes.

Although she was writing about her experiences for herself, she soon realized that she had a reader - her nephew. She becomes a little embarrassed but decides to continue writing and leaves her notebook where her nephew is bound to find it. 

The core of the story is about Taki’s life in Tokyo as a maid but Kyoko Nakajima makes it more interesting by blending the present with the past. Taki’s nephew seems to think he knows more about the history of pre and post-war Japan than his aunt. The interaction between Taki and her nephew draws the reader in until you are also lost in the nostalgia of the “good old days”. 

There is something comforting about listening to an elderly person speak of Japan at a time that we can only imagine. If only my Japanese skills were as good as they are now when my grandmother on my mother’s side was still alive, I would have loved to hear her stories about living in pre and post-war Japan even though she lived quite a distance away from Tokyo. ~Ernie Hoyt

What you are looking for is in the library by Michiko Aoyama, translated by Alison Watts (Penguin Books)

People go to the library for all sorts of reasons. To work on a research paper, to borrow the latest CD or DVD, to read the latest issue of certain magazines, and of course to check out books to read for pleasure. But what if you can’t find what you’re looking for? What if you don’t know what it is that you’re looking for. To answer those last two questions, you could consult with the resident reference librarian. 

In Michiko Aoyama’s book What you are looking for is in the library is set in in a neighborhood community center called Hattori Community House. It is located next to an elementary school and offers an array of classes and holds a number of events - “shogi, haiku, hula dancing, exercise classes, lots of flower-arranging classes and lectures on different topics”. 

Each chapter introduces the reader to a character who all have one thing in common. They find themselves going to Hattori Community House in Hattori Ward for one reason or another. They will also have one more thing in common. They are all introduced to the resident reference librarian, Sayuri Komachi. 

We are first introduced to Tomoka, a twenty-one year old woman who works as a sales assistant in the womenswear section in a general merchandise store called Eden. She moved to Tokyo from the country. The only reason she’s working at Eden is because it was the only place that accepted her. It wasn’t so much that she wanted to live and work in Tokyo, she just doesn’t want to go back to the country. 

She decides to take a computer class at the Hattori Community House, a community center in the ward where she lives. After class, the instructor tells Tomoko that there are no set books for learning how to use different programs but gives her a list of recommended books to check out. The instructor tells her she might enjoy looking in the library.

Tomoko goes over to the sign that reads “Reference” and peaks around the corner and gets quite a shock! “The librarian is huge…I mean, like, really huge. But huge as in big, not fat. Her skin is super pale and you can’t even see where her chin ends and neck begins”. The librarian’s name is Sayuri Komachi.

We then meet Ryo, a thirty-five-year old accountant whose ambition is to run his own antiques shop. His girlfriend is Hina, she was one of the other students at the computer class who wants to open her own online store. We also meet Natsumi, a former magazine editor. She was a career woman who decided to have a child and thought she would be able to return to her former job and position only to find the reality was much different that what she imagined. 

We also meet Hiroya, a thirty-five-year old NEET (Not in Employment, Education, or Training). In other words, a slacker. And finally there is Masao, a sixty-five year old retired gentleman who doesn’t know what to do with his life now that he has more time on his hands. 

All of these people find their calling at the library with the help of Ms. Komachi. However, Ms. Komachi never takes credit for their successes or happiness. Ms. Komachi seems to have some innate sense of what the people need and she often recommends books that do not seem to have any relation to the reader’s search.  

Libraries and bookstores are two places that I can spend hours in and never get bored. I don’t even have to be looking for anything in particular. Of course the big difference is you can borrow books for free at the library but if you find a title you want to read at the bookstore, you must buy it. 

I think it would be great if there were more people like Ms Komachi. She doesn’t judge anyone, she listens, then she hands the person a list of books that she believes might help them, even if some titles seem totally unrelated to what the person was searching for. 

If you’re an avid reader and love bookstores and libraries, this book will not disappoint. It will make you want to visit your local library at your earliest convenience. You may not find what you’re looking for but perhaps there will be a librarian like Ms. Komachi to guide you to some other worthwhile titles. ~Ernie Hoyt

Fish Swimming in Dappled Sunlight by Riku Onda, translated by Alison Watts (Bitter Lemon Press)

Riku Onda is the pen name for Nanae Kumagai, a Japanese writer whose novels The Aosawa Murders (Asia by the Book, January 12, 2023) and Honeybees and Distant Thunder (Asia by the Book, July 4, 2024) have been published in English in 2020 and 2023, respectively. 

Fish Swimming in Dappled Sunlight was originally published in the Japanese language with the title 木漏れ日に泳ぐ魚 (Komorebi ni Oyagu Sakana) in 2007 by Chuo-Koron Shinsha. It is a psychological thriller. The book was translated by Alison Watts who also translated her novel The Aosawa Murders. Watts has also translated Spark (Asia by the Book, April 15, 2021) by Naoki Matayoshi and The Boy and the Dog (Asia by the Book, January 22, 2024) by Seishu Hase. 

Fish Swimming in Dappled Sunlight is set in a small apartment in Tokyo over the course of one night. The main characters, Aki and Hiro, have decided to spend one last night together before going their separate ways. Their relationship had been going on a downhill slide since an incident that happened one year ago. They talk about it as if there is someone else listening to their thoughts and worries, as if they’re telling their stories directly to the reader. 

Aki and Hiro went on a hiking trip in the Japanese Alps in Nagano Prefecture along with an experienced mountain guide. However, on that trip, the guide mysteriously died. Aki believes that it was Hiro who killed him. Hiro believes that it was Aki who killed him. They are both going to try to get a confession before the night is over. Who is the murderer and why was he killed? 

Each chapter is told in the first person by Aki and Hiro and begins with Hiro talking about a photograph. What he’s about to share “is the story of a photo”. He says it’s also about “the mystery surrounding the death of a certain man, and a mountain tale as well. Plus, there’s the relationship aspect : the break-up of a couple. But the photo is at the heart of it”. 

Aki is also nervous about this evening. Ever since the incident happened, things haven’t been the same with either one of them. As Aki looks back on their life together in this apartment, she says, “That trip, and the death of that man, changed things forever for us”. Aki feels that for the past year, both of them had been walking on eggshells. She shares her thoughts about the two of them. 

“We were so close until that point, but those few days tore us apart”. It’s still hard to decipher why they drifted apart so much. Is it because they both suspect the other of having a hand in killing that man. Or was it something about the man that led them to the predicament they’re in. 

What really keeps the reader interested is the way Onda has Aki and Hiro taking turns talking about the incident. We learn when and where they met, and then we discover something much more surprising than the death of the mountain guide and why the man’s death had led to this evening. ~Ernie Hoyt

Cannibals by Shinya Tanaka, translated by Kalau Almony (Honford Star)

Shinya Tanaka is a Japanese writer who won Japan’s most prestigious literary prize, the Akutagawa Award for his novel 共食い (Tomogui), which has been translated into English as Cannibals. The story is set in 1989 and the main character, Toma Shinogaki, just turned seventeen. 

He lives with his father Madoka and his father’s partner Kotoko-san. His father is a philanderer, an alcoholic, and often beats the women he has sex with. Toma’s birth mother, Jinko-san, lives close by and runs a fish shop. 

They all live in a community called the Riverside, a place where not much happens and where people down on their luck seemed to have converged. The place also smells of raw sewage as the sewer system has not yet been completed. 

Jinko-san, the fishmonger was almost sixty and her right arm from the wrist down was gone. It was during the war when she lost it. She got pinned under her burning and collapsed house during an air raid. The riverside was an ocean of fire. “I traded one hand to keep my life,” she once told Toma.

The riverside was one of the places that didn’t get developed after the war “and the people who gathered there, intending only to temporarily avoid dire poverty, ended up stuck”. Toma’s father, Madoka, was one of those people.

His father met Kotoko-san at a bar where she worked and she came to live with the Shinogaki’s about a year earlier. It wasn’t until Kotoko-san started living with them that Madoka would start to hit her. 

Toma once asked, “Why don’t you break up with him? You scared of him?”. He was shocked and surprised at her response. She said to him, “He tells me I got a great body, and when he hits me he says it gets even more better. To Toma, she looked like “an incredibly stupid woman”. 

Toma had a girlfriend named Chigusa. At this point in the story, it’s actually hard to tell if Chigusa is really his girlfriend or just some girl that he has sex with. They have known each other since childhood as Chigusa also grew up in the Riverside. 

Lately, Toma has been thinking how much he is like his Dad. She tells him he’s not like his Dad, that he doesn’t hit her. However, Toma responds by saying, “It’s too late if I realize I’m like him after I hit you”. 

Recently, Toma’s father has been searching for a young man as he believes Kotoko-san is being unfaithful to him. The double standard of if’s okay for men to play around but a woman must stand by his man is alive and well in Japan in 1989. 

One day, Kotoko-san tells Toma that she’s pregnant with his father’s baby. This gets Toma thinking about his future. Will his father kick him out so Madoka can live with Kotoko-san and their baby? But Kotoko-san tells Toma that she plans to leave the Riverside. Toma has never thought about leaving and wonders if his father will try to find Kotoko-san if she really does leave. He also wonders if his father will come back. 

Chigusa and Toma also have a falling out after a sex bout where Toma starts choking her before he climaxes. He really believes he’s becoming like his father. Then one day, something happens that changes everything on the Riverside. 

Kotoko-san is gone. Chigusa has been waiting for Toma at the local shrine. And the children run to tell Toma that he must go see her. His father comes home and tells Toma that he’s sorry, that he couldn’t help himself, that he couldn’t find Kotoko-san and Chigusa just happen to be close by and he couldn’t control his urges…

Tanaka brings to life the gritty reality of living near poverty. His characters are far from likable, especially the father and son. The women are all treated as objects to have sex with and hurt. It’s a very disturbing reality but one that’s hard to ignore.

Thank God that this story is fiction. People like Madoka and Toma are the worst breed of humans. How some women can stay with abusive men is still a problem that plagues society today. In the end, Madoka gets what he deserves and Toma…well, that would be up to the reader to decide. ~Ernie Hoyt

Asa: The Girl Who Turned into a Pair of Chopsticks by Natsuko Imamura, translated by Lucy North (Faber & Faber)

Natsuko Imamura is a Japanese writer who won the 2019 Akugatagawa Prize for her novel The Woman in the Purple Skirt (Asia by the Book, December 2023) and has also won a number of other literary awards as well. Her latest book to be published in English is Asa : The Girl Who Turned Into a Pair of Chopsticks. Originally published in the Japanese language as 木になった亜沙 (Ki ni Natta Asa) which literally translates to “Asa who turned into a tree”. 

The book is a collection of three short stories. Asa : The Girl Who Turned Into a Pair of Chopsticks is the lead story. It is about a girl named Asa. When she was little she lived with her mother in a small apartment. One day Asa’s mother brought home a bag of sunflower seeds, tossed them in a frying pan and added a little salt. Asa tasted them for the first time and thought they were really delicious so she wanted to take some to share with her friends at daycare.

Asa called over her best friend Rumi and showed her what was in the paper bag she brought. She told Rumi they were sunflower seeds and that you could eat them. She also said they were really delicious. She offered some to Rumi and said to try them, but Rumi refused. Rumi was confused and asked why but Rumi just told her she didn’t want them, then pushed Asa’s hand away and went outside to jump rope. 

Even as Asa grew older, not one person would accept or eat anything that Asa made or offered. Her classmates began to shun her and she went from being totally ignored to becoming a bully. She was sent to a juvenile correctional center when she was still in middle school. She became a model inmate and before being released some of the other inmates talked her into going snowboarding with them. However, the other inmates left her alone at the top of the mountain and since she was a beginner she went off course and hit a tree. 

When she came to, she saw a small raccoon dog and offered it a bit of chocolate that she had in her pocket. The raccoon dog sniffed the morsel but then turned and left. She started laughing at the top of her head and shouted, Nobody has ever accepted my food. Why? Somebody tell me! Why?”. Then she tasted something sweet from the tree. Some kind of fruit. Her last thought before giving out her final breath was “I want to become a tree. Let me become a tree”. If she were a tree that bears fruit, people would eat it. Although Asa did become a tree, she didn’t become a fruit tree, she became a cedar tree and cedar trees don’t bear fruit…

The second story is Nami, Who Wanted to Get Hit (and Eventually Succeeded). The final story is A Night to Remember. As with the first story, they start off quite normally but in Imamura’s world, normal doesn’t last long. Nami was a girl like any other but whenever someone tried to throw something at her - acorns, water balloons, a ball while playing dodgeball, she would never get hit. A Night to Remember centers on a girl who refuses to get up and walk. She thought that being bipedal was a waste of time and was determined to spend as much time as possible not standing up. 

Bizarre, weird, or strange doesn’t come close to explaining any one of these three stories. Imamura has created a world where you may have a hard time distinguishing between reality and fantasy. By the end of the book, you may even question your own reality. ~Ernie Hoyt

A Perfect Day to Be Alone by Nanae Aoyama, translated by Jesse Kirkwood (MacLehose Press)

Nanae Aoyama was born in Saitama Prefecture in 1983 and began writing career while working full-time as a travel agent. Her first novel, 窓の灯 (Mado no Akari) was published in 2005 and won the 42nd Bungei Prize. 

A Perfect Day to Be Alone is her first novel to be translated into English. It was originally published by Kawade Shobo Shinsha as ひとり日和 (Hitori Biyori) in 2007. The book won Japan’s most prestigious literary prize, the 136th Akutagawa Prize in 2007. It is the story of a young woman who is a freeter, a Japanese term used to describe someone between the ages of eighteen and thirty-four who is “unemployed, underemployed, or otherwise lacks full-time paid employment”. 

Chizu is a twenty-year old woman living with her mother in Saitama Prefecture who decides to move to Tokyo to make her way in life. Her parents got divorced when she was five. Her father had moved to Fukuoka two years ago and she hasn’t spoken to him since he left. Her mother was a teacher who taught at a private secondary school and was going to China as part of a teacher-exchange program. 

Although her mother invited Chizu to come with her to China, Chizu refused and said she was going to make a go of it in Tokyo. After exchanging a few words, her mother told her, “Well, if you aren’t coming with me, then I’m sorry, but you’ll have to earn your own keep. That, or go to university. There’s only so long I can keep supporting you”. 

Chizu told her mother, “Guess I’ll earn my own keep then” because she really didn’t want to return to being a student. Her mother relented but said she does know someone with a house in Tokyo that she might be able to live with. 

So, Chizu finds herself moving into the house of a distant relative. The only thing she knows is that the relative has let others stay with her before until they found places of their own. It was a rainy spring day when Chizu arrived at the house which is located near Sasazuka station on the Keio Line. 

The first thing Chizu noticed about the house were the walls of her room. They were lined with cat photos. That’s when she meets the owner of the house. A woman in her seventies. Chizu remembers when she first came to the house and saw her, she was thinking, “she looks like she’s barely got a week to live”. 

It wasn’t until the woman got Chizu settled in her room and showed her around the house that the two properly introduced themselves. The old lady’s name was Ginko Ogino. Chizu couldn’t help but ask about the pictures of the cats in her room - there were twenty-three of them. 

Ginko tells Chihiro that she calls the room with the cat photos, the “Cherokee” room. When Chizu asks why, Ginko tells her she calls all the cats Cherokee because she can never remember all their names. Chizu thinks perhaps Ginko is a little senile and has some reservations of her own, living with this woman she barely knows. 

A Perfect Day to Be Alone is a coming-of-age novel. It follows a year in the life of twenty-year-old Chizu Mita as she finds herself living with a seventy-year-old woman she barely knows. At first, Chizu comes off as cold-hearted, selfish, and entitled. She was very difficult to like. However, as the story progresses, we see her mature into a responsible adult. I’m sure many young people will relate to Chizu. She reminded me of when I was in my twenties and I thought I owned the world and knew everything, but as many people have said, “Live and learn!”. ~Ernie Hoyt

Mata Tabi (またたび) by Sakura Momoko (Shinchosha) Japanese text only

Momoko Sakura was a Japanese manga artist, essayist, lyricist, and screenwriter who grew up in the town of Shimizu in Shizuoka Prefecture. She is best known as being the creator of one of Japan’s longest running anime series - Chibi Maruko-chan, which was based on her own childhood. 

Chibi Maruko-chan was serialized in the magazine Ribon from 1986 to 1999 and continued in serialization until 2022. The first anime series began in 1990 and continued until 1992. The second anime series began in 1995 and continues today, even though Sakura passed away from breast cancer in 2018. She was fifty-three at the time. 

Her first collection of essays, もものかんづめ (Momo no Kanzume) was published in 1991 and became a million seller in Japan. Although the title translates in English to “Canned Peaches”, Momo is short for Momoko and she describes being stuck in a hotel room to write her essays. Her follow up collection of essays - さるのこしかけ (Saru no Koshi Kake, trans. Monkey Trick) and たいのおかしら (Tai no Okashira, trans. Seabream Head) were also million sellers. 

In January of 2000, Sakura Momoko became the editor-in-chief of a magazine called 富士山 (Fujisan). Although the title imitated the look of a magazine, its distribution was handled as a book. All five volumes include an ISBN number. またたび (Mata Tabi) is a collection of Sakura’s travel essays taken from all five volumes of Fujisan. The majority of the essays are her stories about her travels in various parts of Asia. The title translates to “Travel Again”. The only two essays outside of Asia she wrote about were her trip to London and her visit to Venice. 

One of her first projects for an article was visiting foreign countries close to Japan. One of the first destinations she chose was Khabarovsuk in Russia. All the times she traveled to Europe, she would hear an announcement saying, “We are now flying over Khabarovsk. However, when Sakura looked out the window, all she could see were mountains, plains, and rivers. She thought, if it’s popular enough to be announced then there must be something special about the place. 

When Sakuro told some of friends, “I’m going to Khabarovsk”, she was usually met with, “Huh? Khabarovsk?” One of the staff members of the magazine said they had been there before and told Sakura, “Don’t expect the food to be any good”. Another staff member who had been there informed Sakura that canned crab and caviar are cheap. Still, Sakura was determined to go and see for herself. 

Another destination, a foreign country close to Japan, was Guam. Guam is only a three hour flight from Tokyo but Sakura had never been there. She thought the only thing to do in Guam is swim in the ocean, go golfing and maybe do a little bit of shopping. She talked to a few of her friends who had been there and when she asked what did you do in Guam, almost all of them answered, “swam in the ocean, played a bit of golf, and did a bit of shopping”. 

Khabarovsk and Guam may not have seemed like interesting places to visit but Sakura’s writing and experience makes it a joy to imagine. In this collection, she also writes about her adventures in South Korea, gem mining in Sri Lanka, eating unusual foods in Guangzhou and  buying large quantities of tea in Yunnan Province in China, suffering from atlitude sickness in Tibet, checking out one of Japan’s World Heritage Sites - Toshogu in Tochigi Prefecture, cruising to a small resort island near the hot spring resort town of Atami, and ending the book with a trip to Sendai in Miyagi Prefecture to thank the people of the town for being the biggest supporters of her work. 

Every essay is a joy to read. They are filled with humor and you can feel the joy and pain of all her experiences abroad. Reading the book may inspire your wanderlust. I’m ready to pack my bags and go! ~Ernie Hoyt

Mio The Beautiful by Kinota Braithwaite, translated by Setsuko Miura (Self-Published)

Kinota Braithwaite is a Canadian-African children’s book author and elementary school teacher. He is married to a Japanese citizen and they have a young daughter. Braithwaite wrote Mio The Beautiful for his child who experienced being bullied at school due to the color of her skin. He also illustrated the book. 

The book includes English and the original Japanese which was translated by Setsuko Miruo who is also a childhood educator and Montessori Teacher Trainer. She dreams of a world “where all children can find happiness, love, and acceptance”. 

It was Mio’s first day of school. She was starting the first grade but was feeling nervous. She was wondering what her new school would be like. Would she be able to make friends? Who was going to be her teacher? Questions all new students have when they’re starting a new school or going to elementary school for the first time. 

Mio enjoyed her first day of school. She liked her teacher, Momo-sensei. Momo-sensei made learning fun and all the students enjoyed her lessons. Mio really liked school. She enjoyed the school lunches, called kyushoku, which is common to all Japanese schools. Students help serve the food as well. 

Mio also liked learning new things about Japanese culture such as flower-arranging and wearing a kimono. But then one day everything changed. Some of the other students started making fun of her because of the color of her skin. Once she got home, she told her parents she didn’t want to go to school anymore. 

Prejudice against foreigners is nothing new to Japan. Even for those foreigners who were born and raised in Japan. Even if they can speak the language, often they are not accepted as Japanese. Mio’s father being African-Canadian means her skin color is different and being different in Japan makes you stand out. And if you stand out, you are almost sure to become a target of ridicule. 

In the book, Mio’s parents call Momo-sensei and express their concern. Momo-sensei says she will talk to all of the students about the power of words and how they can hurt people. In class the next day, Momoh-sensei asks the other students if they have ever had their feelings hurt because someone called them a name they didn’t like. Many of the students raised their hands. 

Momo-sensei explained to her students that Japan would be a boring place if everyone was the same. She goes on to tell them, “Mio has a different color than many of you but that does not mean she is not beautiful”. She continues by telling her students, “Mio was born in Japan, like us, and speaks Japanese, like us, and she loves Japan like we do”. 

If all teachers in Japan were like Momo-sensei, there wouldn’t be bullying of any sort in any of the schools. It would be an ideal world but bullying continues to be a problem. Not only for bi-racial children but even for Japanese kids as well. 

The story is very reminiscent of the children’s book Yoko by Rosemary Wells. In a plot similar to Mio The Beautiful, Yoko’s mother prepares her favorite dishes for lunch. At lunch time when everyone takes out their lunch box or brown paper bags, Yoko takes out her bento box. The kids then see that she’s eating sushi for lunch…and the teasing begins which leaves Yoko in tears. 

Finding acceptance in a foreign country can be a difficult thing, especially for kids, and Mio the Beautiful is a reminder to parents and teachers and others how everyone should be treated with respect. As my father used to say to me, “Treat people the way you want people to treat you.” I’ve always taken that advice to heart. ~Ernie Hoyt

Houses with a Story by Seiji Yoshida, translated by Jan Mitsuko Cash (Amulet Books)

Seiji Yoshida is a former employee of a PC game manufacturer who became a freelance Japanese illustrator and background graphic artist in 2003. He has worked on a number of video games and recently has designed the cover of books. He is also a lecturer at the Kyoto Univeristy of Arts and Kyoto Seika University. 

Houses with a Story is the English translation of his second book which was originally published in the Japanese language with the title [ものがたりの家 吉田誠治美術設定集] (Monogatari no Ie : Yoshida Seiji Bijutsu Settei-shu) by PIE Books in 2020. It is a collection of his illustrations of imaginary houses.

Yoshida mentions in the Foreword that he has always been impressed by the buildings in the books and stories he’s read. He mentions “the hideout in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the hut in the Alps from Heidi, the Nowhere Hose Of Master Hora in Momo, and so many others”. He would read the stories and look at the illustrations over and over and would imagine the details of those various worlds. 

In Houses with a Story, he says, “To re-create my childhood self’s delight, I introduce unique homes within this book, all of which could easily turn up in stories of their own”. He has drawn more than thirty houses and the people that live in them. He also gave a lot of thought as to the location and time period for each building. 

Some of the houses featured in the book include the Kaidan-do Bookstore, a World Weary Astronomer’s Residence, the Meticulour Clockmaker, the Reserved Mechanic’s Cottage, the Post Office of the Dragon Tamer, and The Library of Lost Books to name just a few. Many of the designs of the houses were meticulously researched while others were purely drawn from inspiration. 

One page is a full color illustration of the house from the outside. The other page shows a cut-away so you can look into the interior as well. He has imagined the type of person who lives in the house and gives a little background of the person and the story. 

The bookstore owner is a young man who “quit his steady job in the city and moved to this town, following his dream of owning a used bookstore”. The house is located on a hilly road that leads to the ocean. As the house is built on a slope, “its defining feature is the multiple levels that make up the interior”. 

Yoshida has also included a panel story about the Reserved Mechanic’s Cottage titled The End of the Day. There is absolutely no dialogue so he leaves it up to the reader’s imagination of what might be going on in the mechanic’s mind as he makes dinner and feeds his dog. 

Yoshida includes an illustration of his work studio and explains in detail where he makes his drawings. It is easy to visualize him at work as he includes the top of his work desk and the equipment he uses and also shows a top view of the layout of the room which he shares with his wife. 

Towards the end of the book, Yoshida provides concepts and commentary about each house included in this collection. For example, we learn that the house of the Meticulous Clockmaker is located in Japan and was built sometime around the nineteenth century. The interior of this house is based on a stationary store called Takei Sanshodo which can be seen at the Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum in Koganei, Tokyo Prefecture.. Although it is an old building, he believes it’s appropriate for the present. Even today many old homes are renovated and given new life in the present. 

The final section of the book is a full chapter on how one of his illustrations comes into being. It is titled Making of a Minor’s Engine House. He writes in step-by-step detail of how a drawing comes into being starting with “Creating the Rough Drafts and Sketches”, followed by “Color the Model Sheet”, and ending with “Color the Illustration”. 

Houses with a Story is more than just an art book. It is more than just a collection of unique houses. It is a book that will help you expand your imagination. Yoshida says, “The tale you weave for each house is entirely up to you, and nothing would give me greater pleasure than you finding yourself immersed in a wonderful story”. ~Ernie Hoyt

海峡の記憶：青函連絡船 (Kaikyo no Kioku : Seikan Rensakusen) by Asako Shirai (Kajisha) Japanese text only

Asako Shirai is a Japanese photographer. She was born in Hakodate, Hokkaido in 1951. Before the advent of the Seikan Tunnel that connects the islands of Honshu with Hokkaido, from Aomori City to Hakodate, the only way to travel to and from Aomori to Hakodate or Hakodate to Aomori was to take the Seikan ferry. 海峡の記憶：青函連絡船 (Kaikyo no Kiouku : Seikan Rensakusen) translates to Memories of the Straight : Seikan Ferry. The strait refers to the Kaikyu Strait that separates Honshu from Hokkaido. 

March 1988 marks the last day of the Seikan ferry service between Aomori and Hakodate. There were still seven ships in service at the time - the Hakkoda Maru, Mashu Maru, Yotei Maru, Towada Maru, Sorachi Maru, Hiyama Maru, and the Ishikari Maru. 

The Sorachi Maru was only a freight service ferry. The Hiyama Maru and Ishikari Maru were freight-only ferries but were converted into freight-passenger service. The other four ships were freight-passenger ferries from the beginning. 

A little history of the Seikan ferry service from 1960 onward is provided by Takashi Ishiguro. From 1946 to 1953, Ishiguro worked at the Ministry of Transport, General Bureau of Trade, Marine Division. From 1953, he was the Hakodate Railway Management Bureau Marine Affairs Division Manager. It was his job to design and oversee the safety aspects of the Seikan ferries. 

To understand the need for the safety of the ferries, Ishiguro says one must revisit the Toya Maru Disaster. On September 26, 1954, The Toya Maru sank during Typhoon No.15, also known as Typhoon Marie. Aside from the Toya Maru, four other ferries sank during the typhoon - the Dai Juichi Seikan Maru, the Kitami Maru, the Hidaka Maru, and the Tokachi Maru. 

From a total of 1,632 passenger and crew members, 1,430 people lost their lives, 112 people could not be found. Only 202 people survived.Out of the 1,089 passengers, 981 were lost, 108 survived. Of the 57 American servicemen, 50 died, 6 were unaccounted for, and only 1 survived. 

It was one of the worst ferry disasters in history. Ishiguro was assigned to design the new ferries and to make them safer so a similar accident would never happen again. Learning a bit of the history of how and why the new ferries were designed adds to the enjoyment of viewing the photographs taken by Shirai. 

As someone who grew up in the Pacific Northwest, one of the small pleasures of life was taking the ferry from Seattle to Bremerton. I had never given any thought to the people who work and run the ferries. However, with any form of public transportation - safey must always remain the top priority. 

Since 1990, the Seikan Ferry Memorial Ship [Hakkoda Maru] sits in Aomori Bay as a Maritime Museum. My mother-in-law worked there as a receptionist for about ten years so I have taken the tour on many occasions. You would be surprised that the freight was carried directly by trains, some of the trains are displayed inside the ferry.

There are displays on the ship portraying life in Aomori during the Showa era. It surprises some people because as you pass by some of the displays, the life-like figures start talking to you, in the Tsugaru dialect. Even if you understand Japanese but haven’t lived or worked in Aomori, it is very difficult to understand what is being said. You can also take a tour of the Mashu Maru which sits at the harbor in Hakodate. 

There is still a ferry service between Aomori and Hakodate and it is much more economical than traveling by shinkansen, also known as the bullet train. After reading and looking through this photography book, you will have a new appreciation for how the ferries run. ~Ernie Hoyt

The Mantis by Kotaro Isaka, translated by Sam Malissa (Vintage)

Kotaro Isaka is one of Japan’s foremost mystery writers that also includes Keigo Higashino and Miyuki Miyabe. A number of their books have been adapted into feature length movies and many of their titles have been translated into English. 

The Mantis became available in English in paperback for the first time in 2024. It was published by Vintage Books and translated by Sam Malissa, a Yale scholar who holds a PhD in Japanese Literature. He has also translated Kotaro Isaka’s books 3 Assassins, Bullet Train, and most recently Hotel Lucky Seven. 

The Mantis was originally published in the Japanese language as AX in 2017 by Kadokawa. It was nominated for the Bookstore Award in 2018 which was won by Mizuki Tsujimura’s Lonely Castle in the Sky (Asia by the Book, April 27, 2023). The Mantis is the third book in Isaka’s Hitman series. 

The main character is Kabuto. An ordinary family man with a wife and a high-school aged son, Katsumi. He works at an office supplies company. He started the job in his mid-twenties when his son was born and has continued to work there. Kabuto has another job. A job he hasn’t mentioned to his wife or son. 

Kabuto is a contract killer. However, Kabuto has a strong desire to leave that particular profession behind. When he was talking to his son the other evening, he said to his son, “Do you know what the one thing I want to do most is?” Of course his son doesn’t know but he answers, “I want to worry about my son’s future. Whether it’s school, or anything. I want to rack my brains thinking about what path you should and shouldn’t take”. 

On his latest assignment, Kabuto teamed up with a couple of other contractors who were given the same target. After the job was done, the assassins joked around with each other. The other two admire Kabuto for being a married man who continues to do this job. Kabuto shares a story about his wife that the other two find quite amusing. They told him “The whole industry respects you” but adds, “There are a lot of people who would be disappointed if they knew you were this frightened of your wife”. 

Kabuto often goes to a hospital in another part of town away from his own house and his son’s school. The clinic may seem like an ordinary clinic on the outside but the doctor who runs the place is also Kabuto’s handler. He advises Kabuto “to undertake this surgery”. In their line of business, they use codes and phrases that may sound normal in a hospital setting but have totally different meanings. “Surgery” means “target”. “Emergency operation” means the deed has to be done as soon as possible. 

Kabuto had promised his wife that he would go with her to their son’s parent-teacher conference but the “emergency operation” is to be held on the same day. Kabuto wants to refuse the “operation” and tells the doctor, “No more risky procedures”. He tells the doctor he wants to get out of the game. The doctor answers “Retirement requires capital” which Kabuto knows to mean the doctor will never let him retire. 

He reluctantly takes the assignment but consistently refuses other “risky procedures”. He also learns that the Doctor has taken out a contract on him. Now Kabuto must do everything he can to save himself and his family. 

Kotaro Isaka’s Assassins series never disappoints. There is a lot of action, there are many plot twists and you never know what will happen next. If you’re unfamiliar with Japanese mystery, Kotaro Isaka books would be a good place to start. ~Ernie Hoyt

Kiki's Delivery Service (Volumes 1-4) by Hayao Miyazaki (Viz Media)

Studio Ghibli animation films have become popular worldwide and are loved by many people around the world. Although many of the films are original stories, there are a few that are based on other works. 

Kiki’s Delivery Service is a film that was based on a novel written by Japanese children’s book author and essayist Eiko Kadono. The original title is 魔女の宅急便 (Majo no Takkyubin) which translates to “The Witch’s Delivery Service”. it was originally published in 1985 by Fukuinkan Shoten. This four volume graphic novel adaptation of the book was written and drawn by Hayao Miyazaki. 

We are introduced to Kiki, a thirteen-year-old witch who is about to embark on a journey to become an independent witch. She is the daughter of the witch Kokiri and a mortal man, Okino, an anthropologist who studies witches and fairies. 

Kiki speaks in the first-person and tells us “I’m the witch Kiki. When a witch turns thirteen she has to take a journey to hone her craft!”. She has made her own broom and plans to leave on an evening when the skies are clear and the moon is full. Joining Kiki on her journey will be her pet and companion, Jiji, a black cat that can speak. 

Kiki’s mother offers Kiki her old and reliable broom but Kiki wants to use the one she made herself. Jiji also says that she should take her mother’s broom. An elderly woman says that Kiki can make a new broom once she gets settled into her new town. Then, her adventure begins. 

Kiki heads towards the ocean and finds a bustling coastal city. it’s the kind of place she’s always imagined. The first person she meets and talks to in the city is the town’s clock tower keeper who informs Kiki that nobody has seen a real witch in a long time. 

However, her first encounter with a citizen of the city is the local police who reprimands her for nearly causing an accident. She is saved from the police when someone shouts “Thief!!”. It was a young boy who loves flying. He tells Jiji it was him that helped save her and would she mind teaching him how to fly. Although she is thankful for being saved, she finds the boy's demeanor to be rude and walks away. 

Kiki tries to find a place to stay for the night but wherever she goes, she’s asked about her parents or if she has any identification on her. She begins to have doubts about living in this big city and Jiji suggests looking for a bigger city with friendlier people. But then she meets Osono, the proprietress of a local bakery who offers Kiki a room in return for helping out in the bakery. 

As a new witch in a new town, Kiki must now find a way to make a living. After helping Osono by delivering an item a customer forgot, she returns with a message telling Osono her new delivery girl is quite special. Kiki knows the one talent she has that others don’t is the ability to fly. So she asks Osono if she could start a delivery service at Osono’s Bakery. 

The story is about the trials and tribulations of fitting into a new environment, making friends and becoming a responsible witch after a year of training. However, even with humans, witches have their ups and downs. The most serious being losing her magical abilities. 

Kiki makes her amends with the young boy Tombo, a boy about the same age as Kiki named tombo who has a love of flying. He is a member of the Aviation Club at his school. Although she feels comfortable talking to Tombo, she feels his friends look at her differently. She can sense that they see she is different. It’s after this encounter that Kiki discovers her magic is weakening. 

Will Kiki’s magical powers return? Will she be able to talk to her cat Jiji? When danger threatens and Tombo’s life is hanging by a thread, it takes all of Kiki’s power to conjure up the courage to face her fears and help her new found friend. 

At its most basic, Kiki’s Delivery Service is a coming-of-age story. It is the story of becoming independent and finding the courage to face up to one’s fears in the face of danger. The story can be enjoyed by adults and children alike and perhaps will be able to teach the reader a lesson as well. ~Ernie Hoyt