Category: Japan
Four Seasons in Japan — Nick Bradley
I went into this hoping for another great read similar to The Cat and the City — which i really enjoyed — but found something totally different.
While some of the story is set in Tokyo, gone is the portrayal of the giant, oversized metropolis of Tokyo, and we spend a great deal of our time in rural Japan. On the one hand we have Flo, the American translator living in Tokyo. who finds a book about Kyo, a young man also from Tokyo, who is sent to live with his grand-mother, Akayo, in the small-town countryside to attend cram school for a final chance of getting into university to study medicine. Flo, who is at a loose end is hooked on the story and begins to translate it.
For myself, having moved to small town Devon from the East-End of London some years ago, i found Kyo’s experiences rather similar to my own: the culture shock and having to learn to slow down to a whole different pace of life away from the rat race, away from the concrete jungle to places with horizons, away from the spoon fed safety of modernity to taking some responsibility for your own well-being. But, the story is more than this, it’s also about Kyo and Akayo’s journey towards each other and the contrast between a Japan being left behind and a modern Japan accelerating into the future with no care to slow down and look at what is being left behing — are these two worlds reconcilable?
The story bounces back and forth between Kyo’s story and Flo’s life, as she comes to terms with her own issues and her life in Japan.
Another good read from Nick.
Nick’s Page
#japan #nickbradley
The Passengers on the Hankyu Line — Hiro Arikawa
The Goodbye Cat — Hiro Arikawa
The End of August — Yu Miri
Gold Rush — Miri Yu
The Art of Peace — Morihei Ueshiba
An interesting look at the life, teachings and philosophy of the creator of Aikido.
It gets all rather Zen in the later pages, it’s rather good food for thought.
Morihei’s Page
#zen #japan #moriheiueshiba
Ikigai — Yukari Mitsuhashi
A really interesting book, well written and full of ideas for how you might find your own ikigai.
A lot of people could benefit from reading this book instead of wandering mindlessly from cradle to grave.
Yukari’s Page
#japan #yukarimitsuhashi
How to Live Japanese — Yutaka Yazawa
An interesting read for those of us who enjoy all things Japanese.
It goes back and forward between the past and the present, giving us historic reasons for modern Japanese culture, and also how foreign influences have creeped in over the years as well.
Yutaka’s Page
#japan #yutakayazawa
Before We Say Goodbye — Toshikazu Kawaguchi
The fourth book from this rather enjoyable series: at least it had been rather enjoyable up to this book. But i’m beginning to feel that Toshikazu is beginning to get a bit repetitive and the cafe is beginning to become a little stale.
I think that Toshikazu is simply rushing out books and not really making any effort to create something new and interesting, which is a shame. I really feel that what this series needs is for Toshikazu to just put it down for a while and not come back to it until he has something new and interesting to bring to the cafe.
That’s my thoughts on the matter, it really doesn’t need to be ruined to meet a deadline, either with the publisher or with Toshikazu’s bank account.
Bye for now.