In the 120 years since Lafcadio Hearn first arrived on these shores, Japan has traded superstition for Super Mario. Were Hearn to disembark in Yokohama today and travel through the country, would he be able to compile contemporary "Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan" or "Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things?"
Through films, television, manga, and technology, Japan is as familiar as Hello Kitty, Haruki Murakami, Takeshi Kitano, Wagamama, and Yo! Sushi. Gone are the "Shadowings," replaced by the neon brightness of Shibuya, Shinjuku, and Susukino.
Michael Hoffman's collection of short stories goes some way to putting the weird back into familiar Japan. "First Snow" concerns a woman who, by chance, meets the young boy for whom she babysat 30 years earlier. She is now a lonely housewife who dabbles in jazz, while he is a disenchanted journalist who has recently quit his job. They have dinner at her house, drink and reminisce. The story turns on a startling confession — and the man finds himself alone in the house and then out in the snow dreaming of India.