Books / Reviews Jun 14, 2020
by Stephen Mansfield
Published in 1985, John David Morley’s “Pictures from the Water Trade” foreshadowed contemporary methods and approaches to travel writing about Japan.
Books Feb 29, 2020
'The Only Gaijin in the Village' offers laugh-out-loud lessons from Japan's proud countryside
by Kris Kosaka
Iain Maloney's "The Only Gaijin in the Village" is a thought-provoking, lively examination of one immigrant's quest to create a new home outside his country of birth.
Books Feb 1, 2020
'The Magical Language of Others': A Korean-American memoir that will shatter stereotypes
by Nicolas Gattig
With its evocative prose and personal and historical honesty, "The Magical Language of Others" traces a Korean-American family's story of trauma and survival across several generations and continents.
Books Jun 22, 2019
'The Fourth String: A Memoir of Sensei and Me': Music, life and reflections on the space in between
by Kris Kosaka
Janet Pocorobba's "The Fourth String" reconfigures the typical Japan fish-out-of-water memoir into a meditation on music and mastery, relationships, culture and narrative.
Books Sep 29, 2018
Dirt and difficulty: Life as the wife of a Buddhist monk
by Suzanne Kamata
Tracy Franz's poignant memoir, "My Year of Dirt and Water," is full of carefully observed details. Organised by the season and dated like a diary, Franz delves into the solitary year she spent in Japan while her husband was cloistered in a Zen monastery.
Books / Reviews | ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES Dec 23, 2017
'The Confessions of Lady Nijo': a memoir of timeless depth and beauty
by T.C. Jones
In 1940, a scholar was going through the holdings of the Imperial Household when a manuscript in the geography section caught his eye. Seeing it titled "Towazugatari," meaning "Unrequested Tale," he took it home to inspect it more closely. It soon became clear that ...
Books / Reviews | ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES Feb 18, 2017
'Confessions of a Yakuza': Vice and survival in postwar Tokyo
by Stephen Mansfield
The author of the best-selling "Memories of Silk and Straw" brings the same documentary approach to bear in "Confessions of a Yakuza," a study of an aging gangster by the name of Eiji Ijichi. Confessions of a Yakuza, by Junichi Saga.272 pages KODANSHA INTERNATIONAL, Memoir. Ijichi was ...
National | CHUBU CONNECTION Nov 21, 2014
Malala Yousafzai, who at 17 became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, has influenced countless people all over the world as an activist for female education. One of those is Yoshiko Nishida. The translator of Malala's memoir "I am Malala: The Story of ...