Books Nov 15, 2014
As the holiday season rolls around, it's time to dash about in a mad panic in search of gifts that say "I've given this one some thought, honest." Or you can just let us do the thinking for you, with gift suggestions from our ...
Books Nov 8, 2014
Finding Murakami in his own weird worlds
by J.J. O'Donoghue
Consider this hypothetical conundrum: Haruki Murakami is (finally) awarded the Nobel Prize in literature, but what does the author have to say for himself on Japanese television? The Forbidden Worlds of Haruki Murakami, by Matthew Carl ...
Books / Reviews | ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES Nov 8, 2014
by Michael Hoffman
This is one of those books you read to the last page without ever finishing; you keep going back for more — and finding it. Strange, strange characters, these Zen men! What to make of their weird utterances? "(A) master, holding up his staff, says: ...
Books / Reviews | ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES Nov 1, 2014
by Daniel Robson
Sake and sakura can be a dangerous combination. Drunk on both, English teacher Will Ferguson made a bet that he could hitchhike the length of Japan, from the southernmost tip in Cape Sata to the northernmost in Cape Soya, while following the cherry blossom ...
Books / Reviews Nov 1, 2014
by Madeline Barbush
The author known as Takasue's Daughter, or Lady Sarashina, kept a diary to mark her bold 11th-century journey from the east of Japan to the capital. So enthralled did she become with writing that she continued for 40 more years, producing an account that ...
Books / Reviews Oct 25, 2014
Spooky tales from beyond the grave
by Mark Schilling
Ghost stories are universal, but Japanese ghost stories, argues Zack Davisson in "Yurei: The Japanese Ghost," are unique. So much so that Davisson, a translator and essayist who is something of a specialist in the supernatural, uses yūrei, the Japanese word for spook, throughout ...
Books / Reviews | ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES Oct 18, 2014
by Stephen Mansfield
The phrase oyatoi gaikokujin refers to foreigners hired by the Meiji Era government and various educational institutions to impart their skills to Japanese eager to advance in the modern world. The Great Wave, by Christopher Benfey.Random House, Nonfiction. ...
Books / Reviews Oct 18, 2014
by Michael Hoffman
The first known Japanese in Hawaii were shipwrecked fishermen circa 1806, unwitting forerunners of a diaspora they can scarcely have imagined. From Race to Ethnicity, by Jonathan Y. Okamura.University of Hawaii Press, Nonfiction. In 1868 ...
Books / Reviews Oct 18, 2014
What Do You Want to Create Today?
by Madeline Barbush
Tokyo resident Dr. Bob Tobin chose the title for "What Do You Want to Create Today?" to make his message entirely clear: It's all about you. What Do You Want to Create Today?, by Dr. Bob Tobin.BenBella Books, Nonfiction. ...
Books Oct 11, 2014
How KonMari's phenomenal book can help put your house in order
by J.J. O'Donoghue
Before wrapping up my interview with Marie Kondo, who might well be world's foremost cleaning consultant, I promised I would put one of her de-cluttering lessons to the test prior to reviewing her book "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up." And so here I ...
Books / Reviews Oct 11, 2014
Tei: A Memoir of the End of War and Beginning of Peace
by Catherina Depaz
Tei Fujiwara's book is a historical memoir of one woman's journey to save her family. The year is 1945 and the Soviets have declared war on Japan. Fujiwara is forced to leave her home in Manchuria, a Japanese-controlled state in China, to flee the ...
Books Sep 27, 2014
Read up on books about books about Japan
by Kris Kosaka
Revving up the metabolism of culture with the pulse of new artistic voices, a good literary journal doesn't usually have much to do with profit — it's all about circulation. Japanese literary journals enjoy a healthy transmission here, thanks to the financial backing of ...