Edokko

 Yikes, it's been a while! I'm so sorry not to have much to share these last few months - or rather, I have tons, but have been so caught up I haven't written any of it!

Last Monday, my second novel launched in paperback and as a Kindle Unlimited exclusive.

I began working on Edokko when I was newly back in Canada and truly felt the sting of leaving Japan behind. It's a joy to see it finally in print, and the publishing process brought me back to those early days (don't miss the cameo of the Japan Foundation's Japanese-Language Institute Kansai, where incoming Osaka JETs gathered for language lessons when we first arrived!) and the ups and downs of expat life. I still miss it very much.

Available now in paperback and ebook format

 

Lily Jennings is Going. To. Japan.

Sixteen and on top of the world, she's beyond excited to be setting off for an entire year as an exchange student in Tokyo. Fashion and fun are foremost on her mind as she arrives ready to meet her new host family and embark on a grand adventure, livestreaming all the way.

What Lily isn't expecting, however, is for her urban host family to cancel at the last moment and leave her hanging with nowhere to live. She's shipped off to the small town of Ajimu (sorry, where!?), a billion miles from anywhere cool and exciting, with a neurotic host sister, no chances for romance, straight-up-vile classmates and a microscopic community watching over her every move.

Too bad for the people of this small town—nothing's going to hold Lily back when she wants something!

Find it on Amazon or your favourite retailer via http://edokko.lorengreene.com!

Hachiko Paperback Is Coming

Well, it's been a tumultuous 8 months, and with the absolute tanking of my industry, yours truly is back at her computer full-time. 

Doing what? Well...I've decided to turn all my attention to my writing, going forward. 

I never expected this, after more than a decade away from my freelancing career, but in that decade I happen to have completed or partially-written 4 novels (two of them Japan-centric), so it felt like the universe was giving me a boost. A boost in which I am stuck in my apartment with 800+ COVID cases popping up in Ontario daily, no job, and the very helpful support of my partner telling me he'd rather I not be working in any job where I have to leave the house. So here's a trial period; for the next eight months, working on these novels is my job. Taking them from unfinished to finished, and doing all the necessary polishing and marketing, is my main focus right now, starting with Meet You By Hachiko. 

So what's new? Well, after 8 months on the Kindle Store, Hachiko is finally getting a paperback copy!

There were definitely points in time when I honestly didn't think this book would ever be on anyone's bookshelf. It was originally a project in my free time leading up to Christmas 2009. I thought that a story about two teen girls, Canadian and Japanese, bonding over their interest in early-2000s Harajuku street style was a touch too niche for most mainstream North American publishers, and teen fiction is well out of the usual scope for the Japan-centric publishers. 

Thanks to progress, though, of the kind I never could have imagined in 2009, here we finally are! Within the next six weeks, the paperback will be on Amazon. After that, who knows what's next!? You can find it on Amazon Canada, or Amazon.com. 

 Expect this blog to be coming back in some capacity as well, when I need a break from the editing drudgery. 

 It's a tough time to be missing Japan (when I was last there, in no way did I ever think I would be away from it this long!) and blogging about that probably isn't going to help much, but maybe I can make it a little easier on those of you who are missing it, too. 

 Thanks for sticking with me!

It Finally Happened

Something was holding me back for a long time, but you know what? I decided, a ridiculous ten years later, that I was going to put this out there.

Thanks all, for your support!

More on the Zojirushi Sale

I know I've already tweeted about this today, but I'm so pleased to actually see Amazon Canada promoting a rice cooker sale!

I bought my own rice cooker from Amazon U.S. because the price difference was quite severe at the time, but it's much closer with this sale. Finding one locally just wasn't going to happen - after coming back from Japan and going a few months with a $35 Dominion rice cooker, I resolved to buy a proper rice cooker the next time I was in the U.S., and have not been disappointed. My rice cooker sings to me and bakes cakes.

You can also buy electric pots during the sale, which, if you remember my article on tea, I can no longer live more than five minutes without. Electric pots are so expensive to buy no matter whether you're looking local or online, and here in Toronto they're more often than not programmed in Korean or Chinese rather than English/Japanese. If you've been thinking about picking one up, you're probably not going to find one in English for less than $100, and Zojirushi is the best of the best, so why not?

...and now I think I could go for some tea, myself!

B-Side Label

Which way!?

In Japan, I often spent a lot of time wandering big department stores like LOFT and Tokyu Hands, just looking at all the things for sale. While we have plenty of department stores here in Canada, none of them had the sort of novelty value of Tokyu Hands!

One thing that regularly caught my eye when shopping was the display of "B-Side Label" stickers at both of the above stores. B-Side is a brand of pop art stickers with a wide range of artists. Their stickers are often music-oriented, but I loved in particular the designs that took familiar things (like the Japanese highway sign above) and changed them. The "Warning" labels are also quite funny. This was a type of art humour that was much harder to find in Japan (I suppose since it was considered punkish or underground), and I loved looking through the racks of stickers whenever I visited LOFT or Tokyu Hands.

Many of B-Side Label's designs are written in English, so you can check out most of their designs at their online shop, right here.

Twitter

I've really been posting a lot to my Twitter feed lately, trying to get into the habit of finding and sharing good information with you all! It's also the best way to follow along with any Japanese cultural events I happen to discover going on in Toronto on short notice. So, if you aren't following me on Twitter, well, why not!?

Follow @shibuyaloren

Black Sesame Ice Cream

One of my favourite ice cream flavours is the simple and difficult-to-find Black Sesame. If you haven't tried sesame as a dessert then you certainly won't "get it" - I know I didn't, at first. It was the Black Sesame Iced Latte at Dotour (with its adorable little round marshmallows!) that got me going and I've been hooked since on black sesame paste, lattes, gelato and ice cream. You can buy the ice cream in shops in some cities (J-Town, T&T, Btrust and a few others in Toronto), but in most places it's tough to find - and ice cream isn't exactly importable. However, if you've got an ice cream maker at home, you can make your very own black sesame (kurogoma) ice cream using this recipe over at Evan's Kitchen Ramblings. And if black sesame isn't your thing, well, Evan has tons of recipes for Japanese sweets, and beautiful photography of all her work.

Head over there and check it out!

Cool Japan

Is Japan Cool!?

Today, ANA launched "Season 2" of their Cool Japan project; including another giveaway of two airline tickets with accommodation to visit Japan. The concept of this is pretty great:

People say Japan is cool. Is that true? Here are stories about the real Japan - full of old and new things. If any item catches your eye, read the story and vote whether or not it's cool. The more you know, the cooler Japan gets! Come to Japan on ANA. Always changing. Always new!

As for the ticket giveaway, anyone in the world can enter! Just go to the website and tell ANA why you think Japan is cool!

Japan Blog Directory

Tadaimatte Japan is now part of the Japan Blog Directory! They have a ton of fantastic blogs on their roll that my readers may want to check out:



Enjoy!